Sally Jo Sorensen is a writer, researcher and educator who lives in rural Minnesota.  She blogs as Ollie Ox at A Bluestem Prairie. This is part of Farm Bill blogging.

Since its founding in 1985, the League of Rural Voters has worked with rural Americans to create change.  One part of the League's mission is to challenge candidates to "take clear positions on farm and rural policy issues" and "to allow rural voters to support and elect representatives committed to increased investments in rural education, health care and sustainable economic development."

The LRV and other progressive rural advocacy groups have much at stake in the 2007 Farm Bill now being marked up in the House Agriculture Committee, with the Senate version to be considered late in the summer.

Executive Director Niel Ritchie took some time to talk about what a progressive Farm Bill might look like.  "A progressive Farm Bill would reallocate the budget to more appropriately reflect the needs of rural communities and America as a whole," said Ritchie.

Unfortunately,"there's a finite amount of money," Ritchie observed, noting the House's adoption of paygo rules. "But that shouldn't stop Congress from moving in the right direction," he added, citing  the recent addition of the Conservation Security Program (CSP) to federal farm programs.  A project created by the 2002 Farm Bill, CSP had proven to be dramatically effective though it was limited in scope.

According to Ritchie, changes in the 2007 Farm Bill should serve three criteria: they should improve the economic lot of small and medium size farmers; offer consumers healthful food, and conserve soil and water.  "The goal should be to champion natural systems of production over the industrial model of agriculture," he said.

There's more...