Re: OT...Got Garden? Daily Food Crisis in the News

In article <Xns9A8C5DE6766BAenigmaempirenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 enigma <enigma@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Farm Bill

Nothing yet but they say they are close. 
For re****ts Google "farm bill, 2008".

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/BUSI
NESS01/804260339/-1/LIFE04

Farm bill prunes credits for ethanol

By PHILIP BRASHER € REGISTER WA****NGTON BUREAU € April 26, 2008

Wa****ngton, D.C. ‹ Congressional negotiators reached agreement Friday on 
a new farm bill that would nick crop subsidies and reduce the tax credit 
that underpins the ethanol industry.

Some details were still to be worked out over the weekend, including a 
tightening of income-eligibility limits for farm subsidies.

However, the deal broke an impasse that had delayed final work on the 
bill for months.

The House and Senate passed competing versions of the bill last fall.
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However, President Bush threatened to veto any bill that used what he 
considered tax increases to pay for higher spending. The House and 
Senate were also at odds with each over funding.

"Everybody took some cuts," said Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who 
is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to comment on the 
agreement, saying administration officials had not seen the entire 
package.

The final bill could be put to the vote of a House-Senate conference 
committee as early as Monday.

Grain and cotton growers successfully fought off a significant cut in 
the $5 billion in fixed annual payments that they receive. Under the 
deal, those payments would be reduced by $400 million over a 10-year 
period.

Iowa farmers and landowners receive about $500 million annually in fixed 
payments.

The federal tax credit that subsidizes the ethanol industry would be 
trimmed from 51 cents to 45 cents a gallon to help offset the cost of a 
package of tax incentives for horse racing, timber and other industries.

A new subsidy, worth as much as $1.01 a gallon, would be created for 
ethanol made from sources other than corn, including crop residue and 
wood waste.

Reducing the subsidy for conventional grain-based ethanol would lower 
the price of corn by less than 3 cents a bushel, said Iowa State 
University economist Bruce Babcock. Corn prices in Iowa were more than 
$5.30 a bushel Friday.

Lawmakers agreed to extend a tariff on im****ted ethanol through 2010. It 
is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

Harkin preserved $1.1 billion in funding for the Conservation Security 
Program, which would expand the program from 16 million to 80 million 
acres.

The program provides payments to farmers for practices that reduce 
erosion.

Congressional aides were also still working on final details of an 
optional new subsidy program that would protect farmers against drops in 
yields as well as market prices. The program has been a top priority for 
corn growers in Iowa, who say that rising production costs have raised 
the financial stakes for a crop failure.

"There's no question we're glad to see that they've finally come to an 
agreement" on the bill, said Ron Litterer, a Greene farmer who is 
president of the National Corn Growers Association.

Existing farm programs were scheduled to expire last fall but have been 
extended several times and are now set to end next Friday.

On Thursday, lawmakers agreed to drop a revenue source that the White 
House had objected to and instead decided to get money they needed 
through extending user fees paid by im****ters. Under federal budget 
rules, user fees do not count as taxes.

The user fees and some spending cuts were needed to pay for boosting 
nutrition programs, including food stamps, and creating a disaster 
relief program sought by farmers in North Dakota, Montana and other 
drought-prone states.
-- 

Billy

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBB0svwMdY&feature=related