Farm Bill

Subsidy for Big Agriculture

USDA page http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdafarmbill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_bill list history - latest link is for 2002 bill ($190b over 10yrs)

• ah, here's the 2007 page
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_U.S._Farm_Bill

http://discoursedb.org/wiki/2007_U.S._Farm_Bill

HR2419

• One version of this legislation, the "Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007" was passed by the United States House Of Representatives on July 27, 2007.

• the US Senate version of the bill, called the "Food and Energy Security Act", was passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee on October 25, 2007 and later by the full Senate on December 14th, 2007.

  • Attempts to limit crop payments failed on the Senate floor as supporters failed to muster adequate support to cap total payments at $250,000 per farm or to end all payments to full- time farmers who make more than $750,000 a year. "We're going to leave the Senate chamber with a loophole that allows people to receive farm payments who haven't farmed in 20 years," said Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, a sponsor of one of the amendments.

• they haven't reconciled the 2 versions yet. There's some "deadline" this week (Fri Apr18)?

http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/farmbill/

http://farmbillprimer.typepad.com/

http://www.youcanhearmenow.com/?p=89

http://www.bread.org/take-action/recent-developments-on-seeds-of-change.html

mixing in Energy Policy? http://www.farmgate.uiuc.edu/archive/2007/05/is_the_farm_bil.html

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/13/debating_the_farm_bill.php

on the 2002 bill http://www.reason.com/blog/show/119794.html

an alternative: New Zealand approach