[Senate Hearing 107-878]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 107-878
THE NEW FEDERAL FARM BILL
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE,
NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
AUGUST 20, 2001
__________
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.agriculture.senate.gov
______
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COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY
TOM HARKIN, Iowa, Chairman
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana
KENT CONRAD, North Dakota JESSE HELMS, North Carolina
THOMAS A. DASCHLE, South Dakota THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
MAX BAUCUS, Montana MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, Arkansas PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
ZELL MILLER, Georgia PETER G. FITZGERALD, Illinois
DEBBIE A. STABENOW, Michigan CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming
BEN NELSON, Nebraska WAYNE ALLARD, Colorado
MARK DAYTON, Minnesota TIM HUTCHINSON, Arkansas
PAUL DAVID WELLSTONE, Minnesota MICHEAL D. CRAPO, Idaho
Mark Halverson, Staff Director/Chief Counsel
David L. Johnson, Chief Counsel for the Minority
Robert E. Sturm, Chief Clerk
Keith Luse, Staff Director for the Minority
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing(s):
The New Federal Farm Bill........................................ 01
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Monday, August 20, 2001
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY SENATORS
Dayton, Hon. Mark, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota................. 01
Gutknecht, Hon. Gil, a Representative in Congress from Minnesota. 01
Wellstone, Hon. Paul, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota.............. 02
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WITNESSES
Adams, Nancy, Le Roy, Minnesota.................................. 24
Ault, Dwight, Austin, Minnesota.................................. 42
Austin, Robert M., New Prague, Minnesota......................... 43
Behounek, Ronald, Hayfield, Minnesota............................ 40
Biederman, Bruce, Grafton, Iowa.................................. 49
Biel, Eunice, Dairy Farmer, Harmony, Minnesota................... 22
Bowman, Bert, Eden Prairie, Minnesota............................ 48
Collins, Barbara J., Legal Services Advocacy Project, St. Paul,
Minnesota...................................................... 19
Dale, Roger, Hanley Falls, Minnesota............................. 44
Daley, Janice, Grain Farmer, Lewiston, Minnesota................. 28
Durst, Ron, on behalf of Associated Milk Producers, Inc.......... 32
Everett, Les, Water Resources Center, University of Minnesota.... 37
Green, Larry, Fulda, Minnesota................................... 43
Hansen, Rick, Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota..................... 39
Hanson, Amber, Racine, Minnesota................................. 18
Hanson, Brian, Racine, Minnesota................................. 50
Harrington, Bishop Bernard J.,................................... 03
Henning, Tim, Lismore, Minnesota................................. 49
Hoscheit, Tom, Caledonia, Minnesota.............................. 34
Joachim, Gary, Claremont, Minnesota, on behalf of Minnesota
Soybean
Growers Association............................................ 47
Ladd, David, on behalf of Farm Credit Services................... 04
Landkamer, Colleen, Blue Earth County Commissioner, Mankato,
Minnesota...................................................... 18
Larson, Larry, Sargeant, Minnesota............................... 38
Mandelko, Delbert, President, Minnesota Milk Producers
Association.................................................... 06
Meter, Ken, Crossroads Resource Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota... 10
McGrath, Mike, on behalf of the Minnesota Project................ 07
McLaughlin, Marcie, on behalf of America's State Rural
Development Council............................................ 08
McMillin, Bill, Dairy Farmer, Kellog, Minnesota.................. 51
Monson, John, State Executive Director, Minnesota Farm Service
Agency, St. Paul, Minnesota.................................... 14
Mueller, Mike, Winthrop, Minnesota............................... 40
Nelson, Rod, Chatfield, Minnesota................................ 53
Noble, Linda, Organic Dairy Farmer, Kenyon, Minnesota............ 21
Noble, Mike, Crop and Livestock Producer, Kenyon, Minnesota...... 31
Ormsby, Victor, Winona, Minnesota................................ 33
Otremba, Mary Ellen, State Representative, State of Minnesota.... 15
Paul, Gene, Faribault County, Delavan, Minnesota................. 20
Petersen, Chris C., Vice President, Iowa Farmers Union, Clear
Lake, Iowa..................................................... 45
Peterson, Sever, Eden Prairie, Minnesota......................... 11
Predmore, Larry, Rochester, Minnesota............................ 50
Prigge, Walt, Byron, Minnesota................................... 45
Purdhim, Rev. Chuck, (retired), United Methodist Church, Brooklyn
Center, Minnesota.............................................. 25
Redig, Lorraine, Winona, Minnesota............................... 34
Reiman, Lewis, Utica, Minnesota.................................. 27
Riddle, Jim, Winona, Minnesota................................... 23
Ristau, Kevin, Jobs Now Coalition, St. Paul, Minnesota........... 26
Ritchie, Niel, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy,
Minneapolis,
Minnesota...................................................... 27
Schacht, Al, Zumbro Falls, Minnesota............................. 52
Scheevel, Kenric, State Senator, State of Minnesota.............. 16
Scheidecker, Kevin, Fillmore Soil and Water Conservation
District, Preston, Minnesota................................... 30
Specht, Phil, Dairy Farmer, McGregor, Iowa....................... 25
Speltz, Keith, Dairy Farmer, Southeast Minnesota................. 36
Storm, Sister Kathleen, Mankato, Minnesota....................... 29
Strom, Donovan, Fountain, Minnesota.............................. 48
Tumbleson, Gerald, Sherburn, Minnesota........................... 37
Upton, Barbara, Fountain, Minnesota.............................. 41
Winter, Ted, State Representative, State of Minnesota............ 14
Zimmerman, Margaret, Waseca, Minnesota........................... 36
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APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Collins, Barbara J........................................... 81
Daley, Janice................................................ 96
Everett, Les................................................. 111
Hansen, Rick................................................. 118
Hanson, Amber................................................ 80
Harrington, Bishop Bernard J................................. 58
Joachim, Gary................................................ 135
Ladd, David.................................................. 61
Mandelko, Delbert............................................ 64
McGrath, Mike................................................ 66
McLaughlin, Marcie........................................... 70
McMillin, Bill............................................... 140
Meter, Ken................................................... 74
Mueller, Mike................................................ 124
Noble, Linda................................................. 84
Noble, Mike.................................................. 105
Petersen, Chris C............................................ 127
Peterson, Sever.............................................. 78
Redig, Lorraine.............................................. 109
Riddle, Jim.................................................. 86
Ristau, Kevin................................................ 91
Ritchie, Niel,............................................... 93
Schacht, Al.................................................. 141
Scheidecker, Kevin........................................... 100
Storm, Sister Kathleen....................................... 99
Zimmerman, Margaret.......................................... 110
Document(s) Submitted for the Record:
AgStar Financial Services, ACA............................... 173
Beckel, John F............................................... 172
Carnes, Marilyn.............................................. 151
Children's Defense Fund - Minnesota; Jim Koppel.............. 182
Encouraging Family Farms: a Policy Proposal; Joe Malacek..... 164
Letter to Senator Mark Dayton by Gyles W. Randall............ 176
Levins, Dick................................................. 154
Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation
Districts; Richard Zupp.................................... 155
Minnesota Food Share; Barbara Thell.......................... 162
Petition Supporting a New Farm Bill.......................... 148
Present-Day Agriculture in Southern Minnesota -- Is it
Sustainable? by Gyles W. Randall........................... 178
Oestreich, Clifford.......................................... 161
Wood, Bob and Eloda.......................................... 159
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THE NEW FEDERAL FARM BILL FIELD HEARING FROM STEWARTVILLE, MINNESOTA
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MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2001
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 1 p.m., at the
American Legion, 1100 Second Avenue, N.W., Stewartville,
Minnesota, Hon. Mark Dayton, presiding.
Present or submitting a statement: Senators Dayton and
Wellstone.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARK DAYTON, A U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA
Senator Dayton. I am going to gavel the hearing of the
Senate Agriculture Committee officially to order. I am Mark
Dayton, Senator, and I am chairing this hearing. Our format is
we have Congressman Gutknecht, Senator Wellstone, and myself
here. We have some distinguished members of the Minnesota
Legislature. I would like them to introduce each other in a
little bit.
We will give a couple of minutes for those who may still be
arriving to come in. We have a very distinguished panel of
seven individuals whom we are going to take formal testimony
from. We have asked them to limit their remarks to
approximately 3 minutes apiece and submit any additional
testimony for the record, which they will be able to do. Then
we will open it right up to any of you who wish to testify or
speak for up to 2 minutes apiece. In Worthington a week ago, we
had 45 individuals to testify. We stayed a half-hour longer. We
were happy to do so, but we really need everybody to stick to
that kind of time limit so we can have everybody who wants to
be heard have the opportunity to speak today.
With that I am going to forego my opening remarks and turn
it over in the spirit of bipartisanship and bicameralism to
Representative Gil Gutknecht. We are really, really glad you
are here today. Thank you very much.
Mark Kennedy joined us in Worthington, and these are issue
where we all worked together and agreed to have the Minnesota
delegation on the House and Senate Agricultural Committee, and
our job is to work for all of you.
STATEMENT OF HON. GIL GUTKNECHT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Mr. Gutknecht. Thank you. Well, I am going to be very
brief. I want to thank Senators Wellstone and Dayton for
putting this meeting together. It is the first time I have
actually sat on the same side of the table at a Senate hearing.
This is an official hearing. We have a stenographer here. It is
easy sometimes for people who live in cities or even in suburbs
to forget how important agriculture is to our Minnesota
economy. It really is the backbone of Minnesota's economy, and
the last 3 or 4 years have been very, very difficult. We have
recognized that in Washington with emergency payments. Most of
us recognize that that is not the real answer. What most of you
want is a decent price from the marketplace. We need to work
together in Washington to come up with the next Farm bill that
allows farmers to prosper during good times and survive during
some of those difficult times. We are going to have some
disagreements in Washington between Republicans and Democrats
and between the House and the Senate, but the one thing we do
agree on is the overall goal, and that is, we want an
agricultural economy that allows young people to do something
that we sometimes take for granted, and that is, to go out
there and take a chance at it. We simply can't afford to lose
an entire generation of young farmers.
I thank you for holding this hearing. Looking at the
distinguished list of people who are going to be testifying, I
look forward to the testimony today to begin. Thank you for
coming.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Congressman. Now Senator
Wellstone is joined with me on the Senate agriculture
committee.
STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL WELLSTONE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA
Senator Wellstone. Thank you, Mark. I too will be very
brief. I want to say three things. First of all, I want to
thank all of you for being here. I see a lot of people that I
have known over the years. Quite often we have known each other
through farm struggles. I thank you for being here today
because we are going to be writing the bill this fall. I
believe all the way from my head to my toe but, most
importantly of all, Bishop, in my heart and my soul that we
need a new farm bill. We need a decent price for our
independent producers. We need to focus on land conservation
and the land stewardship and the environment. We need to have
antitrust action. We need to go after these conglomerates. We
need to have some competition. We need to have an energy
section that focuses on renewables and biodiesel and clean
fuels, small technology and clean technology and small
business. We need to do it all now. We don't have that much
time left if we want to have a family farm structure of
agriculture.
We have been through shakeouts before. It is time to change
the course of policy. Your testimony today at this official
hearing is not symbolic. Nobody is here just to make it
symbolic. It is very important.
Finally, when I saw Bishop Harrington walk in, I wanted to
say this, that it is OK. The other day I had a chance to visit
with Bishop Locker, Raymond Locker, who is a real hero to me. I
have loved this man for a long, long time. He is struggling
with cancer. Talk about a bishop who has always been there for
farmers and always been there for justice. Since I consider
this to be a justice gathering, I would like everyone, just for
20 seconds, just to say a prayer for Bishop Locker because he
has always, in a very prayerful religious way, always been
there for us. If we could do that.
(Whereupon a silent prayer was held.)
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Paul.
Format again, we will start, Bishop, if we may, with you
and ask you--first we will move right around the panel
sequentially this way, and then we have a few members of the
Minnesota Legislature here. After the panel has spoken, I would
like to invite each one of you to speak first at the
microphones, if you would, and then we will just ask you to
line up if that works, and everybody is going to speak. We will
make other arrangements; we will take comments of each side.
One caution I would make based on the hearing we had in
Worthington--which was excellent--it was different points of
view, as it should be, and that everybody in the audience
should treat the presenter respectfully. If you don't agree,
you can withhold the applause. Please, no expressions of
personal attacks of any kind. Thank you very much.
Bishop, thank you for joining us.
STATEMENT OF BISHOP BERNARD J. HARRINGTON
Bishop Harrington. Good afternoon. I am Bishop Bernard J.
Harrington of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Winona. This
diocese covers the 27 counties of Minnesota. I am pleased to
have this opportunity to submit my comments on behalf of the
Minnesota Catholic Conference and in the name of the Catholic
bishops of the Archdiocese of Minnesota. I want to thank you,
Senator Wellstone, for your very kind words about Bishop Locker
in these very difficult times for him. I appreciate that.
Our perspective is based on our belief that in the dignity
of all people as they are created in God's image, for people to
live a dignified life they must have an adequate and safe food
supply. For us food is just not another commodity in the grand
economic scheme. It is essential for life itself and as such
should be viewed as the common good and not to be controlled by
a few corporations or by the Government. For us food is a moral
statement. How food is produced is also important since we need
not only a bountiful harvest but a safe and sustainable one as
well.
Care for the land. It is as critical as what it produces.
These underlying principles, human dignity, human rights, the
search for a common good, are what drive our policy priorities.
In our view, the basic goal of a food system is to ensure an
adequate supply of nutritious food in an environmentally
responsible way to meet domestic and international needs and to
ensure the social health of our rural communities. The bishops
believe that such a farm system will generate Government
policies that will give priority to small and moderate-size
family farms and a widespread ownership of farmland.
In past years we have heard politicians speak about aiding
the small and moderate-size family farms. Each time the Federal
Farm bill will favor large farms and discriminate against the
small family farm. As you formulate the Farm bill from your
hearings on this issue, we urge you to be guided by principles
drawn by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops 1986
statement: Economic justice for all. I won't read that
statement; I will just submit it for our perusal later on.
We are concerned that the U.S. agricultural policy does not
adequately promote widespread ownership of farmland. In our
judgment, current policies have resulted in a concentration of
farmland which is detrimental to the interest of farming, to
the vitality of the rural communities, and to the environment.
This is a matter of policy choice, not economic inevitability.
We believe that this concentration is a result of a farm policy
that rewards high yields achieved by heavy use of chemical
input over land stewardship and channels scarce research funds
toward chemically and more recently biotechnologically based
agriculture and away from sustainable and organic farm
techniques.
The current system leads to a highly capitalizing farming
operation and the concentration of farmland and ownership
eliminating smaller yet still highly efficient producers.
Furthermore, the phenomenon of vertical integration has
siphoned off profits from the farmer and given them to
companies that control the other link to the food systems,
processors, packagers, marketers, and realtors. In fact, over
the last couple of decades, the farmers' share of the
agricultural dollar has remained flat while the cost of the
production and the marketing share have increased.
Toward this end we offer you several general
recommendations: create more mechanisms for beginning farmers
to secure loans; shift a substantial portion of research funds
away from the conventional chemically based and more modern
biotechnic-based agricultural systems to research that
uncovered sustainable farming practices; continue to analyze
the current market system that appears to be vulnerable to
manipulation by giant agribusiness companies.
In summary, these issues involve tremendous moral
considerations. The ability to feed a nation and the world
safely and sustainable, the long-term health of productive land
and the survival of our rural social fabric all depend on this
farm bill. I thank you for the opportunity of presenting the
views of the Catholic bishops of Minnesota on these issues.
[The prepared statement of Bishop Harrington can be found
in the appendix on page 58.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Bishop. Thank you for your
involvement and the involvement of the Catholic Bishops on this
and other important economic justice issues. I would just say
to you and any of our panelists that you are welcome to stay
for the entire proceeding. We also understand if you have other
commitments. If anyone needs to leave at any time, please do so
with our gratitude.
Our next presenter is Mr. David Ladd, who is the manager of
government relations for Agribank. Welcome, Mr. Ladd.
STATEMENT OF DAVID LADD, ON BEHALF OF FARM CREDIT SERVICES
Mr. Ladd. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the
committee. My name is Dave Ladd, and I currently work for the
Farm Credit bank that is known as Agribank. The Farm Credit
Services would like to thank you for bringing the Senate
Agriculture Committee to Minnesota. We appreciate you recognize
the important role lenders play in rural America and welcome
the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the credit title
of the upcoming Farm bill. A more detailed statement has been
submitted for the record.
Over the past few months, you have heard from countless
individuals and farm organizations with suggestions and
recommendations for the next Farm bill. Although the Farm
Credit System has a key interest in the entire Farm bill, we
have today chosen to focus on proposals to strengthen the
credit title. You cannot separate the important issue of
affordable and accessible credit from the broader issues of
commodity programs, conservation, and trade and rural
development.
As you know, the Farm Credit System is a nationwide
financial cooperative that lends to agriculture and rural
America. Congress created the system in 1916 to provide
American agriculture with a dependable source of credit. We are
a privately held farmer-owned cooperative which serves a public
good. Access to affordable credit is one of the primary issues
facing agriculture. It is also an issue the Farm Credit System
is uniquely qualified to address. For example, in a 2000 study
release by the Minnesota Legislature to assess the dairy
climate in that State, the issue of access to capital is
identified as one of the most core challenges facing the dairy
industry. Although dairy is a capital-intensive business, such
concerns are indicative of the need for capital and rural
America. This is particularly true among young beginning and
minority farmers and ranchers as well as those seeking to
modernize their operations.
