Transcript of Delaware Farm Bill Forum with

Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment Mark Rey

And Moderator Ed Kee Harrington, Delaware - October 15, 2005

MODERATOR: Okay. Looks like you\'re all ready to go today, and I\'d like
to welcome you to the USDA Farm Bill Forum here at the Delaware State
Fairgrounds. My name is Ed Kee, and I\'ll be your moderator this
morning. I serve as the vegetable crop specialist and agricultural
program leader for the University of Delaware, which could be related to
the USDA.\
\
Anyway, to get started I\'d like to introduce Kristie Angstadt and
Dustin Borntregor \-- Dustin is with the state 4-H Team Council and
Kristen is with the state FFA \-- to lead us in the Pledge of
Allegiance.\
\
\[Pledge is recited.\]

MODERATOR: Thank you. We\'d like now to introduce some of the folks in
the audience. I know from Senator Biden\'s office, Kevin Smith is here.
Kevin? And from Representative Castle, Kate Rohr. And I just met the
gentleman from Senator Carper\'s \-- Larry Windley in the back. Larry?
Were there any other representatives from our congressional offices
here? Okay.\
\
John. Is there anybody else that has slipped through the net? Okay.\
\
This morning we\'re very honored to have Delaware Secretary of
Agriculture Michael Scuse to help us start the morning with a few
comments. Michael?\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
SEC. MICHAEL SCUSE: Good morning to everyone. I would like to welcome
the Under Secretary here to the first state. Senator Carper, it\'s good
to see you again as well. I think the Under Secretary, if you all don\'t
disappoint me, we\'ll hear some very good comments regarding the Farm
Bill, what has worked in the past, what you would like to see in the
future. Delaware is in my opinion home of some of the finest farmers to
be found anywhere in the United States.\
\
Sussex County is the number one poultry-producing county in the United
States. We\'re home to a great vegetable industry here in the state, as
well as our grain industry, horticulture industry, and thanks to the
equine survey that NAS helped us put together last year we now are
recognized as a top equine state in the United States. So our
agriculture is extremely diversified. And Kate War (sp) has just become
a new equine owner out there. Kate?\
\
I would like for the Under Secretary, a couple things that as he goes
around the United States, he and his counterparts, holding these
listening sessions regarding the Farm Bill, one thing that I think
everyone needs to keep in mind, the discussion on large-scale corporate
farms. And here in Delaware those large-scale corporate farms are farms
that are owned by families. They\'re run by husbands and wives,
daughters and sons, and grandsons and granddaughters. And those farms in
Delaware range from 2,000 acres to 6,000 acres. But they are family
farms.\
\
The other thing I\'d like to see when the discussions take place
regarding the upcoming Farm Bill are the proposal that the states have
been working on for the last three years, and that\'s for the specialty
crop block grants to help those producers out there that don\'t receive
the traditional subsidies, to help the small producer who\'s producing
fresh market crops, as well as that large-scale vegetable processor or
producer to keep them in business and help them with technology to keep
them in business.\
\
So I think this morning\'s session will be interesting. I see some of
our finest farmers in the audience, and I don\'t think they\'ll
disappoint me. So thank all of you.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Okay. Next I\'d like to introduce our distinguished United
States Senator Tom Carper. Senator Carper.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
SEN. TOM CARPER: Thanks very much, Ed. And good morning, everybody.
Thank you all for coming today. To our conveners, those that have worked
to pull this all together. I want to say to the Secretary, Secretary,
Secretary Scuse and to Marlene Eliot (sp) and to others who have been
part of hosting us today, to the folks here at the fairgrounds and to Ed
Kee who gave up a Saturday morning of his own he\'d committed with his
family doing something else, thank you, Ed, for being here.\
\
I have had a chance to talk with Under Secretary Rey and to welcome him
here. He\'s from Canton, Ohio, not far from where I went to school at
Ohio State. So I\'m glad to welcome an old Buckeye here to Delaware.
We\'re kidding, there\'s a place just about 30 miles north of Columbus,
Ohio, where Ohio State is located, a little town called Delaware. And
until I was about 21 years old I thought Delaware was a town just north
of Columbus, Ohio. Then I found out it was a whole state. When I got out
of the Navy I came here and the rest is, I guess the rest is history.\
\
I think it\'s terrific that Secretary Rey is here to listen. My father
used to give me some advice and maybe somebody in your family gave you
similar advice. My dad used to say, God gave us two ears, one mouth, use
them in that ratio \-- and do a lot more listening than you do speaking.
He\'s going to be starting to work along with a lot of other folks in
the Department of Ag and around the country with Secretary Scuse and
other secretaries of agriculture, members of Congress, especially the
folks on the Ag Committees in the House and the Senate, to begin shaping
the next Farm Bill. And it\'s not something we want to rush.\
\
We don\'t need to rush into it. The one current Farm Bill\'s in place
for about another 24 months or so. But it\'s a chance to start thinking
ahead, thinking outside the box as to what farm policy and ag policy is
going to be in this country, ought to be in this country when little
farmers, young farmers like this little baby right here, when this
little baby is ready to become a \--\
\
How old is that baby? Three months old. Does that little baby have a big
sister? How old is she? Eight years old? All right. Well, we want to
make sure whether you\'re three months old or eight years old or a whole
lot older than that today, \-- if you\'re in the front row \-- that
we\'re still going to be raising chickens here and corn and soybeans and
vegetables and a whole lot of other things as well, and making money and
preserving our open space at the same time.\
\
I stopped at a gas station yesterday, filled it up with gas \-- it\'s
down to about \$2.70 a gallon, which is better than it has been. And
we\'re going to see ups and downs in the price of gasoline. We\'re going
to see real steep climbs in the price of natural gas I\'m afraid this
winter, and we\'re going to start paying our heating bills we\'re going
to not like very much what we see.\
\
Down in a country way to the south of us, down in Brazil where as you
know they raise a lot of corn and a lot of soybeans, they\'ve also
figured out how to reduce their reliance on foreign oil. And roughly a
third of the fuel that goes into the cars, trucks and vans of the folks
that are driving down in Brazil today comes from the stuff they grow in
their fields on their farms. Comes from sugar cane, comes from soybeans.
