[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 68 (Monday, June 1, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5493-S5494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FARM CRISIS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, as I finish my time I want to turn to a 
separate matter for a moment to discuss some meetings that I held in 
North Dakota during this past week. While the U.S. Senate was not in 
session, I held a number of farm neighbor meetings around North Dakota 
to talk about the farm crisis that exists in our part of the country. 
It is not something you read much about, but it exists and it is 
serious.
  We have seen all kinds of natural disasters and they break your 
heart. We have seen tornadoes, earthquakes and floods. We have had 
floods in North Dakota, our neighboring State of South Dakota had 
devastating tornadoes over the weekend. They are all tough to deal 
with.
  But there is another kind of crisis and disaster that occurs that 
does not come from a single event that climaxes in massive, visible 
immediate destruction. I am talking about a farm crisis that is 
devastating farm families in States like North Dakota. Chronic grain 
disease, such as scab that results in vomitoxin, chronically low farm 
prices, a wet cycle, diminished production, and a range of other things 
have combined to put literally thousands and thousands of family 
farmers in harm's way. By harm's way, I mean these farmers are not 
going to get financing to put in another year's crop. They are going to 
see their lifelong dream of operating their family farm gone, ripped 
apart and torn to shreds.
  At one of the farm neighbor meetings I had, there were three 
generations of farmers sitting there--a granddad, a dad and a son. The 
son was about 20 years old, kind of a husky young man. The granddad 
started that farm many, many decades ago, and the father took over that 
farm. Now the son is getting ready to graduate from college and would 
like to come back and farm as well. But the son said he wasn't sure he 
was going to be able to do that. In fact, the dad wasn't sure he was 
going to be able to hold on to the farm even if his son did want to 
farm it. Three generations of farmers and their hope for the future is 
gone.
  At one of the farm meetings we had, the sky clouded up with big black 
storm clouds to the west. A storm was imminent, when one of the farmers 
stood up and explained what a lot of people probably do not understand.
  He said, ``You know, I've lost money 4 years in a row. I run a small 
grains farm. I put my kids through college. This is what I love to do. 
It is what I know to do,'' and he said, ``yet, the grain prices are far 
below my cost of production. We have had crop disease and every problem 
you virtually can conceive of, and I don't know how long I can keep 
farming.''
  He said, ``See that cloud bank out west. Those storm clouds that will 
be here in an hour or so, that's pressure. That's pressure for us, and 
people don't understand that. That might ruin what little crop that has 
started to come. That might wash out seeds that haven't yet sprouted. 
That is pressure.''
  You don't think much about that until you sit on those farmsteads and 
visit with the farmers who are trying to make a living under very 
difficult circumstances.
  Farmers are the only business men and women in this country who have 
the following kinds of problems of risk: One, when they plant a seed 
after they plow the soil in spring, they have no idea whether the crop 
is going to grow, whether it be wheat, barley, flax, or corn. If it 
grows, maybe a month later the grasshoppers come. Maybe it is insects, 
maybe it is hail, maybe crop disease or maybe a dozen other things 
conspire to destroy that crop.
  But maybe the crop doesn't get destroyed and the farmer harvests the 
crop and takes it to the grain elevator. Then maybe, as is the 
circumstance today, that farmer gets $2 a bushel less than it cost him 
to produce the wheat. Then the farmer wonders, ``I took all these risks 
and end up losing all my money, all my equity, and then I am told by my 
banker that the U.S. Congress changed the farm program and reduced 
price supports so I can't cashflow anymore. Because Congress changed 
the farm programs, I no longer have the loans available to me to put in 
the spring crop.'' And they rightfully wonder what is happening to our 
country.

  We must, as a country, do something if we want to save family 
farmers. This country has an obligation to stand up in international 
trade and farm policy. We need to say that a network of family farms in 
our country's future matters to this nation.
  We can do better in a range of areas. We need a better crop insurance 
program, a better price support program, and better trade policies that 
prevent other countries from unfair trade practices against us. We can 
do all these things.
  This Congress, in my judgment, has a responsibility now to respond to 
the growing farm crisis. I hope my colleagues who come from farm States 
will understand that this is not some parochial issue. It is not some 
parochial concern that is of no consequence to anyone else.
  It is of consequence to everyone in this country whether or not our 
family farmers have an opportunity to survive and succeed. I think it 
is interesting, Mr. President, that the price of wheat has gone from 
$5.50 a bushel to $3.50 a bushel, nearly $2 below the cost of 
production for a bushel of wheat. And yet, at the same time, the folks 
in town go to the grocery store and they discover the price of bread 
has increased a bit. The price of wheat has dropped like an anvil, and 
the price of bread keeps going up. The price of wheat drops, the price 
of cereal keeps going up. What it says is that family farmers are down 
there at the bottom of the economic totem pole. Yet, they are the ones 
who produce. They plow the ground in the spring, they harvest it in the 
fall, they take all the risks in between and, in all the circumstances, 
they are the ones who lose the money. At the same time the big millers 
have record profits and the big grocer manufacturers have record 
profits. You can take a look at the big grain trading companies--record 
profits.
  Everybody profits, except those who have to put on work clothes to 
plant the field and harvest the crop. It is everybody who doesn't have 
to work in that kind of a situation who makes a record profit, while 
the farm families are going out of business.
  In my home State, they have had to call auctioneers out of retirement 
to handle the number of auction sales for

[[Page S5494]]

family farms going out of business this year. There is something wrong 
when we say as a country, ``Gee, our economic policy is working quite 
well,'' and then we see all these family farmers going out of business.
  One part of this is trade, and I might just finish today by 
mentioning trade. In almost every circumstance, this country has 
refused to stand with its producers on trade, and that is especially 
true with farm producers. It has refused to do what it should have done 
on United States-Canada grain trade in which this country is flooded 
with subsidized Canadian grain. It refuses to do what it should do with 
respect to China, Japan, and Europe.
  Just last week, we finally began confronting unfair trade, when the 
Secretary of Agriculture took action against the European Union for 
sending a ship that docked in California loaded with barley. That 
barley was deeply subsidized, to the tune of over $1 a bushel. 
Secretary Glickman, to his credit, took the first action. It was a 
step, it was a baby step, but, nevertheless, a step in the right 
direction. In taking it Secretary Glickman is saying to the European 
Union: ``You can't do that to this country. You can't do that to our 
farmers. You can't take money directly out of our farmers' pockets. In 
this case of unfair trade, you can't do that with impunity. This 
country will not allow you to do that.''
  Mr. President, I am going to speak later this week about farm policy 
and some of the related issues that we have to deal with--crop 
insurance, trade, price supports, investment in research for crop 
disease, and a whole range of other things.
  I say to my colleagues, this is critically important. There is, 
indeed, a farm crisis and we have a responsibility to respond to it in 
a thoughtful and important way.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________