What follows are several recommendations we believe
Congress should consider in writing the credit title:
Increase the limit on Farm Service Agency guaranteed loans
for any one individual from $750,000 to $1.5 million. The
current limit is restrictive on many family farm operations,
especially dairy and pork producers.
Increase FSA funding for interest rate buydowns on
guaranteed loans to small, young, and beginning farmers. Raise
the ceiling on low documentation FSA guaranteed loan
applications from $50,000 to $150,000. In addition to the
existing direct loan program, authorize a guaranteed lending
program for on-farm storage.
Reduce the paperwork burden now associated with the
assignment of USDA benefits and include the pork language to
express the intent of Congress and designed to assist small,
young, beginning farmers fully funded to meet the needs of all
who fulfill eligibility criteria.
Mr. Chairman, it is critical that credit issues be
addressed when Congress considers the next Farm bill. As a
primary source of credit to farmers, the Farm Credit System is
an integral part of our rural communities. However, far too
often lenders are left out of the equation when issues
affecting rural America are debated in the halls of Congress.
That is why we commend you for listening to the lender
perspective and thank you for holding this hearing in Minnesota
to discuss the issues facing our farmers in our rural
communities. I would be happy to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ladd can be found in the
appendix on page 61.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Mr. Ladd. That was excellent and
succinct testimony. Thank you very much.
Next is Mr. Delbert Mandelko. He is president of the
Minnesota Milk Producers. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF DELBERT MANDELKO, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA MILK
PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Mandelko. Senator Wellstone, Senator Dayton, and fellow
producers, my name is Delbert Mandelko. I am a dairy producer
from nearby Preston and the president of Minnesota Milk
Producers Association. MMPA is the only statewide organization
that exclusively represents dairy farmers. We have a membership
of approximately 3,000 dairy producers. On behalf of our
members, I wish to point out several issues that are crucial to
producers.
First, we ask that Congress close the loopholes of import
of products and restrict imports through quotas and tariffs on
products such as milk protein concentrates and casein.
This is not a regional issue. Six years after the
implementation of GATT, U.S. imports of MPC have risen more
than 600 percent.
In the year 2000, U.S. imports of MPCs were equal to about
350 million pounds of U.S.-produced nonfat dry milk. In
addition, imports of casein were equal to about 745 million
pounds of U.S.-produced nonfat dry milk. The importation of
these products displaces our domestic supply of milk.
It is the most serious problem facing U.S. dairy producers.
The major force driving down cheese prices in 2000 was
illegal use of imported milk protein concentrate in many
standard and processed cheese products.
On page 19 of the General Accounting Office for Dairy
Products, it states that if milk protein concentrates are used
in a cheese product, the product cannot bear the name of
standardized product, for example, pasteurized process cheese
slices, but if you look at the list of ingredients on the label
of any processed cheese product, milk protein concentrate is an
ingredient.
Milk protein concentrate has not been deemed a safe, legal
food ingredient by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
If it is being used illegally, why can't we put a stop to
it?
Second, increase the enforcement of Federal standards for
butterfat and solids nonfat content in fluid milk.
Congress should consider taking it a step further and raise
the solids nonfat standards in fluid milk. This policy would
provide a more nutritious, better-tasting fluid product to the
customer.
Third, MMPA supports the continuation of a true milk price
support program, where the price is set at today's level. The
support price helps stabilize dairy prices and secures a
reliable domestic supply of milk and dairy products for
consumers. Any price support program should include a supply
management program that treats all regions of the U.S. fairly.
Fourth, we ask that Congress consider the implementation of
a national Johne's Program. We need to do more than just
research and control the disease. We need a program that will
help us eliminate this disease from the farms.
Last, MMPA is willing to openly debate and consider any
specific proposal that may come forward as the Farm bill debate
continues. We believe it is important to treat all producers
from all regions fairly. We do not want a system that helps
producers in one region when it is at the expense of producers
in another region.
Thank you for the opportunity to briefly express Minnesota
Milk Producers' position toward Federal dairy policy.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mandelko can be found in the
appendix on page 64.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Mr. Mandelko. As you know, I
have introduced legislation regarding milk protein concentrate.
We will be trying to attach that to the Senate agriculture bill
which will be taken up this fall.
Senator Dayton. Next we have Mr. Mike McGrath from the
Minnesota Project in Lanesboro. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF MIKE McGRATH, ON BEHALF OF MINNESOTA PROJECT
Mr. McGrath. Thank you, Senator. Senator Wellstone, Senator
Dayton, Representative Gutknecht, I am here today to speak and
to testify on behalf of the Minnesota Project, which is a
member of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the
National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. I am here to
testify in support of the Conservation Security Act which
Senator Harkin and Senator Smith have before you in the Senate
Ag Committee. The Conservation Security Act offers a fresh new
approach to farm assistance that provides incentives to
diversify a farm's land-use practices to enhance conservation
benefits, and it does not provide incentives or disincentives
to production. We realize that the Federal Government plays a
very important role in assisting farmers through these
continued times of low prices. Many believe that Government
payments to farmers must be held accountable for the incentives
or the disincentives that they provide. Many believe that a
farm policy that provides billions of dollars in assistance
must not serve to just enhance the growth of an industrial
agriculture that ignores rural communities and the environment.
It must offer a constructive return on investments to the
taxpayers who foot the bill.
In the area where I live, I have a farm in the Root River
Valley near Lanesboro. Last summer we had a 100-year flood. We
watched millions of tons of soil wash down the Root River
Valley and on down the Mississippi River. This year we
witnessed--many of the fields that were completely destroyed
and washed away have been rebuilt, and they are back in corn
and beans, soybeans. We think that the incentives to plant
these crops are so great that we are actually building fields
to grow these crops in so that we can harvest the subsidy that
the Government has provided.
We believe it is time for Federal farm assistance to
provide stewardship incentives to working lands. The
Conservation Security Act provides stewardship incentives that
promote on-farm conservation practices that will enhance and
protect soil and water and enhance and protect soil and water
resources and wildlife habitat. We believe that is good for all
Minnesotans regardless of your political beliefs.
Current conservation programs provide incentives to install
practices, but there is little money to maintain these
practices. Cost-share funding programs like EQIP are very
critical to helping farmers establish these practices, protect
resources, but the added costs of maintaining these practices
sometimes offer disincentives for financially strapped family
farm operations. The Conservation Security Offer will allow
farmers to voluntarily enroll their working land in
conservation plans that provide for 5- and 10-year renewable
contracts. These contracts will pay the farmer for
environmental benefits generated from the practices that are
installed, compensating him for the maintenance time and
helping with any foregone revenues from the implementation of
those practices.
We believe it is time to level the playing field here so
that farm assistance is spread more equally among all farmers,
not just those who produce specific commodity crops.
Finally, we believe that the new Farm bill should reward
farmers who are already doing a good job. Many farmers already
are practicing conservation on their farms, but there is no
subsidy for them. The Conservation Security Act allows these
farmers to enroll their existing conservation practices into a
security plan. We believe that now is a historic opportunity
for the Senate to pass a farm bill that is based on sensitive
goals and realistic outcomes. As members of the Senate Ag
Committee, you can show extraordinary leadership in making
conservation the centerpiece of the next Farm bill. The
Conservation Security Act is a good bill for Minnesota farmers,
and it is a good bill for Minnesota's environment.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. McGrath can be found in the
appendix on page 66.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you. We will be sure that it will be
part of the Senate bill. I might just also quickly say in terms
of our panelists, the selection process, we try to get a good
cross-section of representation throughout the State. Many of
the major farm organizations, representatives, and presidents
testified at our Worthington hearing, the Farm Bureau, Farmer's
Union, NFO, Pork Producers, Corn Growers, Soybean Association.
We try to get a diversity of panelists through the two
hearings. That is a brief explanation of our selection process.
Marcie McLaughlin, we are glad to have you here from
Redwood Falls and from Rural Partners.
STATEMENT OF MARCIE McLAUGHLIN, ON BEHALF OF AMERICA'S STATE
RURAL DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Ms. McLaughlin. Senator Dayton, Senator Wellstone,
Representative Gutknecht, members of the committee. I am
pleased to be here today representing America's State Rural
Development Council to provide you with some of our thoughts
related to the Farm bill and other items related to rural
America and Minnesota.
The first State Rural Development Council was accomplished
over a decade ago to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture
and Federal Government advance provisions of the Rural
Development Policy Act of 1980 which called for greater
coordination and the formulation and administration of rural
development policies and programs. Today the State Rural
Development Council operates in 40 States, and with the
Washington-based National Rural Development Council comprised
of the National Rural Development Partnership.
Thank you both, and Representative Gutknecht, for the
support of Minnesota Rural Partners and the National Rural
Development of Partnership by cosponsoring the National Rural
Development Act in the Senate. Thank you also for your
continuing support to include NRDT in the appropriations bill
and the rural development title for this Senate farm bill
language. Minnesota has been involved in many areas that impact
rural Minnesota. In our most recent event, Joint International
Summit on Community and Rural Development and many areas that
impact rural Minnesota and were held last month in Duluth. It
is an example of how we can convene and stimulate discussions
and actions.
We appreciate the presence of both staff members at this
important event. Over 1,200 people from all over Minnesota,
from 47 States, and 15 foreign countries were there, and many
of those folks participated in an unscientific online survey
regarding rural policy.
Three statements with the highest agreement in order are
rural--from a survey rural areas must diversify economically if
they are to survive in the long run; that agricultural policy
must more fully recognize its linkages to rural development
issues; and that Federal and State government must help local
leadership build a community infrastructure that is needed for
successful rural development.
As the Farm bill is rewritten, we encourage inclusion of
each of these points. These can occur as we focus on what
Minnesota Rural Partners is calling the five north stars.
Energizing entrepreneurs. How do we stimulate new growth within
rural areas? Managing the new agriculture. How do we not only
take advantage of new ways of doing business within agriculture
but also provide markets for those at our joint marketing to
doing something sustainably--is a digital divide, and you are
all aware of that need. Sustaining the landscape with the
pressures that are put on land issues. Then boosting human
capital. Providing that critical visible and invisible
infrastructure within communities.
As Federal agencies work together for rural places, we will
see coordination of programs authorized in several communities
including the ag community.
Senator Wellstone, as you stated at the Farmfest last week,
we are at the point where we need new rules. Who holds the
center of communities? Where are those decisions made? Are they
close to home or far from home? The past Farm bills were
written for the reality of the time. Like many new realities
for rural places in the United States, we need a new approach.
No one congressional committee or administrative department has
overall responsibilities for rural policy and rural programs'
integration reinforce the needs for these new rules and
policies.
Thank you for your time today.
[The prepared statement of Ms. McLaughlin can be found in
the appendix on page 70.]
Senator Dayton. Next we have Mr. Ken Meter with the
Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis. Welcome, Ken.
STATEMENT OF KEN METER, CROSSROADS RESOURCE CENTER,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Mr. Meter. Senator Dayton, Senator Wellstone, and
Representative Gutknecht, I really thank you for your
invitation to speak today. The Crossroads Resource Center has
worked alongside community-based groups since 1972. This winter
we were asked by the Hiawatha Statute Project in Lanesboro to
study the farm and food economy of southeast Minnesota. Our
study began with a few simple questions. We wondered why in
this region that produces $1 billion worth of food each year,
the town of Houston recently spent 2 years without a grocery
store. We wondered why when 8,400 local farmers are struggling
to make a living, local residents spend half a billion dollars
each year buying food from outside the region. We wondered why
farm families work two to three outside jobs to cover the costs
of producing commodities.
After looking at the numbers, we discovered the local
families lose $800 million each year as they grow and buy food.
It is a very conservative figure but a staggering total equal
to 20 times the amount of the Federal farm subsidy that comes
into the region each year. The fact that this region subsidized
by the national economy will not be used by most farmers in
this room. Nobody in America, to our knowledge, has measured
such losses before at a regional level.
It would not have to be this way. The reasons food
consumers are a formidable market--if local residents purchased
only 15 percent of their food from local growers, that would
generate as much income for farmers as all farm subsidies
combined. Moreover, southeast Minnesota is not unusual. Similar
stories could be told about most any rural region in the
country. In many regions, in fact, the numbers might look even
worse because southeast Minnesota's farmers have been and the
farming with high years of soil conservation in the economy is
more diverse here than many rural local, but it is humbling to
realize how vast these issues are.
Our study was written with the understanding that we can
only reverse these losses once we know what causes them. This
is terribly important to have. Further, we can use these
findings from one region to recast the farm debate in
Washington. Policies should focus on rural communities as a
whole, not simply on farmers. Policies should start with the
premise that rural regions should subsidize the U.S. rather
than the other way around.
Farmers go to the Federal level because there is water
there. Having some weather with severe economic drought has
faced farm families for 30 years. It is not enough to give
farmers more water. We must also fix the buckets farmers use.
We must build new economic structures that stop these leaks
once and for all. This is not a time to quibble about whether
farmers receive too much water. It is a time to ask is the
water safe to drink, who ultimately gets the water, and how do
we build buckets that do not leak.
I was extremely pleased to learn when I attended the farm
hearing in Worthington on August 4 that farms are asking for
the choice to leave the capital-intensive economy. I am also
pleased to hear farmers in southeast Minnesota asking for a
chance to build a parallel food economy, one that feeds people,
one that protects soil and water, and one that builds wealth
for rural residents. These farmers are not asking for an income
stream from the Federal well. They are asking for investments
in rural communities. Further, they are asking the Federal
Government to stop subsidizing economic systems that extract
wealth. Once we make new investments, we will also need to
evaluate results.
Tragically there is very little data available that shows
rural communities how their local economies rise and fall.
Given the massive unintended consequences of the Farm bill in
1996, including, of course, the $30 billion that was required
to support farms in 2000, it is the responsibility of the
Federal Government not only to pass solid rural legislation but
also to provide excellent data that allows rural communities to
assess the impact of the next Farm bill on their communities.
Crossroads stands ready to help the Senate Agriculture
Committee in any way to advance these goals.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. Could you submit a copy of your
study for the record? Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Meter can be found in the
appendix on page 74.]
Senator Dayton. Mr. Peterson, I see your display behind us.
Enlighten us. Thank you for coming.
STATEMENT OF SEVER PETERSON, EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA
Mr. Peterson. Thank you. Senator Wellstone, Senator Dayton,
Representative Gutknecht. They say a picture is worth 1,000
words. We will get to that in a moment. Honored guests and
fellow farmers, it is my pleasure to be here today. I would
like to speak from my heart. I have submitted testimony, and I
would like to summarize that, if I may.
I am a farmer in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. My family started
farming there in 1984. We have raised vegetables. As you see,
one of our markets is here behind us. We also market vegetables
and export them to Canada from our farm. We have done that
since that time a little over 100 years. We also raise corn and
soybeans, and we have been livestock farmers.
I am of Vietnam vintage. When I left for Vietnam, my Dad
wasn't well. We sold the livestock just 2 days before I left
for Vietnam. I tell you, not a Christmas goes by that I don't
think of that livestock. We bagged them on Christmas Eve.
I see some problems in production agriculture. The problem
I feel that is huge for me is that I feel we are misguided. We
farmers are misguided. Many of us are misguided. An example I
would like to say is that when ethanol--when I speak to people
who are producing ethanol and they feel that the raw product
corn has to be a low price for them to make a profit in their
ethanol, I feel that that may be misguided. Or when hog farmers
are asking for lower soybean prices in order for them to make
money on their hogs, that is misguided.
Wholesale and retail, we do wholesale and retail business
on our farm. The corn that you see behind you on that stand, if
I bought that from my farm and it is a separate business, it is
called one of those niche markets or value added in the words
of today, if you will. I am here to tell you that there is a
problem. If this market here would beat the price down to me at
the farm level of the raw product, what for? What is the
purpose? We need profits at the farm gate. Every farm does. I
feel that we have been missing that. We need something dramatic
that gives us profit for the raw product at the farm gate.
I feel there have been some failed solutions. I have used
them as examples in my own life. I grew up, as I said, a
livestock farmer. I am a member of the Pork Producers, I am a
member of the Corn Growers, I am a member of the Soybean
Growers, and probably all of them. I have never been a member
of the Milk Producers. I have only helped my neighbors milk.
One of the things I have heard is get rid of the inefficient
and those that remain will be better off. Well, I don't believe
that for a moment, get rid of the inefficient and the rest will
be better off. I don't believe that for a moment. How about
exporting our way to prosperity? Today I am here with three
exchange students. One of them is now my farm manager. He is of
European descent, Dutch, family immigrated to Brazil, and we
are not going to introduce them. Another one of them here today
is from Germany, another one is from Sweden. They have the same
problem there. They also want to export. Am I going to export
into their market? Are they going to take my market? We need
some cooperation. Not competition, not consolidation, not
monopolization, we need some cooperation. Talk about free
markets. We talk about level playing field. The men here from
Brazil--and you can speak with them afterwards--they got $3-a-
day wages. I pay more than $3 an hour and benefits on my farm.
This is not a level playing field. It is a highly disparate
world. I believe we have to deal with those issues.
I am sorry here that it is taking me so long, but we
farmers cannot help ourselves. It seems I am 57 years old. In
over 50 years of history of agriculture, we farmers have not
been able to help ourselves. We have lost our economic power.
We need you Senators and Congress, we need you to help us
regain this economic power. I feel like we are trying to put
air into a blowout. We don't have a low tire. We have a
blowout. We can hook up the hose, and we can let the air run
all we want to with value added and niche markets and
everything else, all we want to. Unless we have a tire there
that will hold air, we have nothing.
