DALLAS, Texas (Staff) – Income support programs for U.S. farmers should be paid for directly by consumers, say Idaho wheat growers.
A plan being circulated by the Idaho Grain Producers Association calls for a radical restructuring of farm policy south of the border that would essentially get government out of the wheat business.
Export subsidies would be eliminated, domestic wheat prices would be allowed to reflect world levels, the loan rate would be set at the national average cost of production, support payments would be tied to domestic consumption and acreage reduction programs would be eliminated.
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No federal money
Target prices and deficiency payments would continue, but none of the money would come from the federal government.
Instead, the required funds would be raised through a wholesale tax on wheat-based food products.
“By financing the program through the Wheat Rural Development Fee and setting the level of the fee only high enough to cover the costs of the program, it places the costs of wheat production and the wheat program where they logically belong – upon the consumers of wheat products,” according to the document.
It says the $2 billion needed to support a target price of $5 (U.S.) a bushel could be raised by a 0.033 cent increase in the price of a loaf of white bread. A target price of $7 would require a tax of 0.071 cents.
Jay Hansen, Idaho’s representative on the board of the National Association of Wheat Growers, was promoting the proposal and circulating copies of the so-called “Idaho Plan” during the recent NAWG convention here.
The national association didn’t adopt the Idaho Plan, opting instead to call on the U.S. federal government to maintain agriculture spending at present levels, with higher loan rates, aggressive use of export subsidies and payments for idled land.
That prompted Hansen to criticize the NAWG board for sticking with the old way of doing things despite signals from Washington the status quo is no longer acceptable.
The association has to look for “new directions,” he said, urging a task force to look at alternative ideas like the Idaho Plan.
“We need to be more aggressive. We must sit down and see where we want to be in five years and figure out how to get there.”
The 11-page farm programs resolution passed by the NAWG board made it clear the organization still sees a big role for government in the wheat industry.
“The number one priority of the NAWG shall be the continuation and improvement of government farm programs in order to maintain an adequate income safety net for farmers,” said the policy statement.