They raise a variety of different kinds of grasses, which they\'ve used
to harvest and turn into ethanol.\
\
And when you look at the Energy Bill which we passed this past summer in
Congress, there\'s a real recognition that the folks in Brazil maybe
have it right and that not only do we want to use the food that we grow
in our fields here in Delaware and across the nation to feed us and to
help feed the rest of the world\-- we also want to use those fuels.
Soybean oil, whether it\'s corn, the grasses that we grow here and down
South, some of the sugar cane that they grow as well, begin using more
and more of that to help fuel our vehicles, not just to fuel our
bodies\-- but to fuel our vehicles and reduce our reliance on foreign
oil.\
\
Today as we gather here, almost 60 percent of the oil that we use in our
cars, trucks and vans today across America, 60 percent comes from
foreign places. A lot of it from places where I\'m sure we\'re sending
them our money and they\'re frankly using our money to turn around and
hurt us, harm us, and harm our people around the world. That\'s not very
smart, and we can be a lot smarter and a lot better.\
\
The good thing about it, to the extent that we can use soybean in lieu,
and displace some of the diesel fuel that we are using, our Deldot
vehicles, our farm vehicles, our buses and other diesel vehicles on the
road, to the extent that we do that we not only do good things for
farmers, we do good things and reduce our reliance on foreign oil, we
also do good things for our environment. And that is what I call a
win/win/win situation.\
\
The last thing, Gwendolyn (sp) and I were up at University of Delaware
Biotechnology Center a couple weeks ago and we visited again different
aspects of the biotech center. One of the operations we visited there
was a place called Fraunhofer where they are taking plants, using the
plants, they inject them with different kinds of elements, and then they
use the plants to generate vaccines. And it\'s a vaccine you can develop
more quickly to treat all different kinds of diseases, and they can do
it with fewer harmful side effects for the rest of us. That\'s the kind
of thinking outside the box that we are doing here in Delaware, and
it\'s the kind of thinking outside the box that we think we need to do
for the country.\
\
I think it\'s great, Secretary Rey, that you\'re here. For everybody
who\'s come out today to join him and talk to him and share our
thoughts, I think it\'s wonderful that you\'re here.\
\
Last thing I\'d say is, I\'m a big believer in home ownership. Delaware
leads the nation in home ownership; almost three-quarters of our people
live in their homes actually own the home they live in. It\'s one of the
highest home ownership rates in the country. Georgetown, Dover and
Wilmington don\'t have a very high home ownership rate. It\'s only 50
percent compared to 75 percent for the country.\
\
Today I\'m hosting a home ownership fair, faith-based home ownership
fair. We\'re partnering with a lot of our churches in Central Delaware
to enhance home ownership. If I slip out a little bit early today I want
you to know that\'s where I\'m going to try to find some new homeowners,
potential homeowners, and help make them homeowners. Thank you all for
coming today. God bless you. Thank you.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: I just wish Tom Carper a good day, and that the Blue Hens win
down in Richmond. But that\'s another subject.\
\
It\'s now my privilege to introduce Mark Rey. Mr. Rey has served as the
under secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environmental
Science since October 2001. He has an extensive background in natural
resource and conservation policy, serving for a time on the staff of the
United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Please
welcome Under Secretary Rey.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
SEC. MARK REY: Thanks for that kind introduction, Ed. And thank you
also, Mr. Secretary, Senator, for joining us today. And finally I\'d
like to thank the Delaware State Fair Board for their hospitality in
allowing us to hold this event here this morning.\
\
It\'s my pleasure to be here this morning on behalf of Agriculture
Secretary Mike Johanns to hear directly from Delaware farmers and rural
residents about issues of concern. In preparing for the development of
the 2007 Farm Bill, Secretary Johanns announced in June the first in a
nationwide series of Farm Bill Forums to be held across the country.\
\
That first forum was held in Nashville, Tennessee. We have conducted 32
more since and have planned several others through the end of this
year.\
\
In addition, various under secretaries like myself will all be
conducting forums such as this in the hope that no voice is left unheard
as we develop this next Farm Bill. Before we get too far along with this
forum we have a message from the person who asked Secretary Johanns to
solicit ideas from as many people as possible while conducting these
listening sessions. I think we have a tape recording that we\'re going
to hear.\
\
\[Playing of videotape\]\
\
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Thanks for letting me speak to you at this Farm
Bill Forum. America\'s farm and ranch families provide a safe and
abundant food supply for our people and for much of the world. You
represent the best values of America \-- stewardship of the land, hard
work and independence, faith, service and community.\
\
Mike Johanns understands the importance of America\'s farmers to our
country, which is why I chose him to lead our Department of Agriculture.
