COVER

BY CATHARINE RICHERT

OR MOST of the past seven

of the subsidies and protections that

will be handed out this time around.
In fact, the biggest meeting room on
Capitol Hill might not hold all the interests involved.
"The farm bill is wide open," said Bob
Ehart, who coordinates animal and plant
health initiatives for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. "The time is ripe for a lot more people to have a hand in it and to really shake
things up."
What has drawn all these interests?
Farming has transformed dramatically
over the years. A much broader food
market, partly driven by international
competition, has combined with a wider

STORY==p--

the 2007 farm bill debate by introducing

a bill that embodied their aims. The EAT
Healthy America Act unites, for the first
time, the traditionally divided fruit and
vegetable growers and asks Congress for
some of the billions of scarce taxpayer
dollars that have traditionally gone to
producers of the big row crops, plus cotton and dairy farmers and in more recent
times to conservation.
"We want a bill that looks at all of
agriculture, not one that just focuses on
the commodities," said Robert Guenther,
spokesman for the Specialty Crop Farm
Bill Alliance.
The early pitch from specialty growers
represents the clearly changing dynamic
in farm policy. And if these
diverse parties get even part
of what they want, they will
establish themselves as serious players who may ultimately redefine American
farm policy. Just as important,
their presence in this year's
debate shows that the once
rock-solid farm lobby is vulnerable.

decades, U.S. farm policy has

been the product ofhomespun
negotiations among members
of the two congressional Agriculture
committees and a small contingent of
lobbyists for big commodities such as
corn, wheat, cotton, soybeans and rice.
Every five or six years, the groups engaged
in a give-and-take, making tough tradeoffs and developing trust as they divvied
up billions of dollars in government price
supports, marketing loans, deficiency
payments, producer credits and other
complicated benefits few outside the
room understood.
"We called it the old iron
triangle," said Charles W.
Stenholm, a Texas Democrat
and cotton farmer who served
on the House Agriculture
Committee for the quartercentury he was in Congress.
"We'd all just sit down and
work something out."
Change has come slowly.
Conservation and environmental groups began taking
A GLOBAL VIEW
an active interest in agriculPressure for changes in
ture policy in the mid-1980s
SPECIALTY INTERESTS: Fruit and vegetable growers lined up
and were in the thick of the
farm programs has mounted
supporters last year for their plan to get a piece of the farm bill.
since the last bill was written.
negotiations the last time
Congress passed a farm bill,
When lawmakers began disin 2002.
concept of food and fiber policy to raise cussing a new farm bill in 2006, their
Arguing that corn wasn't just food the stakes and open the door to a new deliberations were shaped by high prices
anymore, they won financial incentives order.
for gasoline and natural gas, a widening
for the ethanol and biofuel industries.
budget
deficit and international trade
Stenholm, who left Congress after
They also established programs to pro- 2004 and now lobbies for some fruit and disputes. Now is a perfect time for parmote soil, water and wildlife habitat vegetable growers, says he may be nostal- ticipants with new ideas on how to solve
improvements on farmland.
gic for the heyday of the old iron triangle, these problems to gain clout, say lobbyThat was just the appetizer, though. but it's time for a variety of voices in the ists and other farm industry advocates.
Later this year, lawmakers will sit down debate.
Although these newcomers appear to
and write the next installment of this
have
divergent agendas, many are focus"They're doing what I've always told
sweeping measure that will reauthorize them to do: Step up to the table and put ing on one thing: the equity and ecoagriculture programs ranging from crop your two bits in," Stenholm said. "Will nomic practicality of thousands of dolsubsidies to conservation incentives and this make writing the farm bill more chal- lars in annual subsidies that many
cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year lenging? Sure."
farmers get from the government.
over the next five years or so.
As U.S. agriculture has become
Nowhere is that more clear than in
When they do, the old-line farm the case of a new coalition of specialty- increasingly entwined with global trade,
lobby will be joined by fruit and veg- food producers encompassing fruit, veg- international partners have criticized
etable growers, winemakers, veterinary etable and nut growers and winemakers. these subsidies for keeping foreign prodrug companies and even anti-hunger Last fall, they and their allies on Capitol ducers - particularly those in developing
groups, who have all spent the past five Hill - many of whom also are newcom- countries - from selling their crops in
years preparing their cases to snag some ers to agriculture policy - got a jump on the United States. Global trade talks

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I JANUARY 8.

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I CQ WEEKLY

115

stalled last summer as a result of disputes

fruit and vegetable growers, could stake their

claim permanently to a significant ch unk of
money in the form of research grants and
mandatory government purchases.

I between industrialized and poor nations over

subsidies and tariffs.
Paring subsidies would appeal to freetraders and anti-poverty groups, such as
I Oxfam America, which contend that government benefits to U.S. farmers hurt agricultural markets in Third World countries. Conservationists and alternative-fuel advocates would
be happy to see money now spent on subsidies
diverted to grants and contracts for research,
I programs that are considered fairer under
international trade standards. And subsidy
cuts would make it easier for the new Democratic Congress to adhere to its pledge to reduce
I the budget deficit.
And while nobody expects Congress to
eliminate farm subsidies, American farmers
may by the end of this year be faced with
reduced payments, new opportunities to
enroll their land in conservation programs
and incentives to grow biofuel crops. At the
I same time, new farming interests, like the

A SHRINKING PIE

Farm program spending topped $20 billion last year for the second year in a row.
Three-fourths of the money went to growers of
the five big row crops - corn, wheat, cotton,
rice and soybeans - plus dairy producers.
The amount spent annually on agriculture
programs has varied over the years as a result
of attempts by Congress to reduce subsidies.
Moreover, changes in the global marketplace
and vagaries of weather also push subsidy payments up and down, since most payments are
closely tied to how much the major commodities bring in when they're sold.
When Congress passed the first farm bill, in
1933, then known as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, lawmakers were mostly concerned
with avoiding surpluses and keeping crop

- - -- _:--======--=-=--:-=====1

A Subsidy in Every Pot

$30

I~ $32 . 3

Total Crop

25

bill ion

Farm program spending,

including that devoted to
major commod ities, conservation and export assistance,
exceeded $20 billion in the
last two fiscal years and is
foreca st to fal l this year to
about $16 billion. Most goes
to finance price- and incomesupport payments for corn ,
wh eat, cotton, soybean and
rice farmers.

20

prices above a government-set target. In more

recent times, the focus has also been on ensuring farmers a certain level of income.
In addition to underwriting loans that often
function to set a floor under crop prices, federal farm policy allows farmers to qualifY for
direct payments, intended as income supports,
that kick in when crop prices drop below a
government-set threshold. Beyond payments
to major commodity producers, the farm bill
is also a main source of money for conservation, rural development, grant and nutrition
programs administered by the Agriculture
Department.
In 1996, encouraged by a decline in farm
spending, Congress decided to curtail the New
Deal-era approach to price supports and move
farmers toward a more market-based system.
That law, which was enthusiastically named
the Freedom to Farm Act, in the end actually
resulted in an increase in spending. When
world crop prices fell in the late 1990s, lawmakers reverted to old form and passed several multibillion-dollar emergency funding packages to keep farmers from going out of
business. By 2000, the cost of farm programs
had surged to $32.3 billion.
And the farm bill enacted in 2002, entitled
the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act,
reinstated the traditional structure of price
and income support payments.
Farm industry advocates and lawmakers alike
expect that the amount of money that will be
available for agriculture through the next farm
bill will be relatively static. Democratic promises of fiscal restraint, plus the cost of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, will give little or no room
for additional spending. And if lawmakers get
serious about paring the budget deficit, the farm
bill pie might actually shrink.

15

WHEAT

CORN

~ $12.3 billion
10
$5.3 billion

Ill

1978

'85

'90

I
'95

, . 1111111._,1111.111111 ,
'00

'05

2006-'01 figures are estimates

SOURCE: Agriculture Department

I
116

CQ WEEKLY

JANUARY 8. 2007

www.cq.com

1978

'85

'90

'95

'00

'05

1978

'85

'90

'95

'00

'05

COVER SJORY ..

A tighter budget, coupled with proposals for

new spending from specialty-crop groups and
other new pleaders, is likely to pack a one-two
punch against the major commodity growers.
For example, if Congress decides to accept the
proposal from the specialty-crop growers - a
plan that would spend more than $1 billion a
year for research and marketing grants and
would require the government to purchase
more fruits and vegetables for school lunches
- it is likely to come at the expense of the subsidies that have been the bread and butter of
the commodity-crop industry for decades.
The debate will be complicated by a commitment from the Bush administration to reduce
subsidies as part of global trade negotiations. In
2006, the White House proposed major cuts in
U.S. subsidies in exchange for reduced tariffs
abroad on U.S. food exports. European Union
members and some developing countries rejected the Bush plan, and the talks fell apart as a
result. But the administration and other countries have said they want to continue pursuing
the goal oflower agriculture subsidies.
Land conservation groups pose their own
threat to commodities producers. Tom Harkin,
the Iowa Democrat who is now chairman of
the Senate Agriculture Committee, has long
been a proponent of conservation incentives
and vows to expand those programs in 2007.
On the other hand, spending on subsidies
for major grain crops might shrink even without Congress intending it to. Prices are rising
for some crops, particularly corn and soybeans,
which are in high demand for use in production of ethanol and other biofuels. And since
subsidies fall when crop prices increase, Congress may fmd that even retaining existing programs for another five years will cost less.
Commodity-crop growers are hoping non-

