NYT editorial: Last Chance for Farm Reform

Last summer, the House approved a deeply disappointing farm bill that would perpetuate a lavish, outdated system of price supports that disproportionately rewards big farmers, complicates American trade policy and does little to help consumers. Unless the Democratic leadership shows some unaccustomed gumption, the Senate could wind up making the same mistakes.

President Bush, who has generally been on the right side of the farm issue, should think seriously about a veto if nothing better arrives on his desk. Otherwise, the country is in for another five years of bad farm policy.

The House bill provides billions of dollars in price supports and payments to producers of crops like wheat, corn and soybeans — even though crop prices, fueled by the ethanol boom, are at or near all-time highs. These handouts also complicate trade negotiations and discriminate against poor farmers overseas who cannot compete against America’s subsidized producers.

Tom Harkin, the independent-minded Iowa Democrat who runs the Senate Agriculture Committee, had proposed to slash these subsidies and reinvest as much as $6 billion in conservation programs. But farm-state stalwarts rose up in anguished, bipartisan protest and Mr. Harkin backed down. The result was that ideas for reforming the system from more adventurous thinkers like Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, and Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, went down the drain.

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