WASHINGTON D.C. — Direct payments are history, said U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in a conversation about the upcoming farm bill.

“There is sort-of agreement,” he said. “I don’t think farmers really want direct payments. They want a good safety net.”

The Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) and the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) programs will likely roll into the Agricultural Risk and Revenue Management (ARRM) program introduced by him and Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Brown said. It would eliminate direct and counter-cyclical payments.

“We think that provides a better safety net, saves taxpayer dollars and gives farmers help when they want and when they need it,” said Brown.

There will likely be a reduction in the number of conservation programs in the next farm bill. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently visited the Grand Lake St. Marys and the Western basin of Lake Erie region with Brown, however, and they discussed how conservation programs need to be tailored to work in those areas.

Concerning crop insurance, there is broad recognition among Senate Ag Committee members that much of the safety net is built around that insurance, Brown said. 

Last year’s total cost of federal crop insurance was $9 billion.

“I don’t know what it will be next year, but much of what we’re trying to do is make the existing crop insurance program work better so taxpayers get more from their investments, and farmers are offered crop insurance programs that, first, they understand and second, work,” Brown said.

Research on biotechnology and biofuel is important and government funding will continue – Vilsack is focused on that and thinks it is essential, Brown said.  Because of what USDA and private companies are doing, there are great opportunities in that field.

He pointed out the Agriculture Committee last year did something that no one else did while the budget “Super Committee” was at work. “Both parties (on the ag committee) came together ... and we came up with $23 billion over 10 years in cuts,” Brown said. “We knew how to do it, we did it and no other committee in the Senate or House did it and it was bipartisan.”

Also, while two-thirds of farm bill money goes to food stamps and other nutrition programs, farmers are getting some of that money, too, although not enough, Brown said.

“Frankly, corn farmers don’t get enough of the price of corn flakes; I understand that,” he said. “Still, one of the reasons the nutrition title is so strong is that farmers understand that – first, we’re all in it together, and second, this helps them, too.”

When will there be a farm bill? “Beats me,” Brown answered. “Are the Reds going to win the World Series? I don’t know. There is a real commitment to do it. I think people realize that a delay hurts agriculture and that is why we want to move on it quickly.

“My concerns are that we have a strong nutrition title, have strong conservation, that it helps farmers that fall on bad times whether (because of) low prices or low yields and that farmers can be entrepreneurs but have a safety net available to them when things go wrong.”

Brown grew up working on a family dairy farm. He is the first Ohio senator to be on the Agriculture Committee in 40 years and may be the first ever to also be on the Appropriations Subcommittee, which actually funds the programs.