Conservation Versus Direct Payments

Article in the Post today on the challenges conservation programs are facing, as opposed to direct payments.

One quote puzzles me:

“There is a growing feeling that [Congress] must find a way to make sure that the cuts affect everyone,” said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, “to make sure the mega-producers are not the ones let off the hook this time around. “
To get around cuts in the past, corporate farms would add a partner or two that could then apply for separate subsidies, thereby restoring the overall take to prior levels."

My impression was that attribution of payments was going to mostly take care of that problem, but apparently not to the satisfaction of NSAC.  Come to think of it, I haven't seen any analysis of how well or poorly that change in the 2008 law is working.

Because my blogging has been slow because of plumbing problems, I'll throw in here a renewal of my proposal: instead of trying to apply a cap on payments, apply a factored reduction, increasing as the total amount of payments rises.  (Think income tax in reverse.)