Farm Bill Extension

Here are some excerpts from a recent interview with farmers...
(Ref: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/03/168515101/farmers-frustrated-by-farm-bill-extension)

"Farmers and ranchers across the country expected to start 2013 with a new farm bill, the legislation setting agricultural policy for the next five years. But the new farm bill got scrapped after more than a year of work when Congress passed the "fiscal cliff" deal."

"And the extension doesn't include funding for disaster aid programs and programs designed to encourage young people to get back in to farming. It also doesn't fully fund programs that help support local farmers markets and agricultural research provisions."

"Ferd Heofner with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition says merely extending the current farm bill hurts small, local farmers.



As you can imagine many dairy farmers are extremely displeased. They'll just be out of luck until the extension expires in September... Uncertainty weighs heavy on the mind.

Are/Will any of you be effected by this senseless holdup?

I continue to think they should've chosen wisely, that being sustainability.

Peace to all -

If the debt ceiling isn't raised or gets removed altogether, maybe there won't be a congress much longer. Then dairy farmers can draft their own farm bills.

If someone has been farming for 20yrs why have they not saved up their own rainy day fund why wait for taxpayer.
Why do they only depend on just one crop say almond/milk they should diversify.
Hopefully we will all learn our lesson. Dont depend on Saudi for oil, or the gov for bailout, or bob down the street to make yogurt.
If you can setup a system that does it for you with little ongoing cost/time why not do it.

The sad thing is that some small farmers may be hurt by this, but the large corporations with CEO's drawing 7 digit salaries, will just continue to milk the system - after all, it was designed for/by them.

Many small farmers and (farmers to-be) are already hurt by this, til this extension period has elapsed...and even then the future beyond
that date is uncertainty... These industries can't make up their damn minds, and take their sweetass time, and even when they do it's in their
favor (big agri) and unfavorable business/enterprise climate for the small-enterprise/parcel farmers...

I'm glad I found this topic here on Permies, because I think it's really important and I'm blown away that it's basically been an ignored topic in the mainstream. It's unfortunate and a disappointment that Congress cannot work together to do this, and I feel bad for farmers that are going to be hit by this. This can be a wake up call and a lesson, and with higher milk prices perhaps people will realize how nice they have it with all of the subsidizes and, as S Bengi pointed out, people can learn to be more self-sufficient.

"And the extension doesn't include funding for disaster aid programs and programs designed to encourage young people to get back in to farming. It also doesn't fully fund programs that help support local farmers markets and agricultural research provisions."

This is something that would be a better idea than so many subsidies. Perhaps the next farm bill can be even more radical.