Washington, DC – (AgNewsWire) On the same week as the 73rd anniversary of the first farm bill (May 12, 1933), two former Secretaries of Agriculture under Republican and Democratic administrations and two Midwestern farmer leaders today endorsed new, visionary policy recommendations for the 21st century contained in a report released today by American Farmland Trust (AFT). Entitled Agenda 2007: A New Framework and Direction for U.S. Farm Policy, the new AFT report is a product of more than a year of consultation with hundreds of farmers, ranchers, economists and policy experts. Agenda 2007 offers guidelines and policy recommendations for the next farm bill. It was developed to respond to mounting budget deficits, the trade distortions of existing policies, the inequitable distribution of farm bill benefits and insufficient focus on infrastructure investment and on conservation, environmental, energy and other programs of great potential benefit to rural America. (Full Release)
