Congress is scheduled to vote on the farm bill again this year.
While it's natural to expect small farmers to nag Congress for more hand-outs, the reality is that the process is more of a feeding frenzy for big corporate agribusiness which, because of the failure of antitrust enforcement, dominates most of the commodity food markets.
Meanwhile, Congress hasn't expressed much sympathy for small, family farmers.
Take the chair of the House Ag Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN). According to FarmPolicy.com , while Peterson and Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA) were out visiting with "area farmers and agriculture businessmen" in Georgia, Peterson said he'd like to cut out the 255,000 farmers with 10 acres or less who "are not real farmers" and use the $2.4 billion that would be freed up to balance out the cost of other programs in the bill.
"This might be a way to raise money," he said. 'But it will cause some commotion.'"
Ya think?
According to the National Family Farm Coalition, this is pretty typical of how Congress works. "Family farmer voices are too often muffled by the cacophony of corporate lobbyists and commodity groups pushing through policies that create artificially low commodity prices and high taxpayer expenses to fund cheap feed that supports destructive industrial production of livestock," the group says.
But if you think the bill is merely a squabble between the big companies and the family farmers, think again. It affects a broad set of environmental, consumer, industrial, trade and anti-poverty policies as well. If you eat, you're affected -- think of how less healthy the food is at industrial farms.
And if no one pays attention, the bill could also include an obscure provision that the biotech industry and industrial food corporations are eager to see their friends in Congress insert which would undermine state and local decision-making authority on questions of food safety.
Fortunately a few people have been paying attention, including the Center for Food Safety.
According to CFS and the Organic Consumers Association, Monsatan and other companies have been pushing federal legislation to take away local and states' rights to ban or regulate genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other controversial foods and crops for almost a decade.
They groups and many others raised a huge ruckus in 2006 to stop the National Uniformity for Food Act, which would have cut down 200 food safety and food labeling laws across the U.S. in one stroke!
But now the industry is trying to get their friends in the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry to slip a similar poison pill into the voluminous 2007-2012 Farm Bill, which would give the White House appointed Secretary of Agriculture power to eliminate local or state food and farming laws, such as those in four California counties banning genetically engineered crops.
The law would set an an ominous precedent in undermining states' rights.
If you want to protect your family (not to mention farmers) from the federal Frankenfood fiat, tell Congress to pluck that provision out before the farm bill becomes law.