WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) announced last week that he and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and a number of other bipartisan co-sponsors plan to introduce an amendment during the Senate’s farm bill consideration that would provide what he termed “a true safety net for all farmers, regardless of what they grow or where they live.”

“Our current farm policies, sold to the American public as a safety net, actually hurt the family farmer,” Lugar said.

Their amendment – the Farm, Ranch, Equity, Stewardship and Health (FRESH) Act – would end what Lugar called Depression-era federal crops subsidies benefiting only a few farmers, crops and states.

“The genesis of current U.S. farm policies began during the Great Depression as an effort to help alleviate poverty among farmers and rural communities,” he said. “Farm programs were instituted that stifled agricultural productivity in order to raise commodity prices through federally administered supply and demand programs that cost U.S. taxpayers handsomely in higher food costs and job loss.

“Today, about half the nation’s farmers essentially are prevented from growing other crops such as fruits and vegetables. That antiquated idea is still promoted even though farm income is higher, on average, than other industries.”

Lugar said the FRESH Act would for the first time provide an insurance program for all American farmers with no out-of-pocket costs. Estimating it would save billions in farm payments, he said the money could be invested in other programs, such as conservation practices, renewable energy, access to healthy foods for children and assistance for hunger relief efforts. At the same time, he said, it would save taxpayers $3 billion.

“Over the past 10 years, farm subsidies have gone to just one out of three farmers, with only 6 percent of farms receiving more than 70 percent of that money,” he said. “That amounts to $120 billion.”

Lugar, a family farmer and member and former chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said subsidy programs have spurred farm consolidation, violated international trade agreements and still left most farmers heavily exposed to risk.

In a letter to his Senate colleagues, he stated the Senate farm bill manipulates the budget by “front-loading” spending in earlier years and shifting payments to later years as a way to claim pay-go within the 10-year window scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Acting USDA Secretary Chuck Conner agreed by bluntly asserting, “Shifting payments from one fiscal year to the next so those payments are outside the 10 years that the dollars are counted for budget purposes is simply and frankly dishonest.”

Lugar said one of the unfunded commitments in the farm bill is the Nutrition Title. “The bill appears to increase nutrition funding by over $5 billion,” he said, “but a closer look at the Senate farm bill shows this funding actually sunsets after five years, at which point nutrition funding drops in fiscal years 2013-2017.”

Saying food stamp recipients would benefit from increases in asset limits, purchasing power and funding for emergency food assistance, Lugar added progress would be halted and in 2012, Congress would be faced with having to manipulate the budget to find additional funding for those programs.

“Our amendment is fiscally responsible and provides a framework for growth for farmers and rural communities,” he said. “The long-term budgetary savings from our proposal will allow for us to make considerable investments in key priority areas.”