Don’t wait to reform Farm Bill

Every five years the Farm Bill is revised and re-approved by Congress. And for many years, the farming community has been fighting a losing battle to achieve much-needed reform to this omnibus bill, which governs everything from commodity subsidies and trade to nutrition programs and energy policies. The problems with the Farm Bill are numerous, and certainly beyond the scope of this letter, but suffice it to say that the Bill has negative effects on issues as diverse as obesity, environmental degradation, global poverty and public health. So, why is it that even now, when concerned citizens are joining forces with the farming community and public interest organizations, we still cannot bring change to this imperatively important bill?\nThis, of course, is not a rhetorical question. When urgently-needed change refuses to come about in spite of wide-spread public support, one can often expect the culprit to be a powerful lobby of self-interested individuals whose agenda is not consistent with the welfare of the general public. This is precisely the phenomenon that is blocking Farm Bill reform. Falling in line as yet another example of one of the most tired cliches in American politics, the Farm Bill cannot stop bending to the will of the powerful – in this case the large-agribusiness lobby, which benefits from millions of dollars in gratuitous subsidies, and millions more squeezed out through loopholes.\nAs 2007 drew to a close, our own Sen. Lugar proposed a sensible plan for Farm Bill reform – the FRESH amendment – which would have brought significant positive change to the current state of affairs. The amendment failed 37-58. A much more modest attempt to reform the bill by placing subsidy caps at $250,000 in order to prevent the aforesaid misuse of millions of dollars likewise failed.\nBut there is still time for us to affect change by making our collective voice too powerful to be overshadowed by the agribusiness lobby. As the Farm Bill waits to be discussed by a conference committee that will formulate its final version in the coming weeks, we should all take a few minutes to learn a little more about this bill and convey our opinions to our legislators.