The 2014 farm law – disaster or triumph? asks Choices
The answer is clear, say farm-program skeptics Barry Goodwin and Vince Smith, in the theme overview for the new issue of Choices, the magazine of agricultural economics. They say the new law, signed in February and being implemented now, “generally appears mainly to be focused on transferring income to relatively wealthy farm families as well as some non-farm entities such as the U.S. mercantile marine and private insurance and reinsurance companies. It does so at the expense of consumers and taxpayers, the long-run productivity of the agricultural sector, and efficiently and effectively meeting humanitarian needs through reasonable reforms to international food aid programs.”
In their essay, Goodwin and Smith say the cost of the five-year farm law “could be far more than what has been projected” if commodity prices, which slumped this summer, remain low in coming years. They say “some of the wealthiest individuals in the country are among the major winners” in the farm bill and the budget savings mostly are in food stamps. Goodwin, of North Carolina State University, and Smith, of Montana State University, advocated sharp cuts in crop insurance and farm supports during farm bill debate.
Their essay summarizes six articles in Choices that examine aspects of the farm law from subsidies and crop insurance to exports and research. Two of them were posted as of Sunday.