New Farm Bill Completed: ‘Like Passing a Kidney Stone’

There was a lot of back-patting and hand-shaking Thursday as U.S. House and Senate conference committee leaders held a press conference to tout the completion of the new farm bill.

Key negotiators were Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., each profusely thanking all of the participants who came together to compromise and complete the bill.

"I am a happy man," beamed Harkin as he opened Thursday's press conference.

The farm bill has been in the works for more than three years and was originally supposed to be finished by the end of September 2007. "It's been a long and difficult road to this day. I heard one of the staff people who compared passing a farm bill to passing a kidney stone. Now, never having done that, I can still appreciate the analogy."

The bill will go to the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate for final votes and is expected to be on the desk of President Bush before the current farm law's exipiration date of May 18. A presidential veto of the bill is likely.

Harkin said the conference committee's work has produced a "strong, bipartisan farm bill that benefits every American," and he touted several of the bill's highlights. "The bill provides a strong safety net, so it’s good for our farmers and producers," said Harkin. "Consumers will like it because it will increase farmers’ markets and ensure a safe, dependable supply of high-quality food.  For low-income Americans, it ensures nutrition needs are met. And for school children, it increases their access to fresh fruits and vegetables.  And as production increases, the farm bill will ensure our precious natural resources are protected."

Officially titled the "Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008," the farm bill will cost approximately $300 billion over five years.

Mandatory country-of-origin labeling of food products will, after many years of delay, finally be implemented in all retail sales in the United States. The labeling provision was originally passed in the 2002 farm bill, but was never implemented by the Bush administration. Several changes to the law will allow it to be fully implemented later this year.

The bill will also change the law regarding the shipment of state-inspected meat products. It will authorize interstate shipment of meat that has been processed in state-inspected facilities, a change that is seen as a major victory for small, independent processors of specialty meat products.

Peterson said more than 73 percent of the spending in the entire bill will go toward food stamps and other nutrition assistance programs; he said approximately 16 percent will go to commodity, crop insurance and disaster programs.

All of the approximately $10.4 billion in "new money" that was added to the bill over the previous 2002 farm bill was used to increase nutrition programs, Harkin said, adding “At a time of economic downturn and rapidly rising prices for food staples, millions of low-income Americans have joined the ranks of the hungry and ‘food insecure.’  This new funding will reform and strengthen federal nutrition assistance.”

Conservation and environmental protection programs will also get a big boost. Approximately $4.4 billion in new funding has been authorized for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program over the next 10 years. "With this support, the Conservation Stewardship Program will enroll nearly 13 million acres each year," said Harkin.

Two all-new titles in the farm bill were also added, one covering livestock and the other covering specialty crops and organic agriculture.

The bill will authorize significant new spending, more than $1 billion, to provide incentives to expand the production of biofuels from crop residues and other cellulosic sources other than grain. “All-time-high gasoline prices are wreaking havoc with family budgets, but, without the inputs of biofuels, prices at the pump would be as much as 50 cents higher," said Harkin. "The new farm bill will dramatically ramp up the agricultural sector’s capacity to produce clean, renewable energy."

One of the most contentious issues that had bogged down the progress of the farm bill was a longstanding argument about subsidy payments to wealthy landowners under the commodity title of the farm bill. The bill will eliminate the "three-entity rule," a loophole in the previous farm bill that allowed individuals to claim payments under three different corporations or entities. Under the new bill, all payments will be made directly to individuals only.

Adjusted gross income caps were included that will eliminate anyone from farm program payments who has made more than $500,000 a year in non-farm income. Anyone with farmincome that exceeds $750,000 will no longer be allowed to receive direct payments.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who had led the effort to cap subsidy payments, issued a statement Thursday supporting the reforms. "Believe me, this bill is barely a gnat on the elephant of reform," stated Grassley. "But when you consider where we were just 10 days ago, we've come a lot further than I ever thought we would. In fact, 10 days ago, I was pessimistic that we would get to this point. In the end, though, we've got some pretty good reforms to tout."

One provision that didn't make it into the final farm bill was a ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock. The ban had been a priority of many independent ranchers and livestock producers, but it was stripped from the bill last week. There were several key provisions that passed in the new livestock title, however, that are intended to help protect competition in livestock markets.

Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, who serves as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, issued a statement touting the new livestock title in the farm bill. "I was pleased that conferees accepted my request and justification to include a first-ever Livestock Title in the farm bill," stated Boswell. "Livestock producers are a vital part of agriculture and this action highlights their importance.  The title gives producers the option to decline mandatory arbitration in livestock and poultry contracts, and improves USDA oversight by requiring annual compliance reports detailing the number and length on investigations of potential violations to the Packers and Stockyards Act.”