Continuing Education and
Communication Services
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
10/15/2001
Contacts:
Paul Lasley, Extension Sociology, (515) 294-0937, plasley@iastate.edu
Del Marks, Continuing Education and Communication Services, (515) 294-9807,
delmarks@iastate.edu
Farmers Say New Farm Bill Should Continue Present Policies
AMES, Iowa -- With the 1996 Freedom to Farm legislation about to expire, a majority of Iowa farmers would like to see the basic direction of that law continued in the new farm bill expected next year.
Forty-eight percent of farmers who participated in the 2001 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll agreed that the basic directions of the 1996 farm bill should be continued, according to Paul Lasley, Iowa State University Extension sociologist who directed the poll. Another 32 percent disagreed with continuing the trends of the current bill, while 20 percent were not sure which direction the new bill should take.
Eighty-eight percent of the participants in this year's poll would like to see the government devote more efforts to the promotion of agricultural exports, Lasley said. But only 47 percent said the national grain production policy should return to supply management procedures used in the past, including acreage set-asides and deficiency payments.
Another feature that 80 percent of Iowa farmers would like to see in a new farm bill is the extension of the Conservation Reserve Program to provide for buffer strips along all waterways to protect the environment.
"If we are trying to keep Rural America alive and well, [we need] incentives for small farms, including conservation practices, buffer strips, grass waterways, and a ban on flood plain farming," a Bremer County farmer commented. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed also said farmers should be required to adopt conservation technologies on highly erodible land in return for farm program payments.
The majority of Iowa farmers (68 percent) want the 2002 farm bill to provide for better crop insurance protection, but only 45 percent say farmers should receive incentives to put some of their financial resources into risk management accounts.
Two-thirds of those responding to the poll said government program payments should be used to counter the cyclical nature of commodity markets, and 63 percent said the current level of farm program payments should be continued in the 2002 farm bill.
The 1996 Freedom to Farm bill was viewed as an overall success by 55 percent of the farmers surveyed, but another 30 percent disagreed with that view. One respondent commented "the current farm bill has been successful in supporting production, farm and agribusiness consolidation and the rapid decline of family farms and rural communities."
The Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll is funded by ISU Extension and the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. The purpose of the poll, conducted since 1982, is to ask farmers' views on a variety of rural and agricultural issues. A statewide random sample of 3,376 Iowa farm operators were sent mail questionnaires in February, with a 61 percent response rate.
-30-
ml: isufarm
Extension programs are available to all without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability.