The federal Farm Bill leaves Mainers in the dust
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 15, 2007
An extremely expensive piece of legislation — one that dictates how much food costs, what kinds of food we’re more likely to eat, and the viability of farming in America — is currently winding its way through Congress. The Farm Bill, which carries a price tag of more than $280-billion to be spent over the next five years, piles hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies onto Midwestern and southeastern farmers, leaving Maine and other Northeastern states with the dregs at the bottom of the pork barrel — Maine ranks 43rd in the commodity-crop category of Farm Bill funding; all six New England states are in the bottom 10.Most farming subsidies — by far — go to states that grow the “big five” commodity crops — corn, cotton, rice, wheat, and soy — and to Congressional districts served by members of the House Agricultural Committee, which, not coincidentally, is made up primarily of farm-state representatives. (Neither Maine representative serves on that committee now, though John Baldacci did before he left the House to run for governor.) Maine gets such a small chunk of federal Farm Bill money for its crops — about $7 million — that its share registers as zero percent of all state allocations on the Web site of eco-watchdog Environmental Working Group. (We do get more money than that: our share of the Farm Bill’s allocations for food stamps, school nutrition, and food-bank aid get the total to just shy of a billion dollars over five years, or 0.35 percent of total Farm Bill spending.)
This state’s farmers don’t grow much of the big five commodities; Maine’s most lucrative agricultural earners are potatoes, blueberries, and dairy. Many of Maine’s 7196 farms grow food you’d see at a Saturday farmer’s market in Deering Oaks Park. All these types of small-to-medium, often family-run farms benefit from other money sources in the Farm Bill — such as cash set aside for “specialty crops” (basically anything other than the big five), organic farming, or for environmental stewardship and conservation. Compared with the rivers of money that go to the heavily-subsidized crops, these funds are a trickle. They don’t have to be.
When the Farm Bill came up for its every-five-year reauthorization in 2007, some politicians and policy makers saw an opportunity for much-needed reform of a system that funds big agribusiness farms at the drastic expense of smaller operations in other regions. It’s difficult for individual legislators to make an impact on sweeping legislation that stirs the regional-politics pot while it also addresses bipartisan, nationwide concerns like hunger and healthy foods in schools. But many people thought that 2002’s Farm Bill fiasco would make reform unavoidable this time around. In May 2002, Iowa Republican Charles Grassley was so disappointed with the amount of federal subsidies stuffed into that year’s bill that he told the Portland Press Herald: “This will make it so hard to win urban support in the future that this bill may very well be the last farm bill to grind its way through Washington.”
Related:
The gulf of Maine, A kick-start for conservation, Crackpot court, More 
- The gulf of Maine
With a massively unpopular Republican president leaving office, this year’s Senate election is a contest based on a candidate’s alignment with Bush.
- A kick-start for conservation
To make the most of huge chunks of incoming federal economic-stimulus cash (and to get their hands on more of it in the first place), the Maine Legislature has to ramp up its energy-efficiency planning — on the double.
- Crackpot court
This past week’s Supreme Court ruling, invalidating Washington, DC’s handgun ban, demonstrates just how far afield “movement conservatism” has taken our country.
- I've heard that story before
Each year, Governor John Baldacci announces his top priority in the next legislative session will be reducing the state income tax. (“Lack of political clout? What lack of political clout?”)
- D.C. wannabes
Already some candidates have come and gone, but the field remains wide open as candidates prepare for the June 2008 primaries.
- The constant fight for reproductive rights
One church in South Dakota held round-the-clock prayer vigils, asking God to keep that state’s toughest-ever law criminalizing abortions.
- 10. Detroit Auto Executives
Girls, it’s sort of like if your prom date showed up in a helicopter, handed you the bill, and then asked you to pay for dinner — every night for the next hundred million years. Sure, it was both hilarious and outrageous that these guys took private jets to Washington where they then requested auto bailout bucks, but then again, if we owned American cars, we wouldn’t take the chance of driving them that far either.
- Save it for the next one
If you had to come up with his name, you could always Google “governors, irrelevant.”
- Whole Foods health-care boycott gathers momentum
Unfortunately for Whole Foods Market CEO and founder John Mackey, those who appreciate his store for the healthy, eco-friendly (read: left-leaning, progressive) lifestyle it promotes are the same citizens who support universal health care.
- Ted Kennedy's real record
When a 32-year incumbent seeks re-election, there is a long and well-documented record that can be examined. So it's disconcerting to note that admit all the miles of newsprint and videotape that have been expended covering the US Senate campaign, little has been said of what Ted Kennedy has or hasn't accomplished.
- Roller girls go down
Don't you hate missing the best example of whatever point you were making?
- Less
Topics:
News Features
, Politics, Science and Technology, Technology, More
, Politics, Science and Technology, Technology, Culture and Lifestyle, George W. Bush, Food and Cooking, Foods, Fruits and Vegetables, Public Finance, Domestic Policy, Less
