[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21581-21595]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 THE ECONOMIC CONVULSION IN AGRICULTURE

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I was just at a gathering of family 
farmers from the State of Minnesota. I want to give a report on what 
many of these farmers from Minnesota had to say. I know the Chair has 
met with farmers from his State and is well aware of the economic pain.
  This was a gathering of the Farmers Union farmers, although I think 
as they have traveled from Senate office to Senate office and House 
office to House office, they speak for many farmers in the country. 
Their focus is on what can only be described as an economic convulsion 
in agriculture.
  I know this is not only a crisis in the Midwest but it is also a 
crisis in the South and throughout the entire nation. On present 
course, we are going to lose a generation of producers. Whether we are 
talking about farmers in Minnesota or farmers in Arkansas, many very 
hard-working people are asking nothing more than a decent price for the 
commodities they produce. These farmers, who want a decent price so 
they can have a decent standard of living and so they can support their 
children, are going to go under.
  I will talk a little bit about policy, but, most importantly, I want 
to talk about families. I think it is important to bring this to the 
attention of the Senate. On the policy part, I would prefer, if at all 
possible, to avoid a confrontation about the Freedom to Farm

[[Page 21582]]

bill. I thought it was ``freedom to fail'' when the bill passed in 
1996. I thought it was a terrible piece of legislation; other Senators 
at that time thought differently. Part of the legislation gave 
producers more flexibility, which was good. However, the problem we are 
facing now is the flexibility doesn't do any good because, across the 
board prices are low and farmers can't cash-flow.
  I don't know whether the Chair has had this experience in Arkansas. 
He probably has. Many farmers will come up to me, and often these 
farmers will be in their 40's or 50's. They will say: Right now, I am 
just burning up my equity. I am digging into everything I have in order 
to keep going. I want to ask you a question: Should I continue to do 
that? Do I have a future, or should I just get out of farming?
  People don't want to get out of farming. They don't want to leave. 
This is where they farm. This is where they live. This is where they 
work. The farm has been in their family for four generations.
  We have to make a major modification in our farm policy. The 
modification has to deal with the problem of price. It is a price 
crisis in rural America. We have to get this emergency assistance 
package passed. Conferees must meet and report a bill to Congress so 
that we can get assistance out to farmers now. I think the emergency 
package must include a disaster relief piece. The Senate version 
includes no funding for weather related disasters. Although I am 
supportive of an emergency relief package, I still don't think the 
Senate-passed version targeted the assistance towards those people who 
need the most help.
  The point is, these producers want to know whether they have a future 
beyond 1 year. They can't cash-flow on these prices, whether it be for 
wheat, for corn, for cotton, for rice, for peanuts, or whether it be 
for livestock producers. They simply cannot cash-flow. They cannot make 
it. They can work 20 hours a day and be the best managers in the world, 
and they still won't make it.
  I do think we have to raise the loan rate to get the price up. We 
have to do that. We have to have some kind of a way that our producers 
have some leverage in the marketplace to get a better price. I think we 
also need to have a farmer-owned reserve. A farmer-owned reserve would 
enable our producers to hold on to their grain until they can get a 
better price from the grain companies.
  Whatever the proposal is, I say to all of my colleagues, for our 
producers--and I imagine it is the same in Arkansas--time is not 
neutral. It is not on their side. I don't think we can leave this fall 
without making a change. We have to pass the emergency assistance 
package, and we have to deal with the price crisis. I have heard 
discussion about how we are going to leave early. We cannot leave 
early.
  I also want to talk about the whole problem of concentration of 
power. This is an unbelievable situation. What we have is a situation 
where our producers, such as our livestock producers, when negotiating 
to sell, only have three or four processors. They have the Smithfields, 
the ConAgras, the IPBs, the Hormels and the Cargills. The point is, you 
have two, three or four firms that control over 40 percent, over 50 
percent, sometimes 70-80 percent of the market.
  Pork producers are facing extinction, and the packers are in hog 
heaven. The mergers continue, and we have all of these acquisitions. We 
need to put free enterprise back into the food industry.
  I have had a chance to review the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act and 
the work of Estes Kefauver and others. We have had two major public 
hearings, one in Minnesota and one in Iowa, with Joel Klein, who leads 
the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, and Mike Dunn, head 
of the Packers and Stockyards Administration within the Department of 
Agriculture. Our producers are asking the question: Why, with these 
laws on the books, isn't there some protection for us? We have all 
sorts of examples of monopoly. We want to know where is the protection 
for producers.
  It is critical to pass some stronger antitrust legislation. I know 
Senator Leahy is doing a great job with his legislation. I am pleased 
to join with him. I know part of what the Leahy legislation is going to 
emphasize is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture can ask for a 
family farm rural community impact statement. It must address the 
impact these acquisitions and mergers will have on communities. We want 
to see that USDA has the authority to review these mergers and 
acquisitions. We want to see that when people break the law and are 
practicing collusive activities, there are going to be very stiff 
penalties. We want to set up a separate division within the Justice 
Department that deals with agriculture and conducts an investigation 
and an impact study. Again, we need to have some strong antitrust 
legislation on the books.
  This ought to be a bipartisan issue. I think this is one issue on 
which all the farm organizations agree. We must have some antitrust 
action. We must have some bargaining power for the producers. We must 
put free enterprise back into the food industry.
  Until we pass this legislation, I will have an amendment on the floor 
calling for a moratorium on any further acquisitions or mergers for 
agribusinesses with over $50 million in revenue. We need to take a look 
at what is going on. We need to pass some legislation now or we need to 
have a moratorium for one year until we pass legislation. I think there 
is going to be a considerable amount of support for this. The reason I 
think there is going to be a lot of support is that I think many of my 
colleagues have been back in their States, and for those of us who come 
from rural States, from agricultural States, you can't meet with people 
and not know we have to take some kind of action.
  I want to bring to the attention of my colleagues just what this 
crisis means in personal terms. I get nervous about the discussions we 
have about statistics. We talk about loan rates, we talk about target 
prices, deficiency payments and LPDs. I want to put this crisis in 
personal terms.
  Let me talk, first of all, about the wonderful wisdom of a Kansas 
farmer.
  I want to share a conversation I had with a Kansas farmer, who 
offered a great analogy that goes right to the heart of what is 
happening to our livestock producers, in particular, pork producers who 
are facing extinction while the packers are in hog heaven:

       Hogs can be mean, nasty and greedy animals. When a hog 
     farmer raises hogs, he knows well enough to separate the big 
     boars from the little hogs. No hog producer would put a boar 
     in the same pen with small pigs. The boar would literally 
     attack and kill the smaller pigs.

  Yet while no producer would make such an illogical decision, we as a 
nation have shamelessly allowed the big boars within our own market 
pen. That is exactly what is happening. The large corporate ``pigs'' 
have been attacking and killing the smaller producers.
  Now, let me just recite a little bit of historical context. These are 
words that were spoken on the floor. I read this piece and thought of 
the latest Smithfield effort to gobble up another company. These words 
were spoken on the floor of the Senate by Wyoming Senator John B. 
Kendrick in 1921, in support of the Packers and Stockyards Act:

       Nothing under the sun would do more to conduce to increase 
     production in this country and ultimately to cheapen food 
     products for the people of the Nation than a dependable 
     market, one wherein the producer would understand beyond a 
     shadow of doubt that he would not merely get what is called a 
     fair market, but would get the market for his products based 
     on the law of supply and demand. The average producer in this 
     country is a pretty good sport. He is not afraid to take his 
     chances, but he wants to know that he meets the other man on 
     the dead level and does not have to go against stacked cards.

  That is exactly what is at issue. Everywhere the family farmers look, 
whether it be on the input side, or to whom they sell, you have 
monopolies. We have to, as Senators, be willing to be on the side of 
family farmers and take on these monopolies. Who do we represent? Are 
we Senators from Smithfield, ConAgra or Cargill, which is a huge 
company in my State. Or, are

[[Page 21583]]

we Senators who represent family farmers in rural communities?
  I had a meeting with about 35 small bankers, independent bankers, 
community bankers, from rural Minnesota. It was unbelievable; all of 
them were saying they have not seen anything such as this crisis in 
their lifetimes. They said if we continue the way we are going right 
now, we are going to lose these farms. Our hospitals are going to shut 
down, our businesses are in trouble, our dealers and banks are in 
trouble. We are not going to be able to support our schools.
  This is about the survival of many of our communities, and these 
bankers they are right. I would, in 1999, like to associate myself with 
the remarks of Senator John B. Kendrick in 1921. He goes on to say:

       It has been brought to such a high degree of concentration 
     that it is dominated by a few men. The big packers, so-
     called, stand between hundreds of thousands of producers on 
     the one hand, and millions of consumers on the other. They 
     have their fingers on the pulse of both the producing and 
     consuming markets, and are in such a position of strategic 
     advantage; they have unrestrained powers to manipulate both 
     markets to their own advantage and to the disadvantage of 
     over 99 percent of the people of our country. Such power is 
     too great, Mr. President, to repose it to the hands of any 
     man.

  I have been doing a lot of traveling during August meeting with 
farmers. I have been, certainly, to every single rural community in 
Minnesota and to gatherings in South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, 
Missouri, and Texas. Each and every time, I will tell you, it is 
incredible when you speak to farmers. You have 700 or 800 pork 
producers at a rally, for example, and they know from personal 
experience who the enemy is. They can't believe that IBP is making 
record profits while they are going under. How can it be these packers 
make all this money and the prices for our products don't go down in 
the grocery stores? Meanwhile, our family farmers, our producers, are 
facing extinction? What is going on?
  When we passed the Sherman Act in late the 1800s, we did it, to 
protect consumers; but, we also said we as a nation value competition. 
We thought the food industry was important. We thought we ought to have 
a lot of producers. We thought we ought to have a wide distribution of 
land ownership. We thought it was important to have rural communities. 
Somebody is going to farm land in America. When our family farmers in 
the Midwest or the South are driven off the land, the mentality seems 
to be not to worry about it. The argument is made that somebody will 
farm the land. Somebody will own the animals. But the problem is that 
it will be these big conglomerates owning the land and the animals. The 
health and vitality of rural America is not based upon the number of 
acres of land somebody owns or the number of animals; it is based upon 
the number of family farmers who live in the community, buy in the 
community, care about the community.
  As far as our national interest is concerned, this is a food scarcity 
issue. When these big conglomerates finish muscling their way to the 
dinner table and driving these family farmers out, what will be the 
price we pay for the food? Will it be safe? Will it be nutritious? Will 
there be land stewardship? Will you have producers that care about the 
environment? I think the answer is no.
  This is a transition that America will deeply regret. We in the 
Senate must take action. We must take action to deal with this crisis, 
and it is a crisis. It is a price crisis. We have to get the loan rate 
up to get the price up. We have to have a moratorium on all of these 
acquisitions and mergers.
  Eunice Biel from Harmony, MN, a dairy farmer, said:

       We currently milk 100 cows and just built a new milking 
     parlor. We will be milking 120 cows next year. Our 22-year-
     old son would like to farm with us. But for us to do so he 
     must buy out my husband's mother (his grandmother) because my 
     husband and I who are 46-years-old, still are unable to take 
     over the family farm. Our son must acquire a beginning farmer 
     loan. But should he shoulder that debt if there is no stable 
     milk price? We continuously are told by bankers, 
     veterinarians and ag suppliers that we need to get bigger or 
     we will not survive. At 120 cows, we can manage our herd and 
     farm effectively and efficiently. We should not be forced to 
     expand in order to survive.

