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New farm bill likely to be a budget and trade disaster
Parents know how often children confuse their wants with their needs. A child may hunger for a glitzy new bike, but if she already has one in perfect working order there is no need for a new bike to...
View ArticleThe farm bill: Where are we now?
The House and Senate Agricultural Committee Leadership–Frank Lucas (R-OK), Colin Petersen (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Pat Roberts (R-KS)–must be feeling a little like Oliver Hardy when he and...
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The grim reapers of crop insurance
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is often described as overstaffed and inefficiently structured for its mission, which is to deliver and monitor a variety of federal...
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Getting serious about reducing farm subsidies
If there were ever a time when the government should and could get out of the business of subsidizing relatively wealthy tax farmers at the expense of less wealthy taxpayers, that time is now. The need...
View ArticleThe 2012 farm bill: A wolf in sheep’s clothing
The American Boondoggle website exists for one reason — to let Americans know how their tax dollars are being used to prop up the well-off rather than support the needy. You wouldn’t know that by...
View ArticleWill the sky fall? What happens if there is no new farm bill by Oct. 1, 2012
The short answer: the sky won’t fall. The longer and more nuanced answer: Heck no, the sky won’t fall. To put pressure on the House Republican leadership, some farm lobby groups are arguing that the...
View ArticleRich farmers don’t need farm bill’s welfare
By most standards, farmers are rich. For a long time, the average family farm has enjoyed a higher income and has been six or seven times wealthier than the average American family. And the average...
View ArticleNo new farm bill: Is it really a national catastrophe?
The expiration of the provisions of the 2008 farm bill on September 30 would seem to be a national catastrophe, at least according to a broad coalition of U.S. farm groups, Senator Debbie Stabenow (the...
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Thanksgiving Feast: One Big Meal, Two Big Bills
Millions of Americans have plenty to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, including family nearby, a roof over their heads and a tableful of food. But that doesn’t mean Americans should have to purchase...
View ArticleCongress shouldn’t sneak farm bill into fiscal cliff deal
By Vince Smith and Scott Faber As Congress and the White House wrestle over how to come up with $4 trillion in spending cuts and tax increases, the last thing they need is a distracting and ill-timed...
View ArticleUS farm policy: We know where we have been, but do we know where we are going?
In the United States, the federal government has been involved with, and provided subsidies for, farmers and the agriculture sector since at least 1862, when the Morrell Act established the Land Grant...
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Sweets for the sweet? Get your extra costly candies for Valentine’s Day
Times change and not everything remains the same. Would that were true about the U.S. sugar program. Valentine’s Day is here again and every lover who buys his or her significant other a box of candy...
View ArticleMoving towards a more rational farm policy: A real opportunity for bipartisan...
A remarkable thing has happened on the way to a 2013 Farm Bill. Senator Harry Reid and Senator Debbie Stabenow, chair of the Senate Agricultural Committee, along with other Democrats on the committee,...
View ArticleIgnoring trade commitments and trade relations only hurts our credibility
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Hill. For many years, a persistent theme in House and Senate Agricultural Committee debates over farm policy has been “Give the farm lobbies the...
View Article‘The world’s most outdated law’: Why the next farm bill should be the last
Editor’s note: “‘The world’s most outdated law’: Why the next farm bill should be the last” by Daniel A. Sumner originally appeared in The Atlantic. Daniel A. Sumner is an adjunct scholar at the...
View ArticleIt’s time to ask farmers to pay more for crop insurance
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Roll Call. When somebody else pays for their drinks, most partygoers find they want and need more than a modest amount to drink because at an open...
View ArticleMore subsidies for prosperous farmers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that farm income in 2013 will be more than double what it was in 2009. The nation’s farmers are enjoying the benefits of high crop prices, massive crop...
View ArticleHow to get food aid right
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on CNN Global Public Square. Christopher B. Barrett is a professor at Cornell University and author of an American Enterprise Institute paper on US food...
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A new bait and switch farm bill
The Senate agriculture committee passed its version of the 2013 farm bill on May 14. Though sold as a deficit-reduction measure that maintains key supports for farmers, the bill’s numbers deserve a...
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Fake savings: The 2013 House farm bill
The House agriculture committee passed its version of the 2013 farm bill on May 15. Like the Senate agriculture committee, the House agriculture committee is selling its bill as a bipartisan...
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