03/01 Will wonders never cease!
USDA Secretary Dan Glickman thinks New Jersey farmers should get at least a piece of the federal pie.
Instead of devoting the billions of dollars of federal farm aid to a handful of midwestern and southern states, Glickman says he wants to share the federal assistance with growers nationwide, including fruit and vegetable growers who usually get little or none of that beneficience.
“No longer is farm policy the province of seven or eight states,” declared the secretary.
Growers in the so-called “farm states” get most of the farm payments each year. Seven — Iowa, Texas, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Dakota — get half of the federal pay-out but account for only about 30 percent of the nation’s agricultural output.
On the other hand, California produced $25 billion in crops and livestock in 1998, nearly twice as much as No. 2 Iowa, but got less federal farm aid than Montana.
New Jersey, needless to say, is not considered a “farm state” despite the fact that Garden State growers and dairymen produced nearly $800 million in fruit, vegetables, milk and other ag products in 1998.
Glickman launched what he’s calling a “national” farm policy last month by asking Congress to double its spending on conservation programs. Some of that extra $1.3 billion would go to growers who don’t usually enroll in, or are not eligible for, federal farm programs. Glickman also would expand the crop insurance program to provide coverage for livestock producers.
Glickman, in his sixth and last year as ag secretary, won’t be around for the writing and debate of the 2002 farm bill, but he’d like to see federal subsidies directed to guaranteeing farmers a minimum income as opposed to supporting prices of crops.
There’s no question that a federal farm policy which does not penalize large segments of the nation’s agricultural community should be on the congressional table. There is no good reason why one grower should be favored over another if both need help.
The 2002 farm bill, we suspect, will have quite a different look than F2F, the highly touted current measure which has failed on most counts. Glickman’s vision of a “national” farm policy should get priority consideration.