Cochran key in farm bill’s evolution
Members of Congress from the Midwest and members from the South are fighting over whether this nation’s farm policy will favor crops grown primarily in the South over crops that are more prevalent in the Midwest.
At stake are Republican efforts to save $23 billion in agriculture spending vs. what many Southern farmers see as an effort to nail down profitability for some farmers by taking it out of the financial hides of farmers growing different crops.
Or to put in more directly, Southern farmers who raise rice and peanuts are poised to see if the federal government gives them a smaller, less substantive farm safety net than that being afforded to farmers in the Midwest producing corn and soybeans.
Sid Salter
6/13/12
Magnolia Tribune
