Groups Detail Why They Like Farm Bill

By Jane Fyksen, Crops Editor
Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:03 PM CDT

Agriculture is soundly behind the compromise farm bill that passed Congress last week.

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation supported passage. WFBF President Bill Bruins lists some of the positives for Wisconsin agriculture found within the complex and mammoth document:

- Continuation and expansion of the Milk Income Loss Contract program for dairy producers

- Allowing state-inspected meat processing plants to ship product across state lines

- Increased commitment to renewable energy such as the emerging cellulosic ethanol market

- New funding emphasis for specialty crops

- Improved financing for beginning farmers

- Support for trade programs to expand ag exports.

Among other provisions in the compromise farm bill are:

- Cuts a per-gallon ethanol tax credit for refiners from 51 cents to 45 cents (The credit supports the blending of fuel with the corn-based fuel.)

- Requires meats and other fresh foods carry labels with their country of origin

- Stops farmers from collecting subsidies for multiple farm businesses

- Reopens a major discrimination case against USDA (Thousands of black farmers who missed a deadline would get a chance to file claims alleging they were denied loans or other subsidies.)

- Pays farmers for weather-related farm losses from a new $3.8 billion disaster relief fund.

“The 2008 Farm Bill increases funding for conservation, organic agriculture, and new farmers, which will have real, on-the-ground benefits…” said Margaret Krome, policy director with the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy. “While we are disappointed that Congress did not adequately reform farm subsidies, we see gains in the new farm bill for sustainable food and farming as important building blocks for real reform in the coming years.”

The new farm bill includes increased funding for conservation on working agricultural lands. The new, retooled Conservation Stewardship Program (formerly Conservation Security Program), after years of Congressional budget cuts, is now slated to receive over $4 billion during upcoming years. The new Conservation Stewardship Program is revised to be nationwide program, with streamlined provisions and payment structure. In the first three sign ups, 650 Wisconsin farms enrolled in the program, totaling 195,000 acres.

According to Krome, there’s a five-fold increase in funding for organic farming research and extension, to $78 million over four years, as well as a nearly five-fold increase in organic certification cost share assistance to $22 million, first time farm bill funding for a $5 million organic data collection effort, and a new option within the Environmental Quality Incentives Program for transitioning to organic farming.

Wisconsin Farmers Union commended Congress for passing the farm bill and thanked Reps. Kagen, Baldwin and Obey and Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl for voting in favor.

The National Corn Growers Association also applauded last week’s approval of the farm bill conference report. The current farm bill has been extended until May 29 to allow time for the new farm bill to return to the House and Senate for votes to override an expected presidential veto.

NCGA President Ron Litterer commended the House-Senate Conference Committee for preserving the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program, an important reform to the farm safety net.

The 2008 farm bill includes a number of provisions beneficial to the U.S. pork industry, according to the National Pork Producers Council. Among the provisions that NPPC supported are ones that will:

- Change the Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling law to include four new label categories for meat, including one to address Canadian feeder pigs by allowing flexibility in labeling so that producers and packers can reduce sorting costs. The law also was changed to ease recordkeeping for verifying an animal’s country of origin by allowing the use of existing records, such as normal business records, animal health papers and import or customs documents.

- Require a study that looks at the costs and impacts on pork producers and consumers of requiring packers to report wholesale pork cut prices and volumes.

- Authorize a voluntary national trichinae certification program, which will certify that exported pork is trichinae-free thus further increasing export opportunities.

- Authorize the U.S. Pork Center of Excellence, which coordinates research, teaching and extension for the pork industry on a national scale.

- Authorize research grants for mapping the swine genome.

- Authorize research and education grants for the study of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including the movement of antibiotic-resistant bacteria into ground and surface water, and for the study of judicious use of antibiotics in veterinary and human medicine.

- Give producers the right to cancel production contracts within three days of signing.

- Allow producers, at the time of signing a contract, to opt out of using arbitration n and instead use the courts n to settle contract disputes.

- Give producers the right to settle disputes involving production or marketing contracts in the federal court district in which production occurred.

Among the detrimental provisions NPPC opposed and was able to keep out of the legislation was one that would have banned packers from owning livestock.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) supports presidential approval of the farm bill “While the new Farm Bill doesn’t accomplish all of the free-market reforms that were hoped for, it does contain some areas of improvement over the 2002 Farm Bill,” said Colin Woodall, NCBA’s executive director of legislative affairs.

The Farm Bill Conference Report addresses a range of issues important to cattle producers. It clarifies and simplifies livestock record-keeping requirements for mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL), which is set to take effect this fall. It also moves the grandfather date for domestic livestock in the COOL law from Jan. 1, 2008 to July 15, 2008.

"The sheep industry is pleased with the final version of the farm bill," commented Burdell Johnson of North Dakota, president of the American Sheep Industry Association. ASI likes an increase in the Wool LDP base loan rate from $1 to $1.15 per pound on graded wool in 2010. The 2008 crop year and the 2009 crop year will remain at the $1 rate with payments in 2010 through 2012 seeing an increasing to $1.15. The non-graded rate is approved at the current 40 cent loan rate for the life of the Farm Bill.

Further, the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center gets mandatory funding at the $1 million level for fiscal year 2008. It further authorized appropriates of $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012.

As for cellulosic biofuels, the farm bill provides: A cellulosic biofuels production tax credit for up to $1.01 per gallon through 2012; funding for loan guarantees to commercial scale biorefineries for advanced biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol; a program to encourage farmers to establish and grow biomass crops in areas around biomass facilities, such as biorefineries, to reduce the environmental impacts.

To read the Farm Bill Conference Report (H.R. 2419), find it on the Agriculture Committees’ websites at http://agriculture.house.gov or http://agriculture.senate.gov.

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