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As it stands now the 2007 Farm Bill is far from perfect, but there's still time for it to be improved. That was the message at a forum Tuesday hosted by the Iowa Farmers Union and the Center for Rural Affairs in Ankeny.
Rep. Leonard Boswell, who chairs the U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee on livestock, dairy and poultry, was the special guest at the forum. He provided a detailed update on some of the highlights and disappointments of the bill, then took questions and comments from the crowd.
Rep. Leonard Boswell, right, is Iowa's Third District Congressman and serves on the House Agriculture Committee. He is pictured with his agriculture assistant John Hall at a forum in Ankeny hosted by the Iowa Farmers Union and the Center for Rural Affairs.
One of the chief concerns of the members of the Farmers Union is the continued lack of enforcement of anti-trust laws and increased concentration of market control by large corporate agribusinesses.
In an effort to rein in the power of the large agribusiness operations and level the playing field for family farmers, the Farmers Union and the Center for Rural Affairs have pushed for a new title in the farm bill dedicated to competition issues in agriculture. Those provisions ultimately did not get passed with the House bill.
Chris Peterson, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, said that the lack of new competition provisions in the House bill is a disappointment, but he said there is still a chance that they will be inserted in the Senate bill.
"I just want to say if we're real serious about saving the family farm, we need a farm bill that addresses real issues out here," said Peterson. "To preserve and enhance and keep the family farm viable. Since the last farm bill, it seems like we've had a lot of 'farming the farmer' going on. Agribusiness keeps getting more powerful, concentration-wise. You look at their bottom line, they're pretty healthy financial-wise. If we're serious about saving the family farm, we need a full competition title in this farm bill. We need to localize the economics of it. We'd have a lot better society and local neighborhoods when the farmers own the land and the animals."
At left, Dan Owens discusses farm policy at the forum. Owens is a rural policy program organizer for the Center for Rural Affairs. At right is Iowa Farmers Union President Chris Peterson.
Boswell and others worked to insert a competition title in the bill, but there wasn't enough support in the House Agriculture Committee to pass it.
Boswell is optimistic, however, that such a title would be a part of the Senate bill.
Vertical integration in the livestock industry has rapidly caused significant changes in rural economies. Large meat-packers owning their own herds of livestock has made it difficult or impossible for independent producers to find a fair market for their animals. A ban on meat-packer ownership of livestock would be a key provision of a competition title in the farm bill.
The idea of new market competition provisions in the farm bill does have support in the Senate. In July, Iowa Independent reported that Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa introduced a bill to change current anti-trust laws and direct the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to draft agriculture-specific guidelines regarding agribusiness mergers. Grassley's bill was co-sponsored by Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl and South Dakota Republican John Thune.
One of the victories in the House bill, said Boswell, was passage of a provision for final implementation of country-of-origin labeling on retail food products. Another success involved the elimination of the "three-entity rule," a provision in current farm policy that effectively allows farm owners to claim federal farm program payments for up to three different entities such as corporations or partnerships.
The elimination of that rule was a part of the efforts to put limits on the amount of money a farm operator can receive through farm programs.
Rather than placing a simple cap on the amount a farm operator can receive, the House bill excludes from farm programs those individuals who make $1 million or more in annual adjusted gross income. Boswell and others had pushed for tighter restrictions. "You know, if you've got that kind of gross income you're not worried about your next meal, you're doing OK. It's not where I'd like it to be, but we did get it reduced," said Boswell. "If I was writing a farm bill, it would be a much lower number." He said he'd rather see a limit of $250,000 per individual in farm program payments, "or maybe even less than that."
Boswell highlighted a "landmark compromise" in the dairy provisions in the bill, which he said resolves a longstanding conflict between dairy farmers and processors. Another success was the creation of a "meth inhibitor" grant program, which will fund efforts to distribute a chemical additive that can be mixed with anhydrous ammonia. The additive makes the ammonia less useful for those who would use it to manufacture methamphetamine.
There are also significant new investments in the bill for fruit and vegetable initiatives, organic agriculture production and environmental protections, said Boswell.
Iowa farmer Darwin Rice, left, chats with Boswell about farm issues at the forum in Ankeny.
Boswell continued to take questions and hear suggestions from the crowd for over an hour during the forum.
Dan Owens, rural policy program organizer for the Center for Rural Affairs, said that Boswell will continue to be a key player in the next stages of the bill's development, and the forum was an opportunity to let him hear the concerns of Iowans. "Luckily for Iowa, Rep. Boswell will almost certainly be on the conference committee," said Owens. "So even though the House has passed its farm bill, Congressman Boswell will still have a large influence on how that progresses and what the final farm bill looks like. I can say, from my perspective in my position at the Center for Rural Affairs, there aren't nearly as many Congressmen that are as open and willing to come to talk to their constituents."
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