Page 88 - Farm Bill Series_The 7 Things You Should Know

“You don’t have to tell too many people that farmers are less than 1 percent of the U.S.
population. And the other 99 percent of the population has their own ideas and voices,
too,” noted former National Corn Growers Association President Pam Johnson.

Still, some farm organization leaders were initially reluctant to
reach out to other interest groups as the debate started to heat
up on the last farm bill in early 2011. Whom could they trust?
Who would be with them throughout the long slog that would
become the 2014 farm bill?

“Early on, there was so much apathy about the last farm
bill because commodity prices were relatively high,” recalled
a farm organization leader who asked not to be identified. “And
they were reluctant to push back against Tea Party Republicans
who wanted to reform food stamps and split the bill.”

Historic coalitions frayed

Historically, farm groups have partnered with nutrition groups
to advance both the “farm” and the “food and nutrition”
portions of the farm bill – building on a partnership launched in
Former NCGA President and the early 1970s when Sens. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and George
Iowa Farmer Pam Johnson McGovern, D-S.D., formed a coalition that was mutually
beneficial to both urban and rural constituencies.

But that coalition had frayed as the farm bill debate was really heating up in 2012 – in part
because many lawmakers were singularly focused on reducing the massive federal debt.

For conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation, Taxpayers for Common Sense and the
Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the farm bill became a “poster child” for what they
viewed as wasteful federal spending. These groups understood that agriculture committee leaders
were likely to make big reforms by getting rid of so-called “direct” payments to farmers. But
they believed that since the bill was still projected to cost nearly $1 trillion, more reforms were
needed.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill several
lobbyists were already focused on
building coalitions that could
broaden their geographic and
political bases and push back attacks
that were coming from not only the
ultra-right conservative groups but
from ultra-left organizations like the
Environmental Working Group.

Some of these same folks had
watched in alarm as the Humane
Society of the U.S. (HSUS) had

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