President Obama Will Sign New Farm Bill Worth $1 Trillion into Law

President Barack Obama will be in Lansing on Friday to sign the new farm bill, worth close to $1 trillion. The bill was approved last Tuesday by the Senate. The President will also speak about the importance of the new farm bill.

After he affixes his signature on the bill, it will be called the Agriculture Act of 2014. Aside from delivering his speech and signing the bill into law, the President is in Michigan to look at the agriculture program at the Michigan State University.

More than a farm bill

The Agriculture Act of 2014 will be an extensive farm bill. It will expound the federal crop insurance and stop the direct payment by the government to farmers. The bill will also cut food stamps annually by $800 million. The food stamp program of the government aids one in seven Americans. The annual cut represents about one percent of the budget, which is just one-fifth of the cut that was approved by the Republicans last fall. The Conservatives though are still unhappy about the farm bill, and the subsidies it will be giving to several farm groups, from the maple syrup industry to sheep farmers.

Long time coming

The partisan dispute over the government spending on food stamps went on for two years. Last fall the lawmakers received warning that there will be an impending high increase in the prices of milk and milk products if a deal on the bill cannot be reached since the bill also included federal support for the dairy industry. At that time, the chance of a compromise seemed dim as the lawmakers could not agree on a budget that eventually put the U.S. on temporary government shutdown.

Boosting exports

In his State of the Union address, President Obama stated that the new year is a year of action and the he would be using his presidential powers to do what he could do without Congress approval, as well as push Congress to help him. Aside from the farm bill, he is pushing for an initiative to boost exports of products with a “Made in Rural America” label.

The initiative, still in its draft form, will work on providing connections between federal resources and rural businesses, which can help the farmers sell their services and products overseas. Included in the program are the hosting of five regional forums for businesses in rural America, training the staff of the Agriculture Department in all 50 states in providing information on opportunities for export and mounting a national conference that will focus on successful undertakings.

This is in line with the overseas exports of U.S. farmers that are setting high records. Exports of farm produce and services last year was over $140 billion, most of which went to China where the demand was the largest.

Some of the other inclusions in the farm bill are new requirements for product labeling, which will include where the animal was born, where it was slaughtered as well as processed, and cheaper crop insurance. It also includes the planting of more row crops, including soy, wheat, corn and sushi rice.

Photo credit: Taken by USDAgov under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.