East Bay farmers in the sprawling district of Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, would get a lot more federal money if the government shifted farm spending from traditional crop subsidies to conservation, according to a report released Monday by the advocacy group Environmental Defense.The report is part of an orchestrated rebellion by a loosely knit insurgency of organic growers, urban lawmakers, Bay Area health advocates, California fruit and vegetable growers, Republican free-market types and environmentalists against traditional farm interests in the mammoth five-year farm bill up for renewal this year.
By all indications, the establishment farm lobby is winning the early rounds, as House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., promised to move a bill through his panel next week that preserves the status quo.
But Scott Faber, farm policy campaign director for Environmental Defense, predicted a free-for-all if such a bill reaches the House floor this month.
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