Diverse Alliance Backs Agricultural Payment Cap Legislation
A diverse group of non-governmental organizations welcomed today's introduction of the "Rural America Preservation Act" by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND), legislation calling for agricultural payment caps.
"The absence of effective payment limits means the federal government is writing big checks to big, corporate farms. That's just wrong in my judgment. We need to target farm payments to family farmers."
—Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
"We must recognize that all farm programs have been and are a form of social engineering, therefore let us use them for desirable outcomes which will serve the greater good of rural America. The Rural America Preservation Act being introduced today is a step in the right direction."
—Mark W. Leonard, a farmer who came from Holstein, IA for the introduction of the bill
"Due to the nearly unlimited subsidy payment amounts available under current law, hard working taxpayers end up footing the bill for a program that doesn't even meet its stated justification of preserving family farms. Instead these tax dollars are easily converted into subsidies for large agribusinesses who are eager to evade free-market competition."
—Paul Gessing, Director of Government Affairs, National Taxpayers Union
"Unfortunately, our farm subsidies don't help most farmers or the environment—our subsidies help big farmers get bigger, invite retaliatory tariffs, encourage farmers to plow up sensitive lands, and provide little incentive for stewardship or economic innovation. Now is our chance to reform farm programs to reward economic innovation, rather than dependence, and to link payments to environmental performance, rather than production."
—Scott Faber, Farm Policy Campaign Director for Environmental Defense
"Eating is a moral act. How the food we eat is paid for by tax dollars is a moral issue, an issue of equity and justice. Farm payments should be targeted and capped." —Holy Cross Brother David Andrews, National Catholic Rural Life Conference
"CCAGW applaud Senators Grassley and Dorgan for introducing the Rural America Preservation Act. The legislation would reduce the farm payment limit from the present $360,000 to $250,000. More importantly, the legislation would close the loopholes that allow an individual to create virtually an unlimited number of entities in order to maximize taxpayer subsidies."
—David E. Williams, vice president of The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste
"The current policies, justified as necessary to protect domestic rural interest, are doing little to help the most vulnerable people in the US. Most of the money spent on rural America ends up in the pockets of large landholders and agribusinesses, doing little to help small and mid-sized family farms or struggling rural families."
—David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World
"We think the bill proposed today by Senator Charles Grassley is an important step in the right direction toward ending the environmental and economic damage caused by a system of limitless crop subsidies."
—Brad Redlin, Director of Agricultural Programs, Isaak Walton League of America
"I applaud Senator Grassley and Senator Dorgan for taking steps to bring our farm policy into compliance with our trade agreements. For too long, our farm subsidies have discriminated against the farmers who look to the market, rather than the treasury, for their success."
—Colt Fosburgh, Chief Operating Officer, Free Enterprise Fund