Residents offer "wish list" for new Farm Bill - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

After spending half-a-trillion dollars, and working for more than a year to develop a new Farm Bill, the House and Senate Agriculture Committee has been forced to start over.

That's one of the topics South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune addressed with local residents at a town hall meeting in Yankton, Thursday.

The current Farm Bill, which was developed in 2008, was extended through September 30th of this year.

A new, five-year bill could have replaced it, but it didn't pass through the House last year.

Some say it needs to focus on small, rather than corporate farmers... while others are satisfied with how the bill is now. "Small farming is the rule rather than the exception, and we would hope that the small farmer would be the one who would benefit from that," said Susan Paul, resident. "The main purpose of the Farm Bill right now is the insurance part and hopefully that'll continue because that is working out quite well for the farmers," said Edward Van Gerben, resident

Besides including a crop Insurance program, Senator Thune says he hopes the new Farm Bill also contains some conservation provisions.