skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Obama's Iowa Campaign Promises on Farm Reform Remain Unfulfilled

play audio
Play

Monday, December 15, 2014   

DES MOINES, Iowa – As the political focus of the country slowly begins to shift toward the presidential election of 2016, some in Iowa are calling on President Barack Obama to keep a promise he made when first campaigning in the state seven years ago.

At the time, Obama's platform included a promise to reform federal farm subsidy programs, by closing loopholes that allow big windfalls for the wealthiest operations.

Today, Emmetsburg farmer Tom Stillman says that still hasn't happened.

"The size of the farms keep getting bigger, and the size of payments keep getting bigger to the farmers, and more and more money is still going to the mega-farms," he stresses.

With the loopholes, Stillman says those mega-farms are able to get around payment limits by subdividing their operations into multiple corporations – at least, on paper.

More recently, there were unsuccessful attempts to change the rules to include payment limits in the 2014 Farm Bill.

"They could just write it right into the policy right now and get it done, but I don't see that happening,” Stillman says. “Sugar people down south do not want it to stop, because they get more than what we do up here on the grain farms.

“That's one of the problems right there is, we have different farm entities in different parts of the country that would like that not to be switched."

Even without action by Congress, Stillman maintains both Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack have the authority to close the loophole, and limit payments to active farmers and landowners who rent to active farmers.

He points out doing so would slow farm consolidation and create genuine opportunity for small and mid-sized family farms.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021