Page 62 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

“With planting decisions already being distorted by policies outside of the farm bill, it is even
more imperative that farm bill policy not further incentivize commodity production in certain
regions at the expense of others,” Cochran said.”

Little did anyone expect the role that Cochran would ultimately play in shaping the bill.

In the House, lawmakers had already been firing shots at the Senate version of the farm bill’s
commodity title. Rep. Mike Conaway, who chaired the House Agriculture Committee's
Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, described his concerns
with what he called the Senate bill’s lack of price protection at a hearing on May 17, 2012.

“The Senate bill also creates a complicated new program that is so lopsided it actually locks
in profits for some while denying any safety net at all to others,” he said in opening
remarks.

Rice and peanut farmers who testified that day said that crop insurance and the new shallow loss
or Agriculture Risk Coverage program were not enough.

Linda Raun, a Texas rice farmer who chaired the USA Rice Producers Group, said that, without
price protection, banks would not lend them money. "We've got to have a farm program that
allows us to become bankable." She also criticized the Senate version of the commodity title.
“The rice industry remains concerned that the policy needs of many crops in many regions of the
country were largely ignored in that (Senate) bill,” she noted in her testimony. “As you know,
farm bills tend to have regional differences due to the needs of different crops grown in diverse
regions.

“However, historically,
farm bills have been
developed that took into
account these differences
and provided a workable
policy for all crops and
regions. We are
discouraged to see a
change in this practice as
regards to the Senate
Agriculture Committee
bill.”

She also pushed back at
the regions supporting
the Senate package.

“Estimates show that Midwestern and Northern farmers will have an increasingly
disproportionate share of the baseline, and Sunbelt crops will be left with a further shrinking
baseline coupled with ineffective risk protection for many crops.”

60 www.Agri-Pulse.com