billnortheypic

Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey, says a new farm bill has passed, after a couple years’ worth of work. He says the USDA still doesn’t have all the documents put together that would show what the decisions will be for Iowa producers, and what program they would choose. Northey says the programs will act differently depending on whether there is a crop disaster by production or by price. Additionally, Northey says direct payments, which were about half a billion dollars a year, will not play a role in 2014. Now, he says, there are decisions to be made on much less expensive safety net programs that will replace direct payments.