Survey: Farmers want agriculture bill to keep safety net

A Reuters survey found that farmers think Congress should seek cuts in agricultural spending but protect growers from volatile prices and low yields by retaining a safety net when it writes a new farm law this year. The random survey of 462 farmers and ranchers at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) annual meeting in Honolulu found 39.4% want the current program to continue, with some cuts.

A total of 36.4% of respondents said they would support converting the safety net to a revenue-insurance system. The current farm law, which entered force in 2008, includes a combination of direct payments to farmers, subsidies triggered by low prices and government-subsidized crop insurance.

Farmers interviewed for the survey said they recognized that high commodity prices likely meant that cuts to traditional price supports were on the way. Some lawmakers have argued for protecting farmers from certain revenue shortfalls and offering insurance for catastrophic losses.

AFBF President Bob Stallman said that estimates have shown that food output must increase 70% by mid-century to feed a world population expected to exceed 9 billion. “I think we’ve got a demand factor that is built in now,” Stallman said. “Everything is on the table as Congress writes the new law.”

Almost half of the survey participants supported shifting the emphasis of the farm program to protecting farms from revenue loss rather than setting prices. Only 9.5% of farmers supported putting a floor on prices as the primary goal of the bill, and 21.4% said the law should encourage increased production of food to meet rising global needs.