Every five years the Farm Bill is revised and re-approved by Congress.
And for many years, the farming community has been fighting a losing
battle to achieve much-needed reform to this omnibus bill, which
governs everything from commodity subsidies and trade to nutrition
programs and energy policies. The problems with the Farm Bill are
numerous, and certainly beyond the scope of this letter, but suffice it
to say that the Bill has negative effects on issues as diverse as
obesity, environmental degradation, global poverty and public health.
So, why is it that even now, when concerned citizens are joining forces
with the farming community and public interest organizations, we still
cannot bring change to this imperatively important bill?
This,
of course, is not a rhetorical question. When urgently-needed change
refuses to come about in spite of wide-spread public support, one can
often expect the culprit to be a powerful lobby of self-interested
individuals whose agenda is not consistent with the welfare of the
general public. This is precisely the phenomenon that is blocking Farm
Bill reform. Falling in line as yet another example of one of the most
tired cliches in American politics, the Farm Bill cannot stop bending
to the will of the powerful – in this case the large-agribusiness
lobby, which benefits from millions of dollars in gratuitous subsidies,
and millions more squeezed out through loopholes.
As 2007 drew
to a close, our own Sen. Lugar proposed a sensible plan for Farm Bill
reform – the FRESH amendment – which would have brought significant
positive change to the current state of affairs. The amendment failed
37-58. A much more modest attempt to reform the bill by placing subsidy
caps at $250,000 in order to prevent the aforesaid misuse of millions
of dollars likewise failed.
But there is still time for us to
affect change by making our collective voice too powerful to be
overshadowed by the agribusiness lobby. As the Farm Bill waits to be
discussed by a conference committee that will formulate its final
version in the coming weeks, we should all take a few minutes to learn
a little more about this bill and convey our opinions to our
legislators.
Isabel Estevez
