Obama administration drops effort to end subsidies to large farms

[highplainsdem]

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1263006442935.xml

1/08/2010, 8:55 PM CST

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to end subsidies to big farms by supporting a cap of $250,000 that has no loopholes.

A prominent part of his rural policy said: "Obama will take immediate action to close loopholes by proposing regulations to limit payments to active farmers who work the land, plus landlords who rent to active farmers. Both the Government Accountability Office and the Payment Limitation Commission have called for closing this loophole. Every president since Ronald Reagan has had the authority to close this loophole without additional action by Congress, but has failed to act."

This week, according to activists who want tougher limits, Barack Obama joined that long list of presidents who have failed to act.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged to end subsidies to big farms by supporting a cap of $250,000 that has no loopholes.

A prominent part of his rural policy said: "Obama will take immediate action to close loopholes by proposing regulations to limit payments to active farmers who work the land, plus landlords who rent to active farmers. Both the Government Accountability Office and the Payment Limitation Commission have called for closing this loophole. Every president since Ronald Reagan has had the authority to close this loophole without additional action by Congress, but has failed to act."

This week, according to activists who want tougher limits, Barack Obama joined that long list of presidents who have failed to act.

"It's a huge disappointment," said Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Nebraska. "This was the centerpiece of candidate Barack Obama's policy."

On Thursday the USDA published rules on what it means to be "actively engaged in farming," which is one of the requirements to receive farm program payments. According to the critics, they remain weak.

-snip-

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. The big farm lobby made a large donation to the Obama '12 campaign

And as a resident of a state where agriculture is the #1 industry, may I say that I am sick to death of wealthy corporate farmers?

[sandnsea]

2. Congress didn't approve the changes

The budget outlines approved by the House and Senate on Thursday night do not include limits on farm subsidies at all, and even champions of change say that if the president’s plan can be revived, it will have to be scaled back so significantly that the savings could amount to just several hundred million dollars.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/us/politics/04farm.html

[highplainsdem]

3. National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition: "Obama Administration Caves on Agriculture Reform"

http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/obama-administration-caves-on-agriculture-reform/

After nearly a full year of a two-faced agenda for agriculture — on the one hand, support for the development of local, regional, and sustainable and organic food systems and on the other, support for a big-ag, biotech export-oriented agriculture — the Obama Administration delivered its verdict today on farm subsidy reform: megafarms win and family farmers lose.

In tomorrow’s Federal Register, USDA will publish final regulations concerning the limits on farm subsidy payments and the “actively engaged in farming” rules that determine who is eligible for subsidies. The final rule is available on the Public Inspection List today.

The verdict betrays President Obama’s number-one agriculture campaign pledge and keeps intact the farm subsidy loopholes that allow mega farms to get around the limits established by the 2008 Farm Bill by subdividing their operations into multiple paper corporations. The existence of this loophole has allowed hundreds of thousands and even millions of taxpayer dollars to go to single farming operations, underwriting the growth in farm size, the demise of mid-scale family farms, and the subsequent decline of rural communities, while driving up land values that make it difficult for a new generation of farmers to buy land.

One of the strongest steps that the Obama Administration could have taken to reform agriculture and farm subsidies would have been to make good on the campaign promise and close the “active management” loophole. Both the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the USDA Commission on the Application of Payment Limitations for Agriculture named the “actively engaged in farming” rules and more specifically the “active management” loophole as a key feature of current policy that leads to frequent abuse and weakens the integrity of the programs. In addition, GAO identified and illustrated associated schemes and devices used by unscrupulous subsidy beneficiaries to channel government payments through non-farming entities back to themselves. All of this is left intact by the new final rule.

-snip-

A fulfillment of the campaign promise and a solid step forward on agriculture reform would have been to “limit payments to active farmers who work the land, plus landlords who rent to active farmers” — a statement taken directly from Obama’s campaign platform. Instead, the Administration has decided to continue to allow large landowners to reap otherwise illegally large six and seven figure annual payments by creating “paper farms” and ficticious farmers through which to funnel additional payments. By another name it is government-sanctioned and taxpayer-financed fraud.

[LaPera]

4. Our tax dollars going to rich powerful corporations....As they fight health care

for all with our taxes.

[Hardrada]

5. Wonder what part Ag Secretary Tom Vilsuck has in all this,

corporate shill that he is.

[monmouth]

6. Michelle Bachman receives big money from them....n/t

[SpiralHawk]

7. "Smirk." - Republicon Welfare Queen Michelle Bachman (R)

"We don't call it welfare if it's a government handout to wealthy republicons like me. It's just bidness as usual. So you pathetic poor homeless proles in the soup kitchen line can just STFU. Smirk."

- Republicon Welfare Queen Michelle Bachman (R)

[glitch]

8. Large Farms euphemistic term for Industrial Agriculture? nt

[hfojvt]

9. kick - this needs to be news if we want to reverse it n/t

[Subdivisions]

10. Could someone please explain how this whole subsidy thing works?

Thanks in advance.