Harkin to Bush: look at farm bill with fresh eyes

From the office of Sen. Tom Harkin:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and of the Senate-House conference committee on the farm bill, today announced that with a vote of 81-15, the Senate had overwhelmingly approved the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, the farm bill conference agreement. The bill will now be sent to the White House.

Earlier this week, a coalition of more than 500 farm, conservation, nutrition, consumer and religious groups who sent a letter urging Congress to pass this bill. “The conference report makes significant farm policy reforms, protects the safety net for all of America's food producers, addresses important infrastructure needs for specialty crops, increases funding to feed our nation's poor, and enhances support for important conservation initiatives,” they wrote.

“Senate passage of the farm bill conference report on a strong, bipartisan basis demonstrates support for core farm bill initiatives – conservation, energy, nutrition and rural development – while continuing and strengthening farm income protection. This bill benefits every American, from our smallest towns to our biggest cities, urban and rural residents, farmers and non-farmers,” said Chairman Harkin.

“Today, I urge the President to look at this farm bill with fresh eyes and an objective mind. To date, he has focused on a handful of elements in this vast bill that he disagrees with. I urge him to look at the bill as a whole, and to see the many critical investments and reforms in this bill that have won support from both parties, from every region of the country, and from rural and urban members of Congress alike. If he does, I am confident he will conclude that this is a good bill that he can and should sign.”

Highlights of the conference report include:

Commodities Title:

The bill includes a newly named Producer Income Protection title that continues basic features of the 2002 bill, which farmers have thought worked well, and it gives producers a new option, beginning with the 2010 crop year, to choose to participate in a state-level revenue protection system. The Average Crop Revenue program, modeled after legislation proposed by farmers and introduced by Senators Durbin and Brown, offers producers better options for managing risk of both yield and price declines on their farms in today’s uncertain, rapidly changing farm environment.

Conservation Title:

The new CSP, renamed Conservation Stewardship Program provides incentives for adopting, improving and maintaining sound conservation practices on land in agricultural production. The program will enroll just under 13 million acres each year (starting in 2009) through 2017, for a total of nearly 115 million acres. An additional $1.1 billion was provided for CSP for a total of $12 billion over 10 years.

The bill funds and strengthens a range of conservation programs including the Wetlands Reserve, Grassland Reserve and Environmental Quality Incentives Programs. In total, the farm bill provides 5.2 billion in new budget authority for conservation.

Energy Title:

Increases Biofuels Production: The farm bill will accelerate commercialization of advanced biofuels, like cellulosic ethanol, by helping farmers produce biomass crops, by providing grants and loan guarantees to support these new biorefineries, and by increasing bioenergy research to guarantee that we have a continuing flow of more productive and resource-conservative technologies in the decades to come.

It also expands the very successful renewable energy and energy efficiency program that has been helping our farmers and ranchers and rural small businesses since it was adopted in the 2002 farm bill.

Livestock Title:

The new farm bill includes the first-ever Livestock Title to provide basic protections for producers in livestock and poultry markets. Among the highlights:
Provides producers the ability to decline to be bound by an arbitration clause in a livestock or poultry contract.
Enables a producer to settle a dispute in the Federal judicial district where he or she lives rather than where the company headquarters is located.
Provides the compromise for country of origin labeling of meat, fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans and macadamia nuts
Improves oversight of USDA’s enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act be requiring the Department to provide an annual compliance report detailing the number and length of time spent on investigations of potential violations of the Act.
Assist hog producers by authorizing a program for trichinae certification to promote trade and marketing of pork.

Nutrition Title:

Federal Food Assistance: historic investments in fighting hunger and inadequate nutrition, including:

ending benefit erosion caused by inflation

providing food assistance without requiring recipients to exhaust savings and retirement accounts

increasing food assistance to households with high child care costs

$1.25 billion dollars in commodity purchases for food banks

Child Nutrition: $1 billion to improve child nutrition by expanding the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program nationally.

Research Title:

Organic Research and Extension Initiative: The Research Title provides $78 million in mandatory funds for the program, which enhances the ability of organic producers and processors to grow and market organic food, feed and fiber.

Specialty Crop Research Initiative: The bill provides $230 million in mandatory funds for this new grants program to help meet the needs of producers and processors of specialty crops in the areas of mechanization, plant breeding, genetics, genomics, pests and diseases, and food safety.

Rural Development Title:

Rural Water and Wastewater: $120 million in mandatory funds for the pending rural development loan and grant applications for rural water and wastewater assistance.

Value-Added Producer Grant Program: $15 million for the program, which encourages independent producers of agricultural commodities to process their raw commodities into marketable goods.

Rural Microenterprise Assistance Program: $15 million in mandatory funds for the program, which provides technical assistance and small loans to beginning entrepreneurs to help start businesses in rural areas.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables:

Organics: Funding for The National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program has been increased from $5 million in the last farm bill, to $22 million. The farm bill also supports the Organic Data Collection Initiative, which provides USDA and organic producers with national production and market data to effectively market their products.

Pest and Disease Detection: Over $400 million over the next ten years for a new program to improve our pest and disease detection capabilities. The bill also provides $20 million for the National Clean Plant Network, which will strengthen our research to improve plant health and eradicate plant viruses.

Farmers’ Markets: expansion of the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, first created in the 2002 farm bill, by providing $33 million over the next five years to continue our investment in promoting fresh, local food.