AFT: Big Changes Likely For 2012 Farm Bill

Jon Scholl, President of American Farmland Trust (AFT) said, “Changes in the 2012 Farm Bill appear both likely and may be significant, if not radical. Our country’s economic situation will be the most significant driver and agent of change in the 2012 Farm Bill.”

“…Our country must address the national debt level-with no options left off the table. Indeed, politicians like Senator Chuck Grassley and farmer leaders like National Corn Growers Association committee chairman Tony Bush have already made the connection that agriculture will have to take its fair share of cuts,” Scholl said.

In recent days these farm leaders have noted, for example, that the direct payments program first authorized in the 1996 Farm Bill as a temporary measure is likely to be cut. “The direct payments program-in which farmers receive payments without regard to need has long been a staple in farm policy appears likely to change,” Scholl said. “Numerous producers across the country have told AFT that they would welcome change in farm programs, and I believe the 2012 Farm Bill represents an opportunity to create a better safety net.”

“A safety net for 21st century American agriculture must be more publicly accountable, more market oriented, and it must focus on risk management,” said Scholl. He said that one measure of public accountability is to require producers to suffer an actual loss before they receive payments from the government. “Within Title I of the farm bill, only one program makes such a requirement-the Average Crop Revenue Election, or ACRE program first introduced in the 2008 Farm Bill.”

“I believe the reality of the extenuating federal budget situation offers American agriculture an opportunity to create a better safety net that will allow us to produce the food, fiber and fuel to feed ourselves and the world for decades to come, while we are also doing our fair share in addressing the budget,” said Scholl. ◆