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Wheat on the mall?It's strange, but I didn't think there were that many farmers in the District of Columbia. In fact, I didn't even know there was a farm in Washington, D.C. I thought it was more of a pavement and grassy mall type of place. But lo and behold, there were 276 sole proprietors that filed a Schedule F in 2004. (See table with Sara Wyant's AgriPulse column this week.) Just so you know, the District of Columbia is 61 square miles with about 9,400 people per square mile. It has got to be difficult to farm around all those people, don't you think? And the tourists--they certainly must cause soil compaction problems. By contrast, the entire state of Kansas has 32 people per square mile. The number of Schedule F filers was given as the USDA discusses their proposal to limit farm payments to those producers that exceed $200,000 in Adjusted Gross Income. Out of those farmers in Washington, 28.9 percent of them would exceed the $200,000 limit for income, according to the USDA. Apparently the drought didn't hit D.C. Payment limitations are likely to be one of the most hotly debated issues in the upcoming farm bill. The problem comes in differentiating between those who are true farmers and those who are simply looking for a tax write-off. So while only 2.3 percent of Kansas farmers would be affected by the payment limitation proposal, nearly one-third of those Washington farmers would be affected. Could it be that those D.C. farmers are "farming the farm bill" instead of the land? Holly Martin can be reached by phone at 1-800-452-7171 ext. 1806 or e-mail at hmartin@hpj.com. B 4 2/19/07 6 Star Midwest Ag Date: 2/15/07
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