Farmers Union president urges quick action on farm bill
SAN ANTONIO — It is vital to finish the next farm bill in 2012, said National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson.
"There is a danger to leaving the farm bill until 2013 when there would be less money and less political pressure. We need the farm bill next year," Johnson said in his annual address to the Farmers Union convention here on Sunday night.
In a panel discussion today, Brandon Willis, deputy administrator for farm programs at USDA's Farm Service Agency, urged the delegates to ask themselves if the farm bill of today addresses the needs of today. If prices dip, Willis asked, would the program be adequate to keep farmers in business?
Willis, who previously worked for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said that a lot of the current discussion is about "tweaking programs" such as the average crop revenue election program known as ACRE or the permanent disaster program called SURE. The purppose of a farm bill, he noted, is address problems the market doesn't.
"If it addresses those, the public will understand," Willis told reporters. Farmers should ask themselves what worries them and why their children are leaving rural America. Issues should be identified before policy and programs are developed, he said.
Daryll Ray, the director of the agricultural policy analysis center at the University of Tennessee, said he considers the current farm program to be "totally upside down" because crop insurance protects profits when they are high, but would not provide protection if the prices go down.
Under the crop insurance program, insurable yields and prices would be recalculated if they go down.
"There is a danger to leaving the farm bill until 2013 when there would be less money and less political pressure. We need the farm bill next year," Johnson said in his annual address to the Farmers Union convention here on Sunday night.
In a panel discussion today, Brandon Willis, deputy administrator for farm programs at USDA's Farm Service Agency, urged the delegates to ask themselves if the farm bill of today addresses the needs of today. If prices dip, Willis asked, would the program be adequate to keep farmers in business?
Willis, who previously worked for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said that a lot of the current discussion is about "tweaking programs" such as the average crop revenue election program known as ACRE or the permanent disaster program called SURE. The purppose of a farm bill, he noted, is address problems the market doesn't.
"If it addresses those, the public will understand," Willis told reporters. Farmers should ask themselves what worries them and why their children are leaving rural America. Issues should be identified before policy and programs are developed, he said.
Daryll Ray, the director of the agricultural policy analysis center at the University of Tennessee, said he considers the current farm program to be "totally upside down" because crop insurance protects profits when they are high, but would not provide protection if the prices go down.
Under the crop insurance program, insurable yields and prices would be recalculated if they go down.
