Farm Policy Facts Study Addresses Heritage Foundation Suggestions

A study sponsored by seven agriculture groups and released by Farm Policy Facts calls a plan by the Heritage Foundation misleading.  Brandon Willis, former Agriculture Department Risk Management Agency administrator, crafted the study “How Heritage Foundation’s U.S. Farm Policy Proposals Would Put America Last.”  The Heritage Foundation released a blueprint earlier this year for the 2018 Farm Bill, and claims it is time to change farm policy.

The blueprint would eliminate revenue-based crop insurance and the Renewable Fuel Standard, eliminate the Waters of the United States Rule and eliminate bio energy programs.  Willis writes in the Farm Policy Facts study that the Heritage Foundation assumes farmers are in a good position economically, but adds the Foundation cherry-picked the data and used a flawed methodology to “exaggerate the financial condition of actual farmers and ranchers.”

Willis says 70% of the income reported was derived from other sectors.  His research shows that wheat, corn and cotton farmers, when all cost are considered, profit less than 30 percent of the time. The study is available at www.farmpolicyfacts.org.

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