Give farm bill new direction
Wisconsin State Journal, October 4, 2007 

Wanted: Champions of farm policy reform to stand up and be counted in the U.S. Senate.
Wisconsin Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, please apply.

By threatening to veto the $286 billion farm bill passed by the House, President Bush has given the Senate a warning worth heeding.

The United States needs a farm policy to give American agriculture a new direction, suited to a new era shaped by the global economy, growing demand for biofuels, an urgent need for conservation, and an imperative to rein in federal spending.

Judged by that test, the House bill was a dismal failure. Now it 's the Senate 's turn.

At stake is the safety net that protects farmers from steep price declines. But also at stake is the cost to taxpayers of support programs, the prices consumers pay for food, and U.S. ability to sell agricultural products abroad.

The Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday began debating and rewriting its version of the farm bill, to govern agriculture for the next five years. Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is aiming for a bill that would be better than its House counterpart. But Harkin 's vision still falls far short of what 's needed.

Moreover, Harkin is having trouble assembling a consensus to go even as far as he wants.
The nation needs more senators to demand change, as Wisconsin Rep. Ron Kind tried to do in the House.

Kind, a Democrat, joined with GOP Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona to promote a plan that would have phased out wasteful subsidies in favor of a more cost-effective method of protecting farmers.

Subsidies encourage too much production, which depresses prices, which requires more subsidies in a cycle that cost taxpayers more than $20 billion in 2005.

The Kind-Flake plan would have saved $55 billion over 10 years and spread the aid to more and smaller farmers. It also would have helped U.S. farm policy comply with global trade agreements, which some subsidies violate.

In the Senate, Republican Dick Lugar of Indiana championed the same reform that Kind-Flake proposed. But he found few allies.

The Kind-Flake-Lugar plan no longer stands a chance of becoming law in this farm bill. But there remains an opportunity for substantial reform -- if more senators are willing to stand up to the lobbies vested in the status quo.

Wisconsin Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, representing America 's Dairyland, should lead the call for reform.

Reform should include a phase-out of the dairy subsidy called the Milk Income Loss Contract, which Kohl helped to craft. The MILC subsidy served a purpose when it was created. But as the Kind-Flake-Lugar plan demonstrated, MILC can be replaced by a more cost-effective support system that encourages farmers to produce for consumer demand rather than to collect a government check.

Moving American agriculture into a freer marketplace that benefits taxpayers, consumers and farmers should be the theme of the 2007 farm bill.

Kohl and Feingold should lead in that direction.

Farm subsidies for 2005 
$21.1 billion: Total U.S. subsidies.
$553 million: Wisconsin  's share.
14: Wisconsin's rank among states.