[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 82 (Monday, June 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4949]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CRISIS IN AGRICULTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Minge) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MINGE. Mr. Speaker, in the late 1990's we are facing a crisis in 
agriculture that is reminiscent of what we faced in the mid-1980's. It 
is also reminiscent of what we faced a century ago when William 
Jennings Bryan talked about crucifying American farmers on a cross of 
gold, when he talked about how our cities could be burned or factories 
could be destroyed and they would rise again, but if you destroy 
American agriculture, you can destroy our civilization. We have a 
unique responsibility, I submit, at the Federal level to show a 
continuing concern about the state of the agricultural economy.
  It is unique in our country in the sense that we have a virtually 
pure form of competition for many of the crops and products that we 
produce among the producers. It is a true law of supply and demand that 
governs the market and governs the price. Other sectors of our economy 
are not bound by these stark principles to nearly the same extent.
  Businesses can choose and work to differentiate the service that they 
provide, the product that they sell, from the competition. It may not 
be different, but the perception is it is different. Whether it be 
breakfast food, beer or some other commodity, we know that through 
careful advertising and brand promotion the consumers feel that they 
actually are receiving something substantially different from one 
producer compared to another.

  But if you go to the country and you say you are interested in buying 
No. 2 yellow corn, it does not make any difference which farm that corn 
came from. No. 2 yellow corn is fungible with all other No. 2 yellow 
corn produced, or spring wheat or durum wheat or soybeans, and the list 
of products grown on our farms goes on and on.
  Similarly, although one hog producer can strive for better genetics 
and more efficient production, when it comes to the marketplace, as 
long as those genetics and that production principle is basically the 
same, one farmer is receiving the same price as the next.
  So what has this led to here in the late 1990s? Well, the price of 
corn in my part of the country, the northern corn belt, is dropping to 
$2 a bushel and possibly lower. We see wheat dropping below $3 a 
bushel. These two key crops are more important to the American farm 
economy than any others, and when the prices are dropping in those key 
crops, and we know that production costs are up, we are talking about 
some pretty serious difficulty.
  In 1996 we passed a new farm bill with a 7-year life. It provided for 
transition payments and transition programs. And how was that farm bill 
serving us in the late 1990's, just barely 2 years later? My 
colleagues, I regret to report it is not serving us well.
  The transition payments, which are costing the U.S. Treasury tens of 
billions of dollars, have been capitalized into land costs, higher 
rents for producers, more difficult for new and beginning farmers to 
establish themselves. Unfortunately, these transition payments are not 
providing the farmers with a nest egg that they can put to one side in 
a good year and use in a poor year. Instead, it is money that has to be 
spent in what was hoped to be a good year, and when the poor year comes 
there is nothing at all.
  We are in a poor year. Figures from the U.S. Commerce Department 
indicate that agricultural income is down 98 percent in North Dakota, 
98 percent from 1996 to 1997. In Missouri it is down 72 percent. In 
Minnesota it is down 38 percent. These are dramatic figures. It is 
leading to hundreds, if not thousands, of bankruptcies and farm 
closures and foreclosures.
  We must act in this body to recognize that unless Congress and the 
Federal Government helps farmers by creating tools that they can use to 
manage risk, we are going to continue to lose hundreds of thousands of 
farmers over the next few years in the United States, a loss we cannot 
afford.

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