In a rare alliance, environmental groups and the Bush administration have joined forces to reform New Deal-era farm subsidy programs that have wracked up a wretched record of failure over more than seven decades.
Alas, the reforms have run afoul of Washington’s “politics as usual” approach and could be buried when the House votes on the farm bill today. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has thrown her power behind a status quo bill – thus undermining efforts to support healthy trends like farmers markets and organic farming that bring healthier food to consumers’ tables while giving farmers a fairer share of the wealth they produce.
Pelosi has defended her support of a status quo bill because it would lower the means test for farm subsidies from the current ceiling of adjusted gross incomes of $2.5 million to “only” $1 million. In our view, $1 million isn’t exactly the kind of grinding poverty that should tug at taxpayer heartstrings. In contrast, Bush, derided by liberals as an advocate of the wealthy, is fighting for a $200,000 cap.
Pelosi and House Agricultural Committee chairman Collin Peterson want a traditional bill that focuses taxpayer largesse on the five crops that have received 93 percent of past subsidies: wheat, cotton, corn, soybeans and rice. Under this unfair policy, 60 percent of American farmers have received no subsidies at all, while checks go out to the favored minority even in years like 2007, when farm prices and production are high.
In contrast, President Bush and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns are backing reforms led by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who want to steer more money toward conservation and to aid marketing of crops like fruits and vegetables. The Kind-Flake amendment would help get Western Colorado peaches, cherries, apples and other delights to Front Range markets. The bipartisan reform drive also wants to boost nutrition and rural development programs and focus on long-term issues vital to environmentalists and farmers alike, like clean water, soil conservation and global trade.
It doesn’t take a genius to discover why one-time reformer Pelosi is now the biggest barrier to a greener farm bill. The Environmental Working Group has identified 10 freshmen Democrats whose districts received large subsidies between 2003 and 2005, ranging from Rep. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., whose constituents got nearly $900 million, to Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Texas, whose district received $24.8 million. Pelosi fears the reform bill could upset these freshmen’s bids for re-election, possibly endangering her fragile majority.
President Bush has said he will veto the farm bill if it arrives on his desk in the misbegotten form it left the House Agriculture Committee. If it comes to that, we’ll certainly support the president, though we hope the Senate proves more responsible when it writes its own version of the farm bill in September.
But first, the farm bill is scheduled for a House showdown today. Colorado’s delegation needs to follow the lead of the state’s two members on the House Agriculture Committee, Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and Democratic Rep. John Salazar, and support the effort to pass a sustainable and effective farm bill.
