Ag Leadership Shift Projects Farm Bill Changes

The new look of the 110^th Congress in 2007 will bring with it shifts in agricultural leadership and possible opportunities for an improved Farm Bill. If politics is the art of the possible, let’s take a quick look at what might be possible in 2007 for agriculture.

Minnesota Representative Collin Peterson is expected to chair the House Agriculture Committee and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin may chair the Senate Committee. This is promising news because Harkin has been a leading proponent of conservation and rural development, and we cannot afford another bill that undermines rural America. More money distributed in a way that destroys family farming is not the solution to current problems.

Corporate American agriculture is doing quite well in terms of economic stability. We would like to see the next Farm Bill address the economic interests of independent family farmers and ranchers and how those interests impact rural economies.

The Farm Bill includes titles addressing commodity programs, conservation programs, trade, nutrition, credit, rural development, research, forestry, and energy. All of these sections offer opportunities and challenges for Montana producers.

Specifically, we support a new farm bill that provides an adequate safety net based upon the cost of production, while providing mechanisms for farmers to receive their income from the marketplace.

This shift frees funds so that the environment can be valued and conservation programs can be fully funded as they were originally envisioned. We also endorse the concept of allowing CRP lands to be withdrawn early from their contracts in order for the land to be put into crops that produce renewable energy.

This change and others would bring to the forefront energy efforts that increase the use of fuels from the farm. The goal is to lessen our dependency upon foreign oil and revitalize rural America, through farmer and rancher-owned community based projects.

In addition, we strongly support values that provide for the less fortunate by fully funding food and nutrition programs.

Yes, we have many hopes for 2007 that touch on the art of the possible. We close out 2006 with the following sentiment written by Stephen Vincent Benet and used by Adlai Stevenson on his 1964 Christmas card. It goes like this:

Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace – that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march toward the clean world our hands can make.

For the Montana Farmers Union, I’m Sandy Courtnage. Best wishes for a healthy and peaceful 2007.

-30-