Grist | Topics | 12 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 12 of 12
Headline	Author	Published	Section
The 'maverick' speaks on agriculture McCain thunders against ag subsidies, vows fealty to trade agenda	Tom Philpott	19 May 2008	Gristmill
Speaking before the National Restaurant Association on Monday, John McCain delivered a stirring rant against agriculture subsidies and the latest farm bill (text here.) No doubt burnishing his "maverick" image among editorial writers, the senator lambasted the bill as a giveaway of "billions of dollars in subsidies to some of the biggest and richest agribusiness corporations in America -- many of which are heavy political contributors to members in bot ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, John McCain, legislation, politics (all these topics)

More than money Other conservation tools at stake in the Farm Bill, too	Guest author	05 May 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay by Britt Lundgren, an agricultural policy fellow at Environmental Defense Fund. ----- Although recent reports indicate that the new farm bill will provide a $4 billion increase for voluntary farmer conservation programs, there's more to the conservation policies in the bill than just money. Recent attempts by the conference committee to dramatically weaken the new Sodsaver provision are just one example of the one-step-forward, ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, legislation (all these topics)

Thinking outside the cereal box Thoughts on the farm bill and the skyrocketing cost of food	Guest author	24 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is a guest post by Alan Hunt, senior policy analyst for food and farm policy at the Northeast-Midwest Institute and coordinator of the Farm and Food Policy Project. ----- The rising cost of food worldwide is more complex than portrayed in recent articles in The New York Times and the Washington Post. Like a magician revealing his secrets, the once-invisible farm and food system is drawing scrutiny from the media, policymakers, and the public as we realize h ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

The corn identity How Congress is shortchanging our health and sweetening things for the food industry	Bill Chameides	24 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Are we becoming children of the corn, thanks in part to large subsidies and overproduction? Photo: NREL/Warren Gretz At dinner Sunday night, I asked my friend Prasad if he knew about the new farm bill and what it means for average Americans. He didn't. I wasn't surprised. With the election, the war, and rising prices to fret about, not many people are pondering legislation about farms. But they should, because it has huge implications for the country's n ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, food, health, legislation (all these topics)

Agro-sham Bush and farm policy 'reform'	Tom Philpott	17 Apr 2008	Gristmill
In the farm bill debate, the Bush administration has joined Environmental Defense Fund, The Environmental Working Group, and other Big Green groups in taking a 'reform' position: subsidies are bad, so let's cut them. I've been arguing that this position amounts to no reform at all, because it doesn't address the underlying problem of U.S. farming: the relentless pressure on our farmland from chemical-intensive agriculture -- an arrangement that in the end benefits ag ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, George Bush, industrial ag, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Farm subsidies: beyond simplistic outrage Gourmet magazine points the way toward a green and smart farm policy	Tom Philpott	28 Mar 2008	Gristmill
In Thursday's Wall Street Journal, there's a detailed article about the farm-subsidy mess. It can be summarized as follows: 1) the government-engineered ethanol boom has driven up farm-commodity prices; 2) farm incomes are sharply up; yet 3) the government still makes subsidy payments in the billions per year; and thus 4) it's time to cut the subsidies.The logic is impeccable. And surely, payment caps should be much lower and blocked from going to high-income farmers an ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Time for some rehab Agriculture is drunk on corn-based ethanol	Thomas Dobbs	14 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Thomas Dobbs is Professor Emeritus of Economics at South Dakota State University, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Policy Fellow. ----- American agriculture is becoming addicted to corn-based ethanol, and the economic and environmental effects of this addiction call for some intervention! The explosive growth in U.S. ethanol production from corn is having worldwide ramifications. December 6 articles in The Economist ('Cheap no more' ...
Topics: legislation, ag subsidies, ag policy, politics, food, economy, ethanol, biofuels, agriculture (all these topics)

Farm bill update Payment limits topple, but the livestock title looks good -- for now	Tom Philpott	14 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Update [2007-12-14 13:5:54 by Tom Philpott]:The Senate just passed the farm bill, 79-14. Presumably the livestock title is intact. Now it's time to mount an epochal battle to defend that important title as Congress reconciles the House and Senate versions, which will take place in early 2008. The Senate is set to vote on the farm bill this afternoon. I'll be trying to pull a Brian Beutler and follow the debate via CSpan. An amendment that would have limited subsi ...
Topics: ag subsidies, legislation, politics, ag policy, agriculture (all these topics)

Farm bill: Stick it to Big Meat Back under debate in the Senate, the farm bill lurches ahead	Tom Philpott	07 Dec 2007	Gristmill
The farm bill has been languishing in the Senate for weeks, buried under the weight of hundreds of specious, unrelated amendments. But the chamber reached a deal Thursday; each party agreed to float only 20 amendments. That means the bill is back on track. Majority leader Harry Reid vowed the Senate would hammer out a version by holiday break, meaning it would go to reconciliation and then to the president's desk early in the new year. So now it's crunch time. Th ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, legislation, politics (all these topics)

It's economics, not agronomy Why gutting commodity subsidies should be the focus of Farm Bill reform efforts	Thomas Dobbs	19 Nov 2007	Gristmill
Thomas Dobbs is Professor Emeritus of Economics at South Dakota State University, and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Policy Fellow. ----- Tom Philpott wrote an article in which he challenged some of the key assumptions underlying Farm Bill reform efforts of the past year ('It's the Agronomy, Stupid'). He contended that gutting commodity subsidies would not solve the U.S.'s long-standing oversupply problems, and that we need the money currently in t ...
Topics: ag policy, politics, ag subsidies, agriculture, legislation (all these topics)

Ag policy as if people mattered Time to kick it old school on the farm bill.	Tom Philpott	24 Jun 2007	Gristmill
The terms of debate around the 2007 farm bill's controversial commodity title have gotten rather narrow.On the one hand, you've got the House subcommittee on ag commodities, which essentially cut and pasted commodity language from the subsidy-heavy 2002 farm bill into the 2007 version now being drafted.On the other hand, you've got a chorus of critics, ranging from Oxfam to the Cato Institute to the Environmental Working Group, demanding an end to ag subsidies. This gro ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, Big Ag, food, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Paying the Farm Bill Why federal farm support deserves a fresh look	Tom Philpott	23 Jan 2007	Victual Reality
Note: Over the course of three weeks, as Congress begins discussion of the 2007 farm bill, Victual Reality will be devoted to analyzing the political economy of farming and teasing out an agenda for a socially and environmentally sustainable farm policy. It's more exciting than it sounds, we swear! [Read the first installment below, the second installment here, and the third here.] Like a barnyard sow ...
Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics)

Stories About: ag policy AND ag subsidies AND agriculture AND legislation