I would just like to show you here if I can on these
pictures. This is a maze that we did last year. You see in the
maze is the Nation's capital. I feel that we farmers are lost
in this maze. I feel that agribusiness is somewhere in this
maze. We farmers have absolutely no economic power to get out
of this maze. In the center of this maze is the United States
Capitol. We need you. Now is the time. We need you to help get
out of the maze. We need you now. This year's maze--and it is
symbolic--is the United States. I believe this effort has got
to start with the United States. We are supposedly the center
of the free world, or certainly part of the free world. Well,
let's stand up and do something. Let's speak for ourselves.
Let's get our economic power. We need it. We all know that we
are going backward and we are failing. No farmers made money
last year without our subsidy. I don't like subsidies, but I
certainly can't even buy groceries without them. What a
travesty. What a travesty.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Peterson can be found in the
appendix on page 78.]
Senator Dayton. I am just curious, did you build a solution
into your maze?
Mr. Peterson. We need cooperation.
Senator Dayton. I wanted to see if Congressman Gutknecht or
Senator Wellstone have any comments to make to the panelists or
questions of them.
Mr. Gutknecht. Well, I would like to introduce a couple of
people. First of all, thank you. The testimony has been
excellent, all of you. Very thoughtful. Having been out on some
of the rotational farms, I honestly believe that for large
chunks as part of the State, that has got to be a big part of
the answer. I do want to introduce a couple of very important
people in the back of the room. I thought I saw Bill Hunt.
Bill, wave your hat back there. He is our State NRCS director.
Then we have John Monson. Wave your tie, John. They are going
to be around later. If you have any questions or comments for
either one of them, John is the new head of the Farm Service
Agency. Probably between the two of them--and I suspect I speak
for the Senators as well--they are a very, very valuable
resource for us. When there are questions that we can't answer,
we often call them, and they have been tremendous advisors to
us. I did want to make sure they were introduced.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Paul.
Senator Wellstone. Well, the only thing I want to do--I did
it at the beginning, Senator Dayton--is I want to thank the
recorder for helping us with this hearing, because this means
that everything that is said is a part of the official record.
Everything that will be said today will be very important. I
also want to thank our signer. I don't think we could have a
hearing without having a signer, and I appreciate your work as
well. Give them some applause.
I know that Mark is going to have people introduce
themselves, and we are going to get right to discussion. Since
I drove part of the way down with Dave Frederick, I want to
make sure I introduce him as president of the Minnesota Farmers
Union. Where is Dave? In the back of the room, I am sure. I
want you to know, Sever, that following up on what you said,
the hardest thing for me to do now is to be quiet. Because you
are absolutely right.
Senator Dayton. We will turn to the next part of our
hearing. Again, to our panelists, thank you very much. That was
excellent testimony. You stuck within the timeframe. Thank you
very much. You are welcome to stay where you are for the rest
of the hearing. If anyone needs to leave, go so with our
gratitude. Thank you. I would like to give an opportunity--I am
always afraid to start introductions--but I don't know who is
in the room, and I don't want to leave somebody out. We have
members of our State legislature here. I would like to invite
you to come up and introduce yourselves. If you have comments
within the few-minute time limit you would like to make during
this hearing, please do so. Also, Mr. Monson and Mr. Hunt, if
you would also--I appreciate Congressman Gutknecht's
introduction. If any of you would like to say something for the
record as well. I will give you the opportunity to do so now. I
see Representative Winter is coming forward. Mr. Monson,
welcome. Anyone else?
STATEMENT OF JOHN MONSON, STATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MINNESOTA
FARM SERVICE AGENCY, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
Mr. Monson. I want to say thank you, Senators and
Congressmen Gutknecht, for coming here to my part of the State.
Dodge County is where I hail from. We have Dodge County farmers
sitting here in the group. If they get a little raucous, be
careful with them.
I just wanted to make one announcement if I could. The Farm
Service Agency has made, as a result of these folks here at the
table, an emergency assistance package. We have in your
accounts without your knowledge put money in there. We didn't
take any out; we put money in there. Market loss assistance
payments. The bonus payments, they are there, probably in most
every county. Right now they are out. Payments for soybeans
will be going out this week. We have basically taken everybody
off of everything else to make those payments as quickly as we
can. That is really all I have. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much.
STATEMENT OF TED WINTER, STATE REPRESENTATIVE, STATE OF
MINNESOTA
Mr. Winter. It is my pleasure to be here. I want to thank
the Senators and Representative Gutknecht. My name is
Representative Ted Winter. I live on a farm by Fulda. I have
actively been farming for 37 years. I have served in the
legislature for 16 years now and went through the 1980's and
went through times and troubles and people and personal
problems that they had at that point. We are right back in the
same boat today because we can't get a decent price for what we
do in the marketplace. That is our problem.
We can talk about more credit. I don't know anybody in this
room or any farmers that I have in my neighborhood that
actually is willing to take on more credit. They already got
too much debt. They want to have some money for what they do.
If we do anything in the Federal Farm bill changes that doesn't
allow more price help for our farmers, anyone that wants to
reduce the loan rates for any farmers in any kind of bill or
any kind of form from any kind of commodity group should be
willing to take a 15-, 20-percent reduction in their paychecks
and their budgets for their businesses. Because right now with
the way it is happening, there is not enough money. We need the
extra oil seed payments. We need the extra emergency payments
from the Federal agencies so we can actually pay our bills and
be out there. It is not fun. Our children and our grandchildren
aren't going to be out there. That is the worst fear I have
that I hear in the minds and the hearts of many farmers that I
talk to that are 50 to 60 years old. Well, this is it. I am the
last one. I am the last generation. We are the last generation
if we don't fix this that are going to be out here. Then we
will turn it over to the industrial corporate structure, and
then they will take over, and they will farm it, and the Fuldas
and the Springfields and the Stewartvilles, you might survive
because you are close enough to Rochester where you get some
bedroom community stuff. That is what is going to happen. We
have to fix the price. We don't need more debt. We need higher
loan rates. We need managing inventories. There is not a
business in the world that doesn't manage its inventories. One,
farmers are told to produce all you can. If you produce all you
can, maybe we can sell to another world, and maybe some other
world will buy it, and maybe if you do it often enough and long
enough, maybe then you will drive somebody else out of
business, and maybe then you will be productive and profitable.
Don't work. Never worked. Never will work.
Senators, congressional members, fight for price. Make the
total contest of your farm bill determine that the price is
better; the farmers don't get less. We have been doing more for
less for so long that we can't do any more.
Senator Dayton. Well said, Ted. Thank you very much. Thank
you for attending both hearings, the one in Worthington and
here. I see also who was also at our Worthington hearing,
Representative Mary Ellen Otremba. Welcome, Mary Ellen.
STATEMENT OF MARY ELLEN OTREMBA, STATE REPRESENTATIVE, STATE OF
MINNESOTA
Ms. Otremba. Thank you, Senator Wellstone, Senator Dayton,
and Congressman Gutknecht. I also grew up on a farm and went
away to college and climbed the corporate ladder and then met a
farmer and came back to the farm and have passionately enjoyed
it. I actively farmed until 1997 when my husband died, and now
I still live on the farm and do some farming.
I just want to touch on just a couple of issues that
pertain to one of my biggest interests, and that is dairy, of
course, on the Federal level. I have read in the papers and
heard that some of you are not supporting the Northeast
Compact. My feeling about that is when some farmers are getting
a fair price, instead of punishing them and taking that away
from them, why don't we let the southeast and the Midwest and
whatever part of the country that wants to do a compact, do a
compact. Or better yet, do it at the Federal level. I am really
tired of us competing against other farmers who are all in the
same mode as to produce healthy food.
Second, in that whole dairy problem, one of the major
problems we have is that California farmers, dairy farmers,
are--they receive about the same that we do for our milk per
hundred, but the Federal Government purchases all their surplus
milk, and then that surplus milk gets dumped on the Wisconsin
cheese market. It is time for that Federal law to go out the
window.
Another thing that I have a hard time with in the whole
dairy problem is in the 1999 Farm bill, all the processors were
allowed--so that their cheese plant would never fail. Well, in
my district alone, because my farmers are around under 100
cows, each of those dairy farmers are giving $10,00 to $40,000
a year to those processors involuntarily because of the 1999
Federal Farm bill. Multiply that out in my community, which is
the poorest community in the State, this is a lot of money
leaving just for that amount alone. The Federal Milk Marketing
Order deducts 3 cents per hundredweight for their milk
marketing order. In Minnesota alone that is $2.5 million to
punish us because we don't happen to be the right distance from
Wisconsin.
My third and final--and maybe one of my most important
messages--is that NAFTA has done some good things, but we need
to seriously, seriously, seriously take a look at Chapter 11.
There are 23 chapters in NAFTA, and we are seeing some serious
lawsuits against our Government from foreign companies because
of the way those NAFTA laws are written.
We are in the process of writing the Free America Trade
Act. Please look at that area of NAFTA before you finish
writing that agreement because the agreement as it is written
now is exactly like the NAFTA. The Chapter 11 absolutely needs
to be looked at, our clean water, all of those things will be
gone. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Senator Scheevel, Congressman Gutknecht indicates that
since we are in your district, we should have asked you to
welcome us, but welcome to you. Thank you for being here.
STATEMENT OF KENRIC SCHEEVEL, STATE SENATOR, STATE OF MINNESOTA
Mr. Scheevel. Senator Dayton, Senator Wellstone,
Congressman Gutknecht, we would like to welcome you to our back
yard. This is referred to as God's country. This is probably
some of the most beautiful landscape and some of the most
fertile farmland you will find in the Midwest. Frankly, we are
in a time of transition. This is the country, and this is an
area that was settled. One of the reasons we have livestock
here is because it is a lot easier for the cattle to walk out
to the fields and harvest those hillsides than it is to do it
with machinery.
We are in a time of transition now because the small
traditional producers are essentially leaving the land. That
means either you have some midsized producers that take up
their slack, or you have corn and beans. One of my concerns is
that the agriculture industry itself is fighting, saying it has
got to be our way or no way. If there is one point to the Farm
bill I would like to emphasize, it is that we have to have
opportunity for farmers of all sizes, all philosophies, all
styles, to be able to compete and exist in the future. I too
have seen the erosion of the past couple of years. We can very
easily find where every waterway should have been in place in
the last 2 years because they were gullies last fall. We need
to have those kinds of environmental incentives. There used to
be. It used to be that if you wanted to have a Government
payment, you had to have the erosion plan in place. There isn't
that tie-in together today. There should be. We have to provide
incentives and rewards to be good stewards. Because without it,
if you have 4,000 acres to run and the rain is coming,
sometimes you don't stop for that waterway. We need the
incentives. About most of all, we need opportunity. We need
opportunity for everybody if they want to make their living on
the land, that they have that opportunity whether it is a small
producer with 2 acres of vegetables or whether it is 2,000
acres or 2,000 cattle and anywhere in between. Opportunity for
anyone to pursue their dream in this country. We hope that you
will have the wisdom and insight to make those kinds of dreams
possible. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Well said, Senator. Thank you very much for
the welcome as well.
Unidentified Speaker. Never follow somebody that is always
taller than you are. Senator Wellstone and I have something in
common. We both are true wrestlers. I sometimes forget that in
this State where we are represented by a fake wrestler, we can
kind of point that out once in a while. First of all, I want to
welcome you. The mayor was gracious enough to say that this is
Queezley's Gable country. Honestly we have the honor of
representing this in the State legislature. This is a great
area to run. These are great people, and they will be warm-
hearted and welcoming wagon whether Republican or Democrat
today. This is a great area to recognize.
I just want to quickly touch--first of all, to thank the
Congress for passing some unique tax legislation. I work on
taxes and transportation in this State. One of those was the
inheritance tax and making that so it is better so people can
give their farms to their children and make sure that we can
pass the farm on. In the past it has been almost impossible to
do that, whether it is a capital gains tax or the inheritance
tax. The things that were done this year in Congress really
does help the situation in the future. Hopefully we can make
sure that that happens.
This past 2 weeks I was able to go up and take a tour from
the St. Paul Harbor down to Hastings U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. They invited me up because of my work on
transportation in the Minnesota House. I want to say one thing.
We do need to upgrade the transportation system in this Nation.
Our locks and dams are way behind. They were designed in the
system where horses and a John Deere B were used to till the
land. These locks and dams are out of date. They need to be
updated. We need to find ways for railroads to go through
cities without disrupting cities. We need to find ways to
improve our highways for the truck traffic and so forth. We are
not only just shipping products out. We are shipping things in
that the farmers need for supplies and other things. We need to
make sure that that transportation system is in place. We have
tried in the Minnesota House and the Senate and with the
Governor to make sure that we get that done in Minnesota, but
we do need Federal help in that area. Again, thank you for
coming to Stewartville. It is a great place to be.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much. Everybody can tune in
to the Governor's radio show on Friday for his response.
Now we are going to open it up for anyone in the audience
who wishes to comment for a period again of, I believe, 2
minutes. I ask if you have additional comments or testimony to
make, or you can submit it for the record. We will go from one
side to the other. Please state your name at the outset for the
record, and we will start then.
There was a young woman who was here. We haven't had an
eighth-grader testify as yet at either of our hearings, but
since Amber here represents the future of Minnesota
agriculture, it would be appropriate, Amber, we will start with
you. State your name for the record, please, and then we will
hear your testimony.
STATEMENT OF AMBER HANSON, RACINE, MINNESOTA
Ms. Hanson. My name is Amber Hanson. I am 13 years old. I
live on a farm with my family in rural Grand Meadow. We raise
corn and soybeans on our farm. My dad is very interested in
biodiesel. He feels that this will help us continue to farm by
creating more markets for our soybeans. Biodiesel has proven to
be a much cleaner-burning fuel. This especially helps kids
because of the fact that school buses use diesel fuel.
Biodiesel is the first and only alternative diesel fuel to
complete all health-effect testing. Right now when we are
standing in line waiting for the bus after school or riding the
bus for 2 hours, as many of us do, we were inhaling all the
harmful emissions coming from the bus. Biodiesel reduces
harmful emissions coming from the bus. Biodiesel reduces its
harmful emissions, and it even extends engine life so our
schools can save a lot of money each year by not having to buy
or fix as many buses. There are no equipment costs for buses.
There are no equipment costs for buses to change over to
the biodiesel. Schools don't have a lot of money to work with,
so this is the means by which protect students' health with
cleaner air. It is the proven fact that everyone in this room
breathes air. Why not clean it up by using biodiesel? Even
riding a diesel-powered bus could be harmful to your health. Do
you really want to be sick just from breathing? I know I don't.
It takes the Earth 250 million years to replace the oil
supply. Why take that from the Middle East when my dad and
other soybean farmers are growing oil in their fields right
here on a yearly basis. You make the decision.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hanson can be found in the
appendix on page 80.]
Senator Dayton. Amber, thank you very much. I have
introduced legislation in the Senate for biodiesel incentives.
If you and your father could come out to Washington and testify
on behalf of my legislation this fall, I would love to hear
from you. I will followup with you.
Congressman Gutknecht wants to make a comment.
Mr. Gutknecht. First of all, Amber, I want to say that was
great testimony. Second, one of the provisions that was
included in the House-passed energy bill is something called
the ``green school bus.'' It is something I have been pushing
for a long time. That is at least let's show that biodiesel
works by putting it in school buses. If we can get it in every
school bus in the United States, it would go a long way to
reducing the surplus we have in soybeans, but more importantly,
you are exactly right. It will clean up our air. I am
absolutely with you.
STATEMENT OF COLLEEN LANDKAMER, LEWIS COUNTY COMMISSIONER,
MANKATO, MINNESOTA
Ms. Landkamer. I am Colleen Landkamer. I am a Blue Earth
County Commissioner. Previous to my becoming a county
commissioner, I worked for Congressman Tim Penney. My first
farm bill was the 1996 Farm bill, and I have been working on
them ever since. I am also the chairman of the National
Association of Counties Rural Action Caucus. The Rural Action
Caucus at the National Association of Counties is 1,000 members
strong. I am really looking forward to working with all of you
on this farm bill because it is so critical to our future in
this Nation. I want to thank you for taking time during the
recess to hold these hearings and to come out and meet with the
people whose lives will be impacted by this farm bill, the
people who really do the work and who put their jobs, their
lives, on the line with the legislation that you will pass.
Thank you very much for hearing from the people that it impacts
the most.
I also want you to know that--and you know this--across the
Nation there's been great economic prosperity, but it has been
uneven, and it hasn't hit many of our rural areas. We are
seeing people who are being challenged more and more each day.
I ask you to think about that in the rewrite of the Farm bill.
Now, I know there's a lot of people that want to talk, and
I don't want to take their time, so I will submit my formal
testimony to the record. Thank you very much.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Colleen.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA J. COLLINS, LEGAL SERVICES ADVOCACY
PROJECT, ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
Ms. Collins. Thank you, Senator Dayton, Senator Wellstone,
and Congressman Gutknecht, for the opportunity to speak today
on a subject that is very important to low-income Minnesotans
and indeed to millions of Americans. My name is Barbara J.
Collins. I am with Legal Services Advocacy Project.
I want to talk about the re-authorization of the Federal
food stamp program which Congress must act upon this year.
