Update on the Farm Bill – lots going on!
SENATE COMMITTEE FARM BILL SERIES
Commodity and Crop Insurance Subsidy Provisions
The main storyline of the commodity title emerging from Senate Agriculture Committee markup of the 2012 Farm Bill is the elimination of direct payments and counter-cyclical payments and the creation of a new replacement program to be known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) payments. ARC builds on and replaces the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program option from the last farm bill. ARC would cover wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, oats, rice, soybeans, other oilseeds, pulse crops (dry peas, lentils, chickpeas), peanuts, and possibly popcorn. Read more…
The main storyline of the commodity title emerging from Senate Agriculture Committee markup of the 2012 Farm Bill is the elimination of direct payments and counter-cyclical payments and the creation of a new replacement program to be known as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) payments. ARC builds on and replaces the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program option from the last farm bill. ARC would cover wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, oats, rice, soybeans, other oilseeds, pulse crops (dry peas, lentils, chickpeas), peanuts, and possibly popcorn. Read more…
Conservation Stewardship Program
First the good news: the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) remains part of the revised conservation title for the 2012 Farm Bill approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee on April 26. The program emerges from Senate Committee markup continuing as an ongoing, permanent program with substantial funding on a par with the other large working lands program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Read more…
Sodsaver and Conservation Compliance
With much of the rhetoric and substance of the new, in-the-making 2012 Farm Bill revolving around the rapidly growing and expensive crop insurance title, major corresponding attention has been given by the conservation community to the relationship between insurance subsidies and conservation. Two campaigns have been launched, one to restore highly erodible land and wetland conservation requirements in return for the taxpayer paying the majority of farmers’ insurance premiums and one to prevent subsidizing the destruction of prime grasslands. Read more…
With much of the rhetoric and substance of the new, in-the-making 2012 Farm Bill revolving around the rapidly growing and expensive crop insurance title, major corresponding attention has been given by the conservation community to the relationship between insurance subsidies and conservation. Two campaigns have been launched, one to restore highly erodible land and wetland conservation requirements in return for the taxpayer paying the majority of farmers’ insurance premiums and one to prevent subsidizing the destruction of prime grasslands. Read more…
Conservation Title
With respect to conservation issues, previous posts have covered the Conservation Stewardship Program and sodsaver/highly erodible land and wetland conservation. This post covers other conservation title programs.
The Senate Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill cuts the Conservation Title by $6.37 billion over ten years. Roughly 60 percent of the cut to conservation ($3.8 billion) comes from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The program’s total acreage cap is ratcheted down over five years from its current level of 32 million acres to 25 million acres. To a significant degree, this reduction tracks changes in CRP enrollment expected as a result of market forces, though with the declining cap the opportunity for new general sign-ups would be relatively small. Read more…
With respect to conservation issues, previous posts have covered the Conservation Stewardship Program and sodsaver/highly erodible land and wetland conservation. This post covers other conservation title programs.
The Senate Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill cuts the Conservation Title by $6.37 billion over ten years. Roughly 60 percent of the cut to conservation ($3.8 billion) comes from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The program’s total acreage cap is ratcheted down over five years from its current level of 32 million acres to 25 million acres. To a significant degree, this reduction tracks changes in CRP enrollment expected as a result of market forces, though with the declining cap the opportunity for new general sign-ups would be relatively small. Read more…
Energy Title
Major action on the Farm Bill’s Energy Title was mostly about money as the Senate Agriculture Committee marked up the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act – the proposed name for the 2012 Farm Bill. The draft Farm Bill offered to the Committee for consideration provided no mandatory funding for the Energy Title. Read more…
Beginning Farmers
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act — the proposed name for the 2012 Farm Bill — out of Committee on Thursday, April 26. The markup and negotiations that immediately preceded the markup resulted in some significant improvements in the bill for beginning farmers, though the bill still needs to do more in this area in our view. Read more…
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act — the proposed name for the 2012 Farm Bill — out of Committee on Thursday, April 26. The markup and negotiations that immediately preceded the markup resulted in some significant improvements in the bill for beginning farmers, though the bill still needs to do more in this area in our view. Read more…
Local Food and Rural Development
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act — the proposed name for the 2012 Farm Bill — out of Committee on Thursday, April 26. The markup and negotiations that immediately preceded the markup resulted in some improvements in the bill for local food systems and rural development, though there is still work to be done to ensure the final bill fully captures the economic opportunities to be gained in these areas of our nation’s agriculture and food policy. Read more…
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act — the proposed name for the 2012 Farm Bill — out of Committee on Thursday, April 26. The markup and negotiations that immediately preceded the markup resulted in some improvements in the bill for local food systems and rural development, though there is still work to be done to ensure the final bill fully captures the economic opportunities to be gained in these areas of our nation’s agriculture and food policy. Read more…
Organic Agriculture
Overall, the bill that was reported out of Committee last Thursday supports key pieces of the suite of unique programs that serve the organic sector. Most of the organic provisions included in the draft bill presented by Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI and Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-KS) we reported on early last week remained unchanged in the package that the Committee approved. Several organic amendments were filed before the markup, and two of them were included in the bill passed out of Committee. Read more…
Research, Education, Extension
The bill that the Senate Agriculture Committee voted out of committee last week now makes its way to the Senate floor and hopefully will be taken up by the House later this spring. While there were some key highlights included on commodity program reform, organic agriculture, and local food, there was not much headway made on sustainable agriculture research priorities in the current bill that came out of the Senate. Read more…
The bill that the Senate Agriculture Committee voted out of committee last week now makes its way to the Senate floor and hopefully will be taken up by the House later this spring. While there were some key highlights included on commodity program reform, organic agriculture, and local food, there was not much headway made on sustainable agriculture research priorities in the current bill that came out of the Senate. Read more…
Funding Levels
How does the version of the 2012 Farm Bill passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee stack up against the farm bill budget recommendations made by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition? That is the topic of this post. Read more…
How does the version of the 2012 Farm Bill passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee stack up against the farm bill budget recommendations made by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition? That is the topic of this post. Read more…
Posted on May 7, 2012, in FPC Activities and tagged farm bill. Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off.