I\'m proud of his work, and he will lead our efforts on the next Farm
Bill. Secretary Johanns and I believe the first step in this process is
to ask each of you how today\'s Farm Bill is working and how it can be
better.\
\
As we look to improve America\'s farm policy, we will continue to focus
on the following goals.\
\
See, America has about 5 percent of the world\'s population which means
95 percent of your potential customers are overseas. So one of our goals
must be to ensure that America\'s farmers and ranchers have access to
open, global markets.\
\
A second goal is that we want future generations to have plenty of
opportunities to go into agriculture.\
\
Thirdly, we need cooperative conservation that encourages good
stewardship of our land and natural habitats.\
\
We also need to act wisely in delivering help to our nation\'s
producers. And we must promote cutting-edge agricultural products and
research.\
\
Finally, we must ensure good quality of life in rural America.\
\
The Farm Bill is important legislation that meets real needs. The next
Farm Bill should further strengthen the farm economy and preserve this
way of life for farmers and ranchers of the future.\
\
Hearing your advice is an important step toward meeting these goals. I
thank you for all you do for our country, and thank you for listening.\
\
\[End of videotape\]\
\
SEC. REY: As you can tell from that message, the President is determined
to see that the comments you offer today be used while formulating what
this next Farm Bill will look like.\
\
As was mentioned in my introduction, I\'m the under secretary for
Natural Resources and Environment with jurisdiction over the USDA Forest
Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. My career has
been spent working on conservation, and as you may know the Farm Bill is
one mechanism that helps us do that.\
\
The previous Farm Bill was considered landmark legislation for
conservation funding and for focusing on environmental issues. The
conservation provisions of that bill have assisted farmers and ranchers
in meeting environmental challenges on their lands. That Farm Bill also
simplified existing programs and created new programs all seeking to
enhance the long-term quality of conservation on working farms, ranches
and forestlands.\
\
What goes into a Farm Bill can have long-lasting effects on our
nation\'s natural resources, and that\'s why we\'re here today, to hear
your thoughts, comments and concerns about what should be included in
the next Farm Bill.\
\
To that end, Secretary Johanns has developed six specific questions that
we\'re seeking answers on today. The first question relates to
challenges for new farmers. How do we prepare farm policy to provide a
future for new entries into the agricultural community? Policies that we
develop, in our judgment, should welcome the next generation of farmers
and avoid unintended consequences like higher land prices.\
\
The second question relates to how we stay competitive in a world
marketplace. Today over 27 percent of cash receipts for agriculture come
from abroad. That\'s a very, very large piece of all farm income across
the country. We must remain competitive in both domestic and global
markets in order for American agriculture to succeed.\
\
The third question relates to farm program benefits. Is the current
distribution system the most effective way of distributing benefits?
Benefits should stabilize farm prices and incomes. The current programs
\-- crop insurance is a good example and we\'ve had some conversations
around the country about that already \-- the current programs
distribute assistance based on past and current production levels. Some
would argue that those programs favor larger farms over smaller ones.\
\
The fourth question relates to conservation. That\'s the one I\'m most
involved in. How do we do our conservation policies in a way that
provides for cooperative conservation? I continue to believe, as does
the President and the Secretary, that our farmers are the best
conservationists in the nation. Some suggest anchoring farm policy
around conservation and the tangible benefits produced like cleaner air
and water and less developed landscapes.\
The fifth question relates to rural economic development. How can
federal rural and farm programs provide effective assistance in rural
areas? If you look back at farm bills of the past, there wasn\'t much
there relative to rural economic development. In the 2002 Bill it was a
pretty significant piece of the legislation.\
\
Once upon a time farming and rural America were synonymous. But the
demographic and economic characteristics of some rural areas have
changed, in a few cases dramatically. Some believe we should invest more
in the infrastructure of rural America and that the next Farm Bill
should carry that forward as a primary objective.\
\
Then the last area is expansion of agricultural products, markets and
research. We have great resources at our disposal at USDA. We want to
know what we\'re doing right with those resources in terms of research.
And if we\'re not doing things right, what should we be doing instead?\
\
Agriculture is rapidly changing. Some say policies should do more to
help develop new products and new markets. Those are the six questions
we\'re most interested in hearing form you about. Obviously if you have
other concerns we\'re eager to hear those as well as you step forward to
speak.\
\
If we run out of time or you simply think of something you forgot to
say, please know that you can always go to WWW.USDA.GOV and click on
Farm Bill Forums. The comments submitted on the web in writing or
provided here today will all be given the same weight and the exact
amount of study and analysis.\
\
Before asking questions today or offering your statements, please state
your name, city, state and your involvement in agriculture and
connection to the Farm Bill. Also please speak as loudly and clearly as
possible, not just because the acoustics here are a bit challenging but
also so that our transcriber can accurately capture your thoughts. All
of these sessions are transcribed so we\'ll have the opportunity to look
at what you\'ve had to say as we reflect on it at the end of these
sessions.\
\
Finally, I\'d like to offer a specific message for the younger folks
here in the front row. You are the reason for this tour. We hope the
ideas and advice that we get as a result of these sessions produce
legislation that paves the way for your future success. So don\'t be shy
about stepping up to the microphone and offering us your thoughts since
you are going to be the beneficiary or the victim of whatever the next
Farm Bill looks like.\
\
I\'ve pretty much said everything I need to say now. What I\'m going to
be doing from here out is listening, taking notes on what you\'re saying
so that I have some notes to work with when I go back and visit with the
Secretary and my other under secretaries as we reflect on all that
we\'ve heard around the country through these sessions.\
\
So thank you for being here today, and I look forward to a productive
discussion this morning.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Mark. Just before we get started with your
comments I\'d like to just cover some minor housekeeping items. We are
here to listen, the group up front. And as the day goes on you are asked
the visit the booths in the back. They have a wide array of information
of the various USDA programs that you might be interested in, and they
can answer any questions about those programs.\
\
There\'s the USDA Help Desk, which is the desk by the front doors. On
that desk we hope you\'ve signed in, and there\'s also a paper with the
six questions that Under Secretary Rey just referred to. And it may be
wise to just distribute those to make sure you have them.\
\
In the interest of hearing from as many of you as possible today, we\'re
going to ask that you limit your comments to three minutes each. You\'ll
notice Greg Hudson over here on my left has a green. Yellow means you
have 30 seconds. Red means it\'s time to wrap it up. If he comes out of
his chair and looks like he\'s going to tackle you, you\'d better stop
talking. No, that\'s not true.\
\
But we\'re flexible. Obviously we have some time. The main thing is to
get your point across.\
\
As Mark Rey said, if you have something else you\'d like to say, you
think about it on your way home or tomorrow, you can do so by clicking