  Lynn Jostock, a Waseca, MN, dairy farmer, said:

       I have four children. My 11-year-old son Al helps my 
     husband and I by doing chores. But it often is too much to 
     expect of someone so young. For instance, one day our son 
     came home from school. His father asked Al for some help 
     driving the tractor to another farm about 3 miles away. Al 
     was going to come home right afterward. But he wound up 
     helping his father cut hay. Then he helped rake hay. Then he 
     helped bale hay. My son did not return home until 9:30 p.m. 
     He had not yet eaten supper. He had not yet done his 
     schoolwork. We don't have other help. The price we get at the 
     farm gate isn't enough to allow us to hire any farmhands or 
     to help our community by providing more jobs. And it isn't 
     fair to ask your 11-year-old son to work so hard to keep the 
     family going. When will he burn out? How will he ever want to 
     farm?

  Above and beyond that, I will just tell you that there is a lot of 
strain in the families. Families are under tremendous economic 
pressure, and they are under tremendous personal pressure.
  As long as I am talking about families, I want to tell you that in my 
State of Minnesota there are farmers who talk about taking their lives. 
There are a number of people who are involved in the social services 
who are doing an awful lot of visits now to farms. And an awful lot of 
farmers are right on the edge. Do you want to know something? Their 
suffering is needless and unnecessary. This is not the result of Adam 
Smith's ``invisible hand.'' This is not some inexorable economic law. 
It is not the law of physics. It is not gravity that dictates that 
family farmers must fall.
  We have it within our power to change farm policy and to give these 
producers a chance. We should not leave. We should not go home until we 
write some new agricultural policy, a new farm policy that will really 
make a difference for people.
  I am open to all suggestions. I am not arrogant about this. But I 
will tell you one thing I am insistent upon. I am going to be out on 
the floor talking about this issue. I am insistent that we take some 
action. We can't just turn our gaze away from this and act as if it is 
not happening.
  Jan Lundebrek from Benson, a Minnesota bank loan officer:

       As a loan officer at a small town bank, I received a check 
     for $19 for the sale of a 240-pound hog. I immediately went 
     across the street to the grocery store and looked at the 
     price of ham. The store was selling hams for $49. I wrote 
     down that price and showed it to the producer. Then we 
     decided to ask the grocer about the difference. Where does it 
     go? Somebody is getting it, but it isn't the farmer.

  We have policies to keep our country safe. We have a defense policy, 
we have an education policy, but we don't have a policy to protect our 
strength. We don't have a food policy that protects our farm 
communities and consumers who spend $49 for a 10-pound ham that the 
farmer can't even buy through the sale of a 240-pound hog.
  Now we have Smithfield that says it wants to buy Murphy. A merger of 
yet two more of these large packers is just outrageous. I want a 
moratorium on these mergers and acquisitions. I don't want these big 
livestock packers to be pushing around family farmers and driving them 
off the land.
  Jan Lundebrek, this is a brilliant example. I want to speak for you, 
Jan, on the floor of the Senate--A Benson, MN, bank loan officer:

       As a loan officer at a small town bank, I received a check 
     for $19 for the sale of a 240-pound hog. I immediately went 
     across the street to the grocery store and looked at the 
     price of hams. The store was selling hams for $49. I wrote 
     down that price and showed it to the producer. Then we 
     decided to ask the grocer about the difference. Where does it 
     go? Somebody is getting it, but it isn't the farmer.

  Let me again point this out. You spend $49 for a 10-pound ham, and 
this farmer is getting $19 for a 240-pound hog.
  I mentioned the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act. I feel as if I am 
speaking on the floor of the Senate in the late 1800s. Where is the 
call for antitrust action? Teddy Roosevelt, where are you when we need 
you?
  We have to get serious about this.
  Richard Berg, Clements farmer:


[[Page 21584]]

       My dad died when I was 9-years-old. Two years later, when I 
     turned 11, I began to farm full time with my older brother. 
     He and I still farm together. This year I will bring in my 
     48th crop. The farm we own has been in the Berg family for 
     more than 112 years.
       When we began farming we would get up at 4 a.m. to do 
     chores. Then we would go to school. During the evening, after 
     we returned from school, we went back to work farming.
       My brother and I each own 360 acres. I never had a line of 
     credit until the past five years. We always made enough to 
     save some and buy machinery when we needed it. Now I have a 
     line of credit against the land that I own that I am always 
     using.
       I invested in a hog co-op a few years ago and a corn 
     processing facility. I have a lot of equity tied up there. 
     Neither venture is making money. They're losing money.
       There's no one after me who is going to farm.

  Les Kyllo, Goodhue dairy farmer:

       My grandfather milked 15 cows. My dad milked 26. I have 
     milked as many as 100 cows, and I'm going broke. They made a 
     living out here and I didn't. Since my son went away to 
     college, my farmhands are my 73-year-old father and my 77-
     year-old father-in-law who has an artificial hip.
       I have a barn that needs repairs and updates that I can't 
     afford. I have two children that don't want to farm. At one 
     point, in a 30-mile radius, there were 15 Kyllos farming. Now 
     there are three. And now I'm selling my cows. My family has 
     farmed since my ancestors emigrated to the United States.
       When I leave farming, my community will lose the $15,000 I 
     spend locally each year for cattle feed; the $3,000 I spend 
     at the veterinarian; the $3,600 I spend for electricity; or 
     the money I spend for fuel, cattle insemination and other 
     farm needs.

  By the way, I would like to thank these farmers. I don't know whether 
other Senators realize this. I am sure they do. I am sure that people 
listening to our discussion on the floor realize this. But you know, 
when people tell you the story of their lives and allow you to talk 
about them and their strains, they do not do that except if they hope 
that if enough of us realize what is really going on, we will make the 
change. That is what they are hoping for. That is what they are hoping 
for, and that is what we should do.
  Alphonse Mathiowetz, Comfrey farmer:

       ``We were there 43 years and it took 43 seconds to take it 
     all away.'' Alphonse and LaDonna, his spouse, farmed the same 
     land in Comfrey for 43 years. In the spring of 1998 a tornado 
     tore through their community taking with it the work of their 
     lifetime, their farm machinery, their buildings, their trees, 
     their corn bins and their retirement. The Mathiowetz family 
     lost more than $200,000 of equity to the tornado, none of 
     which will be recovered.
       Alphonse and LaDonna chose to rebuild their home on the 
     farmstead. Not because they wanted to, but because if they 
     did otherwise the reimbursement they received from their 
     insurance company would have been highly taxed. It was the 
     only financial decision available to the couple.
       ``I guess it's a blessing to retire, but not this way, 
     watching the farm go away in bulk on an iron truck.''

  Steve Cattnach, Luverne small businessperson (insurance agent):

       Two local farmers who raise hogs came in both in the same 
     week to withdraw money from their Individual Retirement 
     Accounts. During the course of 10 days the time it takes for 
     the money to arrive both were in twice asking about when 
     their checks would arrive.
       A local farmer who has 2 1,200-hog finishing facilities 
     wanted to help his cash-flow by reducing the insurance 
     coverage on his hog buildings from $180,000 each to $165,000 
     each. The terms of the policy allowed the coverage to be 
     reduced, but the farmer's lender wouldn't allow the coverage 
     to be reduced because the farmer, after 3 years of finishing 
     hogs in those buildings, still owed $180,000 on each 
     building. During those 3 years, he had only paid interest on 
     the money he had borrowed.
  Laura Resler, Owatonna farmer:

       I have farmed with my husband for 20 years. When we 
     started, we raised two breeds of purebred hogs and sold their 
     offspring as breeding stock. Each animal sold for $300 to 
     $500 per animal. But the increase in size of hog operations 
     made our small breeding stock operation a money-losing 
     venture. Also milked cows to produce manufacturing grade 
     (Grade B) milk. But $10 per hundredweight is not enough to 
     pay the bills, so we had to give up the cows. From the time 
     my husband, Todd, was 18 until now, when he's 41, he's worked 
     for absolutely nothing. Now he works at a job in town so we 
     have funds on which to retire. Our hope is to give our son 
     the farm that's been in the family for generations and let 
     our daughter have the house. But you can't cash-flow a 4-H 
     livestock project. How can he cash-flow the farm?

  Many of these youngsters growing up on these farms are not going to 
be able to farm because these farmers are going to be gone. I have 
heard people say: Senator Wellstone, you come out here and talk about 
this. What is to be done? Raise the loan rate; get the price up.
  If Members don't want to do that, come out here and talk about other 
ways we can change policy in order to make it work.
  Is there any Senator who wants to come to the floor of the Senate, 
given the economic pain, the economic convulsion, the broken dreams, 
the broken lives and broken families in rural America, who wants to say 
stay the course? Is there any Senator who wants to do that? I don't 
know of any Senator who thinks we should stay the course.
  If that is the case, let's have an opportunity for those who have 
some ideas about how to change this policy so people can get a decent 
price and there can be some real competition. We want an opportunity to 
be out here, to introduce those amendments, to introduce those bills, 
to have votes, and to try to change this. That is what I am talking 
about.
  Darrel Mosel has been farming for 18 years. When he started farming 
in Sibley County, which is one of Minnesota's largest agricultural 
counties, there were four implement dealers in Gaylord, the county 
seat. Today there is none. There is not even an implement dealer in 
Sibley County.
  The same thing has happened to feedstores and grain elevators. Since 
the farm policies of the 1980s and the resulting reduction in prices, 
farmers don't buy any new equipment; they either use baling wire to 
hold things together or they quit. The farmhouses have people in them, 
but they don't farm. There is something wrong with that.
  Again, when he started farming in Sibley County there were four 
implement dealers in Gaylord, the county seat. Today there is not one--
not one. This isn't just the family farmers going under, it is the 
implement dealers, the businesses, our communities. This is all about 
whether or not rural America will survive.
  Ernie Anderson, a Benson farmer:

       Crop insurance has and is ruining the farmer. Because 
     yields of disaster years are figured when calculating the 
     premiums costs, a farmer's yield on which he can buy 
     insurance decreases. As it decreases, it becomes apparent 
     that paying a crop insurance premium doesn't make financial 
     sense because when there is a loss, the claim amount of 
     damaged crops isn't enough to pay the price to put crops in 
     the ground. Crop insurance is supposed to help me. It's not 
     supposed to put me out of business.

  Randy Olson, strong, articulate Randy Olson, a college student, 
beginning farmer, comes home from college each weekend to help on the 
farm. In March he came home from school and his parents looked like 
they aged 5 years. The price of milk had dropped from $16.10 in 
February to $12.10 in March. No business can afford a drop in price 
like that over a short period of time.

       You love your parents, you see them hurt, and it makes you 
     mad.

  And prices are going up right now, but it is a heck of a dairy policy 
if, due to the drought in some areas of the country, Minnesota dairy 
farmers can do better. That is not a dairy policy.
  Gary Wilson, an Odin farmer, received the church newsletter in the 
mail. What is normally addressed to the entire congregation had been 
addressed only to farmers. The newsletter said farmers should quit 
farming if it is not profitable. If larger, corporate-style farms were 
the way to turn a profit, the independent farmer should let go and find 
something else to do.

       What he doesn't understand is that farmers are his 
     congregation. If we go he won't have a church.

  Not only that, Gary, but, again, I will just repeat it. The health 
and the vitality of our rural communities are not based upon how many 
acres of land someone owns or how many animals someone owns; it is how 
many family farmers live and buy in the community. The health and the 
vitality and the national interests of our Nation are not having a few 
conglomerate exercising their power over producers, consumers and 
taxpayers.

