The giant New Year’s tax package rushed through the Senate Tuesday morning includes a nine-month farm bill extension that forestalls any immediate spike in milk prices but also represents a bitter blow for farmers who had hoped for long-sought changes in the dairy support program.
The upshot is a victory for Southern agricultural interests with the greatest stake in a costly system of direct cash payments to often already profitable producers.
“The deal is blatantly anti-reform,” said Ferd Hoefner, policy direct for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “Many smaller, targeted programs to fund farm and food system reform and rural jobs…were left out completely.”
“The message is unmistakable – direct commodity subsidies, despite high market prices, are sacrosanct, while the rest of agriculture and the rest of rural America can simply drop dead.”