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Agriculture to have more cuts in 2012

Agriculture is expected to have more program funding cuts in the 2012 federal budget.

Pat Westhoff, co-director of the Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, says agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration could be cut 13 percent.

“It’s very tough to know what Congress will choose to do as they try to hit the targets in front of us. If you look at the basic farm programs there’s two of those who have most of the expected spending 0ver the next ten years- the crop insurance program and direct payments. So we expect there will be a lot of pressure in those programs as we go forward,” says Westhoff.

Biofuels are expected to have a positive influence. Missouri Soybean Association CEO Dale Ludwig says in terms of budget cuts, biofuels have helped boost commodity prices, influencing how much the Federal Government spends in direct payments.

“If you look at the number of people that we have involved in agriculture, it’s a real easy decision for Congress to say things are good in agriculture, the debt that we have in the country, we’ve got to figure out where to save some money somewhere and we’re not going to affect alot of people and alot of votes when we do it,” says Ludwig.

Westhoff and Ludwig were among the participants of the annual Breimyer  Seminar held Monday at the University of Missouri, Columbia.