{"id":4835,"date":"2011-09-21T05:56:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T09:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2011-09-21T08:51:55","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T12:51:55","slug":"morning-read-farmers-political-power-withers-in-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/09\/21\/morning-read-farmers-political-power-withers-in-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: Farmers’ political power “withers” in Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand unveiled her priorities for the Farm Bill now being debated in Washington.<\/p>\n

Tops on her list are major reforms to the way dairy products are priced in the marketplace and how government subsidies work.<\/p>\n

“[F]or too long, our farmers have been held back by an outdated and unfair pricing system, and other obstacles to grow their businesses. We need our farmers to thrive if we\u2019re going to have a strong and growing economy in New York. I\u2019ve met with and heard from local farmers in every corner of our state, and now I\u2019m fighting for these proposals in the next Farm Bill to make sure it\u2019s a good deal for our farmers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gillibrand notes that farming is a $4.5 billion industry in New York.<\/p>\n

But this morning, Politico is reporting<\/a> that Americans are growing weary of the $4.7 billion in annual taxpayer cash subsidies paid directly to farmers every year.<\/p>\n

The on-line political journal notes a bipartisan push to scale back the “safety net” that farms rely on.<\/p>\n

Beginning with the House Republican budget last April, deficit talks over the summer focused on 10-year cuts of about $30 billion. And the White House upped the ante further Monday by proposing what is actually a 22 percent cut in farm supports, including an end to all direct payments and a surprising 11 percent, $8 billion cut from crop insurance.<\/p>\n

Change is certain then, and the real question for agriculture is how to manage this transition and still preserve some safety net.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what do you think?\u00a0 Time for farmers to go it alone?\u00a0 (Politico notes that the ag industry nationwide made net profits of $103.6 billion.)\u00a0 Or are their some sectors — dairy, for instance — that still need help?<\/p>\n

\n
Read more: http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0911\/63988.html#ixzz1YZz5RBog<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand unveiled her priorities for the Farm Bill now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1420,10,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4836,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions\/4836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}