WASHINGTON — Sen. Max Baucus, who had a crucial role in shaping the farm bill, gave a defense of its payment system and American agricultural policy in general on Thursday just before Congress passed the legislation.

The Montana Democrat sits on the Senate Agriculture Committee and served as one of the small group of negotiators who hammered out a compromise between the House and Senate bills. He also chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which wrote the tax provisions and found ways to pay for an extra $10 billion for the bill.

‘‘The great irony of this debate that swirls around U.S. farm policy today is that it’s getting so much criticism from so many different quarters and yet remains one of the truly great success stories of the world,’’ Baucus said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Baucus said that over the last few years, major newspapers and Washington special interest groups ‘‘have been busy demeaning our nation’s farmers and ranchers.’’

‘‘The urban media creates visions of agriculture producers lined up for government payments,’’ Baucus said. ‘‘I actually am more worried about our next generation of producers; they’re lining up potentially to leave these farms and ranches. It is so, so hard and such a tough life.’’

He said critics portray farmers and ranchers either as corporate businessmen leeching off the government dole or as hayseeds unable to compete in a market economy without a handout.

‘‘These portrayals are disappointing to me and disheartening to rural America, and they are false,’’ he said. ‘‘I know that in this high-tech age it is tempting to downplay the importance of those who put food on our table and clothes on our back. But the better part of history would teach us to avoid that temptation.’’

The portrayals inaccurately depict the agriculture economy and miss the underlying problems that farmers and ranchers face, he added.

‘‘One common attack on U.S. farm policy is that it no longer is for the family farm and ranch but rather it has become corporate welfare,’’ he said.

‘‘But even the most basic of research quickly uncovers that today near all producers in America remain family farms and ranches, not corporations and conglomerates. In fact only 2.2 percent of farms are nonfamily farms,” he added.

He also said critics frequently refer to protectionist policies ‘‘intended to shield farmers and ranchers from competition and to raise consumer prices.’’

‘‘One group recently stated that we should simply ignore all the subsidies and trade barriers to other countries, unilaterally disarm our own farmers and ranchers and then sit back and enjoy the benefits of cheaper, imported food,’’ he said. ‘‘This makes zero sense.’’

American consumers spend a lower percentage of their disposable income on food than do consumers anywhere else in the world, he said, and in fact are the only families who spend less than 10 percent.

Baucus also said farmers and ranchers helped get the country through a manufacturing crisis earlier this decade.

They managed it even though the average foreign tariff on U.S. agricultural products is about 62 percent, he said, while the U.S. only charges an average 12 percent tariff on foreign farm products.

‘‘For too many years, we have asked our farmers and ranchers to do more and more and more and always with less,’’ Baucus said. ‘‘All the negative news articles focused on the symptoms, they never seem to get around to identifying and discussing the real problems that plague our farmers and ranchers, that is skyrocketing costs and stagnant returns.’’

Baucus fought to include a permanent disaster relief program in the bill. The $3.8 billion program would assist farmers who lose their crops or livestock because of drought or other natural disasters, but they must have crop insurance to participate.

‘‘It is wrong when our farmers and ranchers are forced to wait up to three years for disaster payment,’’ he said. ‘‘We can do better for our farmers and we can do better for our taxpayers.’’

Baucus praised other specific provisions in the bill, including those on country of origin labeling for meat, interstate shipment of state-inspected meat and nutrition and conservation programs. ‘‘There’s a lot to be proud of in this farm bill,’’ he said.

‘‘My goal has been and will always be to increase the net income of America’s farmers and ranchers,’’ he added. ‘‘I want a strong agriculture economy in this country. I want a strong home-grown source of safe, affordable, abundant food and fiber. I believe this farm bill will strengthen our farm economy.’’

Baucus specifically cited Washington Post editorials titled ‘‘High Plains Grifters’’ and ‘‘Hungry Kids, Greedy Farmers.’’ Those editorials talked about the ‘‘the farm lobby (and) its congressional enablers,’’ said Congress was passing a ‘‘bloated bill’’ and that it repackages agricultural welfare as disaster relief.

‘‘You’d think that Congress would have concluded that there are better uses for federal tax money than propping up the same relative handful of semi-arid farms year after year,’’ one of the editorials said.