The U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the Farm Bill today, and despite failing to reform the commodities and better fund conservation incentive programs that Center for Native Ecosystems and others were calling for, it did manage to do a few good things for family farmers and conservation.

House 2007 Farm Bill:

• Would limit subsidies for the richest farmers to those earning $1 million or less, down from $2.5 million.
• Spending on conservation incentive programs would increase by 35%.
• Require country of origin labeling on meats.

Among the biggest disappointments of the House farm bill were the failures of several high key amendments that agriculture/conservation alliances backed, including:

Udall Amendment - Congressman Mark Udall’s (CO) bill would have added 225,000 acres to the Grasslands Reserve Program. One of the most underfunded and utilized conservation programs, this programs assists ranchers in restoring and protecting grasslands while still doing sustainable ranching. Grasslands in Colorado support endangered species such as prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets and burrowing owls. Funding for expanding the Grasslands Reserve Program would have come from a 2/3rds-cent reduction in cotton subsidies.

Blumenauer/Flake/Ryan/Kind Amendment – This amendment was one of the biggest agents of reform for the 2007 Farm Bill, but failed in final negotiations. The amendment would have improved funding for conservation and forestry programs, limited annual payments to commodity crop producers earning $250,000 a year or less, and tightened requirements for being considered ‘actively engaged in farming.’

Conservationists and Landowners Working Together

Over the last two years, Center for Native Ecosystems has worked with Colorado ranchers, farmers and landowners on wildlife and endangered species issues and developed a set of recommendations for improving conservation incentive programs. Many of these recommendations can be found in the 2007 Farm Bill passed by the House.

Although the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill passed today was called a ‘victory for farmers’ in an article in the New York Times, many family farmers see the House Farm Bill as a victory for the status quo. For instance, the majority of funding in the last farm bill and the one just passed by the House overwhelmingly go to the richest corporate farmers:

• The House Farm Bill would give 66% of crop payments to just 10% of farmers.
• 93% of payments go to staple crops – corn, soy, wheat, cotton and rice.
• Sixty percent of landowners would get nothing out of the House version of the Farm Bill.
• Two-thirds of all landowners who apply to conservation incentive programs are turned away.

The current Farm Bill (adopted in 2002) is set to expire on September 31s and the Senate will begin its work on the Farm Bill after the August summer recess on September 1^st. See the list of progressive bills and policies pending in the Senate Agriculture Committee.