(CQ Today) -- The farm bill is a multibillion-dollar reauthorization of federal farm, nutrition assistance, rural development and agricultural trade programs. The heart of the farm bill is income and commodity price support policy, but the measure also deals with agricultural trade and foreign food aid, conservation and the environment, forestry, domestic food assistance, agricultural research and more. Some bill highlights:
• Direct payments, subsidies that farmers always get regardless of crop prices, would be cut overall by $313 million by reducing the percentage of acres for which a farmer can collect those payments from 85% to 83.3%.
• The bill would allow fruits and vegetables to be planted on 75,000 acres of land typically used to grow government-subsidized crops such as corn and soybeans, so long as that produce was used for processed and canned foods. That would change the current planting restrictions that prevent farmers from growing fruits and vegetables on land subsidized by the government.
• The Conservation Reserve Program, a program that pays farmers to preserve land instead of farm it, would be reduced from 39.2 million acres to 32 million acres.
• The government would subsidize the purchase of excess sugar in the American market to make sugar-based ethanol.
• The definition of “rural” would be changed to make sure that USDA dollars go to rural areas with the greatest need.
• The ethanol tax credit would be extended for two years, but would be reduced 6 cents to 45 cents per gallon. The ethanol tariff would be extended for two years as well.
• The legislation would create the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, which would provide incentives for producers to establish and grow cellulosic energy crops.
• Direct payments, subsidies that farmers always get regardless of crop prices, would be cut overall by $313 million by reducing the percentage of acres for which a farmer can collect those payments from 85% to 83.3%.
• The bill would allow fruits and vegetables to be planted on 75,000 acres of land typically used to grow government-subsidized crops such as corn and soybeans, so long as that produce was used for processed and canned foods. That would change the current planting restrictions that prevent farmers from growing fruits and vegetables on land subsidized by the government.
• The Conservation Reserve Program, a program that pays farmers to preserve land instead of farm it, would be reduced from 39.2 million acres to 32 million acres.
• The government would subsidize the purchase of excess sugar in the American market to make sugar-based ethanol.
• The definition of “rural” would be changed to make sure that USDA dollars go to rural areas with the greatest need.
• The ethanol tax credit would be extended for two years, but would be reduced 6 cents to 45 cents per gallon. The ethanol tariff would be extended for two years as well.
• The legislation would create the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, which would provide incentives for producers to establish and grow cellulosic energy crops.
