[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 54 (Tuesday, May 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4236-S4237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AGRICULTURE

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, for the remaining moments I will speak on 
the subject of agriculture. I know it is probably something a lot of 
people do not think about or don't want to talk much about. Family 
farmers in my State are in trouble. At night when you fly across my 
State in a small airplane and look down, those family farmers have the 
brilliant yard lights that peek up at you. Each of these points of 
light represent a family living in the country, trying to make a living 
on the family farm.
  Recently there was an editorial cartoon in the Forum newspaper of 
Fargo, ND, showing a truckload of family farmers going down the road 
surrounded by a landscape of farm problems, including low prices, crop 
disease, and inadequate programs. The road sign in the cartoon stated, 
``The point of no returns.'' Why? Here is what is happening to the 
price of wheat. We passed a new farm bill and the price of wheat goes 
down, and down. Wheat prices are down 42 percent since May of 1996, 
following the passage of the new farm law. The point is that the new 
farm law pulls the rug out from under family farmers in terms of a 
safety net and tells the farmers, ``Go to the marketplace to get your 
price.'' Then the marketplace has a pathetically low price, and farmers 
go broke.
  I had a farm meeting in Mandan, ND, and a fellow stood up. He was a 
big burly guy with a beard. He said his grandfather farmed, his dad 
farmed, and he has farmed for 23 years. His chin began to quiver, and 
he began to get tears in his eyes, and he said, ``I can't keep farming. 
I am forced to quit this year.''
  We have all heard the stories. One by one. I suppose people say that 
is just one farmer. Yet ``one by one'' means that across this country, 
there are hundreds and thousands of farmers leaving farming. It is 
especially evident in my State. When farmers can't make a living and go 
out of business, it seems to me that is an enormous step backwards. 
Family farmers contribute something very important to this country.
  Family farmers have had to fight several things in my State recently. 
They had to fight the weather. We went through a winter in which we had 
3 years' worth of snow in 3 months. We had seven blizzards, the last of 
which put nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground. It was the worst 
blizzard in 50 years. Farmers had to fight that. Then they had to fight 
low prices. Then they had to fight a crop disease known as fusarium 
head blight or scab which wiped out a quantity of their crop. And, then 
they have to fight a Congress and a farm policy which has been 
constructed by people in Congress who say it doesn't matter who farms.
  These folk think agrifactories are fine. They can farm as far as the 
largest tractor will go, until it runs out of gas, and that is fine 
with them. It is not fine with me. If we end up with a land of giant 
agrifactories farming America's farmland, we will have lost something 
forever in this country that is very important. As a matter of social 
and economic policy, we ought to fight with every fiber of our being to 
make sure we have a network of families living out on the farms in this 
country's future.
  I watched one day when somebody came in that door, breathless, and 
walked to the floor of the Senate on the supplemental appropriations 
bill and offered an amendment for $177 million to be added to star wars 
national missile defense system. They added $177 million that wasn't 
even asked for. But that wasn't a problem. It was accepted by consent. 
A total of $177 million was added early in the morning. That was OK 
with this body because it was for star wars. But somehow we don't have 
enough money to provide a decent wheat price for a family farmer who is 
struggling out there.

  I got a letter from a man and his wife who quit farming recently. The 
letter is from George and Karen Saxowsky, of Hebron, ND. I will read 
just a couple of paragraphs, since I have 2 more minutes. It describes 
for those who don't know about family farming what this family went 
through. She wrote a Christmas letter and described part of what they 
went through in the storms. She talked about the last blizzard.
  I will read a couple paragraphs:

