Appropriation bills have more impact than budget

Some in agriculture have expressed concern with the fiscal year 2012 budget resolution offered by House Budget Chair Paul Ryan, R-Wisc. Among other things, the proposal would make heavy cuts from commodity, crop insurance and trade promotion programs. The plan would cut farm programs by US$30 billion (€20.72billion) over 10 years, a reduction that would put considerable pressure on 2008 Farm Bill energy title programs, and slashes conservation funding by US$18 billion (€12.435billion) over the next decade.

There is some opposition from other House members as to the size of the cuts to agriculture. Ranking Member of the House Agriculture Committee Collin Peterson, D-Minn., says that planned cut is three times the US$10 million (€6.908 billion) in farm program cuts that President Obama's deficit commission had called for. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers

Tight money may trim crop subsidies

Congress may push idle cropland back into production or get rid of a US$5 billion-a-year subsidy to grain, cotton and soybean farmers when it overhauls US farm law, a House committee chairman said on Wednesday.

Lawmakers will have billions of dollars less to spend on the so-called farm bill than in 2008, Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said. "There will be some stuff that falls off the table" as priorities are set for funding.

Interviewed at the Reuters Global Food and Agriculture Summit, Lucas used the 32 million-acre Conservation Reserve, which idles fragile cropland, and the US$5 billion-a-year "direct payment" as examples of items that could be hit by fiscal austerity or become a target in wide-open House debate. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.