Q: Are you still pushing for a payment cap on farm subsidy payments?
A: Most definitely. I’m concerned public support for a federal farm safety net will unravel by the time the next farm bill comes up for renewal unless Congress acts to limit the amount of money paid out to the biggest producers. A widely publicized report by a national conservation group recently documented the top 10 percent of farm program recipients took home 65 percent of all federal farm subsidies in 2002. The disparity illustrates how severely congressional intent has been bypassed over the years. The farm safety net was created to help small and mid-sized family farms stay afloat and maintain the economic vitality of Rural America. Without competition in food production, the food chain would become even more concentrated, turning farmers into low-wage laborers for corporations and leaving consumers at the mercy of corporate food giants. As it stands now, the farmer’s share of the consumer’s food dollar is dwindling to 20 cents on the dollar or less. According to the USDA, the farm value of groceries has hovered between 19.9 and 21 percent over the past three years.
Q: How does Iowa fare under the current system?
A: The USDA paid out $739.9 million in subsidies to 119,308 Iowa farmers last year. Iowa’s top farm payment recipient ranked 1,947th on the national list with $255,038 in farm payments in 2002. The top recipient nationwide, Riceland Foods in Arkansas, received a whopping $110 million from the federal treasury in 2002. Unlimited farm subsidies encourage growth and expansion by the biggest operators, pushing up the price of farmland and cash-rent rates. Right now we’re in a situation where the top 20 percent of the recipients nationally between 1995 and 2002 received 73 percent of the total payments, while the remaining 80 percent of the recipients received only 27 percent of the payments. In the last seven years, Iowa has received $10.2 billion, the most of any other state. Restricting what large corporate farms receive won’t hurt Iowa. If left as is, the distribution system that pays out the lion’s share of federal dollars to the largest and wealthiest farming units will spell the beginning of the end of the farm safety net. It’s time to enact legitimate, reasonable payment limits that plug the loopholes, tighten eligibility requirements and help those the farm program was created to help in the first place. The Senate last year adopted my amendment to limit farm payments during debate on the farm bill. But the amendment failed to receive approval by the House of Representatives. This fall, I’m pushing to include my payment cap amendment on the annual farm spending bill making its way through Congress.