       As the storm abated Sunday evening I could hear Glendon 
     yelling and ran to see what was going on now, but couldn't 
     find him. Here, they had found a cow laying on its side 
     drowning in muck. Glendon was laying flat on his belly 
     holding the cows head out of the muck while George was trying 
     frantically to get the tractor down to him. I plowed through 
     four foot deep snow to help--the first tractor got wet and 
     quit. [All during the storm we had distributor caps in the 
     oven drying out!] He got the Bobcat--it quit; he got the next 
     tractor and we made it down there, tore a fence down, put 
     chains on the cow and pulled her out. She died; as did a calf 
     that had been buried in the snow someplace in the ten feet we 
     pulled the cow and we didn't even see, until the snow melted 
     enough, that it was under her; as did those two calves in the 
     basement; as did a calf that had followed its mother to the 
     water fountain, got stuck in the snow and froze to death 
     standing up--we must have walked by that calf fifty times but 
     with the blizzard didn't see it--they get snow covered really 
     fast; as did the cow in the corral with a roof over her head 
     with water and hay right beside her; as did--well, you get 
     the picture. It continued for fourteen days after the storm, 
     every day we lost at least one cow and/or calf. We took them 
     to the vets for autopsies and what-not but it just seemed 
     there was nothing we could do to save them. One day we made 
     it to 5:00 without any dying and thought the curse was broken 
     but by midnight we had lost a cow and a calf. It was a 
     terrible, terrible time, but we lived through it--but not 
     alone. Friends were there for us. On the Friday after the 
     storm one called to tell us to get out of the house and come 
     to town for a Fireman's Dance--we were just too exhausted and 
     depressed--but he was really pushy (he did the same thing for 
     us after last year's cow incident on I-94). We went and 
     visited with other farmer-ranchers who were in the same 
     boat--it really was so helpful and encouraging?
       We were really dreading the first snow of this winter. Long 
     about October, George started talking about quitting 
     farming--I took it as a mid-life crisis; a one time slide. 
     But he kept talking--and then started making plans. We would 
     put in a crop in '98 and quit in '99. I still thought `this-
     too-shall-pass' but he just go more serious. In November I 
     started getting calls asking if I would like a job off the 
     farm? I have to tell you, I was so flattered that they even 
     considered me capable of doing what they needed; I had been 
     self-employed for almost 25 years! I turned them down, but it 
     did start the wheels turning. Then, there was an ad in the 
     paper for a job in Hebron with benefits. We talked about it 
     and I applied; they offered me the job and I took it. This 
     was not easy, now we couldn't put a crop in this spring as 
     the job is 40 hours a week including every other Saturday and 
     George can't farm without me.
       The bottom line is: a 47 year old, 4th generation farmer in 
     this 27th year of farming is quitting farming.

  This is why this farm couple is quitting farming. It is not just 
because of the storm and the dead cattle. It is about making a living 
and getting some return for their efforts.
  North Dakota farmers had a decline of $750 million in farm income in 
1997. Low prices, crop disease, weather. Senator Conrad pointed out 
that 98 percent of the net income of farmers was washed away by this 
set of problems. And, there is one more problem that farmers face. They 
face a Congress that doesn't seem to care whether there are family 
farmers.

[[Page S4237]]

  The new farm program pulls the rug out from under our family farmers. 
They are told to go to the marketplace to get their price. When they go 
there, the big millers are there and the big grocery manufacturers are 
there, and the big grain traders are there. They all want lower prices, 
so they drive prices down so when family farmers go to the marketplace, 
they find pathetically low prices, well below their costs of production 
for grain.
  The fact is they lose money year after year because farm prices are 
consistently below the full economic costs of production. Then they 
suffer through crop disease on top of it all, and find out the crop 
insurance program doesn't work. When they turn to the safety net, they 
find that, no, that has been pulled away. When they ask what is the 
loan rate on a bushel of wheat, they find it is the lowest it has been 
in decades.
  So the question is: Is somebody here going to start to care about 
whether we have family farmers or not? Or is the priority here that you 
can waltz through these doors and offer a couple hundred million 
dollars for star wars, and get plenty of money for things like that; 
but when it comes to family farmers we don't have enough money for a 
decent support price to help them stay on the farm?
  Mr. President, I and others will be talking about this in the coming 
days. I hope, as we search for some solutions, this Congress will 
decide family farmers are worth finding solutions for, and that we will 
develop a better farm program, one that really works to provide 
protection for family farmers.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________