[[Page 21585]]

  Testimony from Northwest Minnesota--this is more painful. John Doe 1 
from East Ottertail, MN. Despite the ongoing difficulties, it is 
amazing, the steadfast willingness of this family to try to hold things 
together. The farm is farmed by two families, a father and his son. 
Since dairy prices fell in the second quarter of 1999, there was not 
enough income for this family to make the loan payments and to provide 
for family living and cover farm operating expenses. The farm credit 
services would not release the loan for farm operating assistance, so 
the family had to borrow money from the lender from which they are 
already leasing their cows. They have not been able to feed the cows 
properly because of the lack of funds. Because they cannot adequately 
feed their dairy herd, their milk production has fallen and is 
considerably lower than the herd's average production.
  In addition, because there was no money for family living expenses, 
the parents had to cash out what little retirement savings they had so 
the two families had something to live on day to day. The son and wife 
had to let their trailer house go since they could not make the 
payments, and they moved into a home owned by a relative for the 
winter.
  Most of their machinery is being liquidated. However, there are a few 
pieces of machinery that go toward paying off their existing debt. The 
family will sell off 120 acres of land in their struggle to reduce 
their debt.
  Recently, the father has been having serious back troubles and has 
been unable to help his son with the work. This is tremendous stress, 
both physically and mentally, on the son. The son has decided he is 
going to have to sell part of the herd in order to reduce the herd to a 
number that is more manageable for one person. In addition, the money 
acquired from selling off part of the herd will be applied toward their 
debt.
  The son hopes these three items combined--selling machinery, land, 
and parts of the herd--can pay off enough of their debt that he might 
be able to do some restructuring on the reminder of the farm and to 
reduce loan repayments to a manageable amount where there is something 
left to live on after the payments are made. That is what they hope 
for.
  By the way, as long as we are talking about bad luck, in a very 
bitter, ironic way, at least for me, my travel in farm country in 
Minnesota and many other States in the country has made me acutely 
aware of the fact that we are going to have to talk again. Senator Bob 
Kerrey of Nebraska was eloquent when he mentioned we will have to talk 
about health care that goes with health care coverage that comes with 
being a citizen in this country.
  Do you know what is happening with our farmers? A lot of the farmers, 
because of this failed policy, because of these record low prices, 
because of record low income, because, financially, they have their 
backs to the wall, what do they give up on? They give up on health 
insurance coverage. So they do not even have any health insurance. Of 
course, for many of these producers, being able to afford this health 
insurance coverage in the first place is very difficult. They don't get 
the same deal that you get if you are working for a big employer. Now 
many of them say: We cannot afford it. So they have given up on their 
health insurance coverage, hoping they and their loved ones will not be 
ill. But you know what? The more stress there is, whether it is more 
mental stress or more physical stress, the more likely people will be 
struggling with illness.
  John Doe 2, from Goodridge, MN--I say John Doe 2 because these are 
farmers who do not want their names used, and I respect that. This 
family has gone through a divorce. The father and three children are 
operating the farm. The farmer has taken an off-farm job to make 
payments to the bank and has his a 12-year-old son and 14-year-old 
daughter operating the farming operation unassisted while he is away at 
work. The neighbors have threatened to turn him in to Human Services 
for child abandonment, so he had to have his 18-year-old daughter quit 
work and stay home to watch the younger children. The 12-year-old boy 
is working heavy farm equipment, mostly alone. He is driving these big 
machines and can hardly reach the clutch on the tractor. It is this or 
lose the farm.
  This story really gets to me because this is really complicated. One 
more time. The family has gone through a divorce and the father and 
three children are operating the farm.
  As long as I am going to take some time to talk about what is 
happening to family farmers, this is unfortunately not uncommon. The 
strain on families is unbelievable.
  So the father, since he is alone, a single parent, was forced to take 
an off-farm job to make payments to the bank. His 12-year-old son and 
14-year-old daughter are operating the farming operation unassisted 
while he is at work.
  I think a lot of us would say: Wait a minute. You cannot do this. The 
neighbors, thinking the same thing, have threatened to turn him in to 
Human Services because they say this is not right.
  He has an 18-year-old daughter. He says to her: You have to quit work 
and stay home to watch the two younger children. The 12-year-old boy is 
working heavy farm equipment, mostly alone. He is driving these big 
machines and he can hardly reach the clutch on the tractor. But it is 
this or lose the farm. That is what is happening out there. This is a 
convulsion.
  I say to my colleague from North Dakota, who is on the floor, I have 
been saying the reason the farmers in Minnesota have given me their 
stories and the reason I want to take the time to focus on this is we 
want an opportunity to change this policy. We want an opportunity to be 
out here with amendments and with legislation that will lead to some 
improvement.
  Mr. President, John Doe 3.
  Mr. DORGAN. I wonder if the Senator from Minnesota will yield.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I will not yield the floor but I will 
be pleased to yield for a question.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator from Minnesota 
yielding for a question. I suppose some people get irritated about 
those of us, Senator Wellstone, myself, Senator Conrad, Senator Harkin, 
and others who come to the floor to talk so much about the plight of 
family farmers. But at a time when our newspapers trumpet the growing 
economy and the good news on Wall Street with a stock market that keeps 
going up, at the same time we have a full-scale crisis in rural America 
with grain prices for family farmers in constant dollars being about 
where they were in the Great Depression.
  I held a meeting with Senator Wellstone in Minnesota. I held a 
hearing with Senator Harkin in Iowa. During the August break we held a 
hearing in North Dakota under the auspices of the Democratic Policy 
Committee, and we heard the same thing we have been hearing; that is, 
we have a serious problem with low prices. You cannot solve this 
without dealing with prices. Farmers are paying more for what they 
purchase and getting less for what they sell.
  I wanted to just mention two items and then ask the Senator from 
Minnesota a question. We had a Unity Day rally in North Dakota; 1,600 
farmers came. The most memorable moment, I guess, was from a fellow 
named Arlo, who was an auctioneer. He told of doing an auction sale at 
this family farm. A little boy came up to him at the end of the sale 
and grabbed him by the leg, and with tears in his eyes, shouted up at 
him, he said: You sold my dad's tractor.
  The auctioneer, named Arlo, he kind of put his hand on the boy's 
shoulder to calm him down a bit. The boy wasn't to be calmed. He had 
tears in his eyes. He said: I wanted to drive that tractor when I got 
big.
  That is what this is about. The mother who lost her farm, who wrote 
to me and said during the auction sale her 17-year-old son refused to 
come out of the house to help with the auction sale, refused to come 
out of his bedroom. That was not because he is a bad kid, but because 
he so desperately wanted to keep that family farm and was so absolutely 
heartbroken and could not bring himself to participate in the sale of 
that

[[Page 21586]]

farm. That is the human misery that exists on today's family farms.
  They are the canary in the mine shaft, with this kind of economic 
circumstance. Somehow there is a suggestion that what matters in this 
country is the Dow Jones Industrial Average and not a beautiful wheat 
field or cattle in the pasture or a hardware store on Main Street. 
Somehow it is just all numbers and it doesn't matter whether we have a 
lot of farmers or a couple of corporate farms.
  I ask the Senator from Minnesota during his travels--I know Senator 
Wellstone was not only in Minnesota but all around this country in 
August at farm unity rallies--if he heard anyone, anywhere, believing 
the so-called Freedom to Farm bill made any sense at all? That is the 
Freedom to Farm bill that pulls the rug out from under family farmers 
and says it doesn't matter what the market price of grain is, you 
operate the market. You don't need a safety net. A lot of other folks 
in the country have safety nets, but the farmers are told, no, you 
don't need a safety net.
  Did the Senator find anybody in this country who said: I wrote that 
bill, I stand behind that bill, that bill makes good sense, and that 
bill is working?
  (Mr. BUNNING assumed the chair.)
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, let me give my colleague from North 
Dakota kind of a two-part answer to that question; first of all, 
farmers and citizens in the community are speaking out, because this is 
all about rural America. It is a strong and clear voice saying: You 
have to change the policy. This is not working. We are going under. We 
cannot get a decent price for what we produce. We cannot cash-flow.
  So I can very honestly, truthfully say not at one farm gathering 
anywhere in Minnesota, and I was at a lot of them that not just the 
farmers showed up at these gatherings. It was farmers bankers, business 
people, implement dealers, and clergy. It was the community. I promise 
you, that in the parts of the State I visited approximately fifty 
percent of the crowd was Republican. But not one of them was defending 
this farm policy, this Freedom to Farm or ``freedom to fail.''
  The second thing I said on the floor of the Senate, and my colleague 
might want to ask me a follow-up question, I do not see how anybody in 
the Senate or House of Representatives who has been out there with 
people can say stay the course. You cannot. We have to change the 
course. There is just no question about it.
  I do not care if we call it a modification. You know what I mean. We 
can go over it. People can talk about a modification; they can talk 
about a correction.
  I used to hear people on the floor of the Senate say ``stay the 
course.'' I do not hear them saying ``stay the course'' anymore.
  I say to my colleague from North Dakota, the reason I am out here for 
a while is because I want to make it clear that we want an opportunity 
to be on this floor with legislation that will make a difference, that 
will raise the loan rate, get the price up, deal with the problems of 
all the acquisitions and mergers, and try to put free enterprise back 
into the food industry. We want to make a difference in order to get 
this emergency financial assistance package passed. We want to be out 
here, and we want that opportunity.
  The second thing I was saying is that in no way, shape, or form 
should we adjourn without addressing this crisis. I cannot believe when 
I read in the papers there is this discussion about leaving. I cannot 
believe there are people who are saying let's get out of here as soon 
as possible. No, we have work to do. We should not leave until we take 
the responsibility as legislators, as Senators who represent our 
States, to write a new farm bill or make the corrections or 
modifications that will deal with the price; that will give people a 
chance to farm and stay on their land. My colleague is absolutely right 
with his question. He is right on the mark.
  Mr. DORGAN. If I can further inquire of the Senator from Minnesota, 
he is going to be joined and is joined by a number of our colleagues 
who insist we do something about this farm problem. It is not 
satisfactory to watch the auction sales occur across the heartland of 
this country. If you take a look at what is going on in our country and 
evaluate where we are losing population--I have a map I have shown many 
times on the floor of the Senate where I have outlined in red all of 
the counties that have lost more than 10 percent of its population, and 
we have a huge red circle in the middle of America. Those counties are 
losing population.
  We are depopulating the farm belt in this country because somehow we 
are told the future of agriculture is the future of corporate 
agriculture, corporate agrifactories. We can raise hogs by the 
thousands; we can raise chickens by the millions; we do not need real 
people driving tractors; we do not need real people living on the land; 
corporations can farm America from California to Maine.
  When that happens, if that happens, this country will have lost 
something very important. I do not know whether the Senator from 
Minnesota has read Richard Critchfield. He is an author who has passed 
away. He was from Fargo, ND, originally. He went on to become a world-
renowned author. He wrote a lot of books about rural America. One of 
the things he wrote about was the refreshment of family values in this 
country always rolled from family farms to small towns to big cities. 
The seedbed of family values was always coming from America's family 
farms--raising a barn after a disaster, the pie socials, the gatherings 
on Saturday in the small town to celebrate the harvest, the family 
values that come from living on the land, raising food for a hungry 
nation, raising children in a crime-free environment, building a 
school, building communities, building churches, building a way of 
life.
  Somehow we are told those are values that do not matter. What matters 
is the marketplace, the market system, so if huge grain companies 
decide when a farmer plants a crop and harvests a crop and takes it to 
the market that the crop is not worth anything, that is the way life 
is.
  At the same time that farmer is driving a crop to the elevator and 
told the food does not have any value, we have old women climbing trees 
in the Sudan foraging for leaves to eat because they are desperately on 
the verge of starvation. There is something broken about this system. 
Family farmers are told with the Freedom to Farm they are free. Are you 
free from monopolistic railroads that overcharge? They do. In our North 
Dakota, our Public Service Commission said they overcharge over $100 
million just in our State, and most of that is from farmers.
  Are you free of grain trade monopolies that choke the economic life 
out of farmers? They are not free from that.
  Are you free from mergers and concentrations so that in every 
direction a farmer looks they find two or three firms controlling it 
all? Do you want to fatten up a steer and ship the steer to a packing 
plant? Good for you because you have three choices that slaughter 80 
percent of the steers in America.
  Do you think that is a deck that is stacked against you? Or how about 
this, free from trade agreements that stack the deck against family 
farmers? Try to take a load of durum wheat into Canada. I did once. We 
had millions--12 million bushels--of Canadian durum wheat shipped into 
this country undermining our market in the first 6 months of this year 
alone.
  I went up with a man named Earl in a 12-year-old orange truck with 
200 bushels of durum. All the way to the border, we found these trucks 
with millions of bushels of wheat coming south. I know I have told the 
story before. If people are tired of hearing it, it does not matter to 
me a bit. I will continue talking about it because it talks about the 
fundamental unfairness of our trade.
  We got to the border with Earl's orange truck and 200 bushels. We 
were stopped at the border because you cannot get that American durum 
into Canada. Why? Because our trade agreements that have been made by 
trade negotiators who have forgotten who they work for are incompetent 
trade agreements that sold out the interests of family farmers in this 
country.

[[Page 21587]]

Farmers have every right to be very angry about it and ought to demand 
it changes.
  Those are a few areas--mergers and concentration, grain trade, 
railroads, bad trade agreement, and a Freedom to Farm bill that says 
price support for farmers do not matter much. We know how wrong that 
is.
  The question for this country of ours is this: We ramped up as a 
nation a few years ago to save Mexico in times of serious financial 
crisis. Will a country that is willing to ramp up its effort to save a 
neighbor, will a country that is willing to commit $50 billion to save 
Mexico decide that it is worth saving family farmers in times of 
crisis? We have people who say it is not worth that, we ought not take 
the time, we do not have the ability, we do not have the money, we do 
not have the ideas, they say.
  This is not rocket science. It is easy. I say, change the Freedom to 
Farm bill to a bill that says how about freedom to make a decent 
living. If you grow food and are good at it, there ought to be a 
connection between efforts and reward. We ought not have the notion 
there are minimum wages and minimum opportunities and all kinds of 
other safety nets across the country, but for families who stay on 
American farms and raise their kids and support small towns, there is 
nothing but a bleak future because corporations are taking over what 
they do, and that is just fine for the future, some will say.
  It is not fine for the future. This is about who we are as a country, 
who we want to be. It is about the soul of this country, and if this 
country, as Thomas Jefferson used to say, does not care about broad-
based economic ownership and opportunity for the American people, then 
it will quickly lose its political freedoms as well.
  Political freedom relates to economic freedom. Economic freedom comes 
from broad-based economic ownership, and nowhere is that more important 
and more evident than in the production of this country's food.
  I ask the Senator from Minnesota one question: Isn't it the case that 
there are 7 million people in Europe farming who get a decent price for 
their farm product because the countries of Europe have been hungry and 
have decided, as a matter of national security and economic and social 
policy, they want families living on the farm operating European farms? 
Isn't it the case that is the policy in Europe--and God bless them and 
good for them--and that policy is contrasted with folks, some in this 
Chamber, who say that ought not be the policy? Our policy ought to be 
to say whatever happens happen; if corporations farm America, that is 
fine. Isn't that the case? Isn't that the dichotomy of the two 
policies?
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from North Dakota 
for his question. I appreciate it.
  First of all, let me go back to a comment I made earlier, as long as 
the Senator from North Dakota brings up the example of Europe. I am 
going to continue to give other examples and talk about what is 
happening to other farmers in my State of Minnesota in a moment. I 
intend to stay out on the floor of the Senate and talk about farm 
prices for a while. I have a ruptured disk in my back, and as long as I 
can stand, which maybe not be that much longer but a while, I will 
continue to speak.
  What is happening is this pain is not Adam Smith's invisible hand. It 
is not the law of physics. It is not gravity that farmers must fall 
down. The only inevitability to what is happening to our producers is 
the inevitability of a stacked deck, a stacked deck which basically 
ripped away in the ``freedom to fail'' bill any kind of safety net, a 
stacked deck that does not give our farmers any kind of leverage in the 
marketplace.
  Whatever happened to farmer-owned reserves? Whatever happened to 
raising the loan rate to give people better targeting power, a better 
target price vis-a-vis the grain companies? And what in the world are 
we doing about three and four packers who dominate 60 to 70 percent of 
the market vis-a-vis our livestock producers?
  So I say to my colleague from North Dakota, yes, the Europeans have 
decided, given their experience in two wars, food is precious. They do 
not want people going hungry. They value family farmers, and they think 
it is in their national interest to support family farmers, and 
therefore the Europeans have a policy that protects that. I completely 
agree with my colleague who says we ought to also care as much about 
family farmers as the Europeans do.
  When some of my colleagues say, let's rely on the market, farmers 
kind of smile and say: Free enterprise? Where is it? We want free 
enterprise. We want competition. But please explain to your colleagues 
in the Senate that a few packers dominate the market. They are making 
record profits while we're facing extinction.
  One example that I think says it all is an example I read earlier, 
which I cannot find right now. I will have to come back to it. It is 
about the economics of this.
  I will talk about John Doe 3 from Euclid, MN, a farmer waiting for a 
foreclosure of his real estate. But first, I ask my staff to find the 
example of a grocery store and what farmers are being paid for hogs.
  Here is the example: Again, Jan Lundebrek of Benson, MN, a loan 
officer at a small town bank, received a check for $19 from the sale of 
a 240-pound hog: ``I immediately went across the street to the grocery 
store and looked at the price of hams. The store was selling hams for 
$49. I wrote down that price and showed it to the producer. Then we 
decided to go ask the grocer about the difference.''
  She is the loan officer. ``Where does it go? Somebody's getting it, 
but it isn't the farmer,'' says this Minnesota bank loan officer, Jan 
Lundebrek of Benson. ``We have policies to keep our country safe. We 
have a defense policy. We have an education policy. But we don't have a 
policy to protect our strength. We don't have a food policy to protect 
our farms, communities, and consumers who spend $49 for a 10-pound ham 
that the farmers can't even buy through the sale of a 240-pound hog.''
  So $49 for a 10-pound ham, and this farmer gets $19 for a 240-pound 
hog.
  I am going to go back to the stories of farmers in my State, but as 
long as I am taking some time on the floor of the Senate seeing Senator 
Dorgan out here triggered another thought. He was saying the other 
night, at a Farmers Union gathering, that his parents were Farmers 
Union members, and he went to many blessed Farmers Union picnics and 
gatherings. And then he went on to say: My parents would never have 
believed that. Senator Dorgan, his roots are rural America. He said: My 
parents would have never believed I would have had a chance to be a 
Senator. They certainly would not believe that I would be getting an 
award from the Farmers Union.
  The only thing I could think of saying at this gathering to the pork 
producers that were there was: I'm more committed to you than any other 
Senator, which catches people's attention. I heard Senator Dorgan talk 
about his background and I thought of my own. The reason why I bring up 
this story is every time I am at a gathering of pork producers, I am 
thinking of my mother, Minnie Wellstone, who is up there in Heaven, 
smiling, I am sure, and saying: Paul, good Jewish boy that you are, 
what are you doing speaking at all these gatherings of pork producers 
and organizing with these farmers?
  So I said at this gathering to Senator Dorgan: If you think your 
parents would be surprised, believe me, my mother and father would be 
very surprised. My mother, Minnie Wellstone, was a cafeteria worker. 
This was her life. Her philosophy was that people should get a decent 
wage for their work.
  In many ways, this is what we are talking about. We are saying, if we 
believe as a country that a person who works hard, 40-hours a week, 
almost 52 weeks a year, ought to make a living wage and be able to 
support his or her family, then shouldn't the men and women who provide 
the food and fiber for our nation make at least a living wage?

[[Page 21588]]

  I think the vast majority of the people agree they should. The vast 
majority of people believe they should get a decent price. But that is 
not what is happening right now. This is a crisis. This is a crisis in 
rural America: Broken dreams and broken lives and broken families, all 
of it unnecessary.
  Here is an example: This farmer, John Doe 3, is waiting for a 
foreclosure on his real estate in northwest Minnesota. He is waiting to 
see whether FSA can help him.
  By the way, the Farm Services Administration in Minnesota is doing an 
excellent job. I say to Tracy Beckman, the director, thank you for your 
work. But you know what? The Farm Service Administration in Minnesota, 
and this may very well be the same in the State of Washington and the 
State of Montana, the FSA local offices are severely understaffed. They 
cannot even begin to deal with the number of people who are knocking at 
their door for emergency loans. They are under incredible tension, 
incredible stress.
  As a Senator from Minnesota, I would like to thank all of the FSA 
people for all of their work. It is incredible. We are getting pretty 
close in Minnesota to asking for an emergency declaration by the 
President. We are not asking for the declaration because of a tornado, 
not because of a flood, not because of a hurricane, but because of 
record low prices that are driving people out. We are arguing that this 
is a food scarcity crisis for our country.
  A case worker in northwest Minnesota is working to strike a deal with 
FSA to take a mortgage on a 16-acre building site, which is all these 
folks have left. By doing this, she was hoping to encumber the land so 
the IRS couldn't force these folks to take out a loan against their 
home.
  Since the family did not complete FSA forms in a timely manner, they 
no longer qualify for any kind of servicing action with FSA except for 
a straight cash settlement. According to the case worker, since the 
family filed bankruptcy 2 years ago, no bank will touch them. So they 
couldn't borrow against their home if they decided on this option. As 
things stand now, foreclosure on the land is proceeding; and debt 
settlement proceedings are continuing with the IRS, and at a very slow 
and difficult pace.
  It appears this family's only hope is at the mercy of the IRS and to 
let the IRS do whatever they want to them for another 4 years. Their 
wages are already being garnished while judgment on the home site is 
pending, until they can file bankruptcy again to get rid of the huge 
IRS tax debt. In the meantime, they work for $8 an hour, out of which 
they lose 25 percent on the IRS garnishment. They live in their home 
that the IRS values at $30,000, and this includes the 16-acre building 
site. They drive vehicles that are in such poor condition it is a daily 
question of whether they will even make it out of the driveway.
  This is what is happening to people.
  This year Minnesota ranks the highest in the Nation in understaffed 
FSA employees. Around 6,000 and I have seen more; this is the most 
conservative estimate, farms are predicted to go out of existence this 
year. About 10 percent of farmers are predicted to go out in Minnesota 
this year, and the number of farmers going out in northwest Minnesota 
will be much higher. People are going to go under if we continue this 
failed policy. I don't even see any opportunities. I see a game plan to 
bring to the floor legislation on which we can't offer amendments. That 
would basically block us from being able to come to the floor and say: 
We have some ideas about how we could change farm policy so people 
could get a decent price, so they and their families can earn a decent 
living.
  The reason I am on the floor today and I know this is inconvenient to 
other Senators, is because it is my job to fight for people in my 
State. All of us do that. I am saying I want some assurance that we 
will have the opportunity to come out with amendments on legislation to 
change farm policy. All of us. That is point 1.
  The second point is, I certainly want to sound the alarm. I want to 
say to farmers and rural citizens in our States that are agriculture 
States: Put the pressure on. Don't let the Senate adjourn without 
taking action.
  Don't let people say: We will do these appropriations bills; and we 
are out of here. That is not acceptable given what is happening to 
people. That would be the height of irresponsibility.
  John Doe 4 from Thief River Falls, MN, this is another story of a 
father and his son. The bank forced the liquidation last year and there 
was not enough collateral to cover old loans. The father had never 
mortgaged the home quarter, thinking that if nothing else, they would 
always have a place to live. As it turns out, the liquidation has 
caused a major tax liability which they cannot pay. The father is ill 
and in his 70s, surviving on Social Security payments. The son is 
working at an $8-an-hour job that leaves little left to pay bills. 
Currently, the IRS and the bank are fighting it out to see who gets to 
put a lien on the father's home quarter and his home. This man was once 
a respected leader in his community. After all that has happened now, 
there isn't much left but bitterness in his heart and a future of 
poverty and destitution.
  I can see the reaction of some people saying: Well, isn't this so 
sad.
  Don't be so callous. Let's not be so generous with other people's 
suffering. I do not believe we should ignore these families, these 
stories, these lives, this crisis.
  One more time, I think the end is really rather important. Currently, 
the IRS and the bank are fighting it out to see who gets to put a lien 
on the father's home quarter and his home. This man was once a 
respected leader in the community. After all that has happened now, 
there isn't much left but bitterness in his heart and a future of 
poverty and destitution.
  John Doe 5. For anyone who might be watching right now, as opposed to 
before, the ``John Doe'' is because I am not using the names of 
families. These are people who have given me stories of their lives, 
what is happening to them, because they hope that if we can talk about 
this in the Senate and make it clear that we will fight for people, 
that it will make a difference. It is hard for people to have somebody 
talking about them in public.
  Here is another story of two families trying to hold on to the farm, 
still clinging to hope as their farm crumbles. They applied for an FSA 
loan guarantee, and FSA managed to process the loan for the bank. They 
are now proceeding with restructuring. However, some of the family 
members have become very nervous about the large debt that needs to be 
refinanced and things have begun to fall apart.
  As it stands now, the two families have decided to abandon the FSA 
loan and have laid out a partial liquidation plan with the bank. The 
bank wants the families to sign a plan, agreeing to a formal and 
inflexible liquidation schedule. The family was hoping to work things 
out more informally to accommodate tax consequences and adjust for 
seasonal livestock prices, as their assets are sold. At this point, the 
families are not sure the bank will agree and are waiting, hoping, and 
praying that they will make it through.
  Again, the problem with this particular situation, as in all these 
stories, is these are people who can't cash-flow. They are just trying 
to hold on. That is what this is all about.
  Farmer suicides are one of the deepest tragedies of our Nation's farm 
crisis. For many men and women, the grueling daily battle against 
circumstances beyond their control rips away at their spirits. They are 
haunted that they may be the ones who lose possession of the lands that 
their great, great grandparents homesteaded and that their grandparents 
held on to during the darkest days of the Great Depression. That is 
what people feel. This tragedy is made all the more haunting and real 
in this letter left by a young farmer, the father of a 6-year-old and a 
3-year-old. He committed suicide July 26.
  After 6 years of hard work and heroic efforts, he knew that 
bankruptcy was inevitable. He listened to the failing crop prices on 
the radio report one last time, and he killed himself. His widow