COTTON

MORE ETHANOL: Jon Doggett, right, of the Corn Growers wants changes in farm law to help his members.

traditional farm interests will pressure Congress just as much for a larger budget.
"If these new guys want a piece of the pie,
they need to roll up their sleeves and bake a
piece of the pie," said Jon Doggett, vice president of public policy for the National Corn
Growers Association. "They need to be involved
in these budget discussions, too. You can't just
take money away from someone else."
NON-TRADITIONAL INTERESTS

One of the more aggressive attacks on traditional farm programs this year is coming
from American Farmland Trust, a 26-year-old
organization that works to preserve farm and
grazing lands and protect rural communities.
The Farmland Trust has been active in con-

SOYBEANS

servation efforts for more than a decade, but

this year it is allied with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and
other groups to promote public health issues
- including an expansion of nutrition programs - as part of the farm bill.
A couple of years ago, as staff members at
the Farmland Trust were laying out their plan
for the next farm bill, they made a list of organizations that had a stake in the outcome and
might support the trust's aims but just didn't
know it yet. Some of the most surprising
groups on the list, said Jimmy Daukas, director of farm policy for the trust, were involved
in health issues.
"For the first time, people are approaching
this from a public health point of view," he

RICE

$4.2 billion

....11.111.1 .111 . 11111.111

1978

'85

'90

'95

'00

'05

$3.4 billion

~ ---'r -

1978

'85

'90

$1.8 bi llion

.. 111.....
'95

'00

'05

--11111 ...
1978

'85

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'90

'95

'00

JANUARY 8. 2007

'05

CQ WEEKLY

117

Crop of Proposals
To Fill Out the Farm Bill
New groups want to be part of this year's farm bill, and they are vying in some cases
to supplant traditional commodity organizations and take away a piece of their subsidy pie. In other cases, newcomers are attempting to broaden the debate to include
subjects not previously covered by agriculture policy.

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION: This group, along with other public healthoriented advocates, is primarily interested in enhancing the school lunch, food
stamp and other nutrition programs authorized by the farm bill.
Hill allies: These groups have a vast network on the Hill. In addition to
Schumer and Harkin, Rosa Delaura, D-Conn., the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee chairman, has backed health and nutrition issues. The
heart association is also allied with the conservationists and rural preserva tionists, including the American Farmland Trust.

SPECIALTY CROP FARM BILL ALLIANCE: These fruit, nut, vegetable and wine
producers are asking Congress for a multibillion-dollar package of conservation improvements and grants for states to spend on marketing and research
projects that serve lo.cal growers. The proposed EAT Healthy America Act
would mandate increased federal government purchases of fruits and vegetables for school lunches.
Hill allies: This group is aided by a wide, bipartisan net of supporters, including Reps.
Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., Adam H. Putnam, R-Fia., and John Salazar, D-Colo., whose
districts boast major fruit and vegetable markets. They will probably attract conservationists, such as Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and nutrition advocates, such as Senate
Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-lowa, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N:V. But
Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., House Agriculture Committee chairman, is not a fan of
the group's block grant proposal.
AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST: The trust and similar groups want more money
fo r conservation, and in particular want changes in the Conservation Reserve
Program, which pays farmers to retire farmland . The groups say not enough
environmentally sensitive land is enrolled in the program.
Hill allies: Since the conservation title was added to the Farm Bill in 1985,
environmentalists and land conservationists have played an increasingly bigger role. They have longtime supporters on Capitol Hill, including the committee chairmen in both chambers. This year will also harness help from those
who favor the specialty-crop grower plan.

