When Kevin Brosch saw some friends last weekend outside Washington, D.C., they stunned him by asking about farmers.
“I’ve never had that happen before,” said Brosch, an American agricultural policy researcher.
“What I do is pretty obscure. None of my friends ever asks me about what I do. But they’ve all been reading about the farm bill in the press and they all wondered ‘why are we doing this?’ “
Although it gets a lot of fanfare in the agricultural media, farm bills are not on the public’s radar.
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But in the weeks leading up to the passage of the House of Representatives’ farm bill July 27, it broke into the general news pages.
And not in a way that was good for U.S. farmers looking for subsidies.
“Cut farm welfare,” said an editorial headline in the Chicago Tribune July 26.
“If you believe it’s outrageous to pay federal subsidies to millionaire farmers, then root for U.S. representative Ron Kind on Thursday.”
Kind, a Wisconsin politician, attempted to slash funding for programs that pay farmers to grow crops.
Brosch, who has been involved in developing farm bills for 30 years, can remember no time in which the farm bill has drawn more public ire. He thinks that means the bill will face more serious challenges.
A number of senators are developing their own bills that do not fit with the House version, and president George Bush has threatened to veto the bill.
Not only is the public angered by stories of millionaire farmers receiving large government subsidies, but the House “ambushed” agricultural companies when it brought forward a new tax that will cost the multinationals about $4 billion per year if passed.
“Now the chamber of commerce and the manufacturers association and all the big business types are going to get out and really get going on this,” said Brosch.
The House bill passed with far less support than had been expected because of the surprise tax plan, which alienated dozens of Republicans. The 231-191 vote approved a five-year, $286 billion US farm bill.
Even thoughproduction subsidies have been reduced by more than 40 percent, ordinary urban Americans are angry about spending billions on subsidies for farmers who often earn more.
