A Canadian firm, Buchanan Renewable Energies, is to begin an investment into Liberia's biomass industry that will grow to US$20 million in October and offer 300 jobs by end of the year. The company will start shipping 90 major pieces of equipment to Liberia by the end of August.
U.S. House critics want 30% cut in crop subsidies
As some organisations fully endorse the new U.S. Farm Bill and ask for its swift funding (earlier post), critics in the House of Representatives unveiled a plan that would cut crop subsidy spending by 30 percent while boosting spending on public nutrition, land stewardship and specialty crop programs. The debate is important from the point of view of the chances for the developing world to participate in the nascent bioeconomy. If wealthy nations keep heavily subsidizing their own farmers, a Doha trade deal is ever more unlikely. It seems that the new U.S. legislation goes in the wrong direction and ups subsidies even further.
In the EU, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned that the rapidly growing biofuels and bioproducts industry should not constitute a new round of subsidizing of wealthy farmers in the North. Instead, they may offer a way to finally start reducing farm subsidies.
In the U.S. the new Farm Bill clearly has its critics. First of all, representative Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat, and his allies complain that the House Agriculture Committee's farm bill plan, now awaiting a vote from the entire House, offered "virtually no reform" of farm subsidies, so they will offer his alternative during debate later this week.
Kind proposes cutting grain, cotton and soybean outlays by $12 billion through 2012, a 30 percent reduction from the $40 billion now projected. This, he said, will allow Congress to spend another $5.6 billon on programs like food stamps, US$3 billion on land stewardship and US$1.2 billion to aid fruit and vegetable farmers.
At virtually the same time that Kind and a half-dozen allies announced their package, Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson assembled more than 200 people who support his committee's bill.
Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat. He cited more stringent rules on who can collect farm subsidies, along with proposals to expand biofuels by $2.5 billion, public nutrition by $4.2 billion, land stewardship by $2.9 billion and specialty crop programs by more than $1 billion over five years.
Crop subsidy rules have become the test of reform in the farm bill. Peterson's committee voted to deny subsidies to people with an adjusted gross income above $1 million and to require payments to be tracked to an individual, ending a system that allows growers to receive supports indirectly:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biobutanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: subsidies ::
Kind and his allies proposed their own cap for adjusted gross income of $250,000 and an annual payment cap of $250,000. A fact sheet for their package indicated growers could continue to collect payments indirectly. The committee bill removed a cap on revenue from price supports.
At present, people with up to $2.5 million a year in income are eligible for crop and stewardship payments. The Bush administration suggested a $200,000 limit, which would affect an estimated 38,000 of the wealthiest American farmers. The $1 million cut-off would hit 9,500 people.
While the committee bill would help bankroll the development of cellulose as a feedstock for making ethanol, the Kind package would use $2 billion to reduce the deficit. Neither approach would change the ban on growing fruit and vegetables on land eligible for crop subsidies, a prohibition the administration says must be ended.
The Environmental Working Group, which favors larger stewardship spending, criticized the Agriculture Committee subsidy proposal as "the AGI ruse." It said a USDA analysis showed 9,500 landlords and farmers had an adjusted gross income above $1 million and a third of them actually receive the payment, so the new rule would "affect almost no high-income farmers or landowners."
Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer said the group backing the bill would propose several smaller-scale amendments. One would allow the Bush administration to spend $100 million in famine-relief to buy food in neighboring countries. At the moment, all food aid has to be shipped from the United States.
References:
Reuters: Cut US crop subsidies 30 pct, say House critics - July 24, 2007.
Reuters: Don't use biofuels to fund farmers: EU trade chief - July 4, 2007.
International Conference on Biofuels, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson: The Biofuels Challenge [*.pdf, video presentation] - Juy 5, 2007.
In the EU, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warned that the rapidly growing biofuels and bioproducts industry should not constitute a new round of subsidizing of wealthy farmers in the North. Instead, they may offer a way to finally start reducing farm subsidies.
In the U.S. the new Farm Bill clearly has its critics. First of all, representative Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat, and his allies complain that the House Agriculture Committee's farm bill plan, now awaiting a vote from the entire House, offered "virtually no reform" of farm subsidies, so they will offer his alternative during debate later this week.
Kind proposes cutting grain, cotton and soybean outlays by $12 billion through 2012, a 30 percent reduction from the $40 billion now projected. This, he said, will allow Congress to spend another $5.6 billon on programs like food stamps, US$3 billion on land stewardship and US$1.2 billion to aid fruit and vegetable farmers.
At virtually the same time that Kind and a half-dozen allies announced their package, Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson assembled more than 200 people who support his committee's bill.
Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat. He cited more stringent rules on who can collect farm subsidies, along with proposals to expand biofuels by $2.5 billion, public nutrition by $4.2 billion, land stewardship by $2.9 billion and specialty crop programs by more than $1 billion over five years.
Crop subsidy rules have become the test of reform in the farm bill. Peterson's committee voted to deny subsidies to people with an adjusted gross income above $1 million and to require payments to be tracked to an individual, ending a system that allows growers to receive supports indirectly:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biobutanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: subsidies :: Kind and his allies proposed their own cap for adjusted gross income of $250,000 and an annual payment cap of $250,000. A fact sheet for their package indicated growers could continue to collect payments indirectly. The committee bill removed a cap on revenue from price supports.
At present, people with up to $2.5 million a year in income are eligible for crop and stewardship payments. The Bush administration suggested a $200,000 limit, which would affect an estimated 38,000 of the wealthiest American farmers. The $1 million cut-off would hit 9,500 people.
While the committee bill would help bankroll the development of cellulose as a feedstock for making ethanol, the Kind package would use $2 billion to reduce the deficit. Neither approach would change the ban on growing fruit and vegetables on land eligible for crop subsidies, a prohibition the administration says must be ended.
The Environmental Working Group, which favors larger stewardship spending, criticized the Agriculture Committee subsidy proposal as "the AGI ruse." It said a USDA analysis showed 9,500 landlords and farmers had an adjusted gross income above $1 million and a third of them actually receive the payment, so the new rule would "affect almost no high-income farmers or landowners."
Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer said the group backing the bill would propose several smaller-scale amendments. One would allow the Bush administration to spend $100 million in famine-relief to buy food in neighboring countries. At the moment, all food aid has to be shipped from the United States.
References:
Reuters: Cut US crop subsidies 30 pct, say House critics - July 24, 2007.
Reuters: Don't use biofuels to fund farmers: EU trade chief - July 4, 2007.
International Conference on Biofuels, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson: The Biofuels Challenge [*.pdf, video presentation] - Juy 5, 2007.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home