NUTS TO YOU
Should American consumers subsidize peanut growers to the tune of half a billion dollars a year in higher peanut prices? It looks like that's a question that won't even get asked as the House takes up the Agriculture Appropriations bill this month. The Associated Press reported on May 21 that peanut growers and manufacturers that use peanuts in their products have struck a deal "that could lead to a truce in the annual legislative haggling over the government's peanut price support program." Sometimes big money in politics doesn't buy votes--it stifles votes altogether.
According to the AP, the manufacturers have agreed to drop their efforts to kill the program, which keeps prices artificially high by imposing quotas on how many peanuts can be grown for domestic sales. A 1993 General Accounting Office report estimated the quotas cost consumers between $314 million and $513 million a year in higher prices for products like peanut butter and peanut oil. Federal programs like the school lunch program also cost more, as a result.
For their part, the peanut growers have agreed to put off their efforts to increase the price support. Some truce. Instead, the different peanut interests will jointly lobby for increased funding for peanut allergy research, crop insurance and drought aid to producers.
The last time Congress took up the peanut program, campaign contributions from the growers made all the difference. In the Senate, an amendment to the 1996 Farm Bill proposed by then-Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) to defend the price supports from elimination passed 59-36. Twenty-nine of the senators voting to protect the program received more than $1,000 from the industry; twelve received $1,000 or less. Of the thirty-six senators in opposition, only four received any contributions at all from peanut growers.
Similarly, when the House voted 212-209 to defeat an amendment from Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) to phase out the program, 59 members had received more than $1,000 in peanut grower contributions and another 53 had received at least $500. By comparison, 185 members--nearly all those voting to cut the price supports--had received no money from the industry.
News of this year's "truce" in the peanut wars was confirmed by Reps. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Sanford Bishop (D-GA), who told the AP that "they have received assurances from the Republican and Democratic sponsors of the [anti-price support] amendment that it will not be offered" when the Agriculture Appropriations bill comes up for debate. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Chambliss and Bishop were the House's #3 and #4 top recipients of campaign contributions from peanut growers PACs and individuals in 1997-98, with $15,250 and $14,700, respectively. In all, the growers gave $246,250 in that cycle. The Peanut & Tree Nut Processors Association gave just $750 during the same period.
