Dick Lugar: “I rise to introduce the Farm Risk Management Act for the 21st Century. This bill is a blueprint on how to transition…”

“I rise to introduce the Farm Risk Management Act for the 21st Century. This bill is a blueprint on how to transition away from the farm programs linked to the Great Depression into a new market driven system. We have also suggested how Congress could utilize achieved savings to improve our farm economy, our environment, alleviate hunger, promote renewable energy, and reduce our Federal deficit. Current Federal Farm Programs target payments to a relatively narrow sector of American farmers and provide direct payments regardless of commodity prices. The bulk of these payments are made to growers of just 5 crops. Cotton, rice, corn, wheat, and soybean farmers receive about 85 percent of the annual payments provided by U.S. taxpayers. Notably, about 70 percent of these payments go to only 10 percent of our nation's farmers. The current farm subsidy system is inequitable, inefficient, and disconnected from the core goal of maintaining a family farm safety net. It is also self-perpetuating, in that it stimulates over-production and stagnant prices that produce calls for greater Government support. I believe that what we need is a true safety net that would embrace all farmers, avoid incentives to overproduce commodities when market signals do not exist, and lower costs for taxpayers.”