Issues
Agriculture Farm
Bill Payment Reform
One disappointment in the Senate Farm Bill
is that it did not do more to efficiently direct funds to
strengthen rural communities and small farmers. We need to
better target our limited resources to the programs essential
to family farmers and rural communities with a logical approach
to farm payments. The federal government is making payments
to landowners who no longer use their land for farming or
have even gone on to develop the land. They receive these
direct payments based on a history of crops grown on that
land, regardless of what is currently planted (if anything)
or crop prices. This simply doesn’t make sense, and the money
should go to the farmers who really need it.
I also was disappointed that the Senate did not vote on an
amendment I offered to reform the direct payment system. This
legislation would have trimmed giveaways to large land owners
receiving more than $10,000 in payments per year and would
have resulted in the redirection of about $1.6 billion over
five years to programs that benefit a broad cross-section
of rural communities and farmers, instead of just the largest
landowners. Nonetheless, I was pleased that well-justified
safety nets like the Milk Income Loss Contract program, which
target small and medium farmers and only operate when prices
are low, remain in place.
Dairy
| Ginseng | Livestock
| Organic
| Local Foods |
Bioeconomy
| Broadband Access
| Health Care |
Payment Reform
| Office of Small
Farms | Benefits
Eligibility
Agriculture Main
|