The Do-Nothing Congress has gone and done something. Last Friday, President Obama signed a bill that gives the nation’s farmers a five-year road map for how the U.S. government will interact with the world of agriculture. Farmers needed a sense of stability, which generally is in short supply when one is dealing with today’s U.S. Congress.

Was it everything it should be or could be? Not at all, but have you been listening to the debates on Capitol Hill lately? Agreement is hard to come by.

Some opponents - such as U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas - wanted a “clean” farm bill, stripped of programs not directly tied to farming. They also wanted more cuts in spending. But Arkansas farmers needed guidance so they can be about the work of growing crops and animals.

The five-year, $967 billion law cuts food-stamp spending by about $8.6 billion over a decade. The big cut in food stamp funding might be viewed by some as a bad development, but it’s a situation that could have been much worse. House Republicans had sought a $40 billion cut. The days of direct payments to farmers as subsidies are largely done, with the government focusing more on subsidized federal crop insurance as a primary safety net in the unpredictable world of agriculture.

Arkansas’ congressional delegation, save for Cotton, favored the bipartisan farm bill. The rest said they had their issues with the bill, but providing stability for farmers and the agricultural industry was the most important thing. So, thanks to Sens. John Boozman and Mark Pryor, and Reps. Steve Womack, Tim Griffin and Rick Crawford for doing the right thing.

Some would focus on the bill’s shortcomings and suggest it’s no victory at all. But in the current climate of Washington, there’s something to be said for fashioning any kind of bill that gets action on the House and Senate floors. With such a divide in Congress, a major bill like this is bound to have plenty to dislike by the extremes of both parties, but a farming nation needs to know which direction its government is going with farm legislation. Too much is at stake in the fields and on the ranches. There’s too much hard work going on to feed the nation and the world for it to get further bogged down in standard D.C. politics.

So we’re glad farmers can now devote their time and energy to understanding the changes and adapting their operations to them. There’s enough uncertainty already in farming; nobody needs it coming from elected lawmakers.

Could the 2014 farm bill have been better? Why, sure. But political realities matter. The nation’s voters collectively appear to favor a divided government, so compromise is the only way a Do-Nothing Congress will be able to do something.

One benefit that might be felt locally: The bill features a program that will allow low-income families to double their food-stamp benefits at farmers markets. Its goal is to provide matching funding for farmers markets each year for five years to promote food-stamp recipients’ access to fresh fruit and vegetables. The bill also restores payments to counties with federal lands to help make up for the lost local taxes. Fifty-six of Arkansas’ counties receive funding through the program. All Northwest Arkansas counties receive some money through the program, with several to the east and south of Benton and Washington counties - Newton, Johnson, Franklin, Yell, Pope, Scott and beyond - receiving significant sums.

Perhaps more work can go into important issues - such as the way country-of-origin labeling affects our area meat producers - but those should not have stood in the way of Congress’ approval of the overall farm bill.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/12/2014