Conrad Backs House Farm Bill
By Matt Bewley, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.
Aug. 29–HILLSBORO, N.D. — Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., told more than 100 area farmers at a “farm bill outreach meeting” Tuesday that he supports the farm bill recently passed by the House of Representatives and will fight to level the playing field between North Dakota and European Union farmers.
Joining him were North Dakota Agricultural Commissioner Roger Johnson and Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
“Agriculture is the largest sector of our state’s economy,” Conrad said, “and I am going to do everything I can to make sure North Dakota’s voice is heard before Congress begins debate on (the farm) bill.”
The North Dakota lawmakers each took a moment to compliment Peterson for his efforts in getting what Conrad termed a “very strong farm bill” through the House.
“I can’t overstate how difficult this was,” Johnson said. “This has been a tough challenge.”
One of those challenges was the widely discussed subsidy payment system. The House bill would ban subsidies to farmers whose income averages more than $1 million a year, down from the current limit of $2.5 million. It also would stop farmers from collecting payments for multiple farm businesses.
Media coverage
Conrad asserted that political pressure to further lower farm subsidies, as the Bush administration has recommended, may be due in part to the negative media coverage, particularly with the “Eastern press,” he said. He displayed headlines of some of the leading New York and Washington newspapers, which read, “No drought required for federal aid” and “$1.3 billion paid to those who don’t farm.”
“They’re blasting the farm bill,” he said, “and some of the headlines may have some merit. But very often, they fail to tell the whole story.”
Several headlines attacked farm income, relative to subsidy payments, as an issue.
“They stress that the average farmer makes $250,000 to $500,000 a year,” he said. “They forget to mention that those were their gross receipts.”
The stories fail to report that input costs, he said, such as land, equipment and labor expenses, which often gobble up the lion’s share of gross income on a farm.
“Now, when they tell the average reader that farmers are making between $250,000 and $500,000 a year, they make it look like a bunch of rich folks out here, and farming the mailbox,” Conrad said.
He went on to point out the disparity in subsidy payments between EU and U.S. farmers.
“In the United States, we’re getting $48 per acre,” he said. “In Europe, their farmers get $277 an acre in support each year. That is equivalent to a 5-to-1 (ratio). They’re giving their folks that kind of assistance, versus what (the U.S. government) gives us.”
Add to that, he said, the fact that the EU is heavily outmatching the U.S. in terms of export subsidies.
“Worldwide, 87 percent of all export subsidies are paid by the European Union,” Conrad said. “In the United States, it’s 1 percent. So they’re outgunning us here, 87 to 1.”
An additional challenge to U.S. growers is based on the amount of funds available for Congress to spend on farm bill programs.
Since the last farm bill, in 2002, “the national debt has grown from just less than $6 trillion. At the end of this year, it will be $9 trillion. And if the present policies are pursued, we’ll have a debt of $12 trillion in this country by 2012.”
Yet, he said, “The commodities programs only make up one-third of 1 percent of the federal budget.”
A public meeting also was held in Grafton, N.D., on Tuesday and a third will be held at 10 a.m. today in Mandan, N.D.
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