3/7/05
On March 7, 14 farmers and two LSP staff will begin working in Washington, D.C., for three days of intensive meetings to push for federal farm policy reform. Ten of the farmers are LSP members. The farmers come from four states—Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio.

THE ACTION WE’RE ASKING YOU TO TAKE TODAY:
We want you to call your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday this week (while our delegation is in D.C.) in support of a key policy objective of LSP and our allies—strong payment limits on the federal commodity programs. It’s important to do right now because both the House and the Senate are planning to hear the 2006 budget bills this week, and payment limits are part of the debate. Calls from each of you, combined with in-person visits from family farmers calling for reform, is a strong one-two punch that underlines our message and will make members of Congress and their staff take notice.

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:
1. Call your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative on March 7, 8, or 9. If you don’t have their phone number, call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your Senators and Representative by name. Calls from all states and to all U.S. Senators are Representatives are helpful right now.

2. Tell them you want them to work to pass strong payment limits on the commodity programs. Right now, less than 5 percent of U.S. farmers get 75 percent of farm program payments, and many of the biggest recipients are big rice and cotton producers in the South and Southwest. There are huge producers getting hundreds of thousands of dollars, some even millions of dollars each year. That’s not right. Enact payment limits now. LSP members who attended LSP farm policy organizing meetings in January and February (these were mostly farmers) strongly endorsed a payment limit cap on commodity programs of $50,000 per year. (Right now, there is a Senate bill, which LSP supports as a first step, that sets a firm $250,000 payment limit, which is a significant improvement over the current $360,000 payment limit which is full of loopholes for investors and corporations to take advantage of. The lead authors are Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND). There is no House bill, and there should be.)

3. Tell them to not take cuts from the Conservation Security Program, which has already gotten cut severely. Tell them you don’t want your taxes going to millionaire investors and multinational corporations who get the big commodity payments—tell them you want farm programs to support family farms and a healthy environment, which is the purpose of the Conservation Security Program (CSP).

BACKGROUND:
A critical issue before Congress right now is the 2006 budget. President Bush’s proposed budget calls for big cuts to the Conservation Security Program (a top priority for LSP), rural development programs, and the commodity programs.

We want to focus pressure on Congress to enact payment limits on the commodity programs, so huge producers of the favored five commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and rice) don’t continue to get hundreds of thousands (even millions) of taxpayer subsidies each year for massive overproduction of those crops and the resulting environmental toll on the land and waters of our country. Even modest payment limit reform can save $2 billion, giving us the opportunity to cut budget-busting subsidies to corporate farms and use the savings to make sure the Conservation Security Program is fully funded. It would also be a start towards more substantial farm policy reform in the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill.

Right now, 10 percent of farmers who get federal farm program payments get 72 percent of the payments—and nearly two-thirds of farmers don’t get any. (To see the figures on this, go to the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database at http://www.ewg.org/farm/). These figures mean that just 5 percent of U.S. ag producers, many of whom are absentee investors or agribusiness corporations, are collecting more than 75 percent of the multibillion-dollar farm program expenditures each year. It’s a waste of money, and it leads to further consolidation of land ownership in fewer hands just as surely as the overproduction it pays for leads to environmental degradation through increased erosion, pesticide use and water contamination.

Rather than allowing elected officials to continue to lavish money on commodity programs ($11.5 billion in 2003) to the detriment of the land, we need to shift farm policy priorities to programs like the Conservation Security Program, which can have a positive impact and cost much less. The CSP is meant to reward actual environmental benefits produced by farming systems like rotational grazing and resource-conserving crop rotations. Properly funded (at $2-3 billion per year) and implemented, CSP has the potential to make a big difference for family farms and the environment. By making payments to active farmers that are competitive with commodity subsidies, it can help farmers change the landscape in the Midwest from row crop overproduction to sound crop rotations including hay, pasture and small grains, to the benefit of family farms, rural communities, soil and water resources and wildlife.

But pressure will be mounting from corporate agribusiness and their commodity group allies to cut conservation and rural development programs, and instead keep the big dollars rolling into the commodity programs for the biggest producers and to continue the maximum production of the five favored crops that get the subsidies. That’s why we need you to call and push for strong payment limitations NOW.

FOR MORE INFO: Contact LSP’s Policy and Organizing Program at 612-722-6377 or e-mail Policy Program Director Mark Schultz at marks@landstewardshipproject.org