Farm Bill Study Team Has Kept Busy

Every five years, the agriculture committees of the House and Senate are charged with negotiating and writing a new farm bill. About a year in advance agriculture groups across the country begin putting together their ideas and make their “best guesses” at what will work best to support farmers. 

Due to the current budget situation and the appointment of the Deficit Reduction Committee, the writing of the 2012 farm bill has deviated drastically from the usual process. But farm groups, including the Iowa Soybean Association, have been working hard to insert strategies that will work best for their members into the discussion.

ISA’s Farm Bill Study Team, which includes Ron Heck, Ray Gaesser, Dean Coleman, Mark Jackson, John Heisdorffer and Randy Van Kooten, started in late 2010 by requesting a series of white papers that outlined the various components of the 2008 farm bill. The papers, created by Stephen Frerichs of AgVantage, LLC., in Washington, D.C., provided a starting point.

ISA’s Study Team met in March and again in June of 2011 with a similar group from the Illinois Soybean Association to discuss common needs. Voluntarily trading direct payments for an improved crop insurance program might be beneficial to other regions but could be detrimental to Iowa and Illinois soybean farmers. The group agreed farm bill discussions provided an opportunity to get out information about the value of production agriculture to the rest of the country. To that end, they collaborated with Informa Economics to look at the return on investment of agriculture to the rest of the country.

As the study was being written over the summer, deficit and spending issues emerged as the driving forces in Washington, D.C. The Deficit Reduction Committee overshadowed the usual process for writing a farm bill, and ag committee leaders decided it would be better to voluntarily cut ag programs and refashion farm programs before the Committee determined how deep the cuts might be. ISA’s Farm Bill Study Team issued a two-page white paper that outlined important agriculture programs that should be supported, such as trade, research, conservation, energy and transportation infrastructure, with subsidies as the last element to consider. ISA also submitted some very specific conservation proposals that support programs at work in Iowa and upper Midwest states. 

During October, the process of writing specific farm bill programs was in the hands of Senate Ag Chair Stabenow from Michigan and House Ag Committee Lucas from Oklahoma, with little input from the outside. The ISA Farm Bill Study Team concluded this process would be far better if pulled back into the hands of the agriculture committees from both houses, and submitted a letter to leadership expressing this view. 

In late November, the Deficit Reduction Committee reported they were unable to reach their goal and ceased negotiations. Since that time, it remains unclear whether the proposals developed by Stabenow and Lucas will be the foundation of the next farm bill or whether the committees will begin anew in January. ISA continues to believe that Iowa farmers will probably benefit from a farm bill written with input from all ag committee members from all areas of the country. The ISAFarm Bill Study Team will continue to participate in the discussions and advance proposals as the process continues.