on WWW.USDA.GOV and click on the Farm Bill Forum link and submit your
comments electronically.\
\
Also if you\'ve brought a written statement you\'d like to leave for the
Under Secretary to take back, there\'s a box on the desk at the front of
the room, and you can drop it in the box.\
\
Finally, we\'d like you to just step up to the microphone, be relaxed,
speak clearly, and try to stay within the timeframe as much as
possible.\
\
Again, as you come to the microphone please state your name, the town or
city you\'re from, your state and your role in agriculture if you\'re a
farmer, an agency person or something else.\
\
And it would be helpful but it\'s not mandatory but if you could frame
your question or comments into one of the six issues on the paper, that
may be helpful, but if it\'s outside those comments or you don\'t see
how it relates don\'t get hung up on that. Just go ahead and please make
your statement.\
\
So with that, it will turn into a true listening experience and we\'ll
ask people to come up and feel free to queue up down the centerline. We
don\'t want to waste a lot of time waiting for people to work their way
up, so just line up as it comes, as you want to speak. And I\'ll ask for
the first few people to take the mike.\
\
\
MS. SARA BUSKER (sp): Good morning. I\'m Sara Busker here today
representing the 52,000 young people who participated in Delaware 4-H
programs last year. Under Secretary Rey, welcome to the First State, and
to my hometown of Harrington. I\'m a third-generation 4-Her actively
involved in the family dairy and poultry farm. I\'ll continue my
education next fall pursuing a degree in agriculture. After that I hope
to be involved in ag education, extension education, or in production
agriculture. Whatever my choice, I\'ll be a part of the next generation
of American farmers.\
\
Continuing education whether I\'m a provider or a recipient will be
essential for tomorrow\'s farmers. The challenges faced by my generation
will be no different than those faced by generations before me. Economic
challenges, a fair price for products produced, ever-increasing input
costs, and the cost of land and equipment have always challenged
America\'s farmers. But throughout history it has been advances in
technology that have allowed our farmers to remain viable.\
\
USDA and University Research Partnerships have been the major sources
for technological advances. Extension education programs have brought
these advances to the farm. Practical applications of this research have
allowed farmers to make their operations more efficient and profitable.\
\
It\'s imperative that the next Farm Bill will provide support for
continuing research and education. The future of American agriculture
will depend on it. Technological advances in agriculture will help the
next generation of American farmers, my generation, to as we say in 4-H,
make the best better. Thank you.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MR. ROBERT BAKER: Thank you, Under Secretary, for coming. My name is
Robert Baker. I farm in the Middletown area. I am the president of
Delaware Farm Bureau, and I\'m also a supervisor on the board of the
Newcastle Conservation District, so I also believe in conservation. I
think we have an opportunity in the rewrite of the new Farm Bill if we
put more money into conservation. And I\'ll expand into why I think
that\'s a good idea.\
\
First of all, the Farm Bill was always designed for the reasons that you
and the President stated, to put money into farmers\' hands and help our
local economies. Farmers have not participated in the economic boon that
happened in \'90s. And it\'s important that we keep our rural economies
healthy.\
\
Our local communities are suffering greatly now because of land use
issues partly created because the farm community did not participate in
that economic boom. Additionally, farmers cannot access the equity
that\'s in their land, so that is multiplying the problems that we have
in our local communities because of that imbalance from farm income
compared to land prices.\
\
And I believe by putting money into conservation that we can meet many
of the objectives that we\'re required to meet anyway under the economic
laws that are in place now.\
\
About the last thing that a farmer can afford is to meet these
environmental objectives, and to put that money into a local community
farmers spend the money locally, it stays in their community, and we
will be able to meet those conservation goals.\
\
When a farmer\'s making a decision whether he can buy health insurance
for his family or put in a grass waterway or meet clean air standards,
it\'s not a hard choice for him. He cannot meet those conservation
goals.\
\
Being a member of the World Trade Organization as the U.S. is, we are
going to be required in the future I believe to move away from price and
production supports anyway. And it would be a wise choice for us to put
the money into conservation. The EU is now pretty much giving
entitlement payments to their farmers, and I don\'t think it would be
too hard for us to see that we can meet a lot of objectives and have a
win/win situation by putting the money into conservation.\
\
Thank you for hearing me.\
\
MS. MARGARET VIVIAN: Good morning, gentlemen and everyone else. I think
we would as part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which I represent
this morning we\'d say ditto to what Mr. Baker has said. So I thought it
was appropriate that I\'d get up now. My name is Margaret Vivian. I am
with the Salisbury, Maryland, office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. I
speak on behalf of the Bay Foundation this morning at this listening
session because we felt this is where we needed to be rather than in the
Baltimore session, which is focused more on nutrition.\
\
I also thank you for that extra minute. I feel like I have plenty of
time to talk.\
\
CBF is really concerned with helping farmers in order to help save the
Chesapeake Bay. I realize I\'m in the Delaware Bay watershed this
morning, but I speak on behalf of almost all of Delmarva as well because
what concerns lower Delmarva and Maryland also concerns Delaware.\
\
We believe the Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure, and it\'s
something that should be restored and conserved. We also believe that
well-managed farmland is one of the Bay watershed\'s most
environmentally compatible land uses. Farmers play an enormous role in
the battle to protect and restore the environment and in particular the
Chesapeake Bay.\
\
Implementation of conservation practices that reduce nitrogen and
phosphorus run-off is essential in order to restore the Bay and the
water quality in the Bay. Nationally three out of four farmers who wish
to participate in federal conservation programs are unable to do so
because of insufficient funding to meet the need.\
\
The 2007 Farm Bill should expand programs most used by Bay watershed
farmers to reduce this polluted runoff. In particular we would like to
see increased funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program,
the Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program, and the Conservation Reserve
Program. Most importantly perhaps for us is also the Conservation
Security Program.\
\
We believe an expanded CSP is a model for the future for federal farm
programs. It links farm income support with conservation, is allowable
under international trade rules which you alluded to; it rewards all
good farmers regardless of their production type, which is also
critically important; it reduces regional inequities of farm payments by
including all types of farming not just program crops; and it will allow
all conservation oriented farmers to participate.\
\
In addition, minor changes to the implementation of these programs could
make them much more useful for reducing polluted runoff such as the
inclusion of a nutrient index as a companion to the soil conditioning
index used in the eligibility for the CSP.\
\
The 2000 Farm Bill also needs to help solve a problem of excess manure,
which is particular to Delmarva in terms of poultry, by providing
research and incentives for alternate uses for poultry litter such as
waste to energy such as Senator Carper alluded to.\
\
Finally, we note that a large amount of research documenting the water
quality benefits of agricultural BMPs has been conducted in this region.