RENEWABLE FUELS ASSOCIATION: Alternative energy advocates say they want

to boost research grants and government procurement mandates. There is
some talk of adding an alternative fuels tax credit to the farm bill.
Hill allies: Like the conservationists, energy advocates have been weighing in

THE 'OLD IRON TRIANGLE'

A handful of major commodity trade groups have for
decades shaped farm bills. Membership in each group
overlaps with the American Farm Bureau Federation
and the National Farmers Union. Dairy and livestock
producers also are members of these organizations
and have had a significant stake in farm policy
debates.
THENATIONAL CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION: Corn
farmers want to break new ground this year by preserving some direct payments to farmers and
revamping some loan payments to tie them more
closely to a farmer's yearly revenue. The group con-

tends that this approach would be more compliant

with world trade rules, though critics, including Peterson, say the plan is simply a way for corn growers "to
protect how much they're already getting." Corn farmers also will support expanding ethanol production.
Hill allies: Few lawmakers besides Peterson have
commented on the corn growers' proposal. But the
industry has a strong relationship with Midwestern
lawmakers on both Agriculture committees, including
Harkin and Grassley. They also expect help from new
Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill, from the corngrowing state of Missouri, and Sherrod Brown, from
Ohio, who says he wants to protect the livelihoods of

said. "They are completely new players."

In particular, the American Cancer Society
and the American Heart Association are two of
the more prominent groups backing the Farmland Trust's push to increase spending on
nutrition and health, Daukas said. They want
more healthful foods in schools, and they support programs that bring fresh fruits and vegetables to inner cities.
Similarly, a new alliance is forming between
livestock producers and food processors, both
of which worry that corn ethanol research
grants and government procurement man-

dates in the 2002 farm bill have caused corn

prices to skyrocket. They have said they'll join
forces to keep provisions that favor the ethanol
industry our of the next bill.
And an existing alliance among Ducks
Unlimited and other hunting and fishing
groups and environmental organizations such
as the Nature Conservancy is stepping up its
effort to get more farmland enrolled in Agriculture Department conservation programs.
Most non-traditional associations planning lobbying assaults on the farm bill
bemoan that federal policy has been decided

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farmers and generally opposes free trade.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WHEAT GROWERS: Incentives in the last farm bill enticed some one-time wheat
producers to the more lucrative corn-farming market.
The shift has been compounded by severe whether in
some wheat-producing states that ruined entire harvests, leading to high U.S. prices and increased
imports. As a result. wheat producers are asking Congress to revamp loan programs to take into account
major crop losses and to reset prices used to trigger
income-support payments that kick in when crop
prices fall.

for decades by a few narrowly drawn interest

groups. Agriculture policy that undergoes
fundamental change only once every five or
six years has broad implications for the economy and health as well, so building coalitions
among newcomers is a big part of the strategy of the Farmland Trust and others to shift
the debate.
"By getting new players involved, you change
the political dynamics," Daukas said. "It helps
to reshape the political coalitions."
Well-established organizations like the
American Heart Association and Ducks

on the farm bill for over a decade. In the past five years, they've garnered the
support of lawmakers who want to tackle high energy prices, reduce America's
reliance on foreign oil, and open new markets to farmers. Corn and cellulosic
ethanol producers have found powerful friends in Harkin and Peterson, as well
as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who says advancing alternative energy is a top priority for the Democratic Congress.
OXFAM AMERICA: This anti-hunger organization is hoping that Congress will
restructure farm subsidies that are regarded as distorting to international trade,
particularly those that critics say encourage overproduction of U.S. crops. They
argue that surplus crops are "dumped" in developing countries, impeding growth
of new agricultural markets and depressing world prices.
Hill allies: Oxfam America has supported a campaign led by Sens. Charles E.
Grassley, R-lowa, and Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., to cap direct payments to farmers in an effort to wean them off subsidies. In the House, Oxfam is counting on
Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., and Donald M.
Payne, D-N.J.
AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION: U.S. truckers want to use the farm bill to
create a trust fund for rural road maintenance and tax credits to finance security upgrades for trucks and
trucking facilities.
Hill allies: This group is still looking for supporters on the Agriculture committees, but it's hoping
Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and
Cardoza will back the association 's proposal. Those lawmakers
won an exemption in last year's
highway reauthorization bill that
allows trucks carrying crops to

Hill allies: Wheat growers will benefit from longstanding relationships with Midwestern and Great
Plains lawmakers, including Roberts.
THE NATIONAL COTTON COUNCIL OF AMERICA: Aworld
trade panel decided in 2005 that a component of the
U.S. cotton program, which paid millers and exporters to
buymore expensive U.S. cotton, violated trade rules.
Growers expect changes to their subsidy program to
respond to the ruling, but they're hoping Congress goes
no further. Mostly they want to preserve the status quo.
Hill allies: Cotton producers have widespread support from Southern lawmakers, particularly Chambliss

