[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REFORMS NEEDED IN THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, nearly 2 years ago Congress approved 
landmark legislation giving farmers the freedom to farm. Supply 
management and command control agricultural policy had failed our 
farmers. The safety net that was intended was acting more like a 
ceiling, so farmers, locked arm in arm with consumers and taxpayers, 
changed the course of agriculture policy in this country.
  Today, instead of talking about expanding the acreage reduction 
program and conceding critical world market share, farmers are now 
asking Washington for fast track. Today farmers are talking about the 
need to keep a lid on their out-of-pocket expenses, especially those 
imposed by Uncle Sam by way of taxes and regulations.
  In short, our farmers do not want to depend on the government to 
merely survive. Rather, our farmers want the tools and the global 
markets necessary to actually succeed. Improved research and the 
development of more effective risk management tools, such as crop 
revenue coverage, are good examples.
  Unfortunately, the progress I have just described does not 
characterize Federal dairy policy, where regional divisions have 
prevented any kind of meaningful reform. Instead, price-fixing, whether 
by regional compact, cartels, bogus price floors, or an irrational 
order system, is still fashionable.
  I think it is ironic that this Congress, which never misses a chance 
to champion market-oriented reform, growth, and opportunity, still 
clings to a dairy policy that has fallen out of fashion, even in 
Moscow. When I see so many folks championing the status quo, I wonder 
if I have missed something.
  Since 1985, my home State of Minnesota has lost more than half of our 
dairy farmers, over 11,000. That is a rate of three per day. Nationally 
the U.S. has lost over 152,000 dairy producers under the very system 
which today so many are attempting to save.
  I hope when all the dust settles, we will put aside our regional 
bickering, abandon the failed policies of supply management and command 
control economics, and embark on a new path. We should not be striving 
for a policy that simply slows down the hemorrhaging, but we should 
work for a policy that puts our dairy farmers on the road to recovery.
  We can start by creating a more market-oriented order system, 
rejecting harmful regional compacts and price floors, implementing a 
dairy options pilot program that can eventually become national in 
scope, authorizing forward pricing to shift risk away from the 
producers, and by developing a kind of market-oriented insurance 
program which farmers, taxpayers, and consumers can all support.
  On this note, I seriously doubt that anyone in Congress would ever 
deny our grain farmers the right to forward contract to protect against 
price volatility. Yet, we do exactly that to our dairy farmers. It is 
bad policy, and we have the power to stop it.
  Tax and regulatory relief, better research and risk management tools, 
and expanded global markets for U.S. agricultural products offer our 
Nation's dairy farmers real opportunity, but price floors and supply 
management only offer a frustrating ceiling thinly disguised as a 
safety net. The difference is as stark as saving and investing for your 
retirement, or relying on Social Security to bring about the good life.
  Mr. Speaker, when the Kremlin collapsed, a newspaper editorial 
commented that ``Markets are more powerful than armies.'' Because 
history has demonstrated this time and again, I am convinced that fluid 
milk will be sold according to the dictates of supply and demand. If 
Members do not believe me, just look at the editorials in the 
Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. It is 
only a matter of time.
  The question before us today is, will we in the agricultural 
community accomplish reform on our own terms and at our own pace, or 
will change be forced down our throats after we have surrendered yet 
more farmers and more potential markets? The choice, Mr. Speaker, is 
ours to make.

                          ____________________