In addition, the Bay watershed has one of the most extensive water
quality monitoring networks in the country. Consequently, we believe we
can provide accountability for the additional funds that would be
targeted to improve water quality in the Bay region while maintaining
our rural working landscapes.\
\
Chesapeake Bay Foundation will be submitting written comments through
the website as well that are more extensive than the ones that I\'ve put
out here. Thank you.\
\
MS. JENNIFER DANGLE: Good morning. My name is Jennifer Dangle. I work
with the Maryland Public Interest Research Group. We\'re also here for
many of the same reasons\-- the Baltimore session is not focused on
these sort of topics. I\'d just like to quickly follow up on what\'s
been said already.\
\
We are an environmental advocacy organization as well that is very
concerned about the future of farming in Maryland and the surrounding
areas. The federal farm bill has incredible inequities in the
distribution of funds. The Midwest and the Western states receive a lot
more funding than the Atlantic states even though the Atlantic states
face far higher land costs. And because of the critical environment
around them and the additional regulations that the states require for
them in operating their farms, their costs are incredibly higher.\
\
We feel that improving conservation funding is one of the best ways that
we can solve not only the inequities in the Farm Bill but also make it
possible for farmers to do what they want to do, which is help the
environment and to meet the state regulations that are placed upon,
while staying profitable.\
\
So we would just like to kind of say \"ditto\" to what\'s already been
said. Thank you.\
\
MR. MARTY ROSS: I hope I don\'t owe you money. It\'s good to see you,
Mr. Kee. My name is Marty Ross. I\'m a farmer from Delmar, Delaware.
It\'s great when you\'re in a small area like Delaware and Maryland
where everybody on the stage and in the audience you almost know. It\'s
a good thing.\
\
First I want to compliment USDA staff you have here in the region.
Richard and Marlene and our own Leolga Wright was in the back of the
room, our Sussex County office, a great staff, great people. So when you
see Secretary Johanns, tell him he\'s got a great people down here
working, and they\'re easy to work with.\
\
I will take about three minutes. I usually don\'t write my comments but
in order to keep my comments down to three minutes I needed to write
them. I agree with many producers around the country that say the
current program is working. It may not be perfect, but it sure beats the
heck out of any previous program we have used. I also agree with
Secretary Johanns that USDA programs must be WTO-compliant. However, we
must recognize that agricultural subsidies do exist worldwide. We have
to vigorously fight international efforts to undermine U.S. farm policy
without simultaneous and equal changes abroad.\
\
It\'s been reported that one problem with our current program is that it
contributes to increased land values. This is a good result, not a bad
one. Increased profitability should result in increased value of assets.
The principle reason we see many landowners selling property is because
the industry of agriculture is not keeping pace with the rest of the
American economy. Cheap land will not help this problem. It will only
make it worse.\
\
Conservation programs have worthy goals, but the downside is they
compete with farmers for usable cropland. Riparian buffers, wetland
restoration efforts, and other programs offer absentee landowners more
money than the rent offered by the farmer currently farming the land.\
\
I like the idea of shifting some of the funds to green initiatives.
However, funding renewable and alternative energy initiatives and new
value-added product production would be much more financially supportive
of farmers.\
\
The CCC buyer energy program is a green program that needs to be fully
funded. Producer-owned ethanol plants in the Midwest have caused a shift
in commodity price structure. The investment by the USDA through this
program has increased farm income, created a second income to the farmer
investors, reduced farm program payments, and complements to value-added
and renewable energy grant programs.\
\
It is true that tax incentive programs have positively impacted the sale
of renewable fuels. These incentives however do not assist producers to
build plants to meet new demand. I appreciate the effort by USDA to
reach out to farm producers. No matter the outcome of this process, at
least the effort to listen has been made.\
\
I can only hope that the message being sent by farmers across the
country of \"tweak it, don\'t trash it\" is heard. I didn\'t have in my
comments, but I will add since I have a bit of time I think, had we
received this prior to the meeting in the notice the questions it would
have been helpful. Maybe it was an error on just my part, but it was an
e-mail. Then maybe we could have actually referenced the questions to
comments. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Who\'s next? For some people that are just coming in, you
basically have three minutes to speak, and we welcome all comments.
