http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/14/MNIJ10M871.DTL&type=politics
House p***** farm bill by veto-proof margin
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Wa****ngton Bureau
Thursday, May 15, 2008
(05-15) 04:00 PDT Wa****ngton - -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi marshaled a
318-vote, veto-proof majority to pass a $290 billion farm bill that will
lock in the nation's food policy for five years while granting $3 billion
in
first-ever money to sup****t California fruits and vegetables.
The bill, expected to pass the Senate today, also by a veto-proof margin,
includes as much as $40 billion in subsidies to commodity farmers who
already enjoy record prices. It also contains a new $3.8 billion
"permanent
disaster" program that will create powerful incentives to plow millions of
acres of prairie grasslands, which could release tons of harmful carbon
into
the atmosphere.
The bill also will raise spending on food stamps, food banks and other aid
to the needy by $10.4 billion, drawing votes from urban Democrats openly
skeptical of raising subsidies to wealthy grain farmers during a global
food
crisis.
The overwhelming House vote quashed hopes by food, conservation and
taxpayer
groups that the Democratic-led Congress would seize a period of record
farm
prosperity to ****ft U.S. food policy from a 1930s model that subsidizes
industrial food production to a modernized approach that could aid more
farmers and address new public health and environmental goals.
'The right direction'
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, called the bill a "very big step in the
right direction," pointing to the food and conservation spending bundled
with the commodity subsidies to ensure passage.
A farm couple will be allowed to earn up to $2.5 million a year before
government payments are cut off under new rules that lawmakers called a
major reform. An urban couple applying for food stamps is cut off at
$17,808
in income and may own only one car.
Democrats also expanded subsidies to new crops and raised subsidy levels,
exposing taxpayers to billions more in costs should commodity prices
retreat. The payments go to a minority of farmers of a few crops and are
highly concentrated among the biggest operations. Nine of every 10 farmers
in California do not get crop subsidies.
Asked how she could justify paying so much money to wealthy farmers when
food prices are rising and Democrats are calling for change in Wa****ngton,
Pelosi listed the bill's nutrition and conservation spending.
"I justify it by saying this is the best farm bill I've ever voted on,"
Pelosi said. "It is probably the last farm bill that will look like this."
Every Bay Area Democrat voted for the bill but one: liberal East Bay Rep.
Pete Stark.
"It is a rare day indeed that I agree with President Bush," Stark said,
"but
he is absolutely right to have issued a veto threat of this bill."
The legislation is loaded with special-interest earmarks. California
salmon
fishermen get a $170 million bailout added by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St.
Helena. Kentucky thoroughbred racehorse owners get a $126 million tax
write-off. The bill will force the federal government to sell parts of the
Green Mountain National Forest to a Vermont ski resort.
The earmarks swamp the new $105 million allotted to organic farming over
five years and other aid sought by Bay Area groups promoting sustainable
agriculture. The $3 billion in research and marketing for fruits and
vegetables is a tenth of what will go out in direct payments for wheat,
corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and other commodity crops.
Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers, representing California produce
growers, was grateful that Congress for the first time included fruits,
nuts
and vegetables in a farm bill. He said he did not want produce growers to
get in a fight with subsidized grain farmers because "we were going to
lose
that battle."
President's criticism
The vote was more than enough to override Bush's promised veto, which will
be the first of a farm bill since Dwight Eisenhower's in 1956. Bush
criticized the payouts to wealthy farmers when consumers are paying higher
food prices.
Many food and environmental groups were dismayed by the direction of the
bill but sup****ted it anyway because it included money for their
priorities.
Others said the subsidies have so many negative effects that they would
rather have no change than this one.
"We oppose committing the federal government to another five years of
subsidizing the destruction of family farming," said Chuck Hassebrook,
executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska.
Hassebrook said the subsidies help large farms buy out their smaller
neighbors, speeding consolidation into giant farm operations, a claim
backed
by government economists. He said his group could find just five farms in
seven states that would see a reduction in payments under the bill's
reforms.
"Nancy Pelosi is the 15th-richest member of Congress," Hassebrook said.
"But
when we looked at her financial disclosure statements, it was clear that
she
would be eligible for farm payments under this bill, because the
income-producing assets are in the name of her husband."
The National Wildlife Federation, which had sup****ted the bill because it
increased conservation funding, urged its defeat after seeing changes to
grassland and wetland protections that were made behind closed doors.
"What has come out ... is entirely unacceptable from a climate change and
a
wildlife standpoint," said Julie Sibbing, legislative counsel for the
group.
"We think we have created a perfect storm for both carbon releases and
destruction of our last remaining prairie habitat."
The bill would allow farmers to break virgin prairie and still collect
subsidies and crop insurance. It also includes a $3.8 billion permanent
disaster program that will bail out farmers plowing marginal land.
As it is, high wheat prices are speeding the removal of millions of acres
of
prairie from protection under the Conservation Reserve Program. Taxpayers
have spent billions over the years in rental payments to farmers to let
marginal land lie fallow and provide wildlife habitat and watershed
protections.
"It doesn't matter how marginal the land you bring into production, you
will
be insured that you will not lose money," Sibbing said. In the Great
Plains
alone, she said, every newly plowed acre will release between 45 and 54
tons
of carbon dioxide stored in the ground as decayed plant material.
The bill is expected to sail through the Senate today with sup****t from
both
Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham
Clinton. Republican Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, opposes
it.
Farm subsidies and crop prices
Commodity farmers with net incomes under $2.5 million will qualify for
huge
subsidies despite soaring prices for their crops since July, when Congress
took up the farm bill that was finally passed by the House on Wednesday.
Net
farm income will hit a record $97 billion this year. The price increases:
Wheat: 126 percent
Soybeans: 57 percent
Corn: 45 percent
Cotton: 32 percent
Rice: 31 percent
Source: Chronicle research
E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at clochhead AT sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/15/MNIJ10M871.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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