The Tale That Dogs the Ag

Congress finally passes veto-proof farm bill

Posted at 5:54 AM on 16 May 2008

Defying President Bush's veto threat, the Senate joined the House Thursday in voting "yay" on the $289 billion omnibus legislation that covers everything from farm subsidies to food stamps. In both chambers, support for the bill tallied strong enough to override Bush's threatened veto. The legislation has bitterly divided the sustainable-agriculture world. Supporters acknowledge the bill is deeply flawed, but argue it contains important gains in conservation, nutrition, and school lunch programs that would be lost if the bill failed -- at least until a new and comprehensively better farm bill could be passed. Critics counter that the small victories for sustainable-ag in the current bill are paltry compared to those won by wealthy farmland owners, who managed to escape stringent subsidy caps.

sources: Bloomberg, McClatchy News
in Gristmill: How should sustainable-food advocates respond to the latest farm bill proposal?

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Comments: (5 comments)

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Carrot and the stick

One step forward and two back.I mean congress doesn't want to burn all the lobbyist money bridges,by steping on Big Agribusinesses toes.We certainly don't want the small farmers to get ANY kind of a break,so that people can feed themselves and not have to depend on Big Agri.

Why not ask why!?

by usandthem at 12:11 PM on 16 May 2008

Horrible Legislation

As usual.

Environmental problems are never going to be solved by doing some good things to go along with all the bad things. This legislation, as all past farm bills, is hideous for its subsidies to big business and polluting activities, and should not be supported merely because it has a few crumbs for the natural environment thrown in.

by Wolverine at 2:02 PM on 16 May 2008

At least...

...it sets aside $30 billion to let farm land lay fallow, and it reduces the corn-ethanol subsidy by 10 cents a gallon.

Not great, but still...could've been worse.

by Tasermons Partner at 8:59 PM on 17 May 2008

Change on the horizon

My hope is that the national conversation on environmental issues such as this one will segue into the 21st century once the next President is elected! Then the Congress can worry less about passing a veto-proof bill and more constructively focus on drafting a new bill or revisions to it that have more holistic, forward-thinking, long-term solutions that benefit our economy and environment in concert.

by italo at 12:35 PM on 18 May 2008

Won't Happen

In the first place, the Democrats are just as beholden to corporate America as the Republicans, which is the major reason we keep getting these pork-filled, environmentally destructive farm bills.

Second, our economy is based on destroying the Earth. So how in the world would any solution "our economy and environment in concert"? What's needed for the good of the planet is for humans to greatly lower their population AND individual consumption. Fantasies about everyone being materialistically wealthy while benefiting the planet have no basis in reality and are very harmful to the environmental cause.

by Wolverine at 4:23 PM on 18 May 2008

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