[[Page 21589]]

made parts of the suicide letter public in an attempt to show the 
desperation that is gripping farmers throughout rural America. In 
releasing the letter, she explained that the farm had been in the 
family for over 100 years. It was the land where her husband was born, 
worked, dreamed, and died. From the letter:

       Farming has brought me a lot of memories, some happy but 
     most of all grief. The grief has finally won out, the low 
     prices, bills piling up, just everything. The kids deserve 
     better and so do you. All I ever wanted was to farm since I 
     was a little kid and especially this place. I know now that 
     it's never going to happen. I don't blame anybody but myself 
     for sticking around farming for as long as I have. That's why 
     you have to get away with the kids from this and me. I'm just 
     a failure at everything it seems like. They finally won.

  I think it is worth reading again. There are some people in northwest 
Minnesota, Willard Brunelle and others, who are involved in what 
basically they call Suicide Watch. I think in the last month, Willard 
said they have paid something like 30 or 40 visits over a month or the 
last 2 months, if one can imagine. So the letter that the husband 
leaves to the wife:

       Farming has brought me a lot of memories, some happy but 
     most of all grief. The grief has finally won out, the low 
     prices, bills piling up, just everything. The kids deserve 
     better and so do you. All I ever wanted was to farm since I 
     was a little kid and especially this place. I know now that 
     it's never going to happen. I don't blame anybody but myself 
     for sticking around farming as long as I have. That's why you 
     have to get away with the kids from this and me. I'm just a 
     failure at everything it seems like. They finally won.

  By way of apology to my colleagues for, in a way, bringing the Senate 
to a standstill for a little while, one of the reasons I do so, in 
addition to the reasons I have mentioned, is that when I was a college 
teacher in Northfield, MN, I became involved with a lot of the farmers, 
I guess in the early 1970s, but in the mid-1980s, I did a lot of work 
with farmers, a lot of organizing with farmers.
  (Mr. BURNS assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. WELLSTONE. There are several friends of mine who took their 
lives. There were a number of suicides. We had all of these 
foreclosures, and I used to sit in with farmers and block those 
foreclosures. It was always done with nonviolence and dignity.
  I am emotional about what is now going on. I probably need to go back 
and forth between serious and not so serious, since I am taking some 
time to talk. I remember that in the mid-1980s, in the State of 
Minnesota, many people were losing their farms. This is where they not 
only lived but where they worked. These farmers didn't have much hope 
and didn't have any empowering explanation as to what was happening to 
them or how they could fight this. It became fertile ground for the 
politics of hatred.
  The Chair and I don't agree on issues, but I respect the Chair. I 
don't think we engage in this type of politics. But that was really 
vicious politics of hatred, of scapegoating. When I say 
``scapegoating,'' it was anti-Semitic, and all the rest. I am Jewish. I 
am the son of a Jewish immigrant who fled persecution in Russia. My 
good friends told me one story about Minnesota and that I should stop 
organizing because these groups were kind of precursors to an armed 
militia. When you are five-five-and-a-half, you don't listen to that. I 
went out and spoke at a gathering in a town we call Alexandria, MN. The 
Chair knows our State. I finished speaking at this farm gathering, and 
this big guy came up to me and he said, ``What nationality are you?'' I 
said, ``American.'' I thought, what is going on here? I hadn't 
mentioned being Jewish in this talk.
  He said, ``Where are your parents from?'' No, he said, ``Where were 
you born?'' I said, ``Washington, DC.'' He said, ``Where are your 
parents from?'' I said, ``My father was born in the Ukraine and fled 
persecution. My mother's family was from the Ukraine, but she was born 
and raised on the Lower East Side of New York City.'' He said, ``Then 
you are a Jew.''
  I tensed up. I mean, I was ready for whatever was going to come next. 
I said, ``Yes, I am.'' He stuck out this big hand and he said, ``Buddy, 
I am a Finn, and we minorities have to struggle together.'' That is one 
of the many reasons I have come to love Minnesota.
  I think what is happening right now in our farm communities and in 
our rural communities is far more serious than in the mid-1980s. This 
is an economic convulsion. We are acting in the Senate and House as if 
it is business as usual.
  Greenbush, MN, Jane Doe 6. Here is another problem case where there 
is not enough collateral to cover all creditors. In a usual situation, 
FSA has a first mortgage and the bank is in a second position. A good 
portion of the land is going into CRP, but FSA, or the bank, will not 
lend the family money to get it established. Even with the CRP 
payments, there will not be enough money to pay off all the debt by the 
end of contract. The family is looking to liquidate the farm now and 
take their licking up front. If they do this, the bank will lose more 
money than if the family decided to keep the land and CRP. The bank is 
threatening to try to get the family's truck, their only source of 
income and equity.
  These folks are in their sixties and would like to get the matter 
behind them. They still hope to build up some retirement where they 
still have their health and they can work. They are not building up any 
retirement.
  The toughest question for me to answer is when farmers say: I am 
burning up all my equity. I am literally burning up my equity to try to 
keep going. I have a question for you, Senator Wellstone, or it could 
be for any of us. A farmer states, ``I am willing to do this. I have 
nothing in my savings, no retirement. I have nothing. Do I have any 
future? Am I going to get a decent price? Because if I don't have any 
future, I should get out now. But I want to have a future; I want to 
farm. The farm has been in my family for generations. I want my 
children to have a chance to farm.''
  Well, you know, I want to be able to answer yes. But I think the 
Senate and the House of Representatives, are going to have to take some 
action. As it currently looks, we will have a financial assistance 
package that doesn't do the job. It has to be better. We certainly have 
to have disaster relief in it, and I will insist on the floor of the 
Senate again.
  As I look to some of these AMTA payments, too much of it is going to 
go to people who don't need it that much. Not enough will go to people 
who do need the assistance. But we have to get this out to people. That 
only enables people to live in order to farm another day. But it 
doesn't tell people where they are the following year, and years to 
follow. The farmers in Minnesota, in the heartland, the farmers in the 
South, the farmers in our country are not interested in, year after 
year after year, hanging on the question of whether there is going to 
be some emergency assistance for them. They are interested in getting 
some more power as producers so they can have some leverage in the 
marketplace; so they can have a decent price; so they can earn a decent 
living; so they can give their children the care they need and deserve. 
That is not too much to ask for.
  When I talk about raising the loan rate for a decent price, we must 
also tie a safety net piece with antitrust legislation. We need both 
policies. One of the amendments I will bring to the floor is that we 
should have a moratorium on these acquisitions and mergers. We must 
call for a moratorium right now on these big companies until we take a 
serious look at real antitrust action. Now, it is true that the 
Cargills, the ConAgras, the IBPs, the ADMs and all the rest are the big 
players, the heavy hitters. They are the investors. They make big 
contributions. A lot of these family farmers who I am talking about in 
Minnesota, and in the other States I visited, are certainly in no 
position to make big contributions. So to whom does the Senate belong? 
Does it belong to these big packers? Are we the Senate for ADM, or for 
ConAgra, or for Cargill? Or are we a Senate that still belongs to 
family farmers and rural people?
  In this particular case and I am sorry to have to formulate it this 
way, but do you know what? It is an accurate

[[Page 21590]]

formulation. Some people who benefit might like low prices for family 
farmers. But those are not family farmers. We have to take some action.
  This is Jane Doe 7, from Thief River Falls, MN. Northwest Minnesota 
has been hit by too much rain. Farmers were not even able to put in 
much of their crop. We have had crop disease and record low prices. We 
can't do anything about the weather, but we can do something about 
record low prices, can we not, colleagues? Does anybody think we should 
stay the course any longer? How many farmers have to go under? How many 
small businesses in our rural communities have to go under? How much 
more pain does there have to be?
  What are we waiting for?
  My State of northwest Minnesota is really hard hit. I have been to so 
many gatherings. I started out the August break in northwest Minnesota 
with Congressman Collin Peterson. Congressman Peterson is from the 
Seventh Congressional District. During that time touring farms in 
northwest Minnesota, in spite of all that farmers are going through, 
gave me hope, and gave me fight. This is the way in which the farmers 
keep me going because I thought to myself: I am going to go out there 
and Paul, even if you are full of indignation, and you think what is 
happening to the producers is just unconscionable, if we have these 
gatherings at Thief River Falls, Crookston, or wherever, and only 10 
farmers show up, then what that means is a lot of people just want to 
throw in the towel.
  We had these gatherings. Congressman Peterson and I had these 
gatherings together. I am telling you that anywhere from 125 to maybe 
400 farmers showed up at a time. They were showing up not because I was 
there. It had nothing to do with me. It had to do with the reality of 
their lives. It is the desperation of their lives. They came to make a 
plea and to say: Please change the farm policy. We can't cash-flow with 
these prices. Please do something.
  But the really good part is they came because they still had some 
fight in them.
  Then we built up and organized in Minnesota to the Rural Crisis Unity 
Day; didn't we, Jodi? Jodi Niehoff was there with me from Melrose, MN. 
She is the daughter of a dairy farmer. We traveled around the State. We 
had a Rural Crisis Unity Day. I do not know how many people were there, 
but it was just a huge gathering at the Carver County Fairground. It 
was great.
  What was great about it was we had half the Minnesota delegation 
there. That is a start.
  What these farmers were saying, what these bankers were saying, and 
what these business people were saying is: We don't want you to stay 
the course. We want you to change the course because on present course 
we are going to lose our farms and lose our businesses. That is going 
to affect our schools and our hospitals. We want you to be sensitive to 
what is going on.
  Why are we in the Senate so generous with the pain of other people? 
Why do we think we have so many other things to do that are more 
important than changing farm policy for these family farmers so these 
family farmers can survive?
  What these farmers are now saying is: Can we have a rally?
  What next? The reason I am taking some time on the floor of the 
Senate right now is to say what next? We demand the opportunity to be 
able to bring legislation to the floor to change this policy. That is 
what I am fighting for. That is what is next.
  Emergency financial assistance has to be passed. But then there is 
getting the loan rate up for the price. Then there will be the 
moratorium proposal on these acquisitions and mergers, Smithfield and 
Murphy being the latest. It is unbelievable. It is an insult.
  When I took economics classes, I was taught when you had four firms 
that dominated over 50 percent of the market, it was an oligarchy at 
best, and a monopoly at worst.
  But I will tell you something. I will keep talking about these 
farmers and what is happening to them. But I will tell you this: It is 
a matter of needing to take some action now. I am going to do 
everything I know how as a United States Senator, and everything I know 
how to do, to make sure before we leave that we have an honest and a 
thorough debate about agricultural policy. I intend a debate with 
Senators coming to the floor and bringing forth proposals as to how we 
can improve this policy so that the family farmers in my State of 
Minnesota have a chance. But also let's not sound like a speech on the 
floor of the Senate. I don't have any illusions that it is a tough 
fight. I said it earlier.
  In all due respect, a few of these grain companies and a few of these 
packers are the giants. These are the heavy hitters. These are the 
people who seem to count today in politics. The sooner we change this 
rotten system of financing campaigns, the better off we will all be.
  But what I am picking up on is I think we will be back. First, we 
will have this vote. We all are accountable. If we change things for 
the better, great.
  Senators, do you want to raise the loan rate to get prices up? Do you 
want to pass antitrust action to give our producers and consumers some 
protections? Great. But we will have a debate, and we will have a vote.
  If you vote against it, and you do not have proposals that make any 
difference, then I will just say this: I think you will see farmers and 
rural people back in your State. They will put the pressure on. If 
nothing changes in the next month or so, I hope, frankly, in my State 
of Minnesota that I will see after harvest and after Thanksgiving 
debate. Thanksgiving would be a good time to do it, before Hanukkah and 
Christmas. That would be a good time to talk about the moral dimensions 
of this crisis.
  I see the religious community across the board in our metropolitan 
areas bringing family farmers to our urban communities to meet with 
people who do not live in rural America to have a dialog, with plenty 
of media coverage, to again bring to the attention of the Nation what 
is happening. Because I think one of our challenges is people sort of 
find it hard to believe. They say: Well, Senator Wellstone, you are out 
here on the floor, and you all are talking about this crisis, but the 
economy is booming while we have this depression in agriculture.
  We need to talk about the depth of the crisis, and also all the ways 
in which this affects America. We don't want a few people to own all 
the land. We don't want these conglomerates to muscle their way to the 
dinner table and control our whole food industry, all the way from the 
seed to the grocery shelf. We don't want to have these big factory farm 
operations. You can see it in some of these huge hog feed lot 
operations right now, which are so polluting and so disrespectful of 
the land and the air and the water. As a Catholic bishop said 15 years 
ago, ``We are all but strangers and guests in this land.'' We are here 
to make a better, maybe not Heaven on Earth, but a better Earth on 
Earth.
  Do you think that these conglomerates, when they become farmers and 
make all the decisions, that they will have any respect for the 
communities? Do you think they are going to buy in the communities? Do 
you think they are going to have any respect for the land, the water, 
and for the environment? Do we really want, with such a precious item 
as food, to see this kind of concentration of power? It is absolutely 
frightening.
  I am a Midwesterner though born in Washington, DC, and attended 
school at the University of North Carolina, but we have lived in 
Minnesota and our children have grown up there, as have our 
grandchildren. I have had a chance to do some travel in the South. It 
is the same. I remember going to Lubbock, TX. At farms down there, we 
heard the producers speak. It is different crops, but everything else 
is the same. They are talking about cotton, rice, peanuts. It is the 
same thing; they can't make a living.
  Everywhere I go, I get a chance to speak and meet with farmers and 
their families. People come up to speak; I hear a voice that says: 
Thanks for coming, Senator; thank you for sharing. I

[[Page 21591]]

turn around to shake hands and see whoever made those remarks crying. I 
see people with tears in their eyes.
  How would you feel if you were going to lose everything? How would 
you feel if this were where you lived, this were where you worked, this 
were a farm that had been in your family for generations? It is so 
painful. It is so painful.
  Maybe this is the definition of being a bleeding-heart liberal. Maybe 
that is what I epitomize here. But I don't think so. I am a liberal, 
but that has nothing to do with bleeding-heart liberal. It does have to 
do with me being a Senator from the State of Minnesota. I am a Senator 
from an agricultural State. I am a Senator who comes from a State with 
a thriving metropolitan area, Minneapolis-St. Paul and suburbs--a great 
place to live. I am a Senator from Minnesota, and the other part of our 
State is in economic pain. I am not going to be in the Senate while so 
many of these farmers go under, are spat out of the economy, chopped 
into pieces, without fighting like heck.
  I have some leverage as a Senator that I can exert, I can focus on. I 
can call for a debate and insist on a debate. I have so many colleagues 
who care so much about this. I wish I knew agriculture as well as some 
of them. I know it pretty well. Some of the Senators are immersed in 
it. Senator Daschle, our leader--I hear him speak all the time because 
he is a leader of the Democrats. When he talks about agriculture, it is 
completely different. We can see it is from the heart and soul. Senator 
Harkin, ranking minority member of the Senate Agriculture Committee--
nobody cares more; no one is tougher; no one is more of a fighter. Both 
Senators from North Dakota, Senator Dorgan and Senator Conrad--Senator 
Conrad always has graphs, charts, and figures; he is just great with 
numbers. He knows this quantitatively and knows it every other way. 
Senator Dorgan is on the floor all the time. Senator Johnson from South 
Dakota is unpretentious. He cares for people. It is great to have a 
Member like that in the Senate.
  I get sick of the bashing of public service. There are so many good 
people. Senator Grassley from Iowa--we don't agree on everything, but 
we had a hearing, that Senator Grassley and Senator Harkin were kind 
enough to invite me to in Iowa, dealing with the whole question of 
concentration of power. Senator Grassley asked a lot of tough questions 
about what is going on with all the mergers and acquisitions. There is 
Senator Blanche Lincoln. When she speaks abut agriculture, it is 
unbelievable. It is her life, her farm, her family. There is nothing 
abstract about this to her. Or Senator Landrieu who was at our 
gathering today.
  It is Midwest; it is South.
  Senator Roberts from Kansas--I don't agree with him, but he cares. He 
is a capable Senator. Senator Lugar, who I think is one of the Senators 
who knows the most about foreign affairs, I do not agree with him on 
this policy question, but you can't find a better Senator.
  I am not here to bash Senators; I am out here to say that I think 
this institution, the Senate, is on trial in rural America. This 
institution cannot afford to turn its gaze away from what is happening 
in rural America, to put family farmers and rural people in parentheses 
and act as if that isn't happening. We can't afford to do this.
  I come to the floor of the Senate today to make a plea for action. I 
come to the floor of the Senate today to say I am going to be coming to 
the floor of the Senate in these mini filibusters. I call it a ``mini'' 
filibuster because I don't have that good of a back. If I had a good 
back, I could go for many more hours. I cannot stand for that long. As 
soon as I sit down, I lose the privilege to speak. However, I can come 
to the floor of the Senate several long hours at a time and keep 
insisting that, A, we have the opportunity to be out here with 
legislation to address this crisis in agriculture--that is not an 
unreasonable request, I say to the majority leader--and, B, to make it 
crystal clear that I will do everything I can to prevent the Senate 
from adjourning. I say this to my legislative director. We should not 
adjourn until we take this action.
  Jane Doe, Thief River Falls, MN: Multiple years of bad weather and 
poor prices have destroyed the cash flow in this farming operation. The 
family put much of the land into CRP--the Conservation Reserve 
Program--to make payment to creditors. A couple of years ago, the hay 
market was good and the family decided to put the balance into alfalfa. 
Since then, prices for hay have fallen substantially and again bad 
grain greatly reduced the quality of the hay produced, thereby making 
it more difficult to sell. The family is hoping for some relief through 
their crop insurance. If their crop insurance fails, they will have to 
sell some of the land to pay down debt before the entire farm is lost.
  This is a case of an older couple trying to help their son continue 
the farming operation and it slipped away from them. The father 
borrowed on his real estate to help his son get established and used 
his pension as collateral. He needed additional funds, so he borrowed 
again on the real estate and used his Social Security check as 
collateral. Bad weather and poor prices again took their toll. This 
time he borrowed on his cattle and machinery, using it to refinance the 
farming operation. In the meantime, with no income left on which to 
live, the parents were forced to use credit cards to finance their 
family living. The amount accumulated to about $25,000 on a number of 
credit cards. The family is no longer able to keep up with the payments 
to the card companies. They have gotten together and decided that 
liquidation is the only solution.
  Some of the land has been sold and they are working with the two 
banks to reduce payments to free up some money on which to live day to 
day until the remaining land can be sold. The cattle and machinery will 
be sold next year. In the meantime, the parents, who are well in their 
70s, are having some health problems. Steps are being taken to get the 
county nursing services involved to address their medical needs.
  I will make a couple of different points, as long as we are talking 
about nursing homes. This is a slight deviation, but I think it is all 
interrelated when we are talking about rural America. Because of this 
Budget Act that we passed 2 years ago, with these caps, we are now in a 
situation where the Medicare reimbursement is so low that it is 
literally going to shut down many of our rural hospitals, including 
those in my State of Minnesota. I did not vote for it. I am glad I did 
not. But the point is, it does not matter.
  As long as we are talking about a family with this kind of pain, here 
is another thing that hasn't been mentioned. The home health care 
services and the hospitals in our rural communities, especially in 
those States that kept costs down, such as Minnesota, are now being 
penalized for having kept costs down. Because we don't have any fat in 
our system, the Medicare reimbursement is way below the cost of 
providing care, and guess what, you don't have to be a rocket scientist 
to know that many of the citizens in our rural communities are elderly, 
especially since fewer and fewer of our young people can farm and live 
in the communities.
  I was at a meeting yesterday with Senator Moynihan in his office. He 
brought together a number of Senators to talk about this. From teaching 
hospitals to nursing homes to our rural hospitals to home health care, 
we have seen the equivalent of Draconian cuts in reimbursement, and 
they cannot go on. What a bitter irony. We have young people in our 
rural communities who cannot look to a future as family farmers 
because, one, they cannot afford to farm because of this failed policy, 
what many farmers call not Freedom to Farm but ``farming for free.'' 
Two, as they think about whether they want to live in our rural 
communities, the second question besides ``Can I afford to?'' is ``Do I 
want to?'' When there isn't good health care and hospitals shut down 
and there isn't a good school system and there aren't small businesses, 
you don't want to live in the community. That is what is going on.
  Why am I out here? Why am I engaged in a filibuster right now? 
Because a lot of the small towns in my

[[Page 21592]]

