|
Congress farm bill subsidizes big farms { April 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/29/MNV410DQ89.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/29/MNV410DQ89.DTL
New farm bill retains big crop subsidies
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
(04-30) 04:00 PDT Washington - --
Prominent Los Altos developer John Vidovich and various family members in the Sandridge Partnership of Sunnyvale were the nation's biggest recipients of automatic government payments to farmers last year, receiving more than $1 million, according to a new analysis of federal data by Environmental Working Group.
Known as direct payments, the subsidies go mainly to big farms growing a handful of crops. In the Sandridge case, that is mostly cotton, wheat and peanuts grown on farms controlled by the partnership in the Central Valley.
Vidovich did not return a call for comment.
More than $5 billion in direct payments are made each year to growers of corn, wheat, rice, cotton and a few other crops based on past production, regardless of market conditions or even whether the crops are still grown.
The payments are heavily weighted to the biggest producers, with the top 10 percent getting two-thirds of the subsidies.
Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, which opposes the subsidies, drew a contrast between the $1,064,134 payment to Sandridge Partners and the $600 economic stimulus payments now going out to taxpayers.
"Congress is about to be grotesquely generous to big, subsidized farms that are now enjoying unprecedented prosperity," Cook. said. The list of recipients for payments last year "makes clear the disturbing degree to which congressional leaders are catering to the powerful farm subsidy lobby at the expense of ordinary American taxpayers."
The payments will continue to go out automatically under a new $300 billion farm bill Congress has in the works, despite an 80 percent rise in grain prices over the past three years.
The sharp price increases have led to food riots in many poor countries and a 4.4 percent inflation rate in grocery aisles at home. Farm incomes have hit a record $84,000-a-year average.
President Bush issued a strongly worded warning to Congress Tuesday that he expects more reform in the farm bill, which promises to lock in the subsidies for five more years.
Bush blasted Congress for writing a "massive, bloated farm bill" that will do little to address rising food prices.
Congressional negotiators postponed for the second time a scheduled public meeting to move the legislation after months of delays.
Top House and Senate lawmakers have been struggling to preserve existing farm subsidies and add a big new one for crop disasters. They are simultaneously trying to satisfy demands for more spending on nutrition and conservation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was instrumental in efforts to preserve the subsidies when she pushed the legislation through the House last summer and has been closely involved in the negotiations.
She pushed for a large increase in food stamps, while trying to preserve subsidy payments as a way to protect newly elected Democrats from conservative Midwest farming districts.
Spokesman Drew Hammill said Pelosi is "very concerned about rising food prices and that is why the farm bill will contain more than $10 billion in new mandatory investment in nutrition and food stamps."
Hammill said Pelosi will continue to push for limiting payments to farmers earning more than $1 million a year, or $2 million for a couple.
Democrats are calculating that Bush would not veto a farm bill popular with farm-state Republicans in an election year, and that if he did, they could override him.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters that Bush added pressure on lawmakers to limit payments to wealthy landowners. So far, lawmakers have agreed to shave just 2 percent from direct payments.
They instead are looking to cut first-ever research and marketing money set aside for California fruit and vegetable growers, who do not receive crop subsidies.
This article appeared on page A - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle
|
|
