Farm Bill reaches Senate floor

Every five years Congress revisits the agricultural, nutrition and food policies and passes a multibillion-dollar piece of legislation known as the Farm Bill. The 2002 bill ran out Sept. 30.

In late July the U.S. House of Representatives passed their version of the bill, which proved to be a disappointment to conservation, sustainable agriculture and small family farm advocacy groups who had been pressing for a "green" bill that would both reduce subsidy payments to already prosperous farms and enhance conservation programs for land and waters while providing a more adequate safety net particularly for small family farmers.

A greener bill also made good sense because it put U.S. farmers in compliance with the World Trade Organization, which dislikes trade-derailing farm subsidies.

The bill is now being considered by the Senate.

The Farm Bill is a multi-title bill, meaning that individual sections address different portions of the U.S. agricultural sector. These titles include commodity programs, conservation, agricultural trade and aid, nutrition programs, farm credit, rural development, research, forestry and energy.

Sustainable agriculture and small family farm advocates have been pushing to substantially revise the commodity program payments, which now primarily go to large farms. Pouring money into these payments, they say, means driving the demand for increased industrial agriculture -- more intensive planting of corn and soybeans. Cutting these payments frees up funds for conservation programs.