Farm bill faces delays; its constituencies face economic uncertainty

Published: 2008-03-28

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The 2007 farm bill is now the 2008 farm bill. And if something doesn't happen in Congress by April 18, it could very well become the 2009 farm bill. There are many constituencies interested in different provisions of the five-year, $286 billion-plus farm bill currently facing revisions by a House-Senate conference committee. Catholic rural life advocates want to see limits placed on the size of federal commodities payments. The biggest payments now go to the largest farms. Catholic anti-poverty advocates would like to see gains made in federal food stamp and nutrition funding. While the farm bill is being massaged into a version that Congress can stomach and President George W. Bush will sign, federal food stamp payouts will continue at current levels, about $1 per person per meal. Those payouts have stubbornly stayed at $1 per meal for nearly 30 years, according to Candy Hill, senior vice president of social policy and government affairs for Catholic Charities USA. Farmworker advocates want to improve safety and health conditions for the workers -- largely migrants hailing from other countries -- who pick the crops that make it in some form or other to our tables.

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