09/27/08 Peterson says USDA has to change it ways

Colin Peterson of Minnesota is chairman of the House Ag Committee and he admits that Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer wants to work with Congress on implementing the farm bill. The problem says Peterson is that USDA doesn't always do what Congress wants done. PETERSON "You've got the cowboys in charge of the front office there, the National Cattlemen basically out of Texas have all of their people in the front office. Its been a problem. First of all they don't understand agriculture in this part of the world and they've got an ideology that is foreign to ours." He says with three Ag Secretaries coming and going under President Bush it has been difficult. Peterson says USDA needs to change the way it operates. He says computers don't work. There are other internal problems and that's why he'll spend the last four months of this year talking with former Agriculture Secretaries to get their thoughts and ideas. PETERSON "My staff is down there digging into things, crop insurance and other areas and I've got some general ideas, trying to put them on paper by the first of the year so that when we get a new administration we can go work on that." Peterson says you can look for some kind of legislation next year to rein in some of Wall Street's investments into various agricultural commodity markets. PETERSON "The investment money that's come in has caused problems. We're not getting convergence in the commodity markets like we should." Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott