Sandra Clarke joined CARD as communications manager in November. Her professional background includes seven years as communications manager at the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA), where she was technical editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and managing editor of Choices— The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues. Before that, she worked in communications and public affairs for the City of Cottonwood, Arizona, and she edited a specialty art magazine for Heartland Communications in Fort Dodge. She’s a 1987 Iowa State journalism and communications graduate.

How is your proposal WTO-compliant? This is a question that farm groups must be prepared to answer when they travel to Washington looking for increased subsidies. That an international trade agreement should be playing such a prominent role in shaping U.S. farm programs may be surprising. But this prominence is likely to continue as long as the United States remains committed to expanding world trade through negotiated agreements.

The number one failure of current U.S. farm policy is its inability to control supply, at least according to some policy-makers and analysts. With guaranteed minimum prices, farmers are finding it in their interest to maintain high planted acreage, even as market prices remain low. Congress is unlikely to eliminate the price guarantees, so some advocates are looking for a return to acreage controls to raise market prices. Opponents of acreage controls argue that unilateral decreases in U.S. acreage would only encourage our competitors to expand acreage. The ultimate effect, they argue, would be less U.S. acreage, more acreage in foreign countries, and little price change.

As planting time approaches here in Iowa, the crop markets are reacting to the prospective plantings figures released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service at the end of March. For the first time since 1983, intended soybean acreage nationwide is equal to intended corn acreage. Both crops are being estimated at 76.7 million acres for the 2001 growing season. This represents a drop of 4 percent from last year for corn and a rise of 3 percent from last year for soybeans. All regions of the country, except the Northeast, report reduced corn planting intentions. Reasons given include high fertilizer and input costs, low corn prices, wet weather along the Gulf Coast, and lower water reserves in the Southeast. Most of the acres shifted out of corn are intended for soybeans. In over two-thirds of the soybean-producing states, intended soybean acreage is higher than last year. In Iowa, intended corn acreage for 2001 is 11.9 million acres, down 400,000 acres from 2000 levels. Intended soybean acreage is 11 million acres, up 300,000 acres from 2000.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) spends over $30 billion a year on food and nutrition assistance programs, an amount that is over one-half of the USDA budget today. Historically, U.S. food assistance programs featured purchase and distribution of surplus agricultural commodities to low-income households and to school lunch programs. Today, food and nutrition assistance includes a wide range of programs designed to provide low-income households access to adequate nutrients and a balanced diet, to increase food security in the general population and reduce hunger, especially for children, and to encourage low-income adults and children to acquire knowledge and skills to improve their diets with better food choices through nutrition education programs.