Since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act, commonly referred to as welfare
reform, in 1996, Minnesota has been an innovator in trying to
maintain an adequate food and nutrition safety net for families
trying to make the transition from welfare to work. We have
combined the cash assistance and food programs with the Federal
waiver. We have expanded eligibility so that as families move
from welfare to work, they can continue to receive support in
the form of food stamps. We have recently simplified our food
stamp application, and I copied a number of pages, and I have
them all tabbed so that it is less of a burden for families
trying to obtain this benefit. Because we have done such a good
job in Minnesota, we have received Federal bonuses for
maintaining a high level of accuracy in our food stamp program,
6.6 million in 2000 and 4.5 million in 1999. Despite our
efforts to eliminate barriers in the food stamp program, we
have seen a pattern of underutilization of food stamps, which
other States have seen as well.
Since 1994 our usage has declined by approximately 34.7
percent. Unfortunately, we don't have reason to believe that
this represents a decrease in need. I brought a letter to the
committee today from the Minnesota Food Share Association which
represents the food shelves. They explain that their efforts to
supply emergency food have been even more challenged than ever
to continue to provide emergency food. We ask that in re-
authorization several key steps be taken to try to improve this
program. I have submitted a copy of my statement--but those
include restoring benefits to legal immigrants, improving the
level of benefits, making the food stamp program more
supportive of working families, and allowing better consistency
between the medicative food stamp program.
I urge you as you consider re-authorization to make this
program simple, understandable, adequate, and accessible.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much. Your full testimony
will be submitted for the record. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Collins can be found in the
appendix on page 81.]
Senator Wellstone. All of us should be very disciplined
because there are so many people that want to testify. Barb, I
have to followup because I fear that your testimony may not
otherwise be followed up on because there is going to be so
much else that is going to be said that is important. You are
absolutely right. We cut the benefit for legal immigrants, and
their children also aren't receiving it because if they don't
receive it, they don't get it to their children, the cutback on
the actual financial part of the actual value of the food stamp
benefits. There has been over a 30-percent decline, and around
the country quite often people don't even know they are
eligible. What is so important about your testimony--and I
believe people will agree on this--is that the food stamp
program is the most important safety net child nutrition
program in the United States of America. Most of the people who
benefit are the people who are working. They are working full-
time. They are still poor. We take your testimony to heart, and
we will change it. We are going to change it.
Mr. Gutknecht. Let me just say that in the bill that we
passed in the House, we did provide an additional $40 million
for emergency food assistance programs, and we also simplified
the application process and provided a 6-month transition
program for those people who were leaving welfare. We do
understand that there still are problems, and I speak for just
about everybody in this room. In this country especially, no
one should go hungry.
Senator Dayton. Sir?
STATEMENT OF GENE PAUL, FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA, DELAVAN,
MINNESOTA
Mr. Paul. My name is Gene Paul. I am a farmer from
Faribault County, Minnesota. Thank you for being here, Senators
and Congressman. When we talk about agriculture, there are two
important elements in agriculture, that is, food and people.
Any policies we have should be judged in terms of how they
affect food and people. The Farm bill that we are going to be
working on this year is going to affect or does affect far more
than just the rural areas because it is consumer issues as
well. We must have something done as far as competition. The
competition is vital in the Farm bill.
Senator Wellstone. Yes. Yes.
Mr. Paul. The trend that we are seeing--or what we are
seeing is not just a trend, but rather it is a cold, calculated
effort to control the production, the processing, and the
distribution of food in this country, in the world as well. As
far as our trade agreements, they need to be rewritten. Trade
should benefit the producer, the consumer, as well as those
people handling the trade. We need to have those rewritten to
protect the environment and labor as well. Those are all very
important issues. We need to establish a food reserve and an
inventory management system. I would concur with Mr. Mandelko
on the dairy policies along with the fact that we do support
continuation, expansion, and the establishment of other Dairy
Compacts.
The Dairy Compact they have in the Northeast does not
prevent shipments of milk from this country. It does have a
supply management program in it, and I fail to see how taking
that price away from them can hurt the producers in this
country or in this part of the State. We do need to continue
the Dairy Compact.
One last point. Farmers need a price, but I recognize that
there are going to be payments from the Government. We have
talked about targeting payments. I just want to remind you that
we have established a precedent as far as targeting payments in
the emergency money that was sent out to dairy farmers because
there was a limit put on the amount of money that would be paid
to a dairy farmer based on the production they had. It was not
paid on every pound of milk that they produced. We need to
build on that as far as targeting payments.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. Thank you for all your years of
dedicated leadership.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LINDA NOBLE, ORGANIC DAIRY FARMER, KENYON,
MINNESOTA
Ms. Noble. Hi. I am Linda Noble. I am an organic dairy
farmer from Kenyon, Minnesota. I am here today to stand up for
democracy, and I would like to have my vote in the vote of over
15,000 hog producers reinstated that the pork checkoff end
today. We need to change policies and reject the self-appointed
leadership of these commodity groups. I produce red pork from
our farm which goes for the highest export prices. I am forced
to pay the pork checkoff tax and pay for ads that promote white
pork and factory farms. These commodity groups don't represent
me.
The loss of the family independent farm is something that
they understand. It is important to have a local food system.
We are losing too many farmers each day. We need to support the
sustainable farmers. They are good for local communities,
environment, and animal welfare and economy. The new Farm bill
should reflect this. On the news and in the papers, I read
about spills and fish and pollution of the ground water and
surface water and air. A new report that is out is called
``Cesspools of Shame: How Factory Farm Lagoons and Sprayfields
Threaten Environmental and Public Health.'' This witch's brew
of toxins from lagoons and sprayfields is polluting our air,
lakes, rivers, streams, and drinking water. Robin Marks, who
authored the report, he is quoted as saying, ``It threatens the
health of farm workers, neighbors, and even communities located
far away from factory farms as well as fish, wildlife, and
aquatic ecosystems.'' Read the complete report at the NRDC web
site at www.nrdc.org. How many reports has there to be before
something is done? How many people need to get sick? How many
rivers need to be polluted? The lagoons of Smithfield have
broken, failed, and overflowed and killed fish and contaminated
our water and aquifers from the hydrogen sulfide issues, and it
pollutes our air.
Under the proposed technology at the EPA, the Agency allows
thousands of voluntary factories with lagoons the size of
football fields. Waste contains viruses, bacteria, and
antibiotics, metals, oxygen-depleting substances and other
substances that run on our land, the ground water, that ruins
the atmosphere.
We need to support more sustainable farmers so we don't
have to clean up the environment put back in farms. The
administration needs to see more interest in protecting public
health and the protecting the--of corporate agribusiness. We
need a conservation-based farm bill instead of a production-
based farm bill. I will submit my testimony as well.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Noble can be found in the
appendix on page 84.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much. I will submit a copy
of the report that Julie Janssen gave me last Friday for the
record of the hearing as well. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF EUNICE BIEL, DAIRY FARMER, HARMONY, MINNESOTA
Ms. Biel. Senator Wellstone, Senator Dayton, and
Representative Gutknecht, members of the panel, my name is
Eunice Biel, and I am a dairy farmer from Harmony, Minnesota,
in Fillmore County. My husband Robert and I are dairy farmers,
along with our son Kevin and his wife Kelly. We are members of
the Minnesota Milk Producers, and also I am on the executive
board of the Minnesota Farmers Union. I would like to talk
about two important issues.
First of all, the fighting compact is taking away attention
from the real problems. We should be spending more time working
on our cheese prices here in the Midwest and dealing with the
MPC problem. Fighting other dairy producers is a losing battle.
We do not have the luxury to fight amongst ourselves. No dairy
producer has ever profited at the expense of another dairy
producer going out of business. Why are we fighting farmers
with higher production costs? Land is not as productive as
ours, and we are short of class one milk. Our surplus does not
come to the Northeast or the Southern States. On the contrary,
our surplus comes from the Western States. I propose that
instead of fighting against other regions, we look at possibly
forming our own Midwest compact to ship out to the areas that
need it.
The benefit from compacts is not the financial benefit, but
rather it brings everyone together to evaluate what is a fair
price for milk, and it empowers the producer. The reasons the
compacts were formed in the first place is the Federal system
failed those farmers, and they took it into their own hands to
give themselves a better price.
Second, conservation needs to be an integral part of every
agricultural practice rather than an afterthought tacked on to
mitigate damage. Which is why the conservation land impact and
changes in the next Farm bill are so important. The
Conservation Reserve Act provides rewards for conservation
practices on working lands to strengthen both the farmer and
the land and win support of all citizens who want a clean
environment.
I would also like to say that Minnesota Farmers Union along
with Minnesota Milk Producers have joined in a dialog with
other dairy producers, and we call ourselves the U.S. Dairy
Producers Alliance. We need and have dialog with dairy
producers from the Western States, the Southern States, the
East Coast States, Louisiana, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and the
Midwest and to talk about common interests and so that we can
all share our problems.
Thank you very much for coming to the southeast part of the
State.
Senator Dayton. Well said. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF JIM RIDDLE, WINONA, MINNESOTA
Mr. Riddle. Thanks for holding this hearing and the
opportunity to speak. My name is Jim Riddle from Winona. I am
chair of the Minnesota Department of Ag's Organic Advisory Task
Force, secretary of the National Organic Standards Board, and I
am here representing the Organic Committee of the National
Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. I would like to discuss
three issues that I see that the Congress must address coming
up.
One is the Conservation Security Act which has already been
discussed. You must reward farmers who conserve and protect
rather than those who deplete and pollute and deal with
problems such as the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico the size
of West Virginia that is caused directly by our upland
practices.
Second, I would like to talk about organic program needs
and thank you and the Senate for attempting to get an organic
certification cost share, and we want to make sure that that is
passed through the House version of the Farm bill this time.
Our model here in Minnesota has been working for 3 years
providing some regulatory relief to organic farmers who have to
pay their own regulatory costs to prove that they are not
polluting the Earth. We need some relief, and we need more than
that. We need research funds. I submitted the written comments
which have extensive description of various research needs
coming up. Because farming and harming the earth is true sound
science at its cutting edge.
I just want to tell you about last week I was at Lambert
and the University of Minnesota. It has 120 acres of certified
organic research farm. Largest in the country. One of only
three in the entire country. Interesting results coming out
there after 10 years showing that the organic 4-year rotation
is comparable yields, better soil quality, no nitrates, and
significantly higher profits.
The final thing I would like to touch on is genetic
trespass. This is a huge issue that must be dealt with.
Transgenic pollution is harming both conventional and organic
farmers. We have lost billions of dollars of exports because
the world doesn't want these crops. We have to grow what the
markets demand. It is time to implement that and hold the
companies accountable for the genetic pollution they are
causing.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Riddle can be found in the
appendix on page 86.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you for covering a great deal of
important issues in a very short time. Thank you very much.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF NANCY ADAMS, LE ROY, MINNESOTA
Ms. Adams. Thank you for coming out and hearing what the
farmers have to say. My name is Nancy Adams. A friend and I
have a 120-acre farm south of here near Le Roy, Minnesota,
which we bought 3 years ago. My friends and family think I am
crazy. I am a well-educated, single, middle-aged woman from the
Cities who has worked and traveled all over the world. When
people ask me what I do, I say I am a farmer, but I am much
more than that. I am an environmentalist and a futurist.
Because I am an environmentalist and a futurist, I have
become a farmer. Because I believe my future and the future of
our country lie with sustainable agriculture. There are a lot
of things that I could say about this, but I will limit my
comments to a few main points. First, we are approaching the
end of the petroleum era. Some analysts say this will happen in
50 years, so many of our children and grandchildren will be
living in a world with no petroleum.
One of the major questions we need to be asking ourselves
and addressing is what we are going to use in the future to
replace petroleum and all of the ways it is currently being
used. There is no doubt in my mind that in the future the
carbohydrates of plant material will replace the hydrocarbons
of the petroleum in providing fuel, raw materials for industry,
and food for populations that are growing exponentially. We
will need huge quantities of plant materials in the future to
replace petroleum, and we need to ask ourselves now how we will
grow all of this plant material and work to ensure that we will
have what we need to provide it.
To grow the large quantities of plant material we will need
in the future, we need several things: good agricultural land,
reliable rain and weather patterns, farmers, seeds that respond
to varying conditions, and production methods that are
substantially different than those we now have. Living in the
Midwest, we take farmers, good agriculture land, and reliable
rainfall patterns for granted and assume that they will be
there in the future. However, the continuation of all these
things are in serious jeopardy and no longer can be taken for
granted. It should be the major component of the new arm bill
to ensure that all the components are in place to provide the
large amounts of plant material we will need in the future.
My time is up, but I really would like to just plod on, if
I may----
Senator Dayton. I have to ask you, as I have asked
everybody else, just to sum it up in 30 seconds, please.
Ms. Adams. All right. The main point I want to make is
productivity and viability of millions of acres of land in the
Midwest are currently being threatened. David Tillman is a
professor from the university. He looked at the environmental
disaster that is happening in the Red River Valley because of a
modern cultural cropping system. He found that the disease and
pest buildup made the land up there so that it could no longer
be used for agriculture. He said that the same thing was
happening in the corn/soybean rotation. The rotation has broken
down, and it is just going to be within a decade that all of
these millions of acres will no longer be able to produce corn
and soybeans.
I have a long statement here which I really would
appreciate you reading.
Senator Dayton. I will read it, and we will submit it to
the record. We can assure you of that. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF REV. CHUCK PURDHIM, (RETIRED), UNITED METHODIST
CHURCH, BROOKLYN CENTER, MINNESOTA
Rev. Purdhim. I am Chuck Purdhim, United Methodist
Minister, retired. I can't speak officially for the United
Methodist Church, only as general conferencing to that, but in
a recent session the general conference adopted a social
principle statement entitled ``U.S. Agriculture in Rural
Community in Crisis.'' One of the things that calls our
churches to do, was to give serious research, aggressive
research, to corporate ownership of agriculture and its effects
upon life and rural areas and advocacy necessary, and responses
based upon the finding of that research. The research not been
completed as yet. They are still in the process. While not
waiting for that to be done, our own Bishop here in Minnesota
conducted a series of hearings among the farmers of our State
beginning with up at the Red River Valley moving down through
the western part of our State and down south through Dexter and
Pine Island.
Out of those hearings, several things became fairly clear.
Out of the growing concern about the large conglomerates, big
mergers are the source of our problem, as some of them put it.
Paralleling that, a concern about ecology, stewardship,
conservation. Because of U.S. Government trade sanctions, our
products cannot be sold in certain countries. It will be that
they be taken in the international dimensions of this whole
issue as well.
This is not just a farm crisis but a rural crisis. To keep
in a larger setting, what happens to farmers happens to rural
communities as a whole. We are not just listening to the
farmers. We as a church are trying to listen also to a God, a
God of justice, and a God of hope. The gentleman over here said
something about this is God's country. That is more true than
he realized. We and you are God's people. God will be seeking
to work through you in terms of justice and hope as you work on
this legislation. I would urge you to remember the task ahead
of you is never as big as the powers behind you. Our prayers
will be with you.
Senator Dayton. Well said. Thank you very much.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF PHIL SPECHT, DAIRY FARMER, McGREGOR, IOWA
Mr. Specht. I am Phil Specht. I am a dairy farmer from
McGregor, Iowa. I would like to add my 37 separate
recommendations that were formulated through a process that
included all 99 counties in Iowa, and this is as my capacity as
Chair of the Ag Subcommittee of the Democratic Party Platform
of Iowa. We came up with 37 separate recommendations, so I
would like to enter this in the record and speak as a farmer.
I came up here to thank Senator Wellstone for coming down
to Iowa and lending the support in the depths of the hog price
crisis and to stand up and speak against the lack of
competition in the market. I want to ask you to include in your
legislation a competition title. Make sure it is in there. I am
all for conservation, the conservation security. Tom Harkin got
it right. I second that. That is in here.
I would like to thank Representative Gutknecht for his
support in rotational grazing. That is how I farm. Nice to meet
you, Senator Dayton. Thank you very much again, Paul. Keep
fighting for justice.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much. We welcome our
neighbors from Iowa. We have had good relations with both
Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Chuck Grassley. Thank you for
joining with us.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF KEVIN RISTAU, JOBS NOW COALITION, ST. PAUL,
MINNESOTA
Mr. Ristau. Thank you, members of the committee. My name is
Kevin Ristau. I am an ex-farmer, and I am presently education
director of the Jobs Now Coalition. Jobs Now consists of more
than 100 organizational members who have ignored their
differences so they can focus on what they have in common and
their belief that the opportunity to attain self-sufficiency
through one's work is a fundamental community standard.
Jobs Now's most recent attempt to define self-sufficiency
is a report of the cost of living in Minnesota which figures
the cost of basic needs for families of different sizes in each
of the States, 13 economic developmental regions. In this
report, if we look at the Minnesota counties, they are still
especially dependent upon the farm economy. We find that living
costs are 20 percent lower than the seven-county metro area.
However, average wages in these farm counties are 44 percent
lower.
Like the Federal minimum wage floor, the farm price support
program is a legacy of a new deal. Just as the purpose of the
minimum wage was to put a floor under wages, so the purpose of
the Federal farm program was to set a floor under farm prices.
With the new deal programs, Government intervened in the
marketplace to make the balance of power more equitable. As a
result of this intervention, farmers received better prices and
workers received better wages.
Opponents of these new deal programs have always argued
that this form of government intervention in the marketplace is
counterproductive to low-wage workers and family farmers who
would both somehow be better off without it. To suggest,
however, that either low-wage workers or family farmers can
flourish without market intervention is to imply that they have
just as much market power as employers in agribusiness
corporations. It is like refusing to install traffic lights at
a busy intersection and then insisting that pedestrians or
compact cars can get through it as easily as semi trailer
trucks.
We need to remember that neither farmers nor low-wage
workers would ever have won anything if they had believed the
market was an immutable law like the law of gravity. Ordinary
citizens attained their victories only because they knew the
market was a human construction that could be shaped for the
good of their communities.
