Farm Bill changes needed.

The Farm Bill should not pass until the following changes are made:

Separate the food stamp program (the SNAP program) from the rest of the farm bill.  The huge size of the food stamp program dwarfs the farm subsidies and, in effect, hides them.  Farm subsidies need to be exposed to a more open process.  It would also help make the food stamp program more transparent.

Stop subsidizing crop insurance.  Make farmers pay 100% of the cost.  If that raises the price of food, so be it.  If it reduces farmers’ incomes, so be it.  Subsidizing crop insurance is not a proper role for our government.  Today’s federally subsidized crop insurance not only covers losses due to unforeseen disasters, it also covers drops in revenues!   If farmers had to pay the full price for their coverage, they might prefer higher deductibles and lower levels of coverage.  But to add insult to injury,many farmer who receive subsidies are also very wealthy.  There is no good reason why wealthy farmers should be subsidized, even for crop insurance.  If our goal is to help poor farmers, then surely the subsidy should be phased out as a farmer’s wealth and income increase.

Establish a maximum amount of subsidy that can be received by any individual or commonly owned group of farms under all farm subsidy programs combined.  Again, we shouldn’t be subsidizing big farmers or farm organizations.

Don’t place tariffs on imports unless the country of origin first places tariffs on our exports to that country.  Free trade is beneficial to all.  It is voluntary!  It requires no intervention by government other than to resolve disputes.  Free people should not be forced exchange or be prevented from voluntarily exchanging with another party.  Amazingly, under the current Farm Bill, we pay Brazilian cotton farmers almost $150 million per year as compensation for the damage done to them by the subsidies we provide to our U.S. cotton farmers!  Is that not insane trade policy?

Separate the “rural development” programs from farm subsidies.  Again, the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars spent in this area are hidden within the much larger primary subsidy programs.  It is questionable whether or not rural economic development is even a proper  role of government.  In any event, consideration of spending for rural economic development should not be mixed with farm subsidies.

Tie environmental practices to any subsidies granted.  We shouldn’t expect perfectly clean water in our lakes and rivers.  Wild animals have defecated in them forever.  But, it reasonable to expect farmers to not fowl the water down stream from them, and to pay for damages when they can be reasonably determined.  The idea of requiring minimum buffer strips between farms and rivers and lakes is reasonable.