Chris?\
\
MR. CHRIS CADWALDER (sp): Good morning, Under Secretary Rey. My name is
Chris Cadwalder, and I\'m from Felton, Delaware.\
\
I was raised in Eastern Pennsylvania, Bucks County. And I happen to be a
30-year-employee of USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. My
life has been most closely tied to the Northeastern part of the United
States, and the Midatlantic states of Maryland, Delaware and the
Washington, DC area.\
\
One point that I think should get serious consideration in the 2007 Farm
Bill is substantially higher increased funding for farmland
preservation, particularly targeted to specific areas. Farmland on the
East and West Coast I believe is being lost at a much rapid, more rapid
rate than the rest of the United States, and it\'s also on the East and
West Coast where the majority of special commodity production occurs.\
\
I believe that the protection of farmland can be targeted specifically
for areas like the Delmarva Peninsula. Just in Delaware we have been
losing over 10,000 acres of farmland annually. The reasons for this are
quite obvious\-- due to the increase in population in New Jersey,
Eastern Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Washington area, people are moving
further away from their employment in major cities and development is
spreading now throughout the Delmarva Peninsula.\
\
I believe that if we don\'t have the foresight to invest in our
agricultural land base and protect farming acres for the future that the
Delmarva Peninsula will end up being like New Jersey and Eastern
Pennsylvania.\
\
And of course that has consequences also in regards to conservation and
the environment with the Delmarva Peninsula being sandwiched between the
Delaware and Chesapeake Bay.\
\
Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Next? Some brave soul wants to come up? All comments are
welcome, either prepared or off-the-cuff.\
\
MR. DOUG SCOTT: I don\'t know about being a brave soul, but I\'m here.
Good morning, Under Secretary Rey, Secretary Scuse, Dr. Kee. My name is
Doug Scott, and I\'m assistant secretary of Resource Conservation at the
Maryland Department of Agriculture. On behalf of Secretary Riley I would
like to extend our opportunity to address this session.\
\
I\'m pleased to be able to be here in our sister state of Delaware with
whom we work very well with and face similar challenges. We share much
information with our neighbors and them back with us. For the farm
families in our states we strive to make our programs as similar as
possible.\
\
Our secretary often states that agriculture knows no state lines, and he
has directed his staff in that manner. Unfortunately the legislature
doesn\'t always agree, but we do our best. Maryland has a long history
of many accomplishments in the conservation arena. One of the highlights
that we have in our state is our MAWQCS program, Maryland Agriculture
Water Quality Cost Share Program, that has spent over \$90 million of
state funds and \$11 million from farmers in the installations of
agriculture conservation and water quality best management practices.\
\
We\'re celebrating our 21st year this year, and those practices equate
to three per day for 365 days a year for 20 years. Because of our strong
partnerships among our local, state and federal programs these
accomplishments are possible. We have parallel interests in crafting a
Farm Bill that can keep this momentum going.\
\
I will now make a few specific comments about programs. The Conservation
Security Program needs to be fully funded and continue on its current
path. It is working as intended in Maryland by rewarding the best and
encouraging additional conservation. As you are aware, Maryland had a
tremendous sign-up, one of the best in the nation, with 50 percent of
our farmers achieving Tier III. That is a testament not only to strong
programs in existence but also to farmers\' strong conservation ethic.
CSP provides great opportunities for promoting and leveraging additional
conservation and continuing management over a long term.\
\
On EQIP we feel EQIP must be funded at least at current levels, and with
a strong emphasis on animal waste management. There are proven benefits
in Maryland. Manure management continues to be one of our biggest
challenges, and it is important that federal programs continue to
support in the ground conservation measures that allow farmers to be
proactive in addressing manure management and other resource concerns.
It will assure locally led conservation remains a significant component
of the program. The diversity within each state and region requires
flexibility to be built into EQIP so locally significant resource issues
can be targeted and addressed.\
\
On technical assistance, the delivery system needs to be enhanced for
programs to work. There needs to be a trained corps of technical staff
whose main objective is working with farmers to find the best tools
available to address resource concerns. Technical service providers work
on discrete pieces of implementation\-- the need for public employees
who address the bigger picture, innovation, program enhancement, and
farmer education is not diminished by contributions of the private
sector.\
\
Again, I would like to express my thanks for the opportunity to address
these issues. Governor Ehrlich and representatives in Washington will
work with USDA and Secretary Johanns to help us leverage our assets so
we can achieve as much on-the-ground conservation work as possible. That
is what separates agricultural conservation from the rest of the
conservation arena. We put the dollars to work. We know what can work,
and we know how to sell these projects.\
\
The districts, state Departments of Agriculture, and USDA form a
partnership that is the envy of the non-ag resource conservation world.
I pledge we can accomplish even more if we are assured of the resources
to carry these missions forward. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Anybody is welcome. All comments are welcome.
We\'ve heard from a lot of agency folks. Those comments are welcome, as
are any farmer comments, especially farmer comments. Maybe a farmer from
Greenwood might like to say something? If this moment of silence
continues I\'m just going to start picking on you. Please state your
name, where you\'re from, your age, your net worth. Just kidding. Go
ahead, Keith. I\'m sorry.\
\
KEITH (farmer from Greenwood): I appreciate the opportunity to be here
and meet the Under Secretary and Secretary Scuse, my friend Ed Kee. My
family for years have turned our back on programs, the money programs,
and the reality became that we had to participate. And I want the
Secretary to know that the only thing we had left out of our corn crop
to take home was the LDP portion. And it meant a lot, it means a lot to
us. It keeps us in business. And we\'re suffering pressure, a lot of
pressure from development and in my personal opinion the only thing
that\'s going to stop the development in our part of the world is
profitability in agriculture. I know that can\'t be a giveaway deal but
\--\
\
And then I have some real issues with the old farm program, and I don\'t
fully understand some of these things. Some of these programs have got
more tripwires in them than a minefield in Cambodia. But in California a
lot of farmers and ranchers send their attorneys to the FSA office to do
the work, and to be an active farmer and rancher and be limited in staff
we don\'t have a lot of time to spend reading and working over these
programs.\
\
I don\'t have problems with the staff that are at the county offices.
