Snip ~ "Although the bill has not yet reached the House floor, the House Agriculture Committee did approve a five year farm and nutrition plan early Thursday morning"
July 12, 2012
Drafting the 2012 Farm Bill
The current Farm Bill, which provides farmers and others in the agricultural field with government subsidies, expires at the end of September.
During the past few weeks, both the Senate and the House have been working to draft a successor.
Although the bill has not yet reached the House floor, the House Agriculture Committee did approve a five year farm and nutrition plan early Thursday morning.
This bill offers farmers new ways to protect themselves, such as when crops are destroyed during storms, or when prices fall too low.
The owner of Norwich Meadows Farms said the bill's proposed weather protection could be helpful.
"If vegetable farmers don't start to have some kind of insurance program or a safety net that is going to help them, we are just going to drop like flies... the weather risk has become so great," said Zaid Kurdieh.
The bill also proposes saving $35 billion by tightening rules on food stamps, according to the New York Times.
That means a potential $16.5 billion cut to food stamps.
Kathy Pfaffenbach, from the Catholic Charities Food Pantry, says this news is upsetting.
"What this means is that $20 a month might be cut out of a single person's food stamps," she said. "Doesn't seem like an awful lot of money. But for a family who is on a fixed income, for a single person who is on a fixed income, because of them being elderly or disabled, where's that money going to come from? It's not."
Last month, the Senate approved its version of the bill, with steep cuts.
The Senate bill proposes a $23 billion cut in spending, according to the New York Times. That means a potential $4.5 billion cut to food stamps, about $12 billion less than the House bill proposes
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