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by Amy Beth Graves

Fiscally responsible, representative of all sectors of agriculture, comprehensive.

These are some of the ways that American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Bob Stallman describes the organization’s 2007 Farm Bill proposal, which was released last month.

"This is a pretty comprehensive document – 55 to 56 pages. It establishes a set of principles and each proposal is fiscally responsible. This proposal is crafted around the current budget baseline," Stallman told reporters on a conference call. "This is the only detailed budget proposal other than the one proposed by (U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike) Johanns."

AFBF estimates that its Farm Bill proposal would cost $519.2 billion over 10 years – the same as the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate.

"AFBF's proposal is the only real fiscally responsible Farm Bill proposal that has been put forth to date. Most other proposals tend to ignore the reality that we are dealing with much tighter budgets now versus when the last bill was written," said Adam Sharp, Ohio Farm Bureau’s senior director of national and regulatory affairs.

Stallman told the Senate Agriculture Committee that the basic structure of the 2002 Farm Bill should not be changed. It has "worked and worked well, not only for farmers and ranchers but also for the environment and consumers," he testified.

AFBF’s proposal differs from commodity-specific ones in that it encompasses all of agriculture, Sharp said.

"Most groups who have put forth farm bill proposals seem to be submitting wish lists that put their sector of agriculture ahead of everyone else," he said. "AFBF's proposal is the first attempt to balance all the needs of our industry."

In a conference call, Stallman said Congress needs to keep in place the "three-legged stool of support programs" that are an economic safety net for farmers. He said the program offers farmers a reliable, fixed, direct payment decoupled from production; counter-cyclical payments that provide support when needed most, and marketing loan payments that provide economic freedom to better market their crops.

"Fixed, counter-cyclical and marketing loan payments have proved to be successful in providing farmers a dependable safety net. Overall, our current program has also led to record exports, lower-than-expected government outlays and a record low debt-to-asset ratio in farm country," Stallman told senators.

AFBF’s proposal includes nearly 60 recommendations and suggestions such as:

• Maintaining the baseline funding for the commodity title ($7 billion per year) and conservation title ($4.4 billion per year), rather than transferring funding from one title to another. These baselines already include sizable cuts from the 2002 Farm Bill funding level.
• Eliminating the fruit and vegetable planting prohibition and designating $250 million per year in conservation program funding for specialty crop growers.
• Having a revenue-based counter-cyclical safety net program to protect against both low prices and low yields and provide payments to farmers when they need them most.
• Having a standing catastrophic assistance program that is integrated with a re-rated crop insurance program. Crop insurance coverage would be reduced from the current coverage level because the new standing catastrophic assistance program would cover 50 percent of losses.
• Supporting retention of non-environmentally sensitive land in the Conservation Reserve Program and allowing the production of energy crops on that land. Those contract holders would be required to produce a cellulosic ethanol feedstock cover crop.
• Opposing any changes in farm bill payment limitations and income means-testing.

AFBF’s farm bill proposal was released as the agriculture committees in the Senate and House of Representatives drew up draft farm bills. Congress is not expected to agree on a new farm bill until this fall.

"We think the timing is about right because it does allow time for congressional language," Stallman said, noting that AFBF has been working on its proposal since October.