If the market is a human construction and not a force of
nature, then the implication is clear. The market can serve our
human purposes. It should be used to create the kind of society
in which we want to live.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. If you will submit a copy of the
study for the record. We would welcome that.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ristau can be found in the
appendix on page 91.]
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LEWIS REIMAN, UTICA, MINNESOTA
MR. REIMAN: My name is Lewis Reiman. I am from Winona
County. Thank you, Senator Wellstone, Mr. Dayton, and Mr.
Gutknecht. I am here to speak--probably one of the minority. I
am here too for the elimination program. I believe I have seen
firsthand the destruction of both the family farm and the soils
that the programs have provided. The result of the current
program is that the hay is gone. There is no hay left there to
hold the soil. It is flushing it out. Civilizations have fallen
because their soils have been gone. In our own hemisphere the
example would be the Incas in Central America. What the
Government does essentially is effectively paying only for row
crops.
What I would like to give you is a method to eliminate by
paying a set amount per all tillable acres on the farm. Let the
program run from 5 to 10 years or whatever is in between, and
reduce each payment by that percentage each year and make the
maximum payment only to $35,000 and reduce that payment by the
reciprocal of that year.
Another article I would like to speak to is the clause--I
want to be watched for dumping on our markets. Our agriculture
department has pricing mechanisms in place that they could
watch for this when it is happening, and it could run a trigger
in there that we could stop this dumping from happening
quicker. I define dumping as a significant price below the
whole market.
Thank you, sir.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF NIEL RITCHIE, INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE AND TRADE
POLICY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Mr. Ritchie. Senators, Congressman, I am Niel Ritchie. I am
with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in
Minneapolis. On behalf of the National Family Farm Coalition
and the National Farm Action Campaign, I will submit a farm
policy agenda which is embodied into something called the
family farm, which we would like you to consider as well.
In terms of remarks, I would just say that people here have
done an amazing job of covering the waterfront in terms of the
challenges we face. We know the state of the rural economy is
driven by local incomes that are derived from the land, and
they are earned by farmers and ranchers. We know the Government
has a role to play, a really critical role to play in leveling
the playing field. We would call on Congress to consider a
reinstatement of tried and true proven Government policies that
work for farmers and consumers and taxpayers that include a
mandatory farmer-owned reserve program, support prices that are
set at a fair level, and a way to manage their inventories.
Grain prices are adjusted for inflation, we know, and
soybeans went down another 16 cents today because China is not
the market we were promised. It is the lowest in three decades.
Farm policy, Federal farm policy, has abandoned independent
farmers in favor of a food production system that is controlled
by large multinational agribusinesses. Issues affecting farm
prices are felt locally, but the impacts are often the result
of international trade agreements that are negotiated without
assessing or balancing the true cost of and the impacts on our
rural economies. We strongly believe that trade agreements
should respect each country's needs and traditions for food
security, for conservation of natural resources, and for the
distribution of economic opportunity.
We don't support fast-track process for negotiating
international policies, and we call for a full debate in
consideration of the issues that will provide a secure future
for our nation's farmers and consumers.
Finally, I would just say that programs that are dependent
upon expanding export markets is the solution to the farm
income without addressing the need for fair prices or
predicated on flawed assumptions and only foster the vicious
cycle. Our export-dependent policies failed miserably and must
be replaced. The proof is in the numbers. It is time for
Congress to look at home on the ground at the results and not
at the flawed economic projections that they get from economic
research services.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ritchie can be found in the
appendix on page 93.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF JANICE DALEY, GRAIN FARMER, LEWISTON, MINNESOTA
Ms. Daley. My name is Janice Daley. My husband, John, and I
are grain farmers from Winona County, Lewiston, southeastern
Minnesota. Thank you, Senators Wellstone, Dayton, and
Congressman Gutknecht. I too am here to enter into the record
the National Family Farm Coalition bill, the Food from Family
Farm Act. I am just going to summarize a few things. As grain
farmers, of course, the grain part of the bill is one of the
most important parts. We call on Congress to pass a farm bill
that will establish support prices at the full cost of
production plus a profit and to get that profit out of the
marketplace. Nothing bothers my husband more than Government
payment checks so we can keep going and surviving. I mean, it
doesn't take a rocket scientist to sit down, do our income tax
every year, and see if we didn't have the Government payments
where we would be. We would not be there.
In this act they want to maintain the flexible planning
options and establish short-term conservation methods to avoid
overproduction, require labeling of meat and all imported
foods, restore competition to the food, the farming food
sector, negotiate fair trade agreements, and hold the USDA
accountable whether it is on checkoffs or equal access to farm
programs or farm credit programs.
If we truly believe that the young must take over and must
survive and be active farmers in the next generation, and that
restoring farm income is the primary focus in getting it out of
the marketplace, this is what the food from the family farm
manager proposes. Targeting corn at loan rates at $3.45 a
bushel on 125,000 bushels. Targeting soybeans at $8.63 a bushel
on 35,000 bushels. Targeting wheat, $5.12 a bushel on 65,000
bushels. This is for all of you a little more than 50 percent
of cost of production. I will enter into the record some
materials that I have to back that up.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. Please do submit your report for
the record. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Daley can be found in the
appendix on page 96.]
STATEMENT OF SISTER KATHLEEN STORM, MANKATO, MINNESOTA
Sister Storm. I am Sister Kathleen Storm from School
Sisters of Notre Dame from the Center for Earth Spirituality
and Rural Ministry in Mankato. I am not a farmer, but I grew up
on a Minnesota farm, and I feel passionately about what is
going on on a day-to-day basis with our farmers and our rural
communities. I feel their passion and their pain as they try to
find hope and meaning for themselves and their families.
This is the kind of farm bill that the School Sisters of
Notre Dame would like to support. We would like you to reward
farmers for conservation practices that they already are doing
even on a small part of their farm while they learn the
benefits of protecting soil, water, and air. It takes a
courageous farmer to find alternative ways to farm and protect
the soil from water runoff, keep our water and rivers free from
chemicals, raise animals humanely on grass, and keep the air
clean. Give farmers incentives on how they farm. They suffer
proposals for payments for conservation practices. I laud the
intent of those proposals. I know several conservation
proposals place caps on these payments. I urge you also to put
caps on commodity payments as well. Close the loopholes that
allow farmers to plant more and more acres because they know
Government payments will support them even though it is causing
escalating rental rates, increasing land values, and low grain
prices and doing little or nothing to reduce erosion.
I would ask you too to provide incentives through small
grocery stores and institutions like ours in Mankato or
colleges, hospitals, and restaurants to purchase locally grown
foods. Why? Because they keep the food dollars in the local
community which strengthens that community. This summer through
a Bremmer Foundation grant we hired an intern who is helping us
to buy vegetables and meats locally. We have found it a complex
and confusing process as we try to work within the USDA
regulations and rules.
Last, I urge you to do what you can to turn around our
chief food policy that is very costly for the environment and
for family farms. Current public policy continues to move
farmers off the land. When we have healthy food and healthy
animals, we will have a healthy farmland and rural communities.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Sister. Very well said.
[The prepared statement of Sister Storm can be found in the
appendix on page 99.]
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF KEVIN SCHEIDECKER, FILLMORE SOIL AND WATER
CONSERVATION DISTRICT, PRESTON, MINNESOTA
Mr. Scheidecker. Thank you. My name is Kevin Scheidecker. I
am the manager of the Fillmore County Soil and Water
Conservation District. I am passionate about conservation. I am
also currently the Chair for the Basin Alliance for the Lower
Mississippi in Minnesota. The alliance is a local coalition of
Government agencies, environmental groups, agriculture groups,
and other organizations concerned with natural resource
management and water quality in the Lower Mississippi Basin in
Minnesota.
One of our main strategies is to increase the amount of
perennial vegetation in the basin such as hay, pasture land,
and vegetative buffer strips in an effort to improve water
quality in the Mississippi River Basin. The current trend of
less livestock on the land has led to a dramatic shift from
conserving land uses such as perennial pasture and hay toward
attentive row-crop farming that addresses agriculture and water
quality due to its impact on soil erosion.
Livestock producers and conservation professionals need to
spread the word that without a livestock presence in
southeastern Minnesota, we are fighting a losing battle to save
the soil. We need to have recognition that hay, pasture, and
even livestock manure plays a large role in protecting
agriculture by keeping soil in place while ensuring that the
fertility is maintained.
Therefore, the Basin Alliance is proposing a pilot project
in the Greater Blufflands Region of southwestern Wisconsin,
northeastern Iowa, and southeastern Minnesota that would
recognize the importance of hay and offset the current biases
toward row crops by designating hay a program crop eligible for
benefits under the Federal Farm Program. This will put hay on a
level playing field with the other commodity crops such as corn
and soybeans and will allow hay production to be more
profitable while giving a boost to livestock producers for
their efforts without penalizing them for raising hay and
maintaining pastures. I have submitted a copy of that proposal
into the record.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Scheidecker can be found in
the appendix on page 100.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Mr. Gutknecht. Let me just say just to my Senate
colleagues, that is a great idea. We did get quite a bit done
in the House-passed version, but we didn't get to that point. A
pilot program in this region for hay would be something. If you
could possibly get that done in the Senate bill where you can
get the language, we will try to negotiate with you in the
Congress community.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. I haven't heard that before.
Thank you, sir.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF MIKE NOBLE, CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCER, KENYON,
MINNESOTA
Mr. Noble. Thank you. My name is Mike Noble, Dodge County
crop and livestock producer. Years ago I came to meetings to
support freedom to farm. At the time I was changing the farm to
meet market ideas. I was losing base acres because I was
planting less corn. I was shocked to discover that a group of
vegetable giants prevented me from growing vegetables on base
acres. This caused many Midwest vegetable companies to close
making freedom to farm alive. Ann was one of the folks to lobby
for this. She since has taken my mode away with a checkoff
issue.
Last year I produced under contract organic soybeans. The
buyer provided seeds. I grew and delivered the crop. The buyer
refused to pay. Contaminated with GMOs. My local attorney said
I had no chance because the contract was clear. Then listening
to the skeptics of the judicial system in the country, you say
that justice belongs to those who pay for it. I hired the law
firm who did the Hormel turkey store merger. Hormel recently
terrorized Austin into lowering property values from 32 million
to 15 million. Broke their union by selling to ConAgra, making
Hormel a captive independent instead of succumbing to a major
merger mania.
In days I received full payment of the soybeans. Not
because the law protected me but because the buyer could not
afford to fight the attorney I had hired.
If I get a woman pregnant, I would be responsible for
raising the child. If the sport of crops adultered by Monsanto
destroy my crop, my reputation, and my income, Monsanto can sue
me for stealing their technology. This is terrorism. Thousands
of farmers and businesses have been sued out of business, quit,
or sold out for fear of being ruined. Survivors have had to
make partnerships with Monsanto.
Monsanto has used outdated patents to bring disaster to
America's ag entrepreneurs and acquires vast portions of
agriculture's value-added seed industry from family and rural
community to add to centralized corporate ownership.
Today I sell nothing to these corporations that manipulate
agriculture, but they all want my crops, my brands, my name,
and my product. I do not fear fire, hail, and flood but face
everyday contamination, corporate preditation, corporate tax,
and set-asides. I received $11,000 in welfare from the Farm
bill, but I could have lost $40,000 to this one Monsanto event.
Senator Dayton. Very powerful statement. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Noble can be found in the
appendix on page 105.]
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF RON DURST, ON BEHALF OF ASSOCIATED MILK PRODUCERS
INC.
Mr. Durst. My name is Ron Durst. I am a dairy producer from
Dodge County. I am here today representing Associated Milk
Producers Incorporated, New Ulm, Minnesota. On behalf of the
dairy producers of Associated Milk Producers, I want to thank
the members of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee for
conducting a hearing in the heart of both dairy and AMPI
country. As Senators Wellstone and Dayton as well as
Representative Gutknecht know, dairy is synonymous with Upper
Midwest agriculture.
I come to you as both the member of the AMPI Board of
Directors and a Minnesota dairy producer. For more than 100
years, the Durst family has farmed in Dodge County near
Mantorville, Minnesota. I currently operate a dairy and grain
farm in partnership with my two brothers.
In addition, I have been a member of the AMPI Board of
Directors for 1 year. AMPI is the largest milk marketing
organization in Minnesota and the cooperative's seven-State
membership area. Together, 5,000 dairy farms move milk from the
farm to the market. With 14 manufacturing plants located
throughout the Upper Midwest, we manufacture more than 5
billion pounds of milk into a complete line of dairy products.
When deciding what constitutes an effective farm bill,
please consider the need for a stronger milk price safety net,
funding an effort to clean up the Johne's disease, and
eliminate regionally based dairy policies.
First, let's look at the need for a stronger safety net.
This industry has been operating under a dairy price support of
$9.90 per hundredweight throughout the 1990's, the same level
included in the farm bill legislation passed by the U.S. House.
I am confident that any dairy producer in the room will
agree that $9.90 is not an adequate safety net. We had a full
dose of $9.90 last year and only survived with cheap grain,
LDPs, and supplemental payments totaling nearly $1 per
hundredweight. It simply does not make sense to write a long-
term farm bill based on prices we know are too low.
In this farm bill we must do better. Dairy producers need a
meaningful price support program or supplemental payments when
dairy prices fall below specified levels. There are credible
legislative proposals that seek to supplement the Class III
milk price when market prices fall. The benefits of these
programs could be effectively targeted to our producers or our
need, without causing major market distortion.
To be effective, both price supports and supplemental
payments must be coupled with inventory management and
consistent dairy import policies.
Inventory management is an everyday occurrence in every
other business. Why not agriculture? We can argue the details
and mechanisms for implementing inventory management, but it is
difficult to argue the logic.
The second request I have is to finance an effort to clean
up Johne's disease. It is a contagious, chronic, and usually
fatal infection that can affect all ruminant animals. A
national coordinated effort, in conjunction with the States and
cattle industries, must be implemented and funded.
Finally, I must ask you to eliminate regionally based dairy
policies such as dairy compacts. Compacts benefit some groups
of producers at the expense of others.
Reliable economic studies by the likes of USDA and others
show that relatively high prices for some dairy producers
actually lower prices for others.
Though I realize dairy compacts are not within this
committee's jurisdiction, they are part of today's overall
dairy policy mix, and you should oppose their continuation.
Committee members, thank you for this opportunity to
testify only 30 miles from my farm. Strengthening our country's
milk price safety net, funding an effort to clean up Johne's
disease, and the elimination of regionally based dairy policies
will ensure the next generation of the Durst family can milk
cows.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Ron.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF VICTOR ORMSBY, WINONA, MINNESOTA
Mr. Ormsby. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before
you. My name is Victor Ormsby. I have been a long-time organic
vegetable grower and wildflower grower from Winona County. I am
a soil and water supervisor from Winona County and a recent
appointee to the Board of Water and Soil Resources in the State
of Minnesota. The State agency is in the process of drafting a
policy statement on the Farm bill, which you will be receiving
down the road, I am sure. I am here today as a member of the
Land Stewardship Project, and I would like to speak
specifically to the EQIP program.
We feel that the EQIP program must be adequately funded. It
was proposed that we fund it at a level of about $1.8 billion a
year and that there be adequate resources for technical
support. We also feel we ought to have revised standards to
allow for reduced-cost conservation options. A lot of times in
the soil and water conservation district office, we will use
State and county funds to cost-share on the lesser-cost
practices because NRCS standards are pretty strict and would
only fund high-priority practices or high-cost practices.
We also feel that there should be transition payments to
encourage crop biodiversity for annual cropping and intensive
rotation of grazing systems as a part of EQIP. We feel that
feedlot money should not be used to fund new or expanded
feedlot operations. In Minnesota we limit cost-share funding
for feedlots to existing feedlots with serious environmental
problems. It is designed to bring existing feedlots into
compliance with clean air and clean water standards. I feel
cost-share and feedlot should be limited to existing feedlots
with the environmental problems. Funding for EQIP should not be
taken from the Conservation Reserve Program. It should not be
taken from the Wetland Restoration Program. It should not be
taken from wildlife habitat incentive programs nor from any of
the forest conservation programs. The management of EQIP must
stay with NRCS.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Victor. Thank you very much.
Very well said.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF TOM HOSCHEIT, CALEDONIA, MINNESOTA
Mr. Hoscheit. Thank you, Mr. Wellstone and Mr. Dayton and
Congressman Gutknecht. My name is Tom Hoscheit. I am from
Caledonia, Minnesota, the very southeastern corner. Thank you
for giving me this chance to talk to you and express our
concerns.
I farm in southeastern Minnesota with my dad and my
brother. My dad gave me an opportunity to join his farming
operation over 25 years ago, and I am very thankful to him for
that opportunity. Unfortunately, I don't know if I can do the
same for any one of my four sons or daughter. Not that I can't
do it, but don't know if it is fair to them to do it. How can I
start them out farming and not be able to compensate them for
the amount of time and work that it takes just to get by, let
alone make any money when they can do so much better away from
the farm?
The hardest thing I had to do a year ago was to say no to
my oldest son about coming into my operation. What is even
harder is realizing how good he would be for our business, but
it is not fair to him. I don't want to see my kids in 25 years
having to come here like I am today begging you to help and
continue to hope the Government will keep coming up with enough
money to keep us operating for another year. It is unfair to
see the big co-ops that were once Midwest co-ops merge with the
co-ops in the West and the South and now the East. They are
able to take advantage of the Northeast Compact and California
markets and, in turn, hurt our prices here in the Midwest.
