WASHINGTON — A food fight is brewing in the House.
Lawmakers are set to debate a farm bill Thursday that would cut subsidies to wealthy farmers, expand a healthful snack program to all 50 states, and make an unprecedented investment in fruits and vegetables. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has lauded it as a "first step toward reform" that would provide a safety net for farmers, promote conservation initiatives and encourage healthful eating.
But Pelosi and the Democratic-controlled committee that produced the bill are facing opposition from a bipartisan group of liberal Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans who see the legislation as a boondoggle with misplaced priorities. They point out that the bill would funnel multibillion-dollar subsidies to crops, including some like corn that are bringing record prices. And that farmers who earn as much as $1 million a year would still be able to collect subsidies, an income level five times higher than the Bush administration recommended.
This band of lawmakers, backed by a coalition of advocacy groups, is seeking to tip the bill's emphasis from crop subsidies to conservation and nutrition. And they are promising a fight.
"American agriculture cannot afford another status quo bill concentrating more resources in the hands of those who need it least," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).
The lawmakers introduced an amendment Tuesday that would redirect some $12 billion in crop subsidies and direct payments to farmers toward conservation, rural development and nutrition programs that fight obesity.
Rep. Ron Kind (R-Wis.), the amendment's lead sponsor, said the bill "virtually had no reforms" on crop subsidies. Kind pointed out that direct payments originally intended to be phased out would be increased from $40,000 to $60,000. "The loopholes are so large you can drive a combine through them," he said.
Kind, who raises corn and soybeans, has stressed the need to reduce subsidies for economic and health reasons. "How can we justify tens of billions of dollars going to these grain producers when they're getting near record prices?" he asked. He pointed out that the top 10% of eligible farmers get two-thirds of the subsidies and that most of those farmers live in congressional districts heavily represented on the agriculture committee.
