Editorial: State should prepare for reduced farm subsidies

As Congress moves to address federal deficits and debt, it's apparent programs government-wide will take hits. Early indications are that farm subsidies will be reduced by as much as $35 billion over the next 10 years, or about 15 percent from direct payments, crop insurance and conservation programs. That kind of reduction will be felt in North Dakota. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and other state leaders, as well as statewide farm organizations, need to be putting their heads together to prepare the state's farmers and ranchers for a transition to reduced or eliminated farm subsidies. We are not talking about the state picking up the difference in dollars between what was and what will be, but about the state helping agriculture producers create market-based solutions to this new economic model. With Congress and the president now talking about making cuts in excess of $1 trillion, whether the debt ceiling is raised or not, farm subsidies have become exceedingly vulnerable. The situation gets even more complicated because Congress has just begun work on the next farm bill. "It's a mess is what it is," was how Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, put it in a story in the Sunday Tribune. North Dakotans can either put their faith in Congress, a rather iffy proposition, or pursue state government, associations, co-operative and private options for production and value-added agriculture...more