12/17/08 NAWG lobbyist on Obama

Farm and Ranch December 17, 2008 Farmers should not fear a Barack Obama administration. That's what Mark Gaede, a director of government affairs for the National Wheat Growers says. He served on the Obama Agricultural Advisory Committee for the past year and a half and has been talking to the USDA transition team. Gaede: "And it is pretty clear that president elect Obama understands that production agriculture is going to be necessary if we are going to feed eight billion people on this planet in the coming years. In fact he committed himself to that in response to a letter he received from Norman Borlaug, who you may remember is the father of the "Green Revolution", pointing out to then candidate Obama that both research and production agriculture were going to be necessary to feeding eight billion people on this planet. Then candidate Obama replied saying basically he agreed with him." Gaede says agriculture is going to be facing some trying times but it won't be because of any ideological bent that an Obama administration is going to have. He defended Obama's comments on the recent GAO report regarding illegal payments under the 2002 Farm Bill. Gaede: "We cannot sit by and just let these things happen without standing up and saying this is wrong. I mean, it was illegal. So I think he was correct in pointing that out." Gaede put on workshops at the recent Oregon Idaho Grains Conference. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.