#secretfarmbill

The Farm Bill, a piece of legislation that comes up for reauthorization about every 5 years, is up for reauthorization in 2012. It looks like the government is going to try to keep the mechanizations and proposals for the Farm Bill a secret, by making the decisions in a supercommittee instead of in Congress, with everyone's participation. Usually the compiling together of decisions about program cuts and what the bill will look like take a lot of time to come together, but a committee of four leaders from farming states is attempting to get everything done by November 23rd, and submit it to the supercommittee before they even enjoy their Thanksgiving dinners. The committee of four leaders from Oklahoma, Michigan, Kansas, and Minnesota are faced with making cuts in the money spent - why am I not surprised? Unfortunately, the areas they are aiming to make cuts in are commidity subsidizing, conservation, and nutrition (ex: food stamps) programs. In the area of conservation, programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Additionally, energy programs such as the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCP) and the Renewable Energy for America (REAP) are being made to cut money as well. Though I haven't had time to look up all of these programs and what exactly they do to help our country, just from the names themselves they sound like they are programs that seem to be critically important to our country's agricultural future. And I'm not the only one upset about this, and about the secrecy of the committee who's making these proposed cuts. There is a large amount of opposition from the American people (atleast the ones who know that this is actually going on), food advocacy groups, and the farmers themselves. And rightly so - these group's voices should be heard and taken into account, especially the farmers, because after all they are the ones who are providing the food for us. Additionally, I think the committee of four and the supercommitte should be crystal clear with the American people in the process of making and implementing the farm bill. This bill is something that is going to affect our food production system for the next 5 years, come on leaders, let's try to not mess it up.