We as dairy farmers need better prices. The price support
needs to be raised. We need to get rid of all the different
regional price structures, and all the milk should be priced
the same. Products and imports from other countries need to be
controlled, especially when they are not real dairy products
but are able to be labeled as real dairy products such as MPC.
We need better prices to stay in business so that we can in
good conscience secure the future of the family farm so that
some of my sons or daughter and other young people can look
forward to a dream of joining in the family business.
Thank you for your time. We hope that you will do your best
to secure a bright future for the next generation of farmers.
Senator Dayton. Very powerful statement, Tom.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LORRAINE REDIG, WINONA, MINNESOTA
Ms. Redig. My name is Lorraine Redig. We farm here near
Winona, Minnesota. Our family has been on a century farm for
quite a while, and our sons that are farming there have to have
other work to support their farming habit, which is not fair.
After farm production leaves the farm, everyone else who
handles it markets it as the demand arises at a profit. Justice
demands that producers of raw farm production are also able to
follow the same business rules. Before it leaves the farm, they
should have the same business rules. Justice demands that
farmers and laborers who produce the food receive a fair share
of what consumers spend for food. Farmers don't have the
structure to enable us to market our production as the demand
arises at a profit. The buyer traders have filled that vacuum.
They discriminate against those who enter raw production from a
certain economic stream. The supply and demand economic system
is called a law of nature, but it is not. It is man-made
policy, and it is unjust policy.
The buyer/trader set prices on both ends of their business
at great profit to themselves. That is the injustice that we
face. We ask you to form a farmer-run democratic board of trade
to replace the Chicago Board of Trade and every other structure
that enables the buyers to put production they don't yet own up
for sale at auctions that they control to find out how little
they have to pay for what they want to get. The only trade that
a just nation can afford is trade that profits everyone
involved. The farmers' board of trade would market the supply
for which there is a demand at a profit to the producers. This
supply would come equally from all producers, large or small.
When the supply of small producers is exhausted, the large
producers would have an equal opportunity to sell as demand
arises. If there isn't a market for something, it would be held
until there is a market as the same with other businesses do.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Redig can be found in the
appendix on page 109.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Lorraine.
Senator Wellstone. Again, to be very brief, when Lorraine
said ``democratic board of trade,'' that was with a small
``d,'' which is the most important of all. The second thing is
I would like to, as a point of privilege, Senator Dayton and
Congressman Gutknecht, I would like to thank Lorraine and Art
for your--when I hear you speak of the Bishop, because you put
together your values and your deep religious faith with why we
are all here and how important family farmers are to this
country. I would like to thank you for years and years and
years of having such a strong voice. I would like to thank Tom
earlier who preceded you. You were walking back as Senator
Dayton was saying ``very powerful.'' Everybody has been, but I
want you to know that the way you put things and you talked
about your son connected with everybody in this room.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. To extend the hearing until 3:30, we have
about 20 more witnesses that are in line here. That is going to
be close to 40 minutes. If anybody else wants to speak, if you
would join the ranks now. I am going to ask after this next
speaker, I am going to close it off at that point so we can
continue. Welcome. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF KEITH SPELTZ, DAIRY FARMER, SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA
Mr. Speltz. My name is Keith Speltz. I am a dairy farmer
from southeast Minnesota here. Just a few comments on the
reports that the Government sends out every month. You are
telling the whole world what our production is for corn,
soybeans, milk, and cheese, so they all know what we are
producing, how much we have, and then we expect to get a fair
price. It is like playing poker and showing your cards before
you bet. Everybody knows what we have, and that is not fair.
The Government is doing this, and agriculture, I believe, is
the only industry they do it for. It is just not fair to the
people in agriculture. I don't know what the answer is, but we
need supply management of some sort, and we need free trade. I
don't think there's free trade in the world the way the
Government handles things now.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. There are outputs for production imports in
almost every commodity and product. However, your point is well
taken. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF MARGARET ZIMMERMAN, WASECA, MINNESOTA
Ms. Zimmerman. Senators Dayton and Wellstone, and Bishop
Harrington--we have to go to the top here--I am Margaret
Zimmerman from Waseca, Minnesota. I am bringing this issue to
you today because we have gone--in the past 2 years, we have
gone to our local township officials, our county officials, our
State officials, and we are still in the midst of the whole
battle regarding feedlots. A large feedlot is being proposed
for our community in Waseca County. It would be a contract
operation with Wakefield Pork, which already has several
operations in our area that are poorly managed. We are working
with the Land Stewardship Project and have formed a group
called Citizens' Concern for Waseca County to work on this
issue and other feedlot issues in our State. This proposed
operation is 2,400 sows or 960 units, under the mandatory
threshold, just under the mandatory threshold of 1,000 animal
units that require an AEW review or NPDS permit. This feedlot
is being proposed in a drained wetland, and the manure will be
spread on this drained wetland. It is also known as the famous
Moonan Marsh Federal wildlife area, just less than a mile from
me.
The creek is officially listed as impaired--Crane Creek is
officially listed as impaired with MPCA because of the elevated
levels of fecal coliform. This watershed ultimately leads to
the Mississippi River. Our group met with members of MPCA on
Thursday, August 16th, and we were not able to get a
satisfactory answer to our request for an NPDS. We request that
you send a letter to the EPA and the MPCA urging them to follow
the existing Federal law by requiring an NPDS permit. Urgency
is required as the MPCA will rule on this permit issue as early
as yesterday, and construction of the project could begin at
any time.
Senator Dayton. Could you give us the information after the
hearing? I will be glad to followup with you on it. This came
up as Friday as well.
Ms. Zimmerman. I do have one of these sheets for each of
you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Zimmerman can be found in
the appendix on page 110.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you. I am going to close the witness
list with the two gentlemen who are standing there. However,
there are 22 witnesses still remaining. At 2 minutes apiece,
that is 44 minutes. I am going to ask you to strictly observe
the 2-minute limit, please, and we will conclude. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF LES EVERETT, WATER RESOURCES CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF
MINNESOTA
Mr. Everett. I am Les Everett with the University of
Minnesota with the Water Resources Center. We have to look at
what is it the taxpayer can be justifiably constituted by. The
first one would be conservation, and that has been addressed.
The second one would be the income stabilization. Not income
guarantees but income stabilization in the farm community. Then
we have to ask if proposed solutions actually make the problem
better or worse.
With regard to conservation, that the Conservation Security
Act, the standard EQIP program, a return to conservation
compliance, and the conservation education can all assist with
that. With regard to income stabilization, the main factor
seemed to be commodity supports. I doubt that those will
actually reach the objective of income stabilization. They do
more harm than good. They tend to increase surpluses because
they encourage more production and drag down commodity prices.
They drag up rents and land prices and reduces, therefore, the
ability to survive in poor times. This tracking of the total
price, that is, the commodity price plus the support, that
relation to rents and income have been documented in the
University of Minnesota research.
Those commodities support and reduces flexibility, respond
to the market and to diversify into areas like land,
alternative uses, and it increases soil erosion and water
pollution, as we have seen this year in southeast Minnesota and
southern Iowa for our family farms. We need to, in terms of
income stabilization, look at more solutions along the line of
tax and financial incentives for investment of farm--or in
alternative, farm enterprises in the good years, in the good
income years, with the option to cash in on farm investments
for all farm investments without tax penalty in low-income
years. Let's do the income stabilization and financial and tax
markets not in the commodity markets.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF GERALD TUMBLESON, SHERBURN, MINNESOTA
Mr. Tumbleson. Hello. Welcome, Senators Dayton, Wellstone,
as well as Congressman Gutknecht. I often wonder if the
Congressman's green bus has anything to do with your bus,
Senator Wellstone. Maybe not. I like the idea that you are
looking at this farm bill with a 10-year destination. That
makes a lot of difference to a lot of us out here. I have two
sons farming and simply for him--when I brought the two sons in
farming, I had a lot of problems with the child welfare
department since I have done that. I do think that once you can
put it into a 10-year program, farmers will adapt. This 1996
adjusted from the day it started, and we didn't know where we
were. What I like about the 10-year is so I can look forward. I
want to compliment the House for putting theirs together with a
voice vote. I don't know that that has ever been done before.
Therefore, we have both sides on this issue coming together.
The Senate will be able to do the same thing mainly because
agriculture has become that important in the United States.
Big business will exist, and if anybody knows about Dupont,
they now have eliminated some of the hydrocarbon industries in
their department. They have produced carbohydrate industry in
their department. They are going that track. Now, we as farmers
understand that. We are going to move in that direction, but we
want to own it. We want to own it not as farmers but as rural
communities. Rural communities are the farmers and the people
living out there. We can do that if we have some tax incentives
or some way to put that together. The reason for that is we can
crop this land because we are efficient in energy when we do
that. Our leaves on our corn plants are taking energy from the
sun and convert. We are making ethanol with 100 Btus to get 135
Btus back. The hydrocarbons use 100 Btus and get 85 Btus back.
We in agriculture are going to be able to do that. We are going
to be able to do it with our root structure, with our holding
the soil. New Orleans is built on our topsoil before we had
crops here. We have to understand where the environment is
going and where we are heading. I am totally confident that you
are going to do that. I thank you very much for having two
Senators on the Ag Committee.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Mr. Gutknecht. We do have copies of summaries of the House-
passed version. He made a point. It is an important point. That
the ag bill that passed out of the Ag House Committee did pass,
I believe, on a unanimous vote. It was a voice vote. If there
was a no vote, we didn't hear it, which is really
revolutionary. We look forward to the Senate bill when it comes
out and to negotiate with them. Anybody who wants a copy of
this, if we run out, Dick is holding up some in his hand up
there. Before you leave, grab a copy and at least take a look
at it. It is not perfect, but we were able to get it passed on
a voice vote. When you start looking at the differences in
agriculture around the country, that is a remarkable thing.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome, sir.
STATEMENT OF LARRY LARSON, SARGEANT, MINNESOTA
Mr. Larson. Thank you, Senator Wellstone and Senator Dayton
and Congressman Gutknecht, for the opportunity to express our
views here this afternoon. I am Larry Larson from Sargeant,
Minnesota. I also represent Mower County Farm Bureau. We farm
in Sargeant family farming with my brother, his two sons, my
son, and my wife. We are in livestock and corn and soybeans. We
also have a commercial grain and feed elevator. I spend most of
my time with the seed end of it since my son came into our
business and also do crop advising with my seed customers. I
have about 100 seed customers that I work with each year and
get a good opportunity to see and kind of understand how they
are doing in their farming operation. Not only that, how they
are doing economically and what they do need. I do have quite a
few young farmers that are quite strong farmers in our
community, although the present farm program has given enough
dollars to keep this going, but one of the things that I fear
happening is if they lower the dollars on the commodity
programs on these people that there would be real difficulty in
larger farms coming in and taking over. At the present time it
is just about holding its own. The only people I see dropping
out in our area are those that are more of an older age and
part-time farmers, and it is just easier to rent out as
compared to that.
I would like to see those dollars keep coming in whatever
form you have to work at to do that. I also think more work
needs to be done in the area of conservation. That is really
important. We haven't addressed that properly, and there is a
lot more we could do there. One other thing is basic research.
More emphasis needs to be put on basic research. My time is up,
but dollars need to be put there.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you for honoring the time limit.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF RICK HANSEN, INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, MINNESOTA
Mr. Hansen. Thank you. Distinguished members of the
committee, my name is Rick Hansen, and today I am speaking on
behalf of the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water
Conservation District and also the Dakota County Soil and Water
Conservation District. What I would like to say is that
conservation is the key to a broadly publicly supported farm
bill. Farm policy needs to have broad public support. Speaking
here for the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water
Conservation directs, we represent 89 districts with 455 local
elected officials, urban, rural, and suburban soil and water
conservation district supervisors. We are here to offer a
partnership working with NRCS conservation to implement
conservation practices.
I would like to focus just on three general areas and then
provide written testimony for the committee. First we would
like to maintain a voluntary incentive-driven approach to help
private landowners and managers protect their soil, water,
wildlife, and related resources. Two, we would like to increase
local leadership. That involves implementing the programs,
setting priorities, developing policies, and advocating natural
resource conservation management. Third, we would like to
correlate conservation program funding with implementation
funding. Whether it is called technical assistance or
implementation dollars, when the programs are there, there
needs to be that assistance to put the projects into the
ground. Often that may not be there when farm programs are
developed.
Again, having thought implementation dollars, speaking on
behalf of the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation
District, I want to indicate that we support the Federal Farm
Conservation Security Act that was introduced by Senator
Harkin, and that was also supported by the urban region, area
four, of the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water
Conservation District, and I have the resolution for that. Then
finally I have the names and addresses of 34 folks who signed a
petition who couldn't be here today to increase the
Conservation Reserve Program from its current 36.4 million
acres to 45 million acres. I would ask for your support for
that.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. We will submit that to the
record, Rick. Chairman Tom Harkin, that is his area, so you
will be sure he will support your bill. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hansen can be found in the
appendix on page 118.]
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF RONALD BEHOUNEK, HAYFIELD, MINNESOTA
Mr. Behounek. My name is Ron Behounek. I farm in Dodge
County with an 18-year-old son and a 24-year-old son. They told
me I was wasting my time coming here, but I told them I am
coming anyway.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Mr. Behounek. The current Farm bills really aren't saving
the family farmer, but boy, are we saving agribusiness.
Monsanto, John Deere, Pioneer, the whole lot. Are they going to
talk about conservation? I want to have some input on my own
farm. I don't want somebody coming and telling me what I have
to do and exactly do as they say. I want to be part of that
decision.
The next thing, if you want my sons to farm, you are going
to have to close one big tax loophole, and that is using
agriculture land for tax shelters. That has driven up farmland
like you wouldn't believe. I have seen it done. I have seen
guys that get a huge amount of money for a piece of land that
they happen to own up by the Cities, come down into southern
Minnesota here, and pay whatever they have to because they are
going to save taxes. Every real estate man hears about it, and
it is all worth that.
The next thing is I am one of the lucky ones that has a 2-
acre patch of wetland. There are no frogs. There are no
crawdads. There is no water on it. It will raise corn. It is
kind of a difficult place to get to. It really raises ragweeds
real nice. This 2 acres is causing flooding for another 10
acres. The water that washes onto it, it brings the ragweeds on
it, so I have to use more chemicals to kill them doggone
things. Is that what the environmentalists want?
I guess that is all I have to say.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF MIKE MUELLER, WINTHROP, MINNESOTA
Mr. Mueller. Senator Wellstone, Senator Dayton, and
Representative Gutknecht, my name is Mike Mueller. I am from
Winthrop, Minnesota. I am the ag loan officer in the State Bank
of Gibbon. My wife and I are farmers and landowners in Sibley
County. We participate in the Conservation Reserve Program and
have land in the successful reinvested Minnesota and the
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Thank you for this
opportunity to appear here today to talk to you about the
conservation title to the 2002 Farm bill.
I am a strong supporter of the Conservation and Wetland
Reserve Program, and they should be reauthorized and expanded
in the next Farm bill. It has been my experience as a loan
officer that CRP helps the risk by cash-flow for farmers.
Farmers and landowners that have a portion of their farm in the
Conservation Reserve Program are simply better off on a cash-
flow standpoint. We all are rewarded from the environmental and
wildlife benefits. In my opinion, the recent changes in the CRP
encourages farmers to plan more diverse cover types that have
strengthened the program and have proven excellent wildlife
habitat. In addition to the economics that will be provided by
CRP payments, farmers and landowners can address serious water
quality problems on a voluntary incentive base approach to
participating in the ongoing CRP buffer initiative and
Minnesota prep program.
Continuing these successful programs should be a top
priority in the next Farm bill conservation title. In my view,
conservation programs provide valuable opportunity for family
farmers. The ability to diversify their farming operation
through conservation programs may allow them and future
generations to continue the farm legacy.
I see I am out of time. Mr. Chairman, I work in a small ag
bank and in a small rural town, and in my experience
conservation programs are one of the most successful
agriculture programs. I would encourage you to reauthorize and
expand the programs like CRP and WRP and to extend opportunity
to incorporate these conservation-priced programs on all farms,
specific CRP with the wetland reserve program and the new
farmer wetland 100,000-acres programs also.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mueller can be found in the
appendix on page 124.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Mike, for speaking from a
lending perspective. That is very helpful. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA UPTON, FOUNTAIN, MINNESOTA
Ms. Upton. I am Barbara Upton. I am a retired teacher. I
live on 40 acres in Fillmore County. I wrote a letter to the
editor, and I encourage all of you--you all have something
important to say. I hope you are writing to the editor. This is
one that I wrote in March of this year. ``Please, please,
Fillmore County residents, stop and think before you open our
area to developers and/or new residents on 10-acre wood lots.''
Now, I am quoting a previous article in the Fillmore County
Journal. Now, in the year 2001 we have fertile land, plenty of
woods, and relatively unpolluted air and water. This will all
change as rapidly as the population increases. Do we want
another suburb here in these very erodible hills? Water should
be the key to our decision. Whether it is either too much, as
in flooding--we have had 2 years in a row experiencing that--or
too little, which is drought. Pollution often takes years to
detect, sometimes only aftereffects, such as fish killed, are
observed. Last spring gave us an example of flood damage when
the gravel roads were washed out needing help from FEMA to pay
for repairs.
Now, in late August 1964, I moved into this area, rural
southwest Minnesota, from Riceland. I brought my belongings in
a big truck. There was no hay available here. The so-called
corn was about a foot high. It hadn't rained all that summer.
