The Washington Post reports that the dependency solicitation that is the Farm Bill has a provision in it that insures a farmer’s revenue stays as if high food prices were to continue to 2012.

But as the farm bill moved through Congress, lawmakers sweetened the subsidy provisions, in part to encourage more farmers to sign up. The final version of the program is more generous than ones proposed earlier by the House and the Bush administration.

The new program insures a farmer’s revenue at close to the current high prices. USDA estimates that a farmer could draw a payment even with corn prices at $4.39 a bushel.

If food prices were to drop, for example, because Congress drops the ethanol subsidy, we taxpayers would pay the farmers for their drop in revenue. Thank you, Senator Tom Harkin.