Women's Agricultural Network Blog

And in the House…

As expected, the House Committee on Agriculture released their 557-page draft version of the farm bill on July 5, called the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act. The draft began the mark-up period this morning, July 11, and will likely last until the end of the week.

The savings from the House bill total $35 billion, with $16 billion coming out of Nutrition title programs and $6 billion out of the Conservation Title.

Conservation

Concerning the world of conservation, this draft consolidates 23 programs into 13, leaving the actually funding cut to the Conservation Title slightly less than the Senate version. Rather than leave multiple programs in the Farm Bill, the House would rather cut out unnecessary complexities that they say create inefficiency.

Dairy and Risk Management 

For dairy farmers, a similar risk management strategy to the one seen in the Senate version was included, which aims to level prices through supply management. For other forms of risk management, many programs were repealed, including: direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, average crop revenue election, and supply revenue assistance payments. The House bill encourages more flexible private risk management, rather than “one-size-fits-all” government programming.

Nutrition and Rural Development

One of the most notable moves in the draft involve the large cuts to SNAP (45% of all Nutrition Title cuts), which, according to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, would cut between 1.8 and 3 million low-income people out of the program- including 280,000 children who rely on SNAP to make them eligible for free school lunches. The size of the cuts in SNAP were made possible by eliminating past flexibilities in eligibility requirements, called categorical eligibility. Rather than straight income and asset records dictating eligibility, those with income levels slightly above the federal income limit, or who had some assets but income below the federal income limit were eligible. The House draft’s exclusion of this flexibility is aimed at cutting the “waste” and “fraud” that was occurring within categorical eligibility. The reasoning behind categorical eligibility is that most SNAP participants’ disposable incomes are inadequate in assessing need, as many participants would have to choose between a car and food without the flexibility- an especially detrimental choice in rural states.

There will be more funding for food banks, and seniors and low-income families will have more funding for accessing farmers markets through government coupons. A program that allows restaurants to feed the homeless will change, mandating the recipients to demonstrate need. The Rural Development Title includes $50 million mandatory funding, which is $65 million less than the Senate version, and does not reauthorize Rural Business Enterprise Grants.

Research and Extension

Under the Research, Extension and Related Programs Title VII, 77 research and extension reports and programs were taken out, with authorized spending seeing a $500 million reduction. In general, the title will see direct spending fall $83 million over the next five years. Competitive grants for commodity or state specific applied research or extension will require a 1:1 match, which will place an excessive burden not seen before.

Research initiatives in specialty crops, organic, and sustainable agriculture were reauthorized, along with the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). BFRDP has annual funding of $10 million in the draft, $7 million less than the Senate bill.

Sustainable and Organic Farming

The Farmers Market Promotion Program was renamed the Farmers Market and Local Economies Program, and will see expansions in direct-sales promotion, and local food system infrastructure. The National Organic Board will see an increase in funding, along with enhanced regulatory support, but the National Organic Certificate Cost Share Program is repealed. The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, which has brought Vermont many new opportunities, will have the same annual mandatory funding, set at $70 million, with a $15 million portion for multi-state projects over the course of five years.

An amendment weakened the effectiveness of the Plant Protection Act, making it easier for biotechnology products to be unregulated, and makes it more difficult to require regulation based on environmental assassin petitions. The amendment also mandates a report to congress on further strategies to “reduce the red tape on biotechnology”.

There is so much more, but these are just a few notable things in the draft. It is too early to guess what might happen, but it is a key time to contact your Congressional Representative, and let him or her know what to support!

A live stream and updates of the mark –up period can be found on the House Agriculture Committee’s website: http://agriculture.house.gov/

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition also continues to have great policy coverage of the latest developments: http://sustainableagriculture.net/

The Senate version of  the 2012 Farm Bill was finally passed on June 21, with votes on 73 of 200 proposed amendments. Despite the $6.7 billion cut to conservation programs and a $4.5 billion cut to SNAP over the next 10 years, Senate leadership was pleased with the bi-partisan cooperation.

Editor’s Note: Read on for a quick update on what’s next with the 2012 Farm from Ali (Alexandra) Zipparo, who works for UVM Extension in the New Farmer and

Ali (Alexandra) Zipparo

Women in Agriculture Network programs. She comes to UVM Extension with wide-ranging experience in Vermont agriculture and policy, including work with the Farm to Plate initiative and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board’s Farm Viability program. Ali is passionate about agricultural policy issues, and will be providing updates about the 2012 Farm Bill and other agricultural matters over the next several months.

Some of the more notable amendments were a failed Sanders (I-VT) sponsored amendment to require GMO labeling, a passed Brown (D-OH) amendment for beginning farmers, Merkley’s (D-OR) passed amendment on insurance for organic farmers and two Wyden (D-OR) amendments that made it through- one on a Farm-to-School pilot program and another that focused on gleaning.  The Senate version hit outreach for socially disadvantaged farmers especially hard, going from $20 million a year in funding to just $5 million. National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition says it will work hard on reversing that in the House version, with help from Rep. Baca of California.

For Vermont, the most notable achievement was an amendment that would discourage farmers from the current practice of increasing production when prices are down, and would provide them with an insurance alternative to promote supply reductions, thus stabilizing milk prices. The new insurance program is expected to help end the volatile nature of milk prices through supply management, rather than simply paying farmers for losses.

In terms of conservation funding cuts in the Senate bill, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) would be combined into one program, and see 8.7% in funding cuts. EQIP represented approximately 37% of Conservation Title funding for FY09-11 in New England, alone.  The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP), and Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) would be combined into one easement program. FRPP and WRP represented approximately 32% of all Conservation Title funding in New England for FY09-11.

Nationally, the largest portion of conservation funding cuts would be seen in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which represented roughly 20% of New England’s Conservation Title program funding for FY09-11. However the CRP Transitions Incentives Program  (CRP-TIP) for beginning farmers was increased from $25 million to $50 million for the next five years. This program would offer two years of extra CRP rental payments to CRP land owners putting land back in production by renting or selling to beginning or socially disadvantaged farmers who will use sustainable grazing practices, resource-conserving cropping systems, or transition to organic production.

All conservation programs, thanks to a new amendment, will be available through a single application, easing the paperwork load on farmers. Finally, a Leahy amendment that passed will promote the agricultural land easement programs as a way to increase and ensure farm viability for the future.

What’s up next? The current Farm Bill expires September 30.  The proposed 2012 legislation is now in the hands of the House, which is expected to release a draft by the end of this week, and begin marking it up on July 11.  If all goes well, and the House cooperates in coming up with a final version, the 2012 Farm Bill could go to a vote by the end of the summer.

If the Farm Bill hits a snag in the House, a number of interim measures are possible, mostly in the form of current bill extensions, leading to a 2013 Farm Bill.

For up-to-date news and analysis, check back here or with the National Sustainable Agriculture’s website.