Outsiders want "green" path for farm subsidies

[Eugene]

Outsiders want "green" path for farm subsidies
Mon May 8, 2006 10:03am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress should rewrite U.S. farm subsidy law dramatically
to encourage land stewardship and protect farm income by "revenue-based risk management
systems" that would replace an automatic spigot into the U.S. Treasury, a coalition
of environmentalists and others proposed on Monday.

Mainstream farm groups want a continuation of the 2002 farm law, which sharply boosted
grain, cotton and soybean support levels and costs to about $20 billion a year.

Lawmakers are scheduled to overhaul U.S. farm policy in 2007 amid pressure to curtail
federal spending and to revise subsidies so they cannot be challenged by trading partners.
An adverse World Trade Organization ruling has forced the end of a major cotton export
subsidy.

After more than a year of work, a coalition of small-farm advocates, environmentalists,
deficit hawks and anti-hunger activists called for more attention to land stewardship and
healthful foods along with elimination of target prices, one of the three ways of paying
grain, cotton and soybean subsidies.

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Full article: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-05-08T140249Z_01_N08134682_RTRUKOC_0_US-FOOD-FARMBILL.xml