State of Minnesota are going to become ghost towns if something isn't 
done. That is a fact. They are going to become ghost towns. So it seems 
to me it is important for the Senate to address this question.
  Jane Doe 8, from Greenbush, MN: I say to my colleague, the Senator 
from Kentucky, I say Jane Doe and John Doe because people don't want 
their names being used. I don't blame them. We are talking about 
people's lives. But these people did want others to know what is 
happening to them because these farm families in my State of Minnesota 
believe if Senators know what is happening to them, understand the 
dimensions of this crisis, that the Senate will take action to change 
things for the better. You know what? Some people will have a cynical 
smile on their face and say: How naive. I say: Good for the people. 
They should continue to believe if we only understand what is happening 
to them we will make things better. That is what citizens should 
believe. That is what citizens should believe. My only prayer is that 
we do make things better.
  Jane Doe 8, Greenbush, MN: This family tried to split its farming 
operation from the locker plant business because both were going under. 
However, the family did not qualify for a rural development loan and 
the bank was not willing to wait to see if the Small Business 
Administration could be brought into the picture. The bank is currently 
working on the liquidation, and the family is trying to salvage what 
they can of their home and building site.
  I have, in addition to Minnesota, some Farm Aid stories as well. Jane 
Doe 9, from Felton, MN: This is a farmer who is voluntarily liquidating 
his grain and sugar beet operation. He sold off much of his beet stock 
to reduce debt but was hoping to get lenders to hold off on a machinery 
auction until next year because of the taxes he will have to pay on the 
sugar beet stock. The lenders are refusing, citing concerns of 
decreasing machinery values due to all the auction sales in that area. 
Unless he can find another lender to pay off the current nervous 
lender, this farmer will incur a major tax problem and may be forced to 
sell some of his land in order to pay the taxes he owes from other 
forced sales he has had to make.
  This is a father and son operation in which they are trying to 
transfer the farm to the son at market value and leave the remaining 
debt with the father. This is a situation where there is more debt than 
the farm is worth. In addition, the father's spouse has Alzheimer's 
disease and is currently in a nursing home. If the farm can be 
transferred to the son at market value, there is hope to make the 
operation viable and he could thereby support his parents as best he 
could. The father would be destitute and would have to try to work some 
kind of debt settlement out with FSA and other lenders.
  This is a simple case of voluntary liquidation. This is a story of a 
fairly new farm couple who was farming in partnership with the 
husband's uncle. The husband suffered a farm accident which has 
rendered his right arm useless. The couple recently went through a 
liquidation plan. Fortunately, the couple had not acquired much debt 
and they will get out. In this situation, the couple was determining 
options toward liquidation on their farm because they could see no way 
to continue farming their operation.
  The primary concern of the couple was to be able to keep their home 
and building site. The couple has a number of outstanding bills from 
creditors yet to be paid one of the companies has filed a lien as well 
as debt with FSA and a local bank. Only about a third of the cropland 
was planted this spring due to wet conditions. The current plan is to 
wait until October to take any further servicing action. What little 
crop the couple harvests will go toward paying off the debt.
  Both the wife and husband are working other jobs off the farm, as 
well as doing the existing farm operations after their work. They also 
farm the husband's parents' land. Should they decide to quit, this 
creates questions as to how his parents are going to make their debt 
payments and have any income to live on. This couple will have to wait 
until October and then assess the situation after the harvest.
  Jane Doe 10 from Thief River Falls, MN. The farm is already 
liquidated and, in doing so, created a serious tax consequence with 
which she is now trying to deal. She used the farm wrap program to help 
cover CPA work as she negotiates with IRS and the State of Minnesota. 
At this moment, there is not much to do except wait and let the chips 
fall where they may.
  (Mr. VOINOVICH assumed the chair.)
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I have some letters. We had Farm Aid 
this weekend in Manassas. There were a number of people there. Willie 
Nelson, of course, has been doing this for years. He was joined by Neil 
Young and John Mellencamp and many other artists and many other 
farmers. The most important thing about this, and I give them all the 
credit in the world, is not only the money they raised to help farmers, 
but this time they really put a focus on this crisis. They are not 
Johnny-come-lately. They have been at this for any number of years. 
They were talking about the need to change farm policy:

       Dear Willie Nelson and Farm Aid: My father has been a 
     rancher and farmer all his life.

  Before I do this, let me say, again, these are going to be letters 
from all around the country that go to the heart of what is going on, 
but, because of a bad back, I probably will be finishing up relatively 
soon. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of pushing as hard as I 
can.
  My wife Sheila and I were at the Farm Aid. It was very moving because 
one can only really appreciate it when musicians and artists care about 
people and are willing to donate their talents. Also, there were a lot 
of farmers there. Again, I will tell you this is the most emotional 
thing for me since I have been in the Senate. This is the most 
emotional experience I have had, seeing what people have been going 
through.
  I say to the Chair now, the Senator from Ohio, for the last several 
hours I have been going through stories of families, many who want to 
be anonymous, but it is their economic situation. They cannot cash-flow 
on these prices. They cannot. What I have been saying each time there 
is a new Presiding Officer--I get to make a plea to the new Presiding 
Officer--what I have been saying is that I am not arrogant, and there 
can be different proposals, but we cannot leave here without having the 
debate and some amendments and legislation that hopefully will pass 
which will change the course, which will make the difference.
  The status quo is unacceptable because, under status quo, we are 
going to have a whole generation of producers that are going to be 
gone. That is all there is to it. This will be the death knell for our 
rural communities, and I think it will be, as I have said more than 
once in the last several hours, this will be a transition that our 
Nation will deeply regret because the last thing in the world a good 
conservative Republican wants is for a few people to own all the land.
  We want competition. We want to see our producers have some leverage 
in the marketplace so they can get a decent price. That is what this is 
all about.
  We need antitrust action. It is interesting. I am really surprised, 
frankly, more hasn't been made of Viacom wanting to buy CBS. That is 
overflow of information in a democracy. It is scary to have a few 
companies control so much.
  Food is very precious, and we do not want a few conglomerates 
basically controlling all of this.
  I am moving from Minnesota to a letter to Farm Aid requesting help. 
Names are withheld:

       Dear Mr. Willie Nelson and Farm Aid:
       My father has been a rancher and a farmer all of his life. 
     He started as a teenager on his father's sheep and cattle 
     ranch in Eastern Nevada and over the years has had his share 
     of hard work and battles with drought, poor stock and crop 
     prices, bad neighbors who have tried to run him out of 
     business, the IRS, the Forest Service, the BLM (Bureau of 
     Land Management) the FHA (now FSA), etc. Those who have 
     contributed the most to his

[[Page 21593]]

     demise have been the IRS, the BLM and the FSA. Drought and 
     poor crop prices have also contributed a significant blow, in 
     the last several years, to his hay farming operation which is 
     located 50 miles from Ely, Nevada, the closest town. He is 
     single, he lives alone with no family close by, he is 85 
     years old, his health is failing, his knees are so bad he can 
     hardly make it to the mailbox which is 100 feet from the 
     house. His wife left him a few years ago, after 25 years of 
     marriage just for reasons associated with his prostate 
     operation. He was involved several years ago in a hay bailer 
     accident which rendered his left arm useless. He struggles to 
     eke out a meager living from a 600-acre alfalfa hay farm with 
     the help of two Mexicans, which now he no longer can pay and 
     had to let go. Without their help he cannot harvest his hay. 
     He used to own 750 acres of alfalfa, but the FSA--

  By the way, these are letters, not positions I am taking. This is 
what people are saying--

     left him with 600 acres and without justification would not 
     loan him the funds to replace a caved in water well which 
     feeds 160 acres of the 600 left. Last year the bottom fell 
     out of the hay market and he was forced to sell his hay at an 
     enormous loss. This left him with no funds to grow or harvest 
     the hay this year or pay all of his bills. He gets $500 a 
     month from Social Security, most of which goes for drugs and 
     medical care and has been forced to borrow money from family 
     to feed himself.

  I ask unanimous consent the testimony from this concert be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                          Letters to Farm Aid

                                               September 10, 1999.
       Dear Mr. Willie Nelson and Farm Aid: My father * * * has 
     been a rancher and farmer all of his life. He started as a 
     teenager on his fathers sheep and cattle ranch in Eastern, 
     Nevada and over the years has had his share of hard work and 
     battles with drought, poor stock and crop prices, bad 
     neighbors who have tried to run him out of business, the IRS, 
     the Forest Service, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management), the 
     FHA (now the FSA), etc. Those who have contributed the most 
     to his demise have been the IRS, the BLM and the FSA. Drought 
     and poor crop prices have also contributed a significant 
     blow, in the last several years, to his hay farming operation 
     which is located 50 miles from Ely, Nevada, the closest town.
       He is single, he lives alone with no family close by, he is 
     85 years old, his health is failing, his knees are so bad he 
     can hardly make it to his mailbox, which is 100 feet from the 
     house. His wife left him a few years ago, after 25 years of 
     marriage just for reasons associated with his prostate 
     operation. He was involved several years ago in a hay bailer 
     accident, which rendered his left arm useless.
       He struggles to eke out a meager living from a 600-acre 
     alfalfa hay farm with the help of two Mexicans, which now he 
     no longer can pay and had to let go. Without their help he 
     cannot harvest his hay. He used to own 750 acres of alfalfa, 
     but the FSA, through dishonest dealings left him with just 
     600 acres and without justification would not loan him the 
     funds to replace a caved in water well which feeds 160 acres 
     of the 600 left.
       Last year the bottom fell out of the hay market and he was 
     forced to sell his hay at an enormous loss. ($110/ton hay for 
     $40/ton). This left him with no funds to grow or harvest the 
     hay this year or pay all of his bills. He gets $500 a month 
     from Social Security, most of which goes for drugs and 
     medical care and has been forced to borrow money from family 
     to feed himself.
       Day by day he sits at home waiting and hoping for a lucky 
     break while the US Government (FSA) prepares to repossess all 
     that he has left in life. Interestingly enough, it was US 
     Government agricultural policies and the Federal Bureau of 
     Land Management that put him where he is today, like hundreds 
     of other farmers.
       He suffers from depression (I wonder why), but will not 
     leave the farm and refuses to declare bankruptcy because he 
     believes that money will come from somewhere to help him get 
     back on his feet.
       Frankly, he needs to retire, but he has no other place he 
     wants to go. We have been hoping that he could find a buyer 
     for the place who would pay off the debts and allow him to 
     stay on the place as long as he wants, as a caretaker. In 
     fact, if he could get his debts paid off, he could lease the 
     land to neighboring farmers for enough to survive on.
       Please consider his case and help him anyway you can. We 
     have done as much for him as our finances will allow.

                           *   *   *   *   *

       Help for him is urgent. He was told by the FSA that he had 
     until the end of August, 1999, last month before they would 
     take any action. The absolute deadline, I presume is October 
     31st of this year. He is currently seeking help from an 
     accountant and consultant (whom he cannot afford). If you 
     like you may contact * * *. In fact, it may be to my father's 
     advantage for you to channel any financial aid you can give, 
     through * * *. * * * could give you the most accurate and up 
     to date appraisal of his circumstances and debt load.
       Thank you for listening. Please help.
                                  ____

       Dear Farm Aid: My name is * * * and I am writing to request 
     help for my Father's Farm. My Father is a Vietnam Era Veteran 
     and a corn/soybean/livestock farmer in dire need of 
     assistance. After years of poor prices, the farm economy has 
     finally caught up to him. My Father is too proud to ask for 
     assistance from an organization like Farm Aid, but I thought 
     I would send a note in hopes someone may be able to give him 
     some help or guidance.
       My Father was a member of the Illinois National Guard from 
     1965-1971. He was not sent to Vietnam, however, his ``Unit'' 
     (I may be using the wrong terminology.) was in a group 
     destined for Vietnam had the War gone on longer. (Much like 
     the guard troops sent to Desert Storm.) He was Honorably 
     Discharged.
       My family farm is located in Central Illinois in a small 
     town called Chatsworth, Illinois. My family has owned the 
     farm my Father currently farms for approximately 80 years. My 
     Dad is fourth generation, so that takes it back to my great-
     grandfather. We farm approximately 650 acres tillable and 
     plant corn and soybeans. (250 from the family farm, 250 
     rented, 150 recently purchased. Note: My uncle also farms a 
     portion of the old family place.)
       In addition to the tillable acreage, we have approximately 
     175 acres of pasture land. We graze approximately 125 head of 
     beef cattle. We also have 50-100 feeder pigs at any one time 
     during the year.
       My Dad has been running the farm for the past eighteen 
     years. Like most other farmers, he works 365 days a year. He 
     has taken 2 vacation days in the past 18 years and has maybe 
     had 1 sick day. He loves what he does, although you would 
     never hear him say it that way. I love what he does and what 
     he stands for and what the family farming way of life is 
     about.
       He's a strong man, so outwardly he doesn't let it show when 
     times get tough. I'm not so strong, and it tears me up inside 
     to see how hard he and other farmers work and then lose 
     everything. This way of life is so grand, so important to the 
     fabric of our great nation, that we can't let it die.
       Everyone knows the hardships farmers have endured in recent 
     years. My Father's story is no different than many, I 
     suppose. Bottom line is, he doesn't receive a fair price for 
     his product and he can't pay his operating costs/land 
     payments. Not unlike almost all other family farmers, he 
     makes it year by year with loans from the local banks. This 
     year may be different, however. The banks have not said they 
     will foreclose, but they are leaning heavily in that 
     direction.
       It is at this point that I swallow my pride and ask for 
     assistance. I don't know what anyone can do for us. We follow 
     Farm Aid. We contribute to Farm Aid. We know Farm Aid and 
     people like yourself are there for family farmers. We aren't 
     quite sure how to access the help network though. I know 
     though I can't bear to see my Father's livelihood go by the 
     wayside.
       So, if you could, either send me some information regarding 
     possible assistance or give us some direction in our time of 
     need I would sincerely appreciate it.
                                  ____

