Senate Democrats announced a breakthrough in a long-stalled farm bill Wednesday that would provide billions of dollars for California fruit and vegetable marketing, farm conservation and food stamps - but would maintain costly, traditional crop subsidies for corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans.The linchpin of the deal was $3 billion in new money that suddenly appeared when the Congressional Budget Office determined that a new option for subsidized farmers to choose an alternative insurance-style program would save money. That money could pay for environmental and nutrition programs while shielding subsidies from cuts.
But it was unclear whether the deal would appease the unusual left-right alliance of reformers hoping to change the 70-year-old system of crop subsidies that they contend has speeded farm industrialization, harmed the environment and contributed to the nation's obesity epidemic. Fruit and vegetable growers said they might not be happy, either.
All this poses a quandary for California's Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, who are being lobbied vigorously by the state's cotton and rice farmers and fruit and vegetable growers who want more money for research and marketing, and Bay Area environmental and food activists seeking to change the government's role in agriculture. Neither senator has yet taken a position.
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