On this week’s episode of Straight, No Chaser, we’re talking about the 2012 Farm Bill. Katy Keiffer is joined in the studio by Benjamin Solotaire of the Brooklyn Food Coalition and the NYC Food and Farm Bill Working Group, and Caitlin Salemi of the Urban Rural Alliance Building Committee, and also the NYC Food and Farm Bill Working Group. Tune in to hear discussions concerning cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and what it means in terms of food security for low-income families. Learn about the budget dedicated to crop insurance subsidies, and how these affect commodity crops such as corn, sugar, and soy. Why it is so important for an agreement to be reached concerning this year’s Farm Bill? Learn more about the process in the Senate and the House of Representatives that determine what the final bill will look like. This program has been brought to you by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.

“Farmers who grew commodities were paid regardless of what the price of the commodity was on the market, and regardless of whether or not they actually had that commodity planted. It was based on historic base acres, or what they could have planted. So the fact that that was eliminated and replaced with a much smaller commodity support system is a big deal.”

“The largest farms will not be eligible for the same amount of subsidies on what they pay as a premium. Now, farmers- regardless of income or size- the government subsidizes 62% of their premium that they pay for that crop insurance. That’s almost a reverse of what it was in the year 2000.” —Caitlin Salemi on Straight, No Chaser

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