John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

I am often asked, “What is the next farm bill going to look like?” Sorry, but I don’t have a crystal ball.

Keep in mind that these times are much different from what we’ve known in the past. We are looking at record farm income. 2010 net income was up 33 percent over 2009 and 26 percent higher than the 10-year average.

When my father started farming in the 1930s, hogs were worth about 3 cents a pound. The whole country was in depression. Along came farm programs.

There was too much production and too little demand. The government even killed baby pigs to balance supply with demand. They didn’t do that long, but the practice of cutting supply to increase demand and price stayed around. When I was Secretary of Agriculture, we had farm land set-asides. Take 10% of your corn acres out of production and put it in grass if you want price supports. Over the years, the government has been deeply involved trying to protect family farms from the devastation of draughts and floods and market collapse.

Over time, the degree of government management of American agriculture has diminished. We are more concerned today about whether we can produce enough food. We’re not worried about surplus. On top of that fact, the federal government is building a massive unsustainable debt. We have to cut spending somewhere – probably everywhere. Agriculture is an obvious target.

So, the question is, under these conditions, “what do we do?” House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas admits that (although he doesn’t like it) direct payments may be on the table. I think direct payments are indefensible because you don’t have to do anything to earn them. He also points out that with a conservation reserve of more than 30 million acres, we could bring some of those acres back into production to help meet the global demand for food. I agree.

The Senate Ag Committee is chaired by Debbie Stabenow from Michigan, and she says farms need a “smarter, simpler, and more streamlined” safety net. When you invest $300 per acre in planting and growing a crop with no control over the weather, you are taking a huge risk.

Well, a smarter, simpler, more streamlined” safety net sounds good, but how do you do it? There are so many crops grown, so much risk, and so little money. I don’t know where you start.

One certainty is that the nutrition programs will take most of the ag budget money – 70 or 80 percent. Hungry people will be prioritized over risk-taking farmers.

Look back over the years and you can see – as times and conditions change, farm bills change.

In closing, I would encourage you to access my website which archives my radio commentaries dating back 10 years and will go back 20 years when complete. Check on what I said back then. Go to www.johnblockreports.com .

Until next week, I am John Block in Washington.