Editor’s note: This article is by Maggie Cassidy of the Valley News, in which it was first published Jan. 30, 2014.
After years of setbacks, a nearly $100 billion-a-year compromise farm bill cleared the House on Wednesday despite strong opposition from conservatives who sought a bigger cut in food stamps.
The final vote was 251-166. The five-year, $956 billion measure, which preserves generous crop subsidies, now heads to the Senate, where approval seems certain. The White House said President Barack Obama would sign it.
The final product averts deep cuts sought by Republicans in the federal food stamp program and ends direct payments to farmers — a controversial provision under the previous farm bill in which farmers received federal subsidies regardless of their output.
U.S. Reps. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Annie Kuster, D-N.H., and Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., all voted for the measure.
In a news release, Welch called the bill “far from perfect” and said it “falls short of all that Vermont wanted,” but said America and Vermont needed a bill to pass.
“It is a significant improvement over the status quo and will provide much needed relief to Vermont’s dairy farmers, vegetable growers, and the organics and maple syrup industries,” Welch said.
Kuster released a similar statement, calling the bill a “true compromise.”
Conservatives had stymied efforts to pass a farm bill in the House last year, arguing in part that agriculture subsidy programs should be considered separately from food stamps provided under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Some also called for a controversial work requirement to be included for food stamp recipients, a proposal that helped unite Democrats against the plan.
Food stamp cuts were reduced from $40 billion in the House bill to $8 billion in the compromise bill.
Help for Vermont farmers
The compromise passed Wednesday would create a dairy insurance program to protect farmers against dramatic swings in feed prices that “too often have driven (farmers) off their farms,” Welch said in his statement, and includes steep discounts on insurance premiums for small dairy farms.
The bill also would help limit overproduction of milk and allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to intervene in the markets if dairy prices drop too low by purchasing dairy products for use at local food banks.
Other provisions that Welch championed or supported in the bill include disaster insurance for vegetable growers, the creation of a pilot program in Vermont to promote local produce in school lunches, and support of the maple sugaring and organic farms and foods industries.
Corey Chapman, a dairy farmer with 50 head in Tunbridge, said he was hopeful that the bill could be a step in the right direction.
Chapman, 34, grew up around dairy farmers, but his grandfather sold his herd when Chapman was a teenager. About two years ago, after Chapman returned to Vermont following 12 years in the military, he decided to get back into the dairy business.
But, he said, the finances aren’t always easy.
“Hopefully this will help all of that stuff, because it is tough,” Chapman said. “Farmers are getting older and we’re kind of a new generation that’s coming along and we’re in debt, whereas generations past, they weren’t. And now, just to get into the industry, you’re almost in extreme debt just to start out with.”
Chapman said he’s felt that many subsidies for dairy farms in the past have gone to larger dairy farms, and he’s hopeful that dairy farms in Central Vermont, which are usually smaller, could benefit from the bill. He also supports provisions that would prevent the flooding of dairy markets, he said.
“There’s got to be someone looking ahead and trying to figure it out,” he said.
In Bradford, dairy farmer Doug Miller, 73, said he was keeping one eye on bill’s progress — but added the he didn’t “figure anything they do in Washington” would affect Vermonters too much.
He said he felt the food stamps program may be worthy of funding, but should not be run by the Department of Agriculture.
“I don’t see the reason why it is, never did,” he said.
Another big winner in the farm bill was hemp, marijuana’s nonintoxicating sister plant.
For the first time, the farm bill would allow nine states — including Vermont — to use hemp for research and academic purposes.
Maggie Cassidy can be reached at mcassidy@vnews.com or 603-727-3220.