Unlimited, with which land conservationists

have aligned during previous farm bill negotiations, have clout on Capitol Hill. Their "political muscle" will broaden the number of lawmakers who want a more progressive measure,
Daukas said.
New players are banking on h elp from
unlikely alliances in Congress, too. When it
comes to cellulosic ethanol, a fuel made from
grasses and trees that can be grown in most
parts of the United States, the alternative-fuels
industry has recendy found support in unusual places, said Samantha Slater, director of con-

drive longer hours so produce will make it to destinations without spoiling.

HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES: For this animal-rights group, the
farm bill will be a vehicle to clean up some unfinished business from the 109th
Congress. Among a slew of
priorities, the Humane
Society wants to amend an
Agriculture rule on humane
livestock slaughter to
include poultry and to regulate Internet puppy purveyors under the Animal
Welfare Act. The group also
is proposing to add an animal welfare title to the
farm bill, which many say
would alter the intent of the law significantly.
Hill allies: hi 2007, The Humane Society will rely on the same cast of characters
that supported its initiatives last year. In the House, that includes Blumenauer,
Roscoe G. Bartlett, R-Md., Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., Edward Whitfield, R-Ky., and
John M. Spratt Jr., D-S.C. In the Senate, Richard J. Durbin, D-111., Barbara Boxer,
D-Calif., John Ensign, R-Nev., and Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., will probably be among
the Humane Society's supporters.
VACCINE MAKERS: Several drug companies that make vaccines to keep poultry
free of avian flu and diagnostic tools to test livestock for animal diseases are
hoping the government will agree to buy a stockpile of those materials.
Hill allies: Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., have said
they may back such a plan this year. Meanwhile, vaccine makers say they see a
potential ally in Harkin, who led a crusade in the 109th Congress to prepare the
United States against an avian flu outbreak.

and Thad Cochran, R-Miss. Chambliss has said he

does not believe additional changes are needed in the
cotton program and that the growers in his state can
expect that it will remain relatively unchanged.
THE AMERICAN SOYBEAN ASSOCIATION: Like the corn
growers, soy producers are eager to expand biofuel
production, but oppose shifting money away from crop
subsidies to pay for it.
Hill allies: Like corn, soy is grown in much of the Midwest. but the crop is also grown in some Southern
states, such as North Carolina and Mississippi. Soy
growers can expect help from Southern lawmakers as

gressional and regulatory affairs at the Renewable Fuels Association.

"You don't just see Midwest members on
board anymore," she said. ''Now we've got interest from California, from Georgia, from North
Carolina and Washington state.John Deere has
even started making machines over the past
couple of years to process the feedstock. We're
bringing a wide community into the mix."
Congressional redistricting and a continued population shift into urban and suburban
communities are also increasing the clout of
non-traditional farming groups.

well as Harkin and Peterson, whose home states plant

thousands of acres of soybeans.
THE USA RICE FEDERATION AND USA RICE PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION: Rice growers also want to maintain the
status quo. They say their safety net of direct payments
and loans is necessary to keep rice producers in business, especially after prices fell last September.
Hill allies: Because rice is primarily a Southern crop,
growers can look for support from Southern lawmakers on both committees, including Cochran in the Senate and K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, in the House.
-

CATHARINE RICHERT

The number of rural House districts began to

decline in the 1960s. And by 2005, only 61 of the
435 seats - 14 percent - met the definition of
rural, down from 42 percent four decades ago.
Typically, urban and suburban voters care more
about conservation and nutrition and show
less interest in ordinary farm policy, said Brent
Garris, a farm lobbyist with the Washington
law firm of Olsson, Frank and Weeda
"Traditionally, the hardest job on selling a
farm bill to urban members is convincing them
th at t he bill supports their constituents
through nutrition programs and providing
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the most affordable food supply in the world," said Gattis,

who was a longtime Republican aide on the House Agriculture Committee.

