Reformers hope to change how the farm bill is written
Posted on Mon, Jan. 22, 2007
WASHINGTON - Hope springs eternal, or least every five years, for farm bill reformers like Sacramento, Calif.-based activist Michael Harris. More money for minority farmers. Tighter limits on agribusiness subsidies. More conservation aid. Beefed-up urban
food programs. In these areas and more, Harris and his allies believe Congress can get farm policy right this year. "This is an opportunity for all small farms, and specifically for black farmers," Harris said. "We're not going to just fight; we're going to be part of the process." On Monday, Harris joined the latest - but by no means final - farm bill coalition in unveiling a package of reform proposals. The alliance of family farm, environmental, labor and public health groups leans to the left; their political
clout remains to be seen. The playing field, after all, is getting full. The California Table Grape Commission, the Western Growers Association and others have their Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance. They want billions of dollars for research, marketing and more, embodying their hopes in a bill now being drafted by Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., and others. "For the first time, specialty crop agriculture will be handled in a fair and equitable manner," Cardoza said in September, when he introduced an early version of the bill. Northeastern lawmakers are meanwhile preparing their own proposals covering dairy and land conservation. Some free-market Republicans like Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona have a competing Farm Bill Policy Forum, skeptical of traditional crop subsidies. Longtime lobbyists for cotton, rice, and corn are allied to keep what they can.
All are maneuvering to shape the federal farm policies last revised in 2002. "The politics surrounding farm policy have changed in the last five years," contended Scott Faber, an attorney with Environmental Defense. Sometimes, the coalitions try to make a splash.
On Monday, for instance, members of the Farm and Food Policy Project released their 16 pages worth of recommendations. They range from bigger land conservation programs to "means of redress" for minority farmers and ranchers who faced Agriculture Department discrimination. "These would be catch-up opportunities for those were left out," said Harris, the California state director of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association.
