Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
When Congress returns to work Dec. 3 after a two-week recess there will be a brief window of opportunity to get the 2007 Farm Bill finished.
Here in Iowa, farmers are already making plans for next year’s crops — without knowing how federal farm programs will be structured. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said in an interview with Iowa Independent that chances are slim that the Farm Bill will be finished this year.
“It’s a really tough scenario,” said Northey, a Republican serving in his first term as Iowa ag secretary. “You had a House farm bill that passed on a very partisan vote back in the summer. You have a Senate farm bill that hasn’t passed yet and looks very different from the House bill.” The Senate bill has been bogged down in a procedural battle between Democrats and Republicans, with more than 200 amendments waiting to be debated.
“They’re going to have a heck of a time getting it passed, and then you’ve got to somehow reconcile a very different Senate bill with the House bill.” Northey said that even if the Senate breaks the deadlock and passes its bill, he thinks it may be even more difficult for the Senate and House to then come to an agreement in conference and produce a final bill.
And Northey added, “then you have a president that says if it looks anything like those two bills, either one of them, he’s going to veto it. So, I mean, it’s a heck of a burden to try and figure out a scenario for how that’s all going to happen.”
It’s very likely that the new bill will just be tabled, Northey said. “With that much of a mountain to climb, we’re likely to see an extension of the current program. Some are talking about an extension of that into 2009, to get past the presidential election of 2008.”
Northey said that the situation is very disappointing, because many of the “little pieces” of the new farm bill would be lost in the shuffle. “We had an agreement on a meat inspection program that could be state-driven, that would allow some shipment of meat across state lines. And there was discussion about allowing planting flexibility for fruits and vegetables in the Midwest. Some of those things, they’re not very high-profile, but they could be very important to farmers. They’ll be lost in this process, and you’ve got to start all over again.”
Northey said that “an awful lot of work” has gone into the 2007 Farm Bill by farm organizations and advocacy groups. “It’s very frustrating to lots of folks who thought this was going to happen in 2007 and then to have it possibly all fall apart. There’s certainly a lot of frustration.”
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