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Apr 23, 2012
In response to the mark of the 2012 Farm Bill released Friday by the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, the American Soybean Association (ASA) voices its overall support of the draft language, and calls on the Committee to approve the mark quickly in the interest of passing the Farm Bill as soon as possible:
"ASA overall strongly supports the mark of the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee for the 2012 Farm Bill," said ASA President Steve Wellman, a soybean farmer from Syracuse, Neb. "ASA supports the decision to achieve $23 billion in savings over ten years under the bill. Farmers and ranchers are willing to do their fair share to address our nation’s fiscal problems, but America’s investments in food, agriculture, and conservation should not be cut disproportionately."
ASA’s position on various provisions of the mark are indicated below, including several for which ASA would support changes and refinements as the Senate begins mark-up of the bill this week. ASA supports timely approval of the Committee’s bill in order to expedite the process of enacting new farm legislation as soon as possible in 2012.
ASA’s title-by-title positions on the Chair’s Mark for the 2012 Farm Bill are:
Title I – Commodity Programs
Repeal of Existing Programs: ASA recognizes and supports the need to replace existing farm support programs, including Direct Payments, Counter-Cyclical Payments, and ACRE, in order to achieve the Committee’s deficit reduction objective.
Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) Program: We support using remaining baseline funding to establish the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) Program, which includes provisions similar to the "Risk Management for America’s Farmers" proposal developed by ASA last fall. ARC would partially offset revenue losses at either the farm or the county level on a commodity-specific basis using average plantings and prevented planted acres in 2009-2012 to establish a payment acre cap. Payment acres under the farm and county options would be set at 60 percent and 75 percent of this acreage, respectively, with payment on prevented planted acres at 45 percent. ARC would apply to losses that exceed 11 percent of a revenue benchmark, not to exceed 10 percent of total revenue loss.
ASA believes the additional risk management provided under ARC would complement revenue protection provided through the crop insurance program, without influencing planting decisions and distorting production. The combination of these programs would enable and encourage producers to continue to seek to maximize total returns from the market rather than from the prospect of receiving government payments. Allowing farmers full planting flexibility to follow market signals has been the most important farm policy for the past 16 years.
Marketing Assistance Loan Program: ASA supports maintaining marketing assistance loans at current levels, which will allow this program to continue to be available as a financing and marketing tool for producers.
Payment Limits: ASA supports re-instituting current payment limitations.
Title II – Conservation
ASA supports the simplification, flexibility, and consolidation of agricultural conservation programs. We support the priority given to working lands in the Chair’s mark and the gradual reduction of Conservation Reserve Program acres to 25 million from the current level of 30 million acres by 2017.
Program Consolidation: ASA supports the consolidation of 23 existing conservation programs into 13.
Conservation Compliance: ASA supports requiring conservation compliance as a condition for eligibility to receive benefits under Title I commodity programs.
Title III – Trade
MAP and FMD: ASA strongly supports continuation of full annual funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) at $200 million and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program at $34.5 million, as included in the mark.
Food for Peace Program: ASA supports full funding for the Food for Peace Program. However, the mark diverts millions annually from funding the purchase and delivery of U.S. commodities under the Program.
The mark proposes to convert the developmental "safe box" from a $450 million fixed amount to only 15-30 percent of Program funding. ASA supports providing that the amount be the greater of $425 million or 30 percent of the total amount made available to carry out emergency and non-emergency food assistance programs under Title II.
The mark requires that at least 70 percent of the costs of commodity procurement and shipment be recovered when the commodity is sold. ASA supports providing that the sale of agricultural commodities be made at fair market value in the country in which they are sold.
McGovern-Dole Program: ASA supports continued full funding of the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program.
Title VII – Research
ASA supports reauthorization of funding for university research and extension.
ASA supports establishment of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, a nonprofit that will advance the research mission of the Department by supporting agricultural research activities focused on addressing key problems of national and international significance.
Title IX – Energy
The Senate mark authorizes but does not include mandatory funding for energy programs. ASA supports efforts to provide mandatory funding for the following programs.
Biobased Market Program: ASA supports the provision to expand and improve the Biobased Market Program through a targeted biobased-only procurement requirement, designation of intermediate ingredients and assembled products, auditing, outreach and promotion activities, and an economic impact study. Funding in the mark is authorized at $2 million per year for five years. The program received $9 million over five years in the 2008 Farm Bill. ASA supports providing mandatory funding of $3 million per year or total mandatory program funding of $15 million over five years to allow USDA to more effectively carry out the Biobased Market Program.
Biodiesel Education Program: ASA strongly supports continuation of the Biodiesel Education Program, which was authorized in the Senate mark at $1 million per year for five years. ASA supports an increase to $2 million per year in mandatory funding.
Title XI – Crop Insurance
ASA strongly supports the efforts made to protect and strengthen crop insurance as a risk management tool. ASA supports new provisions, included in the mark, that:
