Envisioning a Farm Bill

02/22/2007

Julie Buntjer
Worthington Daily Globe - 02/22/2007


WORTHINGTON — Two months into his role as 1st District Congressman, Tim Walz made the rounds through southwest Minnesota Wednesday, hosting listening sessions on the role of the next federal Farm Bill.

He met with nearly 50 farmers and agricultural professionals at Minnesota West Community and Technical College in Worthington in the morning, stopped in Luverne over the noon hour and ended the day with a visit to Minnesota West’s Pipestone campus, where he was joined by first-term U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Walz said the reason for hosting Farm Bill listening sessions was simple: “We’re going to write this thing from the ground up.” After wrapping up meetings across the district, Walz said he will take the information back to Washington, where members of the House agriculture committee will begin the task of writing the 2008 Farm Bill.

With Minnesota’s 7th District Congressman Collin Peterson at the helm of the House agriculture committee and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa chairing the committee in the Senate, Walz is optimistic new Farm Bill legislation will provide incentives for biofuels and renewable energy.

“The Secretary of Agriculture (Mike Johanns) said he has seen the future of agriculture, and it’s Minnesota,” Walz said.

With that in mind, Walz said, “The decisions we make here are going to have far-reaching effects across rural America.”

Klobuchar, who made a brief appearance at the Pipestone meeting, said it was her first listening session outside of Washington, D.C. She plans to visit all of Minnesota’s 87 counties each year of her six-year term as U.S. Senator.

“I think it’s important to get to rural Minnesota,” said Klobuchar, who serves on the Senate agriculture committee. “We’re going to work for a strong Farm Bill. The 2002 Farm Bill was good. We want to make sure we keep that safety net in place, we need a strong energy title, we need to support the livestock sector and proposals for conservation.”

While several people commented on successes with the existing Farm Bill, they also provided suggestions for the new bill — from funding renewable energy research to establishing Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), providing incentives to young farmers and making changes to the commodity price support system.

After a full day of listening sessions, Walz said following the Pipestone meeting that an overwhelming message had been presented by the region’s farmers — they want stable funding in the new Farm Bill, they want to keep the energy title in place, and they want to see a continuation of conservation programming.

The 2002 Farm Bill, which expires at the end of this year, was built on a budget of $274 billion over six years. Walz said the new Farm Bill could be funded anywhere from $5 billion more than the 2002 bill to $15 billion less. Yet, with a federal budget deficit of $9 trillion, Walz fears the Farm Bill could take quite a hit.

Numerous farm organizations were represented at both listening sessions, from Minnesota Farm Bureau to Farmers Union, Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) and Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA).

Dave Van Loh, a Westbrook area farmer and Minnesota Farm Bureau representative, said during the Worthington listening session that he would like to see funding continue for conservation practices.

“The 2002 Farm Bill provided an adequate safety net for farmers and was the greenest Farm Bill ever,” Van Loh said. “Farm Bureau would like to see those concepts continue.”

Roger Moore, a Blue Earth area farmer and representative of MCGA, said that organization supports budget allocation for commodities and expanded money for research into bio-based agriculture.

“Additional research funding must be provided to keep the renewable energy industry moving forward,” Moore said.

From the MSGA, Christopher Hill of rural Brewster said the organization had four recommendations for the 2008 Farm Bill: no further cuts in the CCC budget baseline for agriculture spending; soybean supports be raised to ensure an adequate safety net; farm programs be designed so as not to distort planting decisions; and future programs be WTO-compliant.

Tim Henning, president of Nobles County Farmers Union, preferred to refer to the Farm Bill as a food security act, making sure Americans have an adequate food supply.

With issues of the Daily Globe from 1974 and 2007, Henning referred to the market prices — $3.25-per-bushel corn and $7.40-per-bushel soybeans in 1974, compared to $3.77 corn and $7.01 soybeans in the Feb. 21, 2007, Daily Globe.

“We need to raise the loan rates,” Henning told Walz. “The loan rate will set the floor for where commodity prices are.”

Henning suggested a language change from “grain reserves” to “energy reserves” in the new Farm Bill to ensure the U.S. has enough grain supply for renewable energy, proposed that different payment limits be established for different crops and requested that COOL finally be implemented.

“It needs to be born, raised and processed in the United States and carry the United States seal,” he said.

During sessions in both Worthington and Pipestone, comments were made regarding the money spent on farm programs versus money spent on the war in Iraq.

“If we took half the money we’re spending in the Persian Gulf and put it in energy and biofuels, we wouldn’t have a problem in the Persian Gulf,” said Dan Juhl, a Woodstock-area wind developer.

Walz said it’s time to have the discussion about the cost of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with spending near $682 billion on defense and another $230 billion to fund the war.

“With the money we’re spending on defense, maybe we’re not going to have a country left to defend,” Walz said.