Attention Georgia Farmers: Ryan's Plan Calls for Steep Cuts to Agriculture

A letter sent to President Obama by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and eight other Democratic senators is intended to counter Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal and discourage the administration from supporting large cuts in farm programs. Ryan has proposed $30 billion in cuts over 10 years to the direct payments and crop insurance programs and $18 billion in additional cuts that would most likely come from conservation programs.

In their letter, the senators pointed to droughts, floods and severe rains that have impacted planting in both the North and the South as proof that “farming is an extraordinarily high-risk undertaking,” showing that “farmers need tools to manage their risk in case of natural disasters and increasingly volatile prices.”The senators noted not only the importance of farm subsidies, but also the need for conservation programs, support for local and regional agriculture, incentives for rural job creation and research to increase productivity.

Read Letter obtained by the Hagstrom Report: Letter to President Obama