Farm groups from across the country are rushing to release suggestions for farm subsidy reform before Congress reaches its October 13 deadline to cut $2 trillion from the U.S. budget. The budget trimming is a part of the August debt ceiling deal, a deal that raised the legal amount that the U.S. government can borrow (an increase that was needed to continue to service American debt) while simultaneously agreeing to lower spending by trillions in an effort to reduce the federal deficit.

The debt deal is only one example of a string of budget cutting measures implemented by Congress over the last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has had its budget cut and several conservation and insurance programs are in danger of being defunded.

In this environment of fiscal worry, many Americans have advocated ending direct farm subsidies, payments made directly to farmers regardless of crop prices. Rather than seeing federal funding simply cut, some farm organizations are preparing their own proposals to reform, rather than entirely eliminate, farm subsidies.

The National Corn Growers Association, for example, recently released a proposal that would end direct payments to corn growers, instead replacing them with revenue protection programs that would trigger direct payments when crop prices dropped below a certain level. The America Soybean Association is currently gathering economic data to determine the most useful form of soybean subsidies, as is the National Cotton Council.

While crop prices are currently at all time highs, many farmers are worried that prices will not remain indefinitely high and that commodity prices do not necessarily offset outside costs, like fuel and feed, which limit profitability.

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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer