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Agricultural News


Oklahoma Farm Bureau DelegatesSet Farm Safety Net Policy at 2010 Convention

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:24:23 CST

Oklahoma Farm Bureau DelegatesSet Farm Safety Net Policy at 2010 Convention The Oklahoma Farm Bureau set policy for the general farm organization in the coming year on Saturday during their 69th Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City. Probably the resolution that created the most buzz on Saturday was State Resolution 22/National Resolution 64 on specifics on the farm safety net. At the bottom of this page- click on the LISTEN BAR to hear our audio overview of this issue as it unfolded on Saturday.


The State Resolutions Committee recommended a position of calling as their top priority the continuation of direct payments in the coming farm bill. Their proposal said that if direct payments were cut, they supported funds being moved to bolster crop insurance subsidy levels.


Hope Pjesky of Alfalfa County challenged the Resolution offered by the Resolutions Committee, offering a substitute removed any mention of direct payments, declared that Government farm programs should focus on providing farmers with downside risk protection- and stated that the best way to spend "scarce" government dollars is revenue based farm safety net programs like ACRE and crop insurance. The substitute that Pjesky offered included the statement that "In the future, we should rely less on government and increasingly more on free markets. She concluded in her substitute by stating a desire to see Farmers Savings Accounts to be established- and a statement of strong support for the Market Access Program.


During the morning session- Pjesky's substitute was amended to drop the word "scarce" as a description of government dollars- and the phrase "revenue assurance programs" was dropped in whereever she had used the term "ACRE." With those amendments, the Resolutions Committee proposal was swept away- and the resolution approved by the Delegates had no mention of direct payments, and a statement that called for a significant change from the 2008 farm law in the next measure that will written over the next couple of years.


After the lunch break, the afternoon Resolutions Session saw Farm Bureau delegates voted to reconsider the proposal, as Mike Dicks of Payne County offered an amendment that added a paragraph that said initially "We support a program or policy tool that continues to provide a fixed share of the federal budget allocation for agriculture, is a green box policy, and is considered a part of a revenue assurance program. This amendment was amended to add the words "like Direct Payments" to be inserted into the language- and all of that was added to what was approved earlier in the day. The final language has Oklahoma Farm Bureau on the record for the first time with a description of their priorities for Title 1 of the Farm Law.


In addition, the delegates approved the formation of a farm bill advisory committee to explore any and all farm policy to benefit production agriculture and represent our interests in the writing of the next farm bill, under the discretion of the OFB Board of Directors. In talking to two of the potential members of that advisory committee, they believed that the policy crafted by the delegates would give them flexibility in working with Congressman Frank Lucas as the new Chairman of the House Ag Committee as he leads efforts in developing the 2012 farm bill.


The language adopted by the delegates reads as follows:

A. Government farm should focus on providing farmers with downside risk protection.

B. We support a program or policy tool, like Direct Payments, continues to provide a fixed share of the federal budget allocation for agriculture, is a green box policy, and is considered as part of a revenue assurance program.

C. The best way to spend government dollars is revenue based safety new programs such as a revenue assurance program and crop insurance.

D. In the future we should rely less on government and increasingly more on free markets. Research should be done on ways to structure revenue based safety net programs such as revenue assurance programs and crop insurance so that they will be more WTO compliant. We support revenue based crop insurance options for all crops. A study should be done on the overlap between farm programs and crop insurance in order to prevent "double dipping" for the same loss. Government disaster aid should only be available for major disasters on the portion of crops not covered by other revenue based safety nets such as revenue assurance programs and where crop insurance was not available.   

E. We support the creation of Farmer Savings Accounts, allowing farmers to create tax free saving accounts on good years for use in later bad years. We strong a Market Access Program.



   
   



Ron Hays offers an overivew of the Farm Safety Net Debate and Resolution at the 2010 OFB Convention
right-click to download mp3

 

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