Philadelphia Inquirer, PA
10-16-07
Specialty farmers seek support in Washington
By Steve Goldstein
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Abbott Lee's family has been growing cranberries in a patch of
the New Jersey Pinelands for nearly 140 years. To him, it seems almost that long
since specialty farmers received any substantial support from Washington.
A small group of lawmakers, led by Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R., Ind.) and Frank
Lautenberg (D., N.J.), is trying to change that view and upend the farm wagon in this case, the renewal of a policy born in the Great Depression to buoy
struggling farmers that has evolved into a cash cow for growers of such
commodities as corn, wheat, rice and cotton.
Supporters of the Lugar-Lautenberg proposal concede chances of passage are
slim but hope the 2007 farm bill will include some of its provisions.
Under this alternative bill, the direct payment system would be replaced by an
expansion of existing county-based crop insurance programs at no cost to the
farmer. Unlike current programs, this safety net protects against unforeseen risks
but does not provide automatic payments to farmers when they don't need them.
The measure likely to emerge from the Senate Agriculture Committee would
preserve the status quo, with billions of dollars going to growers of big commodity
crops and would mirror a version passed by the House.
For generations, farmers who are not commodity growers have been trying to get
a piece of the subsidy pie, to no avail. The commodity growers have little
sympathy.
"Starving Third World countries require program-crop grains to feed the masses,
not table grapes and bell peppers," said Dwight Roberts, chief executive of the
U.S. Rice Producers Association. "If there is no government support for our
farmers for times of low prices, then they will continue to vanish. The American
consumer is spoiled. Food is too cheap."
As outlined by Lautenberg's staff, the alternative legislation would extend a safety
net to all farmers, regardless of what they grow or where they live. Thus, small
farmers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who grow fruit and vegetable specialty
crops would be major beneficiaries.
The Farm Ranch Equity Stewardship and Health (FRESH) Act would provide
new transportation grants, specialty-crop block grants, dedicated research
funding, and pest detection and response programs to small growers. Savings
from an overhaul of the subsidy system would be channeled into new
investments to assist farmers with conservation practices, develop renewable
energy, expand access to healthier foods for children, and improve food-stamp
and other hunger-relief programs.
Lautenberg called the current farm bill "an antiquated system of giant payments
to a handful of farms that ignores the needs of most American farmers."
"Our bill," he said, "provides a safety net to farmers in our region and across the
nation. It ensures stable incomes, even in bad years, reduces our deficit, and
frees up money for conservation, nutrition and harvesting local crops like fruits
and vegetables."
Lee is watching the proceedings with keen interest. His family has grown
cranberries in a patch of the Pinelands since 1868.
"If you look at the importance of specialty crops in the Northeast, they don't get
their share of funding out of the current mechanism, and that historically has
been the case," Lee said by phone from his farm in Chatsworth.
"This bill would replace disaster aid and commodity payments, and I think
conceptually that would be helpful to the Northeast," Lee said.
The House bill would allocate $14 billion a year in payments to farmers, with little
going to those who grow food items such as tomatoes, peaches and spinach,
and specialty crops like berries.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, such fruits and vegetables, along
with nuts and nursery plants, generate about half the nation's crop revenue, $55
billion out of $120 billion in 2006.
The FRESH Act would invest $3 billion in specialty-crop programs to improve
research and marketing opportunities for the majority of U.S. farmers who
currently do not benefit from the farm subsidy program.
Economist Bruce Babcock of Iowa State University praised the alternative
bill: "It says, 'Let's provide a safety net and do away with the rest of it.' And it
ignores the conventional wisdom that you can't touch cotton subsidies and corn
direct payments."
Farm politics are unusual, because alliances are based on regional ties among
the states getting commodity payments and do not line up neatly along party
lines.
Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), who serves on the Agriculture Committee, said
negotiations over the bill now in committee had been difficult, adding that "there's
been a lot of disagreement" among Democrats.
"It would be a lot clearer if you had Democrats on one side and Republicans on
the other," he said. "Here it defies political lines."
Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa), the committee's chairman, and Sen. Kent Conrad
(D., N.D.) represent two big commodity-growing states. Harkin favors change,
and Conrad favors the status quo. Both are being pressured by the agriculture
lobby.
But sometimes the pressure is self-initiated. "The ag lobby is strong," Babcock
said, "but congressmen like to do well by their constituents, and this is one thing
they can do - farm subsidies. So a lot of times, it's not the big, bad lobby that's
giving giant contributions, although sugar and dairy do give large contributions,
but rather it's almost constituent service."
Casey said he was waiting to see what the committee ultimately approved before
deciding which measure to support. "I want to make sure that we're doing
something to resolve the overarching challenge of what happens in the states
that rely on direct payments," he said, adding that he could not commit himself to
the Lugar-Lautenberg version. "But I also want to have equity for specialty-crop
growers."
Contact staff writer Steve Goldstein
at 202-408-2758 or slgoldstein@phillynews.com.