Wells were going dry. Many springs dried up. Neighboring farms
had water hauled in from the Preston creamery using milk trucks
for their livestocks and themselves. Apparently the lowered
water table could not handle the needs of the population that
lived here in 1964. What will happen with many more wells using
the water?
Senator Dayton. Thank you. You are able to submit that--if
you want to submit any additional comments for the record,
please do.
Ms. Upton. I do recommend this book, ``Mad Cowboy.'' This
is from Howard Lyman. He was sued, along with Oprah, for
talking about the potential for mad cow disease, and he is very
much involved and hoping to save the family farm. He used to be
a corporate beef producer. He is now venturing all over the
world.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you very much.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF DWIGHT AULT, AUSTIN, MINNESOTA
Mr. Ault. My name is Dwight Ault. I am from Austin. I have
farmed for 40 years, and I appreciate this opportunity. We need
a hell of a lot more dialog in this United States than we have,
and this allows some. I am in general livestock. I am partly
organic, not quite all this year, but anyway, mixed livestock
and small crop farmer. I have been quite sensitive toward the
treatment that the small farms have been given, and they have
been talked about by everybody, when Wendal Barry says the
politicians talk about saving the family farm, but nobody does
anything about it. These people we have here today are an
exception. Pray God I hope you are, and I wish you luck.
My biggest hang-up or my biggest gripe about the Federal
program presently is the LDPs. If I offend somebody--and I
probably will--I don't know why in tarnation heck we haven't
talked about it. Because LDPs are the most unjust--and I should
read my editorial because I had one in the Des Moines Register
yesterday on LDPs. They are the most asinine attempt for
justice. I don't know why they were ever born. They play no
part in helping the smaller farmer. I don't know why people
haven't griped about them before. I suppose, like me, we get a
little bit compared to a lot to the large farmers or the
corporate farms, but we don't want to complain.
I am going to give--I see I am just about out of time and--
--
Senator Dayton. If you want to submit your editorial for
the record----
Mr. Ault. Yeah, I will leave you the editorial. In
conclusion, it is time that we really take to heart where we
are going in the United States. I see Monsanto running the
Midwest and running the East along with Cargill, along with
Pioneer and Dupont, and when are we going to say enough is
enough. I mean, we keep going, and it is time that people raise
hell if we don't get some decent legislation. The monkey is on
you three peoples' back along with a lot more of your
compatriots. I really think that we are due.
Senator Dayton. We will raise heck anyway. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LARRY GREEN, FULDA, MINNESOTA
Mr. Green. My name is Larry Green, Senator Wellstone,
Senator Dayton, and Representative Gutknecht. I would also like
to thank Mr. Peterson for bringing that famous picture here
today. Because, Senator Dayton, you asked for a solution in
that picture. There is a very big solution in that picture. A
little over a year ago, we were right close to that facility
with President Clinton. That was sponsored by all the famous
commodity groups that were going to save us with PNTR with
China. Today we get a nice little blow. They canceled 13.2
million bushels of beans, stuck it in my pocket. This year now
all we are hearing is biodiesel, carbohydrates, and a whole
bunch of other crap.
Your solution is very simple. We are down to about $80
billion in a farm bill. We pay in about $16 million a week, $14
to $16 million a week in checkoffs. The national defense budget
runs around $400 billion a year. You people should hire all
these commodity groups. Maybe they could get the national
defense down to $200 billion, and we would have some more money
around this country.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT M. AUSTIN, NEW PRAGUE, MINNESOTA
Mr. Austin. Senators, Congressman, my name is Rob Austin. I
am from New Prague. I am a taxpayer, and what I would like to
see is I would like to see stopping the use of money for the
overproduction of the corn and beans and start using this money
for conservation of soil and water and wildlife conservation. I
also would like to see--stop listening to the Soybean Growers
Association and the Corn Growers Association--they seem to be
the only two that I see in the newspaper--and start listening
to people who are more in favor of the sustainable organic
drink marketing type of agriculture. The farmer, land
stewardship project people, Minnesota Institute of Sustainable
Agriculture, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and
the Minnesota project. Above all, here's the big one, the
taxpayer. There hasn't been any--we make up 99 percent of the
population, and we have had no input into this thing.
I know I am being politically incorrect here, but I am a
61-year-old pissed-off taxpayer who is tired of not being able
to have his say in how this money is being spent in our farm
program. I would like to address this to the Senators today. I
would like to see, for no better choice of words, this farm
road show--have one in the Metro area. There should be two of
them. There should be one in the southern part of the Metro
area and one in the northern part of the Metro area. We have
one here, 25, 30 miles from the Iowa border. We need to have
something that is more up in the Metro area where the taxpayer
can have his input into this thing, too.
Senator Dayton. Paul suggested that, too, at the
Worthington hearing. That is an excellent suggestion. We are
going to try and put this together.
Mr. Austin. You are going to do this thing?
Senator Wellstone. Absolutely. I will tell you something.
This is exactly the right place today, and it is great of the
legion to let us do it, but first of all, it is a healthy thing
that you are a, quote, 63-year-old----
Mr. Austin. Sixty-one. Don't make it any worse.
Senator Wellstone. I just wanted to see if I could get you
more pissed off. 61-year-old. You look 31. How am I doing? I
will tell you, I am absolutely convinced--I wrote a note to
Mike, and of all the things I have heard today, I keep hearing
conservation. I have never been at more farm gatherings, Mark
and Gil, in the last year where I have heard more people talk
about land stewardship and more people talk about conservation
and more people talk about the whole question of credits
including for doing good practice of land in production above
and beyond CRP. The religious community, Bishop, is going to be
key to this. We have to have one of these gatherings where we
have farmers and rural people coming from all over the State of
Minnesota to Metro with total Metro media focus on the whole--
the direct connection between land stewardship, conservation,
decent price, real competition, the quality of food, the
affordability of food. The key for this for people that don't
live in the farm and rural areas, we have to bring them in. we
can, and we are definitely going to have a major, major
committee hearing up there.
I just want to say that these articles that you work for
the fellows, the ranch bothers down in Cannon Falls, to me that
is what agriculture is all about, and this is what direction we
should be going.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF ROGER DALE, HANLEY FALLS, MINNESOTA
Mr. Dale. Good afternoon, Senators Wellstone, Dayton, and
Congressman Gutknecht. I am Roger Dale. My wife and I have a
family farm in Yellow Medicine County. We farmers produce
something everybody needs to survive on: wholesome food.
Minnesota is an ag State. I truly believe that policymaking
has made it to grass-roots level, and hopefully today things
will get done here. With the representation in the Ag
Committee, we have a golden opportunity if we can get our
thoughts together. I would like to thank you for the work you
have done in the past and hopefully for what will be done in
the future. I would like to thank you for working for the
Soybean Growers, ASA, for listening to them, for the soybean
loan rate. If it wasn't for them, a lot of us wouldn't be here.
Thank you, folks, for coming out today, and have a good trip
home.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much for coming over from
Yellow Medicine County. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF CHRIS C. PETERSEN, VICE PRESIDENT, IOWA FARMERS
UNION, CLEAR LAKE, IOWA
Mr. Petersen. Thank you. My name is Chris Peterson. I am
vice president of Iowa Farmers Union.
Senator Dayton. Thank you for coming.
Mr. Petersen. Yeah, they keep letting me come across the
border, so I will just keep coming.
We need to get away from a system here, a farm policy that
eliminates independent family farmers. This has been the trend
for years. I want to talk about a couple of points. One of them
that hasn't been brought out today is campaign finance and
lobby reform. As a bunch of us out here, we are tired of our
family farms being compromised away by political crop
streaming. It is time to quit this. We have the largest hostile
takeover going on in the world, and it is the corporate
takeover of our Government, and we need campaign finance reform
now. We need the vote to count and not the money. I will add
that if we don't get this changed, corporate greed will be the
downfall in this democracy. Jerry told me that on his way up
here, and I believe it came from his heart.
Family farmers are a lonesome and separated bunch these
days. Our voice is not being heard. Farm Bureau and commodity
groups don't represent us anymore. These are the people that
endorse freedom of farms. They gave 80-cent hogs. They can't
even honor a vote, the MPC, along with Veneman. They gave us
cheap grain, more concentrations, and a lot less family farmers
and pork producers. We need a voluntary checkoff program. I
will keep that short. Let's vote with our money.
Another thing I want to talk about quick is the Quick
program. We need that targeted to family farmers, the corporate
animal factories. They can use the record profits to comply
within the laws of this nation and clean up their own messes.
We need rural stability and growth along with ample supply of
safe quality food raised by the right people, and that is the
family farm. Keep up the fight. You guys are doing great.
Senator Dayton. Thank you for joining us.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Petersen can be found in the
appendix on page 127.]
STATEMENT OF WALT PRIGGE, BYRON, MINNESOTA
Mr. Prigge. Senators Wellstone, Dayton, Representative
Gutknecht, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Walt Prigge from
Byron, Minnesota. I did not come here today to comment on the
closed farm bill. I rather came here to pose a question to our
United States Senators, that being: How do you reconcile your
support for agriculture on your shoulders here today with your
lack of support for infrastructure, capital infrastructure
building that is obviously needed for agriculture in rural
Minnesota, i.e., the DM&E Railroad and your lack of support for
the infrastructure of the DM&E Railroad?
Senator Dayton. Well, I don't oppose the DM&E Railroad. It
has got to be structured so that, first of all, it hauls grain
commodities rather than coal from Western States through our
heartland. Second, it has got to be structured in a way that it
doesn't get rammed down the throat of--whether it is downtown
Rochester, which is the most important economic engine of
Olmsted County, and certainly the Mayo Clinic and other
operations there, and find some alternative route that is not
going to wreak that kind of hardship on others. If you want to
go up and watch the coal trains progress through northern
Minnesota and bypass communities and spew coal dust and back up
traffic and everything else, if you want to invite that down
here, I wouldn't support that.
Senator Wellstone. We could go back and forth on this. I
don't disagree. I don't see anything in contradiction. It is
interesting. I met with the DM&E people and have tried to get
some clear language about their transportation of grain. I
haven't seen any clear language and clear commitments that they
are going to provide that transportation.
I, second of all, think a whole lot of communities--and not
just Rochester--have every reason in the world to worry about
where they are going. Third of all, I will tell you something
else. Part of the case for DM&E--and this is just an honest
disagreement we have above and beyond the point you raised. I
am glad you did it because you had every right to. The other
issue is part of this is based upon the assumption that coal is
a big part of our energy future. I see the big part of our
energy future not more coal and more acid rain and more
warnings in manuals that we shouldn't eat fish if we are small
children or women expecting children. I see more of the future
being ethanol, biodiesel, wind renewables. I am not at all
convinced that this is a great project for the country. That is
why I don't support it.
Mr. Prigge. Just one further comment. Surface
transportation has to see that the operation of the public
railroad is in the public interest. Let's not kill it.
Senator Dayton. I am not proposing to kill it. I am
proposing to say, first of all, instead of bringing 30-, 40-
unit coal trains a day through downtown Rochester and other
places, it would have a devastating affect on the quality of
life and the economy, which is crucial to this region of the
State. They have to find a routing design for it that is going
to not only conform to common sense but also to conform to the
way in which these communities are now structured. Rochester is
too big and too important to be a railroad way station for unit
coal trains.
Unknown Speaker. Let's face it; you are selling out the
farmers for the city of Rochester for their vote.
Senator Dayton. I don't have to face anybody's vote for 5-
1/2 years, so I just dictate to my conscience and what is best.
It is hard in these kinds of situations, but you make sure that
these projects serve the rural interests and the agriculture
industry. You are not being able to fill the bill of goods to
bring unit coal trains from Western States right through here
and down to La Crosse. Make sure you are talking about corn
operations going through for Minnesota and soybean transport
and not just unit coal trains. Whatever the project is.
Mr. Gutknecht. We have been debating this for 2 years; we
are not going to resolve it in 2 minutes. Thanks, Walt.
Mr. Prigge. One more point.
Senator Dayton. Last one.
Mr. Prigge. Rochester also needs coal for its electrical
generating plant. They use somewheres now between 600 and 900
cars of coal a year, plus whatever we truck in, plus the energy
that was generated elsewhere by coal. That becomes viable lines
for the city of Rochester. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF GARY JOACHIN, CLAREMONT, MINNESOTA, AND ON BEHALF
OF MINNESOTA SOYBEAN GROWERS
ASSOCIATION
Mr. Joachim. Good afternoon. I would like to thank Senator
Wellstone, Senator Dayton, and Representative Gutknecht for the
opportunity to be at this hearing. I am Gary Joachim, a
soybean, corn, and small independent hog farmer in Claremont,
Minnesota, where I farm with my wife. I am here today on behalf
of myself and also the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.
First, the Soybean Association looks forward to providing input
on the Farm bill and which we have done in written testimony in
the commodity provisions. What I would like to do today is talk
about energy and biodiesel.
As a soybean farmer, I am extremely optimistic about the
role that plant-based annually renewable fuels like biodiesel
will play in the national energy plan. Of course, as we all
know, biodiesel is an environmentally friendly renewable
alternative to petroleum-based diesel. It can be made from any
vegetable oil, reprocessed animal fats. Just for that reason it
is very environmentally friendly.
Minnesota hopes to lead the way in the promotion of
production of the biodiesel. When our legislature in Minnesota
reconvenes next February, it is going to take up unfinished
legislation that would require the inclusion of 2 percent
biodiesel and diesel fuel sold in the State of Minnesota. On
the national level, we strongly support and appreciate the
legislation introduced by Senator Dayton, and that would
encourage and prompt increased use of biodiesel fuels
nationally. We think that Senator Dayton's bill will compliment
your State effort and positively influence the Minnesota
Legislature to adopt the 2-percent mandate. I also want to
thank and express appreciation to Senator Wellstone,
Representative Gutknecht, as well as basically the whole
Minnesota Congressional contingent for their commitment to
biodiesel. We have a goal of getting more of our energy from
the Midwest and less from the Mideast. I don't think we are
going to have to send the Navy and the Air Force out to guard
our fuel as it goes from Minnesota to California.
Fighting only decreases our soybean profitability. I don't
think anyone in the U.S. Senate has done more than Senator
Wellstone did to promote soy-based ink and originally for
Government printing. It is now the industry standard. Soybeans
wouldn't exist today if it wasn't for the investment farmers
initially made in their checkoff, and the same is true for
biodiesel where soybean farmers through their checkoff have
invested millions of dollars.
Incidentally, the soybean checkoff boards are feeling the
pinch of these low soybean prices at least as much as the
farmers because their income is based on farm value before LDPs
and any other kind of payments.
Thank you for this opportunity.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Joachim can be found in the
appendix on page 135.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Gary.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF DONOVAN STROM, FOUNTAIN, MINNESOTA
MR. STROM: Thank you for speaking here today. My name is
Donovan Strom, and I am from Fillmore County. People have
talked about a fish kill; I am involved in one right now. About
a year ago I got sweet corn from Seneca here out of Rochester,
and the juice went in the creek and killed three fish, and MPCA
and DNR said supposedly 650 minnows, which they don't even
know. I have been threatened. I have been going through
everything. I have had my name strung through the nut on the
Austin Press. I mean, I don't see anybody else going through
this. I had to sell my cattle in January in Lanesboro sales
barn and on June 16th this summer. I can't blame them entirely,
but when they come, it doesn't help you try to do a business. I
had them living in my yard. They were like a KGB, and I felt
like I was in jail for 2 weeks. I mean, we had to clean up
these puddles and stuff. It wasn't fun. I don't want to be
polluting; I don't think anybody else does. What you go through
with these people is terrible. They promise things to you, and
it doesn't follow through. There is a deal going through the
works right now, and I don't know if I believe them or not. You
got neighbors turning in neighbors, like with the Reiland deal
and myself. It is a very poor system. I mean, there are other
people that are doing the same things that we were doing, or I
was doing. They were going to expand. I got caught in the fish
kill, which is bogus.
I mean, I did have a problem. I want to get it resolved.
That is when you are a jerk and you are treated like a drug
peddler or a murderer. It is got to be better than this.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF BERT BOWMAN, EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA
Mr. Bowman. My name is Bert Bowman. I am pleased to be here
with you, Senator Wellstone and Senator Dayton and
Representative Gutknecht. I was born and raised in Brazil. I
have a Dutch background. My grandparents was a farmer in the
Netherlands but not doing too well with the farm economy, moved
to Brazil, and I farmed--my grandfather farmed down there. My
parents are still farming down there. In 1995 my brother
decided to join the farm, and I didn't feel too comfortable
with the situation at that time. I came to the States in the
student program and met Mr. Peterson. We are still working
together. The point is I am a farmer. No matter if you are a
farmer in Brazil or here, we all need to make a profit. I wish
for my parents to have a good price, and I wish for myself here
with Mr. Peterson to have a good price. We are all here for
profitability. How to do that?
I am a new farmer. I hope to be a farmer and farming with
LDP. It is a wonderful thing right now, but I don't wish to
live on LDP the rest of my life. The price of those soybeans
can still go down. How strong is the Government to keep pumping
up money? How much can they give? Should they give my grain to
Cargill and go to the Government and get all the money I need
to survive? I don't feel comfortable. We need two things.
Production management. How can we do it? I don't know if it is
possible. I believe in production management, and we need to do
so. To do so, we need cooperation with other countries. Brazil
is promising already a 10- to 20-percent increase in soybeans.
That is going to drive our price lower, and as well, how are we
going to be able to have less production management without
their cooperation? Cooperation is throughout the whole idea.
