Deal "only slightly better," one corn group says
Key senators have a reached a deal that would make the revenue-protection program more attractive to corn growers than it was when emerged from the Senate Agriculture Committee as part of a $288 billion farm bill.
"It's slightly better but really not enough to probably make it a real attractive option for corn guys," said Ron Litterer, a Greene farmer who is president of the National Corn Growers Association.
Conventional programs provide subsidies when commodity prices drop below certain levels. Under the new program, which would be optional for farmers, payments would be triggered when revenue for a particular crop falls below a statewide average.
Litterer's organization has been the main force behind the average crop revenue program, which has run into fierce opposition from the crop insurance industry, which could lose some business if farmers elect the option. Other farm groups that favor conventional subsidy programs also have been reluctant to go along.
However, the revenue program actually reduces projected farm spending because of the way it is structured, senators say.
The Senate committee last week altered the program to make it less attractive to corn growers, mostly by striking provisions that would have reduced their insurance premiums, and more favorable to Plains states and the insurance business.
Under a deal struck late Wednesday, farmers who enroll in the program could receive a direct payment of $15 an acre on all of their land that has historically grown certain crops. The committee version would have limited the payments to 85 percent of that "base" crop acreage.
But instead of making still further revisions that corn growers wanted, the senators used $1.1 billion from the revenue program to increase emergency food assistance and loosen some eligibility rules for food stamps. The bill's backers are preparing for an attempt to reduce or phase out some of the conventional subsidies.
The chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin, said Thursday that he hoped to make further changes to the subsidy program to make it more palatable to corn growers. "We're still working on that," he said.
The Senate is expected to debate the farm bill next week.
A longtime critic of farm programs, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., has written colleagues to challenge the continuation of fixed annual payments, which total about $5 billion a year.
Iowa farmers and landowners receive nearly 10 percent of the payments. Half the Iowa payments go to about 10,000 recipients, representing about 13 percent of the total statewide, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group.
The payments, started in 1996, were supposed to be temporary and aren't justified when commodity prices are historically high, Lugar said.