Bureau members. "It causes

us to come together even
more," she said. "We're circling the wagons."
RESHAPING FARM POLICY

Most participants in the

Members of the old iron
deliberations this year say they
triangle agree that the presexpect the new players to
ence of groups like Oxfam
achieve some of their objectives,
America, the Heart. Associamost likely in the conservation,
tion and the Humane Society
energy and nutrition sections
of the United States, which is
that received spending increasworking with other animal
es in each of the last two farm
rights groups to improve conbills. That, in turn, will ensure
ditions for livestock, will pose
that they play a more prominew challenges in 2007.
nent role the next time farm
The farm lobby has never
policy is rewritten, in 2012.
faced this degree of competiLike many in the oldtion before.
school farm lobby, Maslyn
"Historically, we have not
attributes the clout of the new
had to fight activist groups WEIGHING CORN AND CONSERVATION: Senate Agriculture Chairman Harkin is a big
entrants to evolution, rather
from their ivory towers about supporter of his home state's growers, but he also wants to increase land conservation.
than an abrupt change in
defining what they think
farm politics. "People always
rural life should be about," Gattis said. The House Energy and Commerce Chairman John say the next farm bill will be greener than the
farm lobby's biggest challenge will be to limit D. Dingell, D-Mich., will probably want to review last one, for example," he said. "It's always
the infighting and work cooperatively to make any farm bill provisions aimed at increasing alter- evolving."
sure farm policy remains relatively unchanged. native-fuel production. And a proposal from the
But the new players say some of the initiatives
Mark Maslyn, executive director ofpublic pol- American Trucking Association to fmance truck they are pushing, such as the Humane Society's
icy for the American Farm Bureau Federation, and facilities security upgrades and establish a goal to create a new title in the law dedicated to
downplays the concern and says com, wheat, trust fund for rural road maintenance may be animal welfare, would be bold departures from
cotton, rice and soy farmers and livestock pro- handed over to other panels.
current policy. Big victories by the new players in
ducers have a history of turning out a powerful
"We don't want the bill referred to other this year's farm bill and the next one, expected in
grass-roots effort when they need to. More than committees," said Mary Kay Thatcher, director 2013, threaten to derail the influence the tradiever, the Farm Bureau relied on its membership, of public policy with the Farm Bureau. Such tional farm lobby has long held in Washington,
, which extends beyond farmers to tracror makers, referrals might open the door to additional say lobbyists and industry members.
feedlot operators and food processors, to make provisions, delays and difficulties in moving
The new players also say they want more
its case during the 2007 negotiations.
than to just be involved in negotiations. Ultithe already massive measure, she said.
"We'll be working hard to keep our memDespite new pressures on the farm bill, most mately, their objective is to permanently
bership informed and active on this issue," participants are skeptical that farm subsidies reshape the debate about the nation's agriculMaslyn said. ''Agricultural producers have to will be cut entirely. The traditional farm lobby ture policies. Farming isn't just about acres of
realize that if they want a certain outcome, still has many friends on Capitol Hill. Many corn and soybeans anymore, they say. It's about
they have to engage their lawmakers." The new point to the history and alliances of the two human health, environmental stewardship,
players don't have as well-established a grass- men who will be in charge of writing the bill in land preservation, animal welfare, international
roots network, he said.
the Senate and House.
trade and energy conservation. The transforNevertheless, some groups new to the
Harkin hails from Iowa, where corn and mation is already happening, they say, and it
debate, such as Oxfam America, are taking soybeans rule. While he has pledged to expand will be hard for Congress to ignore it.
their cues from the traditional farm lobby. Last conservation and ethanol programs, it would
"A change is going on," Daukas said.
year, the anti-poverty group not only increased be political suicide for him to do so at the "Whether that sea change results in dramatiits staff in Washington but also installed field expense of his state's commodities growers.
cally different policies is the only question
organizers in rural communities. The idea is to
Minnesota Democrat Collin C. Peterson, the remaining for the 2007 farm bill. But that
rally farmers who have gotten little out of pre- new House Agriculture chairman, has a similar change is occurring and will occur, and if not
vious farm bills to press their lawmakers for a constituency. While he talks about improving in the 2007 farm bill, then in the next one."
change this year, said Gawain Kripke, senior the energy, nutrition and conservation titles of
policy adviser for Oxfam America.
the bill, he has said his primary goal is to keep FOR FURTHER READING: Fightovercorn
Another challenge identified by the big com- the ''best parts" of the 2002 measure.
ethano~ 2006 CQ Weekly, p. 2166; 2002 form law
modity growers is keeping the farm bill within
Regardless, Thatcher says competition from (PL 107-171 ), 2002 Almanac, p. 4-3; 1996 form
the jurisdiction of the Agriculture committees. non-traditional groups is good for Farm law (PL 104-127), 1996 Almanac, p. 3-15.
'C IR CLING THE WAGONS'

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I JANUARY

8, 2007

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