Des Moines Register
09-20-06
Corn growers' subsidy plan draws interest, skepticism
By PHILIP BRASHER
Register Washington Bureau
Washington, D.C. – The nation’s corn growers are getting a cool reception to a
proposal to overhaul the way that crops are subsidized.
The National Corn Growers Association is promoting a plan, developed by
economists at Iowa State University, that would base subsidies on a farmer’s
revenue rather than fluctuations in commodity prices.
Subsidies would be triggered when farm revenue is down because of drought or
other problems instead of when crop prices fall because of bumper crops.
But Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, told the
House Agriculture Committee that the idea will require extensive study.
His group prefers that Congress extend current farm programs for at least a year
or more.
The American Soybean Association is studying the corn growers’ idea but hasn’t
endorsed it yet.
John Hoffman, a Waterloo, Ia., farmer who will become president of the
organization next year, says his group’s first choice is to keep the
existing programs and increase the subsidy rates.
“There is still a lot of analysis that needs to be done to see how it fits
in with every crop,” Hoffman said of the corn growers’ revenue-protection plan.
In testimony to the House committee, Stallman said the Farm Bureau’s
initial review of the plan has “resulted in raising more questions than
generating answers.”
The revenue-protection plan is supposed to ensure that farmers get
subsidies when poor crops drive up commodity prices.
Under existing programs, farmers receive more money from the government
when their crops are good and prices fall.
Gerald Tumbleson, a Minnesota farmer who is president of the National Corn
Growers Association, told the House committee that his group’s plan is a “work in
progress. We’re taking it to other commodities to look at."