The 2002 farm bill reversed a gradual, albeit slow, trend of liberalizing American agriculture. Many analysts, including myself, hoped that that legislation was an aberration born of particular electoral considerations, and that the 2007 farm bill might return to reform. Unfortunately, Kim Elliott says things are only getting worse:

Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced a reform-oriented farm bill that no one thinks has a chance. Perhaps the best that can be hoped for in this case is that continued disagreements over who gets what in the farm bill and who pays for it will continue to stall passage, resulting in a short-term extension of the slightly less bad 2002 farm bill.