Farm Subsidies

A curtain of smoke from burning rural fields settled over this Argentine capital Thursday, delaying flights, shutting roads and leaving residents coughing. The influx of smoke blown toward the capital by prevailing winds also reignited hard feelings between the government and the nation's powerful farming industry, which recently suspended a three-week strike against new taxes on grain exports.

With high food prices prompting grocery-store apologies to customers and raising fears of starvation in impoverished countries, Congress suddenly faces renewed pressure to cut subsidies to the wealthiest farmers and incentives for ethanol production. The American farmer, long an untouchable political icon, has even become something of a political embarrassment on Capitol Hill, with President Bush earlier this week demanding an end to crop subsidies for "multimillionaire farmers."

THE GOLDEN time at Windrose Farm comes just before sunset. The oak-covered hills behind us are illuminated with a golden light. No matter how long the day has been or how much work is still to be done, the farm is glowing with life. It is the perfect time to walk and observe spring. The longer we farm, the more we are affected by our location, soil and climate. Our choice of what to grow is more and more driven by our belief in terroir, the true nature of a place.

Married couples with joint incomes of up to $1.5 million from their farm operation could still qualify for crop subsidies under a five-year, $300-billion farm bill compromise that would boost the Agriculture Department's food and farm programs. Some farm couples with incomes totaling $2.5 million -- assuming $1 million is from other, nonfarm sources -- could also qualify.

After more than a year of wrangling over the farm bill, this is the best our tireless reformers in Congress could do to trim agricultural subsidies: Farm couples making more than $1.5 million a year will no longer receive taxpayer money. In other words, a historic opportunity to end this country's most wasteful and economically ruinous corporate welfare system has been lost. The House on Wednesday approved the five-year, $290-billion farm bill, and the Senate is expected to follow by Friday.

Lawmakers are beginning work on a new multibillion-dollar farm bill at odds with President Bush over whether big changes are needed. The two sides are far apart. Just how far, farmers saw for themselves during the American Farm Bureau Federation's recent meeting in Salt Lake City. "I think the bill could look a lot like what we have now. What I think we're going to end up doing, you could say, is extending the farm bill," Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.

In a potential windfall for California farmers, the Bush administration proposed a farm bill Wednesday that would boost spending for conservation, organic crops, and fruit and vegetable producers. The bill also would strip $1.5 billion in crop subsidies from the nation's wealthiest landowners over the next 10 years. The $87-billion bill, which would set U.S.

THINKING ABOUT HOW much money Congress is gearing up to waste in the next farm bill makes us yearn for some help from on high. Not from heaven, mind you, but Canada. The Bush administration last week unveiled its proposal for the 2007 farm bill, a blueprint spelling out U.S. agricultural subsidies and food stamp payments for the next five years.

Republican and Democratic congressional leaders rarely agree on a major issue. Yet both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) have gone on the record as opposing the current $25-billion farm subsidy system, which Congress is rewriting this month. Changing the system won't be easy.

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.