|
Trade distorting subsidies are a problem for any new farm bBy Doug Rich The Sustainable Agriculture Conference was held in Manhattan, Kan., February 16 to 17 and just like any other agriculture group meeting these days the 2007 farm bill topped the agenda. "The Well-Being of Rural Kansas: Healthy People, Healthy Environment, and Healthy Economies" was the theme for the annual conference. This group, made up primarily of small acreage farmers, has a more holistic view of farm legislation. Jim French, a Kansas farmer and lead organizer for Oxfam America, opened the conference with a look at farm bills past and present. French said the big challenge with creating any farm bill is to decrease trade distorting subsidies while increasing opportunities for farmers and rural communities. He used the Loan Deficiency Payment (LDP) as an example of a trade distorting element in the current farm bill. "When the price of a commodity goes below the loan rate, the taxpayers pay the difference between that price and the market price," French said. "Thus the farmer continues to produce the same amount or more of that commodity despite declining prices. This leads to surpluses which leads to dumping. This is trade distortion." French said not all subsidies are trade distorting. Subsidies are given for many purposes including conservation, commodity production, and nutrition programs. "The real problem is with commodity subsidies," French said. As for the recent USDA farm bill proposal, French said he was positive about the direction it was taking. "A lot of the arrows point in the right way with new and innovative thinking," French said. "We (Oxfam) definitely applaud that approach. In the details there are some areas that need to go further in some ways. We are really studying revenue assurance to see if it is really non trade-distorting." Oxfam does not endorse specific programs but they do think USDA is thinking in some new and creative ways and they encourage Congress to not just turn its back on the proposal and declare it dead on arrival, but study it carefully. Mark Muller with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy followed French on the program. Muller said his organization is pretty lukewarm about the USDA proposal. "Our biggest concern has been agricultural prices," Muller said. "They have been so low that they have pushed people off the land. We don't see the USDA proposal as doing all that much to address those issues." "We are hoping that this enormous new growth in biofuels is going to rearrange prices to the level that it will keep farmers on the land," Muller said. "But from what we have seen in past experiences, price hikes are usually temporary. They go up for a couple of years and then the industry finds a way to get them back down." French and Muller agreed that ethanol is the biggest driver in the rural economy right now. French said ethanol is a land mine full of positives and negatives. "In the short-term we in rural America cannot rule out the promise of ethanol," French said. "It provides some great opportunities for America's farmers right now. Groups like Oxfam and others want to use this moment to build toward a future that will provide long-lasting benefits for Kansas farmers, U.S. farmers, and the world's farmers." The Sustainable Agriculture Conference concluded with informational sessions on organic production, grass fed beef production, and farmers markets. The conference was sponsored by the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops, K-State Research and Extension, and the Kansas Rural Center. Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or e-mail at richhpj@aol.com. B 5 2/26/07 1 Star WK Date: 2/22/07
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2008. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
