Agricultural and Food Policy
 Agri Outlook Radio
Number 166
Policy/Noteworthy: Congressional Agricultural Leadership Announce Farm Bill Conference Agreement (3:17 minutes)
Audio/Video Script:
Dr. Bobby Coats
Extension Economist and Professor
University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture
Congressional Agricultural Leadership Announce Farm Bill Conference Agreement
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee and Chairman
of the Senate-House conference committee on the new farm bill, announced a final
farm bill conference agreement. The agreement will lead to a formal conference
report, which will then be passed by the Senate and House before being sent to
the White House. The President has the option of signing the farm bill into law
or vetoing the farm bill.
Key excerpts by Chairman Harkin at the farm bill press conference follow:
On the farm bill in general Senator Harkin said:
This is a strong, bipartisan farm bill. This bill provides a strong safety net.
Consumers will like it because it will increase farmers’ markets and ensure a
safe, dependable supply of high quality food. For low-income Americans, it
ensures nutrition needs are met and for school children, increases their access
to fresh fruits and vegetables.
On nutrition investments:
"At a time of economic downturn and rapidly rising prices for food staples,
millions of low-income Americans have joined the ranks of the hungry and ‘food
insecure.’ For that reason, all of the new money we were able to secure
for this new farm bill went into the nutrition title, bringing the new
investment in nutrition to nearly $10.4 billion."
On conserving our natural resources:
"To meet soaring worldwide demand for food and energy crops, millions of new
acres of land are being brought into production, including environmentally
fragile land. To address this challenge, we authorize nearly $4.4 billion
in additional funds for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the
Conservation Stewardship Program over the next 10 years. With this
support, the Conservation Stewardship Program will enroll nearly 13 million
acres each year."
On increasing production of renewable energy:
"All-time high gasoline prices are wreaking havoc with family budgets, but,
without the inputs of biofuels, prices at the pump would be as much as 50 cents
higher. The new farm bill will dramatically ramp up the agricultural sector’s
capacity to produce clean renewable energy. Significantly, it provides
more than $1 billion to expand the supply of biofuels made from biomass and crop
byproducts other than grain. The bill also provides new support to farmers
who grow energy crops, and to those who build refineries to convert
biomass into fuel."
On specialty crops:
We also provide two new titles in this farm bill. They are the livestock and
specialty crops titles. The farm bill provides $1 billion for specialty
crops. This farm bill invests more in the promotion of specialty crops than any
of the previous farm bills.
This has been Bobby Coats Extension Economist University of Arkansas Division
of Agriculture.
Highlights of the conference report titles can be found in the attached
document.
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