Georgia Farmers Testify on Farm Bill

Burke County Farm Bureau President Lee Webster (center) was one of six Georgia farmers who testified recently before the U.S. House Agriculture Subcommittee.

Georgia farmers testifying before members of the U.S. House during a farm bill field hearing on March 28, in Valdosta, repeatedly said they would like to see the current farm program serve as a guideline for writing the next farm bill. This was the first in a series of hearings the House Agriculture Subcomittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management plans to hold to review the 2002 Farm Bill.

“Given the challenges of the budget and trade policy, we believe the current structure of farm programs should serve as the blue-print for the new farm bill,” Wavell Robinson, a diversified row crop farmer from Pavo, Ga., said. “Current law is balanced between commodities, nutrition, conservation and research and has provided a stable and effective national farm policy for this country.”

Burke County Farm Bureau President Lee Webster testified that the current farm bill has come in about $11 billion under its projected spending.

“The 2002 Farm Bill has created some of the greatest stability while offering the greatest amount of flexibility in planting ever offered to agriculture,” Webster, who grows cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat, said.

In addition to Robinson and Webster, other Georgia farmers testifying at the hearing were: Donald Chase, a peanut, corn and poultry producer from Oglethorpe; Bill Brim, a fruit and vegetable producer from Tifton; Mike Newberry, a cotton, corn, peanut and cattle producer from Arlington and Ralph Cavender, a Vidalia Onion, peanut, corn and soybean producer from Claxton.

Georgia members of the subcommittee attending the hearing were Reps. John Barrow, Jim Marshall and David Scott. Georgia Reps. Jack Kingston, and Sanford D. Bishop, Jr., both members of the House Appropriations Committee, also participated in the hearing. Other subcommittee members present were: Chairman Jerry Moran, (R-KS), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Mike Conaway, (R-TX), Subcommittee Ranking Minority Member Bob Etheridge (D-NC) and Rick Larsen (D-WA).

During the hearing, the farmer panel and subcomittee discussed a variety of farm policy issues including commodity programs, export markets, market access, and crop insurance. Chase and Newberry asked that the separate peanut payment limit continue. They also voiced concern that the USDA is setting the peanut loan repayment rate too high and is costing peanut producers export sales. Chase called for more transparency from the USDA on how they determine the weekly posted prices they announce each Tuesday.

“Despite language to the contrary in the 2002 Farm Bill, the Department has relied far too much on data unrelated to the price other export nations are marketing peanuts for in the world marketplace,” Chase said. “Georgia farmers believe that USDA is not sufficiently considering the competition in the world marketplace. This lack of response to competition from other origins has critically wounded our export programs.”

Subcommittee member Rep. Marshall expressed concern about the impact the Doha round of the World Trade Organization negotiations will have on the next farm bill and asked the farmers if increased funding for conservation programs favored by the WTO could realistically replace support payments.

“We don’t feel like conservation programs give us an adequate safety net. Without a safety net we are vulnerable to increased production costs,” Robinson answered.

Marshall encouraged farmers to contact the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (www.ustr.gov).

“I’m afraid our negotiators are about to tie our hands where the farm bill is concerned,” Marshall said in an interview after the hearing. “I think what is critically important for the farm bill is for farmers to send a clear message to our trade negotiators that relying on green programs is a pipe dream. We need to let our trade representatives know what parameters we can work in for a viable farm bill.”

During his testimony, Webster told the congressional panel that the current farm bill needs to be extended until the Doha negotiations are complete.

“To finalize a farm bill prior to completion of the DOHA negotiations would only place our farmers at an extreme disadvantage by making any new strategies for farm legislation obsolete,” Webster said. “Our current farm bill needs to be extended until these negotiations are complete, then we will have the knowledge and information to make educated decisions to keep the family farm in business.”

Brim spoke to the subcommittee on behalf of Georgia’s vegetable and fruit growers. Pointing out that he lost $3 million in 2004 from hurricane damage to his crops, Brim expressed the need vegetable producers have for a crop insurance program that covers cost of production. He suggested that the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) provide limited production cost coverage.

“There are so many different vegetables grown on a farm that the RMA says it’s too risky to tie all of these crops back to a field,” Brim said. “We don’t want to make a profit off of the insurance. We just want to cover our costs.”

In an interview following the hearing, Rep. Moran responded to some of the issues the Georgia farmers brought up.

“It’s too early to request that the current farm bill be extended. The farming environment has changed since the last farm bill was written. Input costs have increased dramatically, and we need a farm bill to address these costs,” Moran said. “I also think it’s a mistake to let the WTO dictate our farm bill. I want our WTO negotiators to negotiate and defend positions based on what is good for U.S. farmers. We’re hearing the same issues in Kansas that we’re hearing in Georgia. Farmers are asking, ‘How do we keep our way of life around a while longer?”

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Sen. Chambliss discusses farm
issues with Georgia farmers

Budget constraints, the World Trade Organization, immigration reform, and the need for alternative fuel were the main topics U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss addressed during a Farm Bill Forum hosted March 18, in Swainsboro, by the Emanuel County Farm Bureau. Chambliss told the group of about 100 farmers attending the forum that the two major influences on the upcoming farm bill would be budget constraints and the WTO.

“As we move into writing the next farm bill, there will be two major influences that we didn’t have in 2002,” Chambliss said. “In 2002, in regards to the budget, we were in surplus times. Today we’re in deficit times. We’re looking for every way we can to decrease mandatory and discretionary spending. In regards to the WTO, while we’re not going to unilaterally disarm our farm programs, there’s no way we can have programs in the farm bill that the WTO could potentially subject to penalties.”

Chambliss assured the farmers that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Portman and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns understand how important agriculture is to America, and that they will not agree to reducing our farm support programs without getting significant concessions from other trade blocks, such as the European Union. “Farmers shouldn’t be anxious about a sixty percent reduction in subsidies because this will be contingent on the European Union and other countries reducing their subsidies to a level that will make our reductions okay,” Chambliss said.

“We want a farm bill that will be sensitive to the needs of farmers. Rising fuel costs and foreign competition are among the many issues we need the next farm bill to address to insure we are able to compete,” Emanuel County Farm Bureau President and GFB Middle Georgia Vice President Robert Fountain said.

Chambliss said the Senate would be addressing the issue of immigration reform, adding that he is “cautiously optimistic that we’ll pass some legislation addressing the issue. I’m opposed to amnesty, but I think with H2A reform we can come up with some type of positive reform that will give farmers a quality pool of workers.”

In response to farmers’ concerns about rising fuel costs, Chambliss voiced his support of funding alternative fuel development. “We’re going to run out of oil one of these days, so it’s important that we plan for that. We have the opportunity in this next farm bill to write a major energy title, and I’m really excited about this.”

Chambliss said he would be meeting with fellow Sens. Dick Lugar and Tom Harkin in the near future to discuss what an energy bill could look like.