                                               September 11, 1999.
       Dear Farm Aid: We are a dairy farm in Pennsylvania who 
     really needs your help. We tried to get your help years ago, 
     but it seems that no one in our area has ever received help 
     from your organization. We have had a serious drought here 
     this year and we have no idea how we are going to feed our 
     herd of dairy cows, let alone us getting paid. We are also 
     losing our farm to the Farm Credit mortgage company.
       We had a sickness that affected our herd several years ago 
     and we lost a lot of our cows. When you pay $1,200-$1,500 for 
     one cow and only get $200.00 for her at the auction house, 
     you can't very well replace them when you've lost about 100 
     of them. Then we had a drought several years back and again 
     last year and we lost about half of our crop and had to buy 
     feed again this year.
       We are broke! And now we've had a very serious drought here 
     this year. We are in one of the hardest hit counties in 
     Pennsylvania for shortage of rain. We are still on water 
     restrictions. If you can help us in any small way, we would 
     be eternally grateful! We don't want to lose our farm.
       My husband is 62 years old and has worked so hard all of 
     his life. This farm is our retirement. We have no pension or 
     savings or 401K or anything. We feel desperate.
       Thank you for listening. God bless.
                                  ____

                                               September 11, 1999.
     Re losing our farm in Idaho.

       Dear Farm Aid: We got notice yesterday that the bank is 
     going to auction our 400 acre farm, including our house and 
     other buildings on Sept. 29 to get the money we still owe 
     them, which is about 140,000 dollars by the time attorney 
     fees, etc. are added in. We will lose the 267,000 dollars we 
     have already paid into this farm. Our attorney said he would 
     go to the auction to let them know

[[Page 21594]]

     that we will be exercising our right of redemption. Then we 
     are supposed to have up to a year to try to get the funds to 
     buy back our farm. In the meantime, whoever buys the farm can 
     force us to move or can ask us to pay rent if we want to 
     stay.
       I have a couple questions I am hoping you can answer for 
     us.
       First, we tried to get refinanced and even with our equity 
     we weren't able to because we were behind on some other bills 
     including a couple of years back property taxes. We put up 
     160 acres for sale hoping to get it sold to pay the bank but 
     it appears it is now too late for that. Do you know of anyone 
     who would be willing to talk to us about financing us or at 
     least give us some advice? Our attorney isn't very helpful 
     along those lines.
       Second, if we have up to a year to try to get the funds 
     necessary to buy the farm back, can they actually make us 
     move off the property or do they have to wait until the year 
     is up. Our attorney says they can force us to move but 
     someone else told us about a couple of old laws that are 
     still in effect that say we can still live here. I haven't 
     researched them yet but two have to do with homestead acts 
     and another is called the Farm Husbandry Act of 1938. Do you 
     know anything about these and if they would help us at all?
       I don't know if you can help us or if you even give out 
     advice but we are desperate to save our farm and will not 
     stop fighting until it is over. Thank you for listening.
                                  ____

                                                September 8, 1999.
       Dear Farm Aid: Hello--I am (was) a small organic farmer in 
     Southeast PA. Between developers after our land, wholesalers 
     who pay late and vandals, we had to give up. My wife and 
     parents are too ill to continue.
       I believe in what I do but around here the financial 
     institutions favor development. I do not need financial aid 
     for survival or anything but I would like to find a lendor 
     who has faith in farmers so I can return to the land. I could 
     use some counseling. The stress of the last three years has 
     affected me a little.
       Any advice would be helpful. Keep up the good work.
                                  ____

                                                September 8, 1999.
       Dear Farm Aid: Hi. I am a farmers wife from the Shenandoah 
     Valley of VA. As if we had not had a bad enough year. Now we 
     are out of hay, out of water. Our spring, creek and pond have 
     dried up, and we are being forced to sell off our herd which 
     sustains us from year to year just to keep going a little 
     longer. We have gone for help like, for example, to Farm 
     Service, which we have never wanted to do before. Now we feel 
     we have no choice.
       You know, just like the Indians were, we are a proud 
     people. Anyway, they will pay to put a well in if we come up 
     with half the cost, which only means to us that some more of 
     our cattle will have to be sold to come up with that. In 
     other words, what do we do? We need advice and we need a huge 
     miracle and I am usually the positive one.
       Right beside us a farm was sold out from underneath us all 
     to a landdeveloper and we fought tooth and nail to keep the 
     subdivision out and yet here we are fighting again just to 
     stay afloat. Please help give us advice or whatever.
       There is this concert this coming Sunday and I have watched 
     it on TV from the start and thought how commendable it all is 
     and now we are in the very same position as the other farmers 
     Willie and his friends have helped through the years.
       I have written a song about us, the farmers and our plight, 
     and I want Mr. Nelson to hear it. But, more important, I want 
     to hear him and see him in person . . . how can we get in if 
     we raise the money to get there? What do we have to do? We 
     need a lift of our spirits, some reason to keep us going or 
     trying to go forward. I am sorry if I am bringing you down by 
     reading this. I did not mean to pour this all out. I guess I 
     needed to and hoped someone would understand.
       Farming is all we know and all we want to do. Like the 
     Indians, it is coming to the point that we are being drivven 
     off our own land for the sake of so called progress. I call 
     it decay of the American way of life. I call it an American 
     tragedy of the like that has not been seen since the war 
     against the Indians of which I have a strong heritage from.
       God help us to survive the best we know how and how to 
     think with our heart first then our head. My head tells me to 
     quit. My heart says we cannot.
       Please let me hear from you. Please give us hope. And God 
     bless you richly for your part in helping the American farmer 
     to survive another year.
                                  ____

                                                September 8, 1999.
       Dear Farm Aid: How can I go about contacting the people who 
     help the farmers with money? I would like to get my brother-
     in-law on the list to be helped. The drought the past 2 years 
     has killed his soybean crop and he cannot afford crop 
     insurance. He is just a small time North Mississippi farmer, 
     a former sharecropper. He is 56 and has just a 8th grade 
     education. He lives with his parents who live on social 
     security. He rents his land each year, about 50-100 acres. 
     Please let me know.
                                  ____

                                                    June 24, 1999.
       Dear Sir: My mother and father-in-law saved and borrowed 
     enough money in 1945 to buy an 80 acre farm between Fowler 
     and Quincy, ILL. They farmed with horses, milked cows, raised 
     hogs in the timbered creek bed and raised 2 children. My 
     husband has now had the farm turned over to him since his 
     parents have passed away and his sister was killed in a car 
     accident 2 years ago.
       My husband is and has always been a very hard worker. We 
     both work at jobs full time in Quincy and farm besides. We 
     were both raised on a farm and both love farm life. We cash 
     rent 3 other farms close by to go along with ours--but we are 
     still having an awful time. If it wasn't for our jobs in town 
     we would have lost everything his parents worked so hard for 
     several years ago. We are doing all we can but just can't get 
     out of debt--in fact we are going deeper and deeper every 
     year.
       My husband and I have shed many tears and many sleepless 
     nights trying to figure out just what to do to save our 
     family farm. We do not want to lose it.
       Do you have any help for us or anything else we can do? We 
     lost over $20,000 again last year. It breaks my heart to see 
     my husband work so hard and get so tired working 2 jobs and 
     still not making it.
       Please help us. If we could just break even one year things 
     would be so good. Someone surely knows a way to help us.
       We need someone to help us with some money soon or we will 
     lose everything.
       Thank you for listening to me and hopefully for helping my 
     husband save his deeply loved family farm.

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, in the remaining time I have left--and 
I am not going to take much more time. I characterize this, as I said, 
as sort of a mini-filibuster or, in any case, it is all I can do in 
several hours. I can talk about this all day and all night. It is not 
that I am at a loss of words. But physically I will not be able to go 
on much longer. The best way to do this is to print in the Record this 
very poignant testimony from Farm Aid.
  I will jump from the last part of my presentation to a few facts and 
figures. Maybe I will finish up on this. I will talk about market 
concentration.
  Four firms control 83 percent of all beef slaughter, four firms 
control 73 percent of sheep slaughter, four firms control 62 percent of 
flour milling, four firms control 57 percent of pork slaughter. This is 
from the work of Bill Hefrin, from the University of Missouri, who does 
superb work.
  This concentration will result in four or five food and fiber 
clusters that control production from the gene to the store shelf. Is 
that what the American people want? When we get these alliances of 
Monsanto, Cargill, and all the rest, they will reduce market 
concentration to farmers. These clusters will eliminate independent 
farmers and businessowners. These clusters will make it difficult for 
new firms to start. And these clusters will prevent consumers from 
realizing lower prices.
  Listen to this, consumer America: Since 1984, real consumer food 
prices have increased by 2.8 percent, while producer prices for that 
food have fallen 35.7 percent. Do any of the consumers in America, do 
any families in America, feel a 35-percent drop in food prices? Of 
course not.
  The farm retail spread grows wider and wider. This concentration 
threatens global security. A few dominant multinational firms are going 
to control information, markets, decisionmaking, and seed packets. 
There is a new technology. It is incredible when you hear about this 
terminator technology which is inserting a gene to prevent the next 
generation of seed from germinating which, again, threatens economic 
viability, sustainability.
  We are talking about livestock confinement, huge feeding operations, 
with all of the environmental challenges. We are talking about 
multinational firms that remove profits from local communities. As I 
said, we have talked about this huge concentration of power.
  For example, four of every five beef cattle are slaughtered by the 
four largest firms: IBP; ConAgra; Excel, owned by Cargill; and Farmland 
National Beef.
  Three of every five hogs are slaughtered by the four largest firms. 
The top four include Murphy, Carroll's Foods, Continental Grain, and 
Smithfield. And now Smithfield wants to buy up Murphy.
  Half of all the broilers are slaughtered by the largest four firms. 
The six

[[Page 21595]]

largest are: Tyson, Gold Kist, Perdue Farms, Pilgrim's Pride, ConAgra, 
and Wayne.
  Listen, when you look at the grain industry, you have the same 
situation where, when farmers look to whom they sell the grain, it is a 
few large companies that dominate.
  Let me conclude.
  I say to my colleagues, I have come to the floor of the Senate and 
have spoken for several hours to make a plea and to make a demand. I 
have tried to put this farm crisis in personal terms. I thank the 
farmers in Minnesota for letting me speak about their lives.
  I have said that the status quo is unconscionable, it is 
unacceptable. I have said we have to change the policy. We have to give 
people a decent price. That we can do. I have said that the reason I 
have come to the floor of the Senate is to make the demand that: 
Yesterday, if not tomorrow, if not next week, we have the opportunity 
to bring legislation to the floor to deal with this crisis.
  I have come to the floor of the Senate to say that we cannot 
adjourn--it would not be responsible, it would not be right--without 
taking action to help improve the situation for farmers. Why else are 
we here but to try to do better for people? What could be more 
important than for us, the Senate, as an institution--Democrats and 
Republicans--to pass legislation that would correct these problems and 
help alleviate this suffering and pain and make such a positive 
difference in the lives of so many people in Minnesota that I love--so 
many farmers in so many rural communities?
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________