They do a great job. But it\'s pretty complicated program.\
\
But I been impacted by a program, and I don\'t fully understand the CRP
program where they take land and plant it in trees for 15 years. Well, I
was trying to develop, put several farms together to put some irrigation
systems on, and my neighbor put the program into CRP program, 15 years,
paid \$140 or \$150 an acre about three years up front I understand.
This is really unfair competition for farmers, young farmers, old
farmers, all farmers. I\'m certainly an old farmer. That\'s my primary
concern is the complicated programs, which I\'m going to have to get
myself immersed into because it\'s the only way we\'re going to remain
viable in the business. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Keith, if I may as a moderator, can I ask you a question? I
hate to put you on the spot. But one thing I hear is from vegetable
growers is to keep commercial vegetable commodities whether grown for
processing or fresh market, everything from asparagus, beans, potatoes,
pickles, out of the commodity subsidized programs. Could you comment to
that one way or the other, please?\
\
KEITH: Yeah. I fully concur with that. I think they should remain
outside the program. I\'m here from the government to help you is
dangerous. And I been through that. It upsets the balance of production
\-- the corn, the beans, the wheat, the barley, what not. The only
reason \--\
\
I\'ll make another comment too. We need the grain crops as rotational
crops for the vegetable crops, but we certainly don\'t need controls and
quota systems for the vegetable production because it\'s not good for
business. Once you start down that road you got to keep going, and the
corn, beans, wheat, barley, cotton and peanuts things like that. I\'m
having to learn, I\'m being forced to learn to farm the government
program.\
\
MODERATOR: Keith, thank you for answering that. And other growers may
have different comments.\
\
SEC. REY: Having what you said what you just did about not having a
program similar to the grains, the states have worked on the inclusion
of a block grant to go to the states for all the specialty crops. Are
you in favor of some type of funding to do research and to look at new
markets for products in the vegetable industry?\
\
KEITH: I\'d have to answer that in the affirmative, yes. You take,
there\'s a lot of research goes in corn, beans, and wheat, barley,
cotton, things like that. So you can\'t level the playing field forever,
buddy. But certainly given the present price of commodities \-- and I
share with you the vegetable production is no panacea of profitability.
There\'s an awful lot of risks there. And of course with risk there\'s
benefit. Sometimes we struggle to see the benefit.\
\
MODERATOR: Keith, thank you. I put you on the spot, but as always you
handle the pressure well. And there may be differing opinions, and
that\'s what this is about. Anyone else that would like to come up and
make a comment? I\'m not moving until at least five more people come up
and say something. We\'re going to barricade the doors. Here we go.
Remember to state your name and place.\
\
MR. BOB WILSON: Bob Wilson. I was born about four and a half miles west
of town on a farm. Have been in farming one way or another all my life.
There was a couple comments made, and I don\'t know how they\'re going
to fit into this 2000 Farm Bill, but I\'d just like to add to them.\
\
The tree program that Keith just alluded to I was involved with one of
those just as an observer and commenter to a farm about a mile down the
road that was planted in trees. The fellow that put it in trees was not
a farmer, so I asked one of the, I believe it was NRC man or one of the
program managers anyway, how much of this farm after the 10-year period
I think it was would revert back to farmland. He said only 50 percent of
it. The rest of it was going to revert back to wetlands and could never
be farmed again.\
\
The other thing was, and I apologize for not bringing it with me because
of some other personal problems\-- the Farm Journal, the latest issue. I
don\'t know whether any of you read that or not, but there\'s a very
interesting article and if you want a copy of it I\'ll be glad to run a
copy and Xerox it to you. It\'s talking about closing FSA offices over
the USDA came out with this and they were using some fictitious figures
and they used Deere and Company for one said they only had so many
facilities that sold machinery to customers. Well, they didn\'t take
into account that Agro, Case IH, all of these, and a lot of minor
suppliers supply other things. So the figures didn\'t jibe for what they
were putting in there. And I can\'t remember some of the specifics of
the article. And like I say, I apologize for not bringing that.\
\
And probably got some more things to say but just getting that card on a
short notice and my mother being in the hospital and I been running back
and forth there, plus some other things, and I didn\'t really have a
chance to categorize it in these categories. I apologize for that. And I
welcome these sessions. I welcome the dignitaries for taking the time to
be here and giving us the opportunity to speak. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. If anyone thinks of something else, they\'re
welcome to come back to the mike. Again, if you\'d rather jot down
comments you could drop them in the box or go on to the website. Robin.\
\
MS. ROBIN BLENT (sp): I\'m Robin Blent. I\'m a third-generation farmer.
Both my mom and dad\'s parents were farmers. My parents are farmers. My
youngest brother is a farmer. And I have farmed for over 20 years. I\'m
located in Southern New Castle County, Delaware. I\'m also a first
alternate on the FSA County Committee.\
\
And one of the funding issues I would like to see, many people in this
room know that I on the side also marketed and serviced crop insurance
for six years. Different producers have their own philosophy as far as
utilizing the crop insurance program. I however was a strong believer
obviously because I was an agent for six years. But I would like to see
more funding for the crop insurance program. At least there is crop
insurance. There are many improvements that need to be made to the
program, especially when covering expenses due to insurable causes of
losses.\
\
I\'m glad to see that the state of Delaware has the CRC programs offered
on small wheat. It\'s not available in barley but anyhow. So there again
it\'s the crop insurance issue. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Robin. Who\'s next? Bill. Please.\
\
My name is William R. Parker. I hate to do this. I been around this town
for 62 years. And I farmed. I\'m a retired farmer, but I just couldn\'t
let an opportunity like this go without saying something. I\'m the
world\'s worst public speaker. A fairly good debater.\
\
But there\'s a few things here, just a couple points that I wanted to
make. And I\'m very familiar with all the issues, everything that
happens, that has happened. But I would like to know how many farmers
are in this room that are 100 percent farmers that make all their money
from farming. I\'d just like to see a show of hands. (pause) As you can
see, this area you know should have this room filled right here. And the
farmers that would talk to you or should talk to you are not here.
They\'re all out here, friends of mine, that are tilling my farms,
working their tail ends off, and they\'re not making the presentations
and do what they need to do to get the best things happened to them.\
\
And with this being said, I\'m going to make one comment about the
environment. When I was born in this area the environmental problems
were no problem because everybody lived on a farm. There was a few
people in town. It was no problem to take care of the sewage, and it was
a wonderful place to live. Now all the environmental problems have been
caused by too many people on too few acres, and that\'s what\'s
happening in everything in this country. There\'s too many people, too
few acres, and they\'re living where everybody wants to boat, fish and
be on the water. If they took all the septic plants on the Eastern shore
and the Peninsula and made them empty and open fields so you could see
what was happening, we would have no environmental problem whatsoever.
None.\
\
But they have the numbers, they have the people, and they can write any
kind of legislation they want. They can get any kind of variances they
want to dump manure everywhere they want. I can\'t get nitrogen to run
one foot on my farm where I don\'t want it. If I leave a strip one foot
wide there\'s no nitrogen. I want to know how nitrogen goes 26 miles
down a ditch into the river when I can\'t get it to move a foot.\
\
Now that being said, there\'s going to be more people. The value of the
land has gone completely crazy. There\'s going to be more people,
there\'s going to be fewer acres no matter what you do. And I think the
first thing that should be addressed is all the population and septic,
sewage and that sort of thing first. I don\'t know how to do it exactly,
but I think the people should know the difference in human waste and
animal waste.\
\
Now it\'s easy to pick on farmers because there\'s no numbers. But
humans are the ones that are causing these problems. And we have to
address it at some point in time.\
\
Down at the Narrows where we boat, they\'ve built condominiums all
around the waterways, on piling, on every area there is down there
except the marina. I just think those things are going unnoticed at all.
The people that are trying to promote the environment and the really
well-thinking people \-- but they don\'t understand they are
contributing when they have the half acre, one-acre, three-quarter acre
or two-acres compared to the farmers that have 50 acres, 100 acres,
1,000 acres or two or three. The farmers are not the problem I don\'t
think, at the level they\'re being pushed on.\
\
And all these regulations and rules. When I quit farming three years ago
I would have had \-- I don\'t have any more time, I\'m sorry \-- but I
would have to hire another person full-time to take care of my farming
operation. That would have been another \$40,000 or \$50,000. So thank
you very much.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Bill. Who\'s next? Leolga. Again, if you\'ve
already commented but something else occurs to you, feel free to come
back up.\
\
MS. LEOLGA RAY: Leolga Ray \-- actually speaking on behalf of FSA
offices. I want to say that this last Farm Bill we did was probably one
of the easier ones to implement. It was more time-consuming because
producers had a lot more options that they could take. I will tell you
I\'ve heard many producers that have come in our office now say, be it
good or be it bad, if it weren\'t for our offices they would no longer
be in farming.\
\
Personally, the bill that we have now has worked well. There were some
concerns depending on what year it is and how the crops are harvested or
what the prices are with payment eligibility. And at this point in time
we all know for LDP purposes, which we\'re in now there is a \$75,000
limit. Whether there is some provisions where depending on the economy
for that year and or the prices if this could be changed during the Farm
Bill, not having to change legislation but have it in there where
depending on the prices that Congress may have the option of changing
that limit would probably be greatly appreciated.\
\
Again personally, I think the Farm Bill that we have implemented is a
good one. In regards to Keith and his vegetable question that he had
about being able to diversify, with FSA normally if you have been a
vegetable producer in previous years you stand to lose some payments if
you go over your base. However if we do a new Farm Bill they want to
consider being able to allow producers that have reported in the most
previous years to be able to bring their vegetable history into play.\
\
Specifically in Sussex County we had a lot of older producers who were
not involved in the programs at all. We now have new producers that are
becoming involved, and they are growing vegetables, and they would like
to see this part put into the Farm Bill.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Leolga. Who else would like to make some comments?
Yes, sir.\
\
MR. JAY CHARLIN (sp): My name is Jay Charlin. I\'m an Assateague Coast
keeper down in Worcester County, Maryland.\
\
First of all I\'d like to say to the gentleman in black, you are a great
public speaker. You really are.\
\
I\'d also like to echo what he said about people. There are too many
people moving to Delmarva too fast. We are not, certainly in my county,
Worcester County, we are not able to maintain the infrastructure and
keep up with the influx. I think if you look around Sussex County,
Delaware or Accomack County, Virginia, you\'ll see the same thing.\
\
Another thing I want to suggest, and I know this is kind of a radical
subject, but I\'ve worked a lot with farmers in Oregon and here. And
this is not really a federal issue either, but if something could be
done to relax subdivision regulations in agricultural areas so that we
could rearrange property boundaries so that when a farmer is asked or
when agriculture is asked to maintain buffers around waterways it
doesn\'t actually take land out of production. If we could rearrange
property so that there could be large contiguous chunks of land
available for agriculture and that those were set back from waterways we
were trying to protect I think that would be a big benefit. What we
can\'t do right now is move property lines so that you have workable
farms that are set back from waterways. I just wanted to propose that as
kind of a radical solution, something to be looked at for the future.
Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Someone else? Here comes two. Good.\
\
MS. CATHY FOGEL (sp): My name is Cathy Fogel. I\'m a dairy farmer west
of Harrington. I just gave the gentleman an article I got, someone gave
me from USA Today. It\'s on the proposal by our trade secretary Rob
Portman to do away, to recommend trimming farm aid by 60 percent. I
don\'t know if any of you saw it. What I want to know is, in light of
this article and in what the USDA has done for us in the past in
subsidizing farming, if the government chooses not to subsidize farming
anywhere anymore \-- I agree with Mