ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996                  TAG: 9604050099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press

SIGNATURE ENDS FARM POLICY FROM '30S LAW ENDS U.S.-GUARANTEED PRICES FOR VARIOUS CROPS

President Clinton quietly and reluctantly signed historic farm legislation Thursday that snaps the decades-old link between crop prices and government subsidies.

Although the law rightfully lifts many government controls on farmers, it ``fails to provide an adequate safety net for family farmers,'' the president said.

Clinton opposed the key farm provisions but said growers need to know what the government has in mind for them as they head to the fields this spring. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman pledged the department would do everything in its power to carry out the law.

The law ends government-guaranteed prices for corn, other feed grains, cotton, rice and wheat - a staple of U.S. farm policy since the Depression. Instead, farmers will get guaranteed payments that decline over seven years and an immediate end to most planting controls. The payments total $36 billion over seven years and account for most of the spending in the $47 billion law.

``This farm bill is the most historic change in American agriculture since the 1930s,'' said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. ``Production and supply controls will end, and farmers will produce for the market for the first time since the Great Depression.''

The administration opposed the bill because it gives farmers a windfall of high payments when skyrocketing market prices mean traditional subsidies would have fallen sharply. Afterward, the guaranteed payments dwindle, giving growers little protection if prices collapse.

Clinton said he would propose legislation next year to restore the safety net.

Supporters of the new law say the guaranteed payments would put financial planning and risk management into the hands of farmers while guaranteeing farm programs against almost certain cuts in the future.

Glickman said the department will work on creating tools for farmers to find alternatives, such as revenue insurance, to traditional subsidies.

Although the administration opposed the core provision, the bill held enough sweeteners to avoid a veto, including money for conservation and environmental protection and for rural development and research, and a guarantee that food stamps and other nutrition programs will continue while Congress works on overhauling the welfare system.

LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines