Less than a year after the United States approved a new farm bill designed to get the government out of the commodity price-support bus-iness, falling market prices are creating political pressure to reverse the course, says a Washington farm lobbyist.
But John Keeling, a farm policy specialist with the American Farm Bureau, said in an interview Jan. 16 he does not expect the new Congress to listen.
He said the political attention likely will focus on how to improve insurance programs.
“There already is pressure out there for the government to re-open the farm bill to prop up prices,” he said. “I think those voices will get louder but I just don’t think that idea will have political legs. A lot of blood was spilled last year when Congress wrote this farm bill. I don’t think they will be very interested in revisiting that.”
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Keeling said the farm bureau, the largest U.S. farm lobby, does not support calls for more government commodity-specific subsidies. He said members support the new farm bill, with its seven-year program of transitional farm payments that are supposed to end early in the next century.
Happy government out
“The farm bureau just had its annual meeting and our farmers generally are not happy with the way prices are going but they are happy having government out of their planning,” he said. “In total, they said we should stay the course.”
However, falling prices come at an awkward time for the U.S. government and farm groups which support the end of the commodity-based subsidy system, he said.
While the old system of compensating farmers for low prices has been dismantled, there has not yet been created a strong alternative system of insurance and safety net programs.
Crop insurance is not universal and pilot projects on farm revenue insurance schemes are in the early stages.
“There is a real danger now,” said Keeling. “If we had a real terrible price in the next year with these risk management programs in their infancy, you would have a lot of yelling and screaming in farm country.”
He said those farmer demands for help will be supported by some farm state politicians, but the Congress which takes office this month in Washington will not be interested in reopening the farm bill debate.
For the farmer community, which will receive billions of dollars in transition subsidies during the next six years, that may be a good thing.
“There still is a mood to cut spending in Washington and if that debate was opened again, there’s as much chance that subsidies would be cut as that they would be increased,” said Keeling.