We have to be aware of the destruction of competition. We
need to worry about how much more land is opening in Brazil and
other countries. They are destroying my dad in Brazil itself
and here, too. Thank you for being here and listening to all of
us.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much. A Brazilian farmer
with Dutch heritage here in Stewartville. It is a one-world
economy. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF BRUCE BIEDERMAN, GRAFTON, IOWA
Mr. Biederman. I am Bruce Biederman from Grafton, Iowa. I
have what they call a zero-cost farm program. It is a zero-cost
production loan program for all storable commodities. Basically
I would have no specific program crops. Everything would be a
program crop. Cotton, wheat, corn, whatever. I have been
conferring with Dr. Neil Harlo down in Iowa State on this over
the past year, and also Friday night I got a hold of former
Secretary of Agriculture Bob Birkland, and I kind of model it a
little bit after how he started it, and I tried to kind of fill
in the problems that he had with it. The main thing different
is that I would have no LDP; it would all be loan. After the
first 9 months when the loan came due, the product would be--if
it was not at or about loan rate, would be put into a reserve.
The reserve would be used to regulate how much production would
be encouraged the next year.
I call it support and not subsidy, and I would support up
to a certain-size farming operation, and then after you get so
much under loan or in the reserve, you would be on your own, or
you would not be supported anymore. You could switch crops.
That is the main thing I want to try to do, is make every crop
equally profitable so no matter what you do, you can either set
aside and buildup your land or pick another crop, which would,
of course, mean investment. That is the summation of what I
have to say.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. You have to submit a copy to me.
Senator Wellstone. You Iowa folks are smarter than I
thought you would be. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF TIM HENNING, LISMORE, MINNESOTA
Mr. Henning. Senators, Congressman, my name is Tim Henning.
I am from Lismore, Minnesota. I have been farming for 26 years.
I have been through GATT, I have been through NAFTA, and now I
am going through the WTO. Every time one comes up, I get
screwed. Right now NAFTA is going on. I feed cattle. My cattle
buyer came out, and he says, ``We are not going to be bidding
for your cattle now because we can get Canadian cattle.'' He
says, ``Have heart. In about 30 days we will have the Canadian
cattle slaughtered, and we will be in the market for yours.''
Today the Chinese told us to take our beans. We don't want
them. Before the meeting I called home; soybeans are down 16
cents. They announced that they will have 3 million metric tons
of corn to go on the market. Corn is down 5 cents. My wife and
my mother work off-the-farm jobs. What I lost on my 15,000
bushels of beans and my 30,000 bushels of corn today I have to
go home and tell my wife that she has to work the next 400
hours for nothing. Please take that into consideration the next
time you make a foreign trade deal.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you. Powerful statement. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE M. PREDMORE, ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA
Mr. Predmore. My name is Larry Predmore. I am not
representing anybody. I came to listen. I raise beef cattle,
and I am a large-animal veterinarian. When I started 20-some
years ago, if I would have been at this meeting all afternoon,
I would have had a lot of upset plans because I wasn't out
there doing something. Nowadays--I got three or four calls I am
going to have to do after this meeting, but they are all going
to be hobby farmers. I am going to go over there after they got
done working in town. They are supporting their hobbies by
having jobs in town. I am not smart enough to know what the
answer is, but I know if I was trying to make a living on the
land we were farming, I would be a lot skinnier than I am. The
vet business pays for my farming habit. My wife has a good job
in town, so we are doing OK. It is not from farming. I am
farming about 10 times what my grandfather used to farm, and I
am a hobby farmer. I don't know what the answer is, you are
going to have to go away from spending all your money on corn
and beans and trying to figure out a way of getting some of
this land out of production and get it into hay and into
pasture, or whatever, and kind of cut down a lot on your
erosion. One of my client's big worries and that is tangling
with the Pollution Control Agency and other Government agency.
We spend more time worrying about that than any of our other
projects.
That is basically what I have to say except I live in a
little town south of here, and we have been there since 1853.
When the railroad came through Rochester, we were all upset out
there because it went that way instead of coming our way. Now
they are mad because they want to improve it through town, and
they want to shoot it out our direction. Again, one or the
other would be fine, but I personally don't think that it is
going to destroy Rochester if that train goes through right
where it is been setting.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you, Larry.
Senator Dayton. Amber's father.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN HANSON, RACINE, MINNESOTA
Mr. Hanson. That is right. My name is Brian Hanson. I farm
10 miles south of here, and I am Amber's proud father; that is
correct. I am here to talk about biodiesel. As you have heard
today, there are concerns in rural America, and as Senator
Scheevel mentioned, we need to create opportunities. We can't
just address all the concerns and think backward on some
things. We need to be proactive and create opportunities for
all of us, just as Mr. Scheevel said.
One of these opportunities is definitely biodiesel. You
have heard my daughter and others talk about biodiesel today,
and I wanted to bring it to my personal experience on the farm
with it. For 2 years now I have been blending biodiesel myself.
Contrary to what I was told, it is not going to work. I get
methosoy in barrels, so my economy scale is not very good right
now, but I have been through 3,300 gallons of pure methosoy,
which is the technical name, and I have been blending that with
diesel on my farm and neighbors' farms and getting the word
out. As they said, it isn't going to work in the winter. My
tractors wouldn't run. Well, I plowed snow all winter with it,
and I haven't had a problem yet if I take normal precautions.
It is not easy to blend. That is true. It is very difficult. I
have to pour it in the top of my fuel tank. That is pretty
difficult. It is truly that simple. Energy balance. You heard
mention of ratios earlier today of like 1.34. Biodiesel has an
energy balance of 3.24 to 1. I would challenge any fuel to meet
that. Maybe they can, but it is very good energy balance.
My neighbors want to be a part of that to create a market
so that we don't export all this oil or beans or do something
with it. It is simple, and it is common sense. I like simple.
We need to be proactive. There is frustration. We are 2 percent
of the population. We fight amongst ourselves, but we need--
this is one step. I can't cross this room in one step. I have
to take steps, go around chairs, or whatever. That is one step
to the answer of cleaner air. I would like to thank especially
you, Senator Dayton, for your legislation to promote biodiesel,
and I would like to offer you my assistance in any way we can
to help you reach the goal of getting biodiesel, even if you
come to my farm and see that my tractors do run.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much, Brian. I mean what I
said. You and Amber can come out and testify, and you can show
the members of the committee how to mix the stuff. That would
be great. Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF BILL McMILLIN, DAIRY FARMER, KELLOGG, MINNESOTA
Mr. McMillin. Thank you, Senators and Congressman, for this
opportunity. My name is Bill McMillin, and I am a dairy farmer
with my wife near Kellogg, Minnesota, near the Mississippi
River. I would like to give to you for the record a copy of
Present Day Agriculture in Southern Minnesota. It was written
by Geils Randall. He is a soil scientist and professor at the
University of Minnesota. He does an excellent job of
identifying the issues facing agriculture today here in
southern Minnesota.
I was going to spend a lot of my presentation on
conservation, but it is been pretty well covered, so I will
move on to something else. Adequate farm income continues to be
a major issue. Now, lately I have been involved in a grass-
roots effort to try and bring collective bargaining into the
marketplace. We have been trying to organize farmers, all the
farm groups and farmers themselves, into looking at what
options we have as far as collective bargaining in the
marketplace.
It seems as producers we are the first owner of the
product, and we have the right to price it, and we haven't been
exercising that right. That is something we need to start
doing. If that doesn't work, I would like to see a cap put on
commodity payments in the next Farm bill. I would like to see
this cap probably in the $50,000 to $75,000 range. Maybe if we
put this cap on, maybe we can free up some more money for
conservation practices which are badly needed.
I am in favor of globalization if globalization means that
we could work together as a global community to provide a safe
and abundant food supply for everyone and at the same time
protect our resources for future generations.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. McMillin can be found in the
appendix on page 140.]
Senator Dayton. Well said.
Senator Dayton. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF AL SCHACHT, ZUMBRO FALLS, MINNESOTA
Mr. Schacht. Senator Dayton, Senator Wellstone, and
Representative Gutknecht, my name is Al Schacht and I live in
Hammond, Minnesota, not too far from here. I recently retired--
I shouldn't say recently--7 years ago from the U.S. Forest
Service. I am interested in talking a little bit about the
conservation programs that are in the Farm bill. In 1985 and
1986, when the first Farm bill was written, it reauthorized and
did away with a lot of the authorities and forced them and put
them in the Farm bill. Those authorizations are extremely
important that we continue them, and some of those are in the
Farm Security Act but for stewardship came in a little later--
in the 1990's. The stewardship incentive programs, and forestry
incentive programs, which is a fifth and sixth programs, they
were in there. The forest legacy program. The German forestry
program which I chaired the committee that wrote that in 1968,
and also for the stewardship program, I was very instrumental
in writing that and working with Congress to get the authority
put together.
The Farm bill of those conservation programs are working
quite well, most of them. If they are working, don't throw them
out with the bath water. We need to continue them. We need to
enhance them. We need to add a little bit of authorizing
funding authority to them so that when the Appropriations
Committees deal with them, they do deal.
I have two concerns that I want to bring up real quickly.
One is on CRP. Its acres are expiring. Some expire, and then
the re-authorization needs to take that up to 45 million. I
would suggest 50 percent of it be put in trees. We have very
good reason to do that because it doesn't come out of trees
when it pulls out.
The other thing is I would like to see a stronger role with
conservation districts in the Farm bill.
One quick comment on the House bill. It is silent to some
of the programs that I just mentioned. They need to be included
and the authorization needs to be upped considerably.
Senator Dayton. Al, time is up.
Mr. Schacht. One point. I noticed in the House bill, you
have fire, a community fire program. That is good,
Representative Gutknecht. I hope the Senate includes that. When
I retired from the foresters, I worked directly with the chief
of the Forest Service and was in charge of fire for the county.
I hope you all can sympathize with what is happening in the
West right now.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Schacht can be found in the
appendix on page 141.]
Senator Dayton. Thank you, sir.
Senator Dayton. You get an award for patience here. You are
the last witness. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF ROD NELSON, CHATFIELD, MINNESOTA
Mr. Nelson. My name is Rod Nelson. I am a family farmer. I
live approximately 10 miles east of here, and I represent
America. We need to keep our family farmers. As we look back,
one of the things that I am afraid is going to happen is that
we are just going to end up with kind of an extension of the
old freedom-to-farm program. We are going to get 10 years of
this, do a little bit of tweaking, throw a little conservation
in there, and then we are going to have 10 more years. That
just isn't working. Anybody that can look at freedom to farm
and say it has been successful, I just don't know where they
are coming from. It is the most costly farm program in history
by $10 billion, and yet we have the lowest prices that--well
below the cost of production. I don't see where the success is
in this program. We need to--there is no other business in the
world that runs a business without some kind of a supply
management program.
If General Motors has got cars backed up the wazoo, they
don't keep making more cars. They shut down for 2 weeks. If
John Deere has factories backed up, they don't make more
tractors. They shut down. The gentleman from Brazil, he had a
good point. We are in a global marketplace. I know there are a
lot of you that say, ``Well, supply management won't work.''
Maybe we have to look at this from a world perspective. Maybe
we have to try to join together with other major exporters of
the world to maybe do something with this supply.
I see I got 30 seconds. I got a son that is 16 years old,
and he is just the best son a father could have. He is a
straight A student, excellent athlete, and he loves to work
with his dad on the farm. I got to the point where I am not
sure that I want to encourage him to farm anymore. He can do
anything and make a much better living even though the farm
life is probably the ideal life in America. We need to make
some changes. We need to rewrite this farm program. We need to
get some prices. I thank you for listening to us. This is
grass-roots politics at its best.
Thank you.
Senator Dayton. Thank you very much. I would like to give
time for some brief concluding remarks. We will go to Senator
Wellstone.
Senator Wellstone. I apologize. I am going to speak briefly
and then leave. I want to--somebody I see in the back of the
room. Thank you, Catholic Rural Life. Thank you for being here
as well and for all of your work. Archie Bauman is here. I
couldn't get him to speak, but I want to thank Archie Bauman
for years and years of speaking out for family farmers. Archie,
stand up. We are talking about a great, popular man.
I would like to thank my colleagues for being here, Senator
Dayton, Congressman Gutknecht. I would like to thank all of you
for being here. I would like to say that I absolutely agree
with the last point that was made, and we all express our own
opinion. I have always believed that freedom to farm is freedom
to fail. I want a new farm bill. I want the focus to be on
producers having a leverage to get a price in the marketplace.
I don't want us to continue to rely on the Government payments.
I have heard a lot about conservation. Southeast Minnesota has
been the hotbed of land stewardship in Minnesota. I would like
to thank so many of you for leading the way. You have had a
prophetic voice--the Bishop was here earlier--in that 1996
statement. The Catholic Bishop talked about how we are all
strangers, but strangers and guests on this land, and we should
leave it better. That is the direction that we are heading in.
Finally, I just would like to say to you, I heard it
earlier about the importance. It doesn't matter what it is,
whether it is dairy or whether we are talking about corn
growers or wheat or whether we are talking about livestock.
There has to be a strong--above and beyond the conservation,
above and beyond a loan rate or leverage for farmers to get a
decent price, there has to be some strong antitrust action.
There has to be some competition. We have to go after the
conglomerates. I wished I could guarantee success, but the only
thing I can say--I am speaking for myself. Senator Dayton is
giving me a chance to finish up. I can certainly say one thing.
Somebody used it earlier. I certainly will fight with all of my
might with every way I know how to make sure that this farm
bill on the Senate side is as strong a piece of legislation as
it can be. Many of us have been through it before. It has been
going on. We can't afford another shakeout of family farmers.
Then we won't have any left. This is the time to do it. We will
just give it everything we have. We are going to need a lot of
you all. Before it is all over, I am hoping that around the
country there are going to be a lot of huge gatherings in a lot
of States putting pressure on all reps, all Senators,
Democrats, Republicans, and others to be there for Midwest
agriculture. To be there for family farmers, to give us a fair
price, to have the land stewardship, to have the real
competition, to have an energy policy that makes sense for our
country. We can do it. We are just going to have to fight like
hell for it.
Thank you, everyone.
Senator Dayton. Congressman Gutknecht.
Mr. Gutknecht. Listen, again, I want to thank the two
Senators for hosting this, particularly you, Senator Dayton. It
is always tough to follow Senator Wellstone because he does a
great job of firing up the crowd. We are going to have some
differences as we try to work this out between the House and
the Senate, and there are going to be differences over how we
go on the conservation titles. There are going to be
differences whether we are just going to have a loan rate
program in terms of commodity support programs, or we are going
to go to the three-piece suit that we have proposed in the
House.
I hope you all understand that there are a couple of really
important facts as we deal with this at the Federal level. The
first is it takes 218 votes in the House; the second is it
takes 51 votes in the Senate; and, finally, we need a
Presidential signature before anything can change. Just
listening today, I am sure all of you realize that while there
are some levels of agreements, there are certainly strong
disagreements on some of the things that are going to happen.
There is not an absolute consensus among farmers. It is more
than just railroads that we sometimes disagree about. In order
to have any kind of farm policy at all, there are going to have
to be some accommodations.
We are certainly willing to work with the Senate, and I am
delighted that we were able, at least on the House side, to
work on very bipartisan basis. Because the future of
agriculture is not a Republican issue. It is not a matter of
right versus left. It is really right versus wrong. We really
have seen in the past couple years a breakdown in world
markets. When you have overproduction for 4 consecutive years,
I really don't know what we could have done in terms of farm
policy that would have prevented that. We do share one thing in
common, and that is that the future of agriculture is
incredibly important to the economy of southeastern Minnesota
and, as you have heard today, to the soul of the people of this
country. Because there is something about farmers that are very
special. I hope we never lose it. We will do our best at the
Federal level to try and keep that flame, that flickering
flame, of hope alive in American farmers' hearts so that next
year perhaps can be a little better than this one.
Thank you so much.
Senator Dayton. I want to thank Paul and Gil for being part
of this. I want to thank all of you for being here. Thank you
for our patience. I have now been 7 months on the Senate
Agriculture Committee as the Senator, and I had great
admiration for farmers before I joined the committee, and now I
must say I am in awe. I have never seen an array of such
complicated, interrelated, interwoven programs that you all
have to contend with every day and every year of your life.
Some of these universities that give degrees for the
experience, life experience and so forth. If that were the case
with agriculture, every farmer with 10 years of success or even
survival would have to get a Ph.D. in Government programs and a
master's degree in applied economics and a bachelor's degree in
meteorology. Then every year you are asked to take the kind of
financial risks that investment advisors and stockbrokers take,
and for all that you get paid less than minimum wage. I mean,
it is just unbelievable to me how involved all of this stuff
is.
Having said that, that is where we are. I am humbled by the
fact that for 60 years, people smarter than I am, more
experienced than I am from both the political parties and all
political persuasions, have tried to get these programs right
with good intentions, and here we are today.
This kind of input, a hearing like this for 3 hours, shows,
first of all, the real expertise with people like yourselves
who are the farmers and producers and those involved. Second,
that there are a lot of outstanding ideas. I hope we can
synthesize all that and work together with the House and come
up with something that is going to deal especially with getting
prices in the marketplace to levels where farmers can make a
good profit in the marketplace, which, coming from a business
family, I know, is what any businessman or woman needs to
survive. Somebody said to benefit the taxpayers, whatever the
shortcomings of the previous programs, we have to get back to a
market-based agricultural economy for this country and turn you
loose to produce as efficiently as anyone in the world. I look
forward to working with you and Gil and Paul as well.
Thank you very, very much, and we will conclude the
hearing. Thank you. Have a good day.
[Whereupon, at 4:20 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
August 20, 2001
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DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
August 20, 2001
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