1. seed
  2. "And On His Farm He Had a Fuel Cell, E-i-ei-o..."

"And On His Farm He Had a Fuel Cell, E-i-ei-o..."

By sarahdasher on February 4, 2007.

In the wake of the IPCC report, you may have missed out on this proposal, which bears integrally on our economy, our environment and our health.

i-248a44c20484f951de2946eb51e9acb7-farmbill.jpg

The 2002 Farm Bill is up for renewal. On Wednesday, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns introduced a new Farm Bill that, while not as revolutionary as some had hoped, takes steps to mitigate some of the uglier faces of large-scale agribusiness.

The new bill eliminates subsidies for farmers who earn more than $200 thousand per year (down from $2.5 million), and aims to democratize the current subsidy system which tends to over-compensate highly productive farmers and under-compensate farmers who experience crop loss.

Other reforms include an additional $7.8 billion in funding reserved for conservation programs, $4.2 billion for water quality enhancement, and $1.6 billion for renweable energy research and grants. Additionally, the new bill reserves $3.2 billion for purchasing more fruits and vegetables to improve nutrition assistance programs.

A summary of the 2007 Farm Bill is available here.

Image.

Tags
environment

More like this

Passing Affordable Care means Dems have to defend it

There were lots of reasons why I wanted to see Affordable Care (née healthcare reform) pass. Ending the tyranny of "pre-existing conditions," of cruel recissions, and insuring more than 30 million uninsured Americans were big reasons.

Byrd's Secret Hold

It turns out that Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia also had a secret hold on the bill, not just Ted Stevens. That is no surprise to anyone who knows Washington. Byrd is the Democratic doppelganger to the Republican Stevens.

Senate Stimulus Package Update: Part II

Follow up reposted from ScienceDebate:

Louisiana Heading For Creationism Law

By a vote of 94-3, Louisiana's House of Representatives today passed an academic freedom bill that would protect teachers and school districts who wish to promote critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics.

Nice. Very nice. But nothing short of reversing the 1973 Farm Bill, written by Earl Butz (working for President Nixon), will really do the trick.