National Farmers Union

Supporting Audio: 5 Tracks [audio:0131TomFarmBill3.mp3,0131TomFarmBill4.mp3,0131TomFarmBill5.mp3,0131TomFarmBill6.mp3,0131TomFarmBill7.mp3]

“Today we heard the Bush Administration’s 2007 Farm Bill proposal, and we have already started to examine their initial plan closely. I am pleased the administration laid out a proposal in a timely manner. We agree with several aspects of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposal, and I look forward to working to move forward with them on mutual areas of agreement.

“At the same time we fundamentally disagree with some basic aspects of their proposal. On first blush, what the Secretary outlined is not what I heard from farmers and ranchers at the farm bill listening sessions NFU conducted around the country about what producers need to survive and prosper.

“Secretary Johanns suggested drastically changing the farm safety net, with less attention paid to the challenges producers face today, and more reliance on how they farmed in the past. He proposed an increase in direct payments, which in my view takes us back to the future - back to a decoupled approach to farm payments. We’ve dealt with this system before, and we know it is unsuccessful.

“Let’s remember, the current farm program has been working. The 2002 Farm Bill has saved roughly $20 billion since it was designed to rely primarily on a safety net that only provides support for food producers when prices are low. By encouraging more reliance on direct payments, payments will be too high when they don’t need to be, and so low that they leave farmers out to dry when prices fall.

“The Secretary talked extensively on how the current safety net is based on price, and how producers who suffer production losses as a result of weather are not adequately protected. That problem is easily remedied by establishing a permanent disaster program targeted at producers who actually suffer losses. Changing the safety net for all producers to address weather-related production problems seems like a shot-gun approach. Farmers do not farm in the aggregate and weather does not occur in the aggregate. We need a permanent disaster program that targets assistance to those who suffer losses.

“I am also disappointed that the Bush Administration did not recognize this important matter and that they continue to oppose disaster aid. It also failed to recognize the need for a competition title, the implementation of Country-of-Origin labeling, and new opportunities for direct producer to consumer marketing.

“In addition, USDA’s proposal fell short of what is needed to increase U.S. production of renewable fuels and help national security. Though I was encouraged last week when President Bush set forth an aggressive plan to increase the production of renewable fuels to 35 billion gallons by 2017, his farm bill falls far short.”