The farm bill that President Barack Obama signs today will violate his own promises of transparency.
Continue readingFarm credit regulator won’t disclose enforcement actions against banks
As Congress negotiates a final version of financial reform, one group of lenders has already won a blanket carve out from increased bank regulation — the more than 90 banks and associations of the Farm Credit System, a government-sponsored enterprise that dates back to 1916. The system, which has $30.8 billion in capital, includes about 90 agricultural credit associations that are cooperatively owned, plus five wholesale lending banks.
Rural farm lenders didn’t cause the subprime crisis, and their business practices are above board, says Ken Auer, president of the Farm Credit Council, an association that represents Farm Credit System ...
Farm Subsidies Still Missing from USDAs Data-Rich Website
Farm subsidies have a way of inciting people. Here, in the words of the Environmental Working Group, is why:
Just ten percent of America's largest and richest farms collect almost three-fourths of federal farm subsidies cash payments that too often promote harmful environmental practices.
For the past five years, EWG has undertaken the arduous task of acquiring subsidy-payment data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Freedom of Information Act, cleaning up millions of records and assembling them into a database that can be searched by name, county, city, farm program, crop and congressional district. The database ...
Farm Bill and Farm Subsidies
Air Congress highlights a short yet informative video from the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute on the 2007 Farm Bill and the pork Congress has weighted it down with. Here's another from the anti-hunger group Oxfam America making similar points. But if you are interested in the Farm Bill, your research should start with the Environmental Working Groups long-standing farm subsidy database.
The National Family Farm Coalition, an advocate for the family farmer and the American consumer, is right in saying that anyone who eats has an interest and a stake in the farm bill. NFFC has a very helpful resource that answers many of the questions regarding the bill and agriculture policy.
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