September 19, 2006
Ames, Iowa — Congress should take the best of current commodity policy and add in the best ideas from the Risk Management Agency to build a more efficient farm bill, an Iowa State University professor will tell a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee this week.
Bruce Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) and a professor of economics, has been invited to testify about current and future farm policy before the House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, which is chaired by Rep. Jerry Moran of Kansas.
The hearing will start at 10 a.m. Sept. 21, in Room 1300 of the Longworth House Office Building. Babcock's testimony will be posted to the CARD Web site (www.card.iastate.edu) after the hearing.
The subcommittee has invited Babcock to talk about the effects of the 2002 farm legislation and what should go into the 2007 farm bill. Babcock said he will provide some preliminary estimates of the costs of a more efficient agriculture safety net compared with the current program. Babcock and other analysts at CARD conduct analysis on commodity and risk management policy, and he has written and presented extensively on these topics.