06/21/07 What House Ag Committee members fear

Farm and Ranch June 21, 2007 Before voting to extend the commodity title of the 2002 Farm Bill at a session on Tuesday, the House Ag Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management unanimously rejected a farm bill plan put forward by Democrat Ron Kind of Wisconsin. Subcommittee members however expect to see Kind's bill again, on the House Floor when the Farm Bill debate occurs. What concerns opponents of that proposal, which emphasizes conservation and guts commodity subsidies, is that it came very close to getting enough votes on the floor to supplant what became the 2002 Farm Bill in the House. During discussion in subcommittee this week, Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma called Kind's approach not only bad for farmers, but bad for consumers. Lucas: "And I might remind consumers who might take note of this hearing, you have the highest quality, the greatest supply of the most awesome food and fiber in the history of the world because of the investment that the federal government has made since the 1930s. Yes, call it cheap food if you want, since the 1930s. That is what these commodity titles have done. If we abandon the commodity title then we subject the American consumer to market forces around the world, conditions at home that no one can imagine. This kind of language is a danger to every consumer of agricultural products." And given the U.S.'s role in the world Lucas said that means consumers around the globe. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.