Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack penned a guest column in yesterday's Des Moines Register laying out the administration's budget proposals as they pertain to farm programs. In it, he reminds readers of the real reason "Direct Payments" were added to the farm bill.

I acknowledge that capping farm program payments and tightening eligibility for direct payments may not be popular with some of Iowa's farmers or producers from around the country, but we must remember that direct payments were never intended to be around this long. They were temporary payments in the 1996 farm bill, and although they were scheduled to expire, they were included in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills, at a cost to taxpayers of about $5.2 billion per year.

In these tough economic times, it's important for us to make choices that will prevent future generations from being saddled with overwhelming debt. We all must share in the near-term pain that will put our country on a path toward economic recovery.

EWG had done a detailed analysis of "Direct Payments" that you can find here.

Statement of Ken Cook
President, Environmental Working Group

"President Obama and Agriculture Secretary Vilsack have done the public a great service by nominating Kathleen Merrigan for deputy secretary of agriculture.

"It is a strong signal that under the Obama administration, USDA will not be doing agribusiness as usual.

"In a policy realm dominated by the endless clamor of the subsidy lobby, Kathleen has distinguished herself by hearing and responding to the concerns of those who too often have been ignored by agriculture's officialdom: small farmers, advocates for sustainable agriculture, the organic food community, conservationists, and the economically disadvantaged.

"Kathleen has had a distinguished career in agriculture policy, not least of which was her prodigious work for Senator Patrick Leahy to create a national standard for organic food as part of the 1990 farm bill and over the objections of much of the agriculture establishment. She is diligent, creative, forward looking, and deeply committed to public service.

"EWG wishes Kathleen all the best in this new role and looks forward to working with her at USDA."

USDA released their every five year census of US agriculture Wednesday. Keith Good at Farmpolicy.com immediately noted the significance of one of the department's findings.

The latest census figures show a continuation in the trend towards more small and very large farms and fewer mid-sized operations. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of farms with sales of less than $2,500 increased by 74,000. The number of farms with sales of more than $500,000 grew by 46,000 during the same period.

This new data helps support the notion that the flawed policy of federal farm subsidy payments, funded by taxpayers, is accelerating the consolidation of farms into the hands of bigger and wealthier operations. Our data shows that just a narrow band of farms, 10%, receives over 70% of total farm subsidy payments.

When funds are doled out based on land ownership and not need, then the big guys get bigger, and other farms, in this case medium sized operations, struggle to survive.

The fact that the numbers of small farms are increasing is good news, despite a huge inequity percentage wise in federal support compared to large commodity farmers. Imagine the difference real support could mean for the organic and localvore movements.

Secretary Vilsack's concerns over the loss of medium sized farms are encouraging, especially how he views conservation playing a role.

Jessica Hoffman at Color Lines Magazine does an exceptional job chronicling the plight of minority farmers and the discriminatory practices they have endured.

For years, the GAO and major media outlets have documented wasteful farm subsidies to ineligible rich people, dead people and people who don't even farm. Less well documented is the other side of the story: that crop-subsidy programs systematically fail to support small farmers--and this disproportionately impacts farmers of color.

EWG has partnered with the National Black Farmers Association on landmark minority farmer investigations like Short Crop and Obstruction of Justice.

Read all of Jessica's piece here.

From today's release:

WASHINGTON, January 23, 2009 - Minority farmers have long suffered discrimination at the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, often in the form of grossly inequitable farm loan and commodity support payments. In addition, USDA employees actively and illegally lobbied against civil rights settlement provisions in the recent House passed version of the farm bill.

The potentially criminal activities by USDA employees prompted then-Senator Obama to urge swift resolution to the racial discrimination rampant within USDA. No clear answers have yet emerged as to who was behind the unlawful lobbying and what actions, if any, were taken to punish those involved.

The National Black Farmers Association and Environmental Working Group have published a series of exclusive investigations detailing USDA's discriminatory practices. Obstruction of Justice, published in July 2004, found that nearly nine of 10 African American farmers who sought restitution under a 1999 settlement in the landmark Pigford v. Glickman civil rights case were denied compensation. The study found that the USDA spent 56,000 hours and $12 million contesting individual farmer claims for compensation under the class action lawsuit.

A July 2007 EWG report entitled Short Crop found that black farmers receive between one-sixth to one-third of the major federal crop subsidy benefits received by other farmers and that the "subsidy gap" widened dramatically between 1995 and 2005.

The sorrowful legacy of civil rights abuses at USDA, however, may soon come to an end.

Within days of assuming leadership of USDA, Secretary Thomas Vilsack has indicated that he intends resolve the civil rights issues that have plagued the department for decades.

"We are gratified that Secretary Vilsack has made it his priority to resolve the nagging and hurtful discriminatory practices at USDA that have been inflicted upon thousands of minority farmers," said Dr. John Boyd, president of the NBFA.

""We had an ugly reminder of the racist undercurrent that permeates certain elements at USDA when, within days of passage of the House Farm Bill in 2007, department employees began an illegal lobbying campaign to eliminate a provision that was intended to rectify the disgraceful handling of restitution claims by black farmers' claims under the Pigford discrimination case," said EWG president Ken Cook.