|
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Kentucky Farm Bureau is assembling troops to wage
what is expected to be a titanic tug-of-war over federal farm program
spending associated with the 2007 Farm Bill.
Kentucky’s largest farm organization recently played host to a
symposium where a broad cross-section of state agriculture officials examined
issues likely to impact the debate for the next version of the nation’s
farm policy. The symposium proved to be a perfect prelude to a public
forum held in Louisville later that day with U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Mike Johanns, who is touring the country to get input on farm bill issues.
Although Congress won’t be deliberating the five-year farm policy
until next year, agriculture interests have been advised to get their
priorities in order well ahead of the game in preparation for a budgetary
battle fueled by a huge federal deficit. Word out of Washington is that
farm spending likely will suffer cuts along with other federal programs.
Several of the speakers at the Kentucky Farm Bureau forum – including
a panel of Congressional aides – emphasized the need to get priorities
in place.
“We need to be looking forward now on this farm bill,” explained
Kentucky Farm Bureau First Vice President Marshall Coyle, who presided
over the symposium. “By starting early, we can look to bring everyone
together . . . to get a head start and allow plenty of time to work out
differences of opinion.”
“Everybody knows we’re going to have budgetary restraints,”
said Michael Zehr, agriculture liaison with Senator Mitch McConnell. “That’s
not necessarily a bad thing, but it means this time we’ll need to
prioritize things. We can’t have everything.”
A group of about a hundred representatives from commodity groups, state
and federal agencies and the university system joined Kentucky Farm Bureau
leaders to examine the various issues and economic conditions surrounding
the farm bill debate.
UK tobacco economist Dr. Will Snell perhaps best framed the discussions
when he told the group that the federal budget deficit, coupled with a
strong farm economy and agreements on world trade policy, likely would
steer the course.
“We are in a much different farm bill environment than ever before;
given the budget situation and the WTO negotiations,” Snell said.
Fellow ag economist Dr. Jerry Skees concurred, warning that “in
this budget process, if you don’t lay claim to the money this year,
you don’t get it.”
Current farm policy has been widely hailed for its role with record
net farm income in both 2002 and 2004. Said Snell: “We’ve
had good yields, good prices . . . and government payments have kicked
in” for those who didn’t fare well.
Conversely, this policy does not bode well for agriculture’s balance
of trade, which now is falling toward the negative side, a trend that
is unprecedented. Many U.S. competitors are calling for reducing, or even
eliminating, farm subsidies as part of the World Trade Organization’s
current round of negotiations for international trade guidelines, said
Snell and others at the forum.
Following the five-hour symposium, most of the participants went to
the USDA public forum at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center. There,
dozens of farmers and farm interests offered comments and suggestions
to Secretary Johanns, the former Nebraska governor who President Bush
appointed to the post earlier this year.
He got an earful over the course of the three-hour meeting, including
several complaints about the announced closing of some county Farm Service
Agency offices in the state.
The Farm Bureau’s Coyle focused more on farm policy, saying that
farmers most want a “level playing field.”
He pointed to the range of challenges facing farmers who market globally,
including tariffs, currency manipulations and export subsidies.
“An effective U.S. farm policy,” Coyle told the Secretary,
“is one which provides the support necessary to safeguard our ability
as a nation to feed ourselves.”
-30-
|
