[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 55 (Wednesday, May 6, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S4413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FARM CRISIS

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, my colleagues from North Dakota, 
Senator Conrad and Senator Dorgan, said it well moments ago when they 
were speaking about the Wall Street Journal piece that came out 
yesterday, Tuesday, May 5 regarding what has to be described as a farm 
crisis. In this piece, former Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland is 
quoted. Jim Tunheim, a State legislator from northwest Minnesota, is 
also quoted.
  I want to talk about what is happening in my State of Minnesota 
because I believe it will be incumbent upon all of us here in the 
Senate and in the House of Representatives as well to take some action.
  I was at a gathering in Crookston, MN some weeks ago. As I walked 
into the school, there was a sign posted outside that said, ``Farm 
Crisis Meeting''. It brought back awful memories of the mid-1980s when 
I went to probably hundreds of farm crisis meetings. What I saw then 
all across Minnesota were foreclosures; people being driven off their 
farms where they not only lived but where they worked as well. I saw a 
lot of broken dreams and a lot of broken lives and a lot of broken 
families. This is now happening again.
  This very fine piece in the Wall Street Journal talks about this farm 
crisis in very personal terms.
  I want to say to colleagues that I know of no other way to say it. 
Some 2 years ago, when we passed what was called the Freedom to Farm 
bill, I called it then the Freedom to Fail bill. And I think that is 
exactly what is happening. All of the discussion about the market 
presupposes that we have Adam Smith's invisible hand in agriculture. 
But what we have instead is a food industry where the conglomerates 
have muscled their way to the dinner table exercising raw economic 
power over farmers, consumers, taxpayers, and family farmers. Wheat 
farmers, corn growers and other farmers--vis-a-vis these large 
companies that they deal with don't have very much clout at all.
  This was a good bill for some of the big grain companies. There are 
only a few. But it was not a good bill for family farmers.
  Now, in northwest Minnesota, a combination of dealing with scab 
disease, wet weather over the last several years, and, most important 
of all, this Freedom to Farm bill, which has driven prices down, which 
doesn't give the farmers a loan rate to have some leverage in the 
market, which doesn't give them a safety net, is driving farmers off 
the land.
  We need to take some action. The Secretary of Agriculture supports 
lifting the cap on the loan rate. And we can legislatively try to raise 
that loan rate so that we can give farmers a price in the marketplace.
  I just want to say to my colleagues, I told you so. That is the way I 
will put it. I told you so. And northwest Minnesota is just a harbinger 
of what is going to happen across this country. Prices are low. Farmers 
are being driven off the land. There is a tremendous amount of economic 
pain. And it is not just the farmers. It is the communities where they 
live, where they go to church or to synagogue, where they buy their 
products, where they send their kids to school.
  We have a serious crisis in northwest Minnesota. I am hearing from 
farmers in other parts of my State as well. I think rural America is 
going to go through some economic convulsions as a result, in part, of 
this legislation that we passed. We have to give farmers a fair price 
in the marketplace. We secured them some loan funding in the disaster 
appropriations bill we passed last week, which gives them at least some 
loan assistance for spring operations. But it doesn't make that much 
difference long-term. It can keep them going for awhile, but if they 
don't get a decent price in the marketplace, they don't have a prayer.
  That is what this piece in the Wall Street Journal is about. That is 
why I come to the floor of the Senate. I look forward to working with 
my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, who come from farm 
States. We have to do something. We are here to try to do well for 
people. We have to do better for family farmers in Minnesota and across 
our country.
  I thank my colleague from Texas again for his graciousness, and I 
yield the floor.

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