Members of the House and Senate spent much of April and March hammering out the differences between their two versions of the Farm Bill. In this process, some of the gains sought by family farmers, rural advocates and conservationists remained, others have been lost. By far, the most astonishing part of the Conference Committee’s agreement is the staggering level of crop subsidies, and the lack of constraints on how much large farmers receive (the Senate’s meaningful payment limitations are out) and what they can and can’t do to receive them (also out is the Durbin amendment, which would have prohibited subsidies on newly converted cropland). Furthermore, a huge portion of the money earmarked for conservation will ultimately end up in the hands of the largest animal factories, because the EQIP program has been thrown wide open to subsidize large livestock operations – a single CAFO can now receive $450,000 over the life of the Farm Bill. Also lost in the final agreement were the packer ownership ban and significant contract reforms.