2011 Farm Journal Forum
Key Highlights From The Day
Information from the 2011 Farm Journal Forum will be posted throughout the week. Here are some of the key takeaways from the day-long political discussion in Washington, D.C.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) highlighted the day of political powerhouses who attended the 2011 Farm Journal Forum. She hinted at some of the key proposals submitted to the Budget Super Committee from leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. She indicated that the Farm Bill submitted by the agriculture leadership will sacrifice direct payments to landowners, but they will not waiver on risk management programs like crop insurance.
Senate Ranking Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas is not comfortable with the final submission of the Farm Bill to the Budget Super Committee because he has not seen what was submitted.
Howard Buffett, president of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, in his keynote address said that there are a billion people in the world that go to be hungry every night, and there are another two billion that are on the edge of hunger and poverty. He added that hunger in the United States is very prevalent, with more than 50 million American’s not knowing where they will get their next meal.
Buffett challenged agriculture to take better care of soils, saying that 23 million acres of productive farmland have been lost in the past 60 years.Jim Weisemeyer, Informa Economics policy analyst, says it is likely the next Farm Bill will be completed in 2012.
May is the key month for a finished Farm Bill. If it is not completed by May, he says the political atmosphere will make the bill impossible to pass before the elections.
Scroll down for more news from the Farm Journal Forum.
