By Crystal D. Swann
May 5, 2008

With the rising costs of food and fuel and emergency food relief programs running on empty, last week’s announcement that House and Senate conferees reached an agreement on a new farm bill (H.R. 2419) came as a welcome relief to many programs that feed the hungry. American’s Second Harvest, largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States, reports “lines for emergency food assistance nationwide are growing longer, supplies at food banks are becoming more and more sparse, and food prices continue to climb…” creating a tremendous burden on working families struggling to make ends meet in a down economy. Reporting that an estimated 28 million Americans receive food stamp benefits, many advocates and experts expect that to rise in the near future.

The agreement contains about $10 billion in new funding, and is worth about $570 billion over ten years. Included in the bill is new funding for the Food Stamp program, disaster aid program and farm-related tax credits. Food stamps and food aid would account for about $10.2 billion, an increase over the initial proposal of $9.5 billion. Reports indicate that the compromise would include an extension of the ethanol tax credit; new tax credits to boost cellulosic ethanol production and to promote land conservation. The programs will in part be paid for by a $400 million cut to direct programs a subsidy farmers get based on their acreage and the type of crop they grow, and a $250 million cut to a $4 billion disaster aid fund and extension of some consumer users fees.

The exact details of the bill are being kept quiet until conferees meet with President Bush to secure his support. Bush has threatened to veto any farm bill that does not include significant cuts in farm subsidies. House and Senate conferees after reaching a deal on subsidies including fruit and vegetable planting restrictions and farm subsidy caps, where hopeful that their negotiations yielded a bill the President could sign.

The President, however, has in no uncertain terms, indicated his displeasure with the new agreement stating that the current agreement doesn’t go far enough in eliminating subsidy payments to multimillionaire farmers. The farm bill conferees say that they will continue the negotiations. The current funding extension was to expire on May 2, but another short-term extension may be passed in order to complete negotiations.