The new Farm Bill is the main topic for many politicians, including Congressman Ron Kind. Kind voted against the bill for several reasons. Kind said the bill cuts another $8.6 billion from the nutrition title on top of previous cuts that have already been made, but gives huge taxpayer subsidies that go to a few large agribusinesses. While the elimination of direct payments is a step towards reforming farm subsidy programs, Kind says, in the case of this Farm Bill the majority of those savings are steered into new subsidy programs. Even though Kind voted against the bill, he agreed there were several improvements in the bill. “There were a lot of good provisions that affect organic farming, transition costs, more organic research, which was good,” said Kind. “I thought the energy title ended up in a pretty good spot given all the energy research that we’re doing here in the state of Wisconsin, especially at Madison right now. I believe that for a long time we could become the Saudi Arabia of alternative renewable bio-fuel energy production in the upper Midwest.” Kind says he believes that the energy title will continue to head in that direction. The Farm Bill was signed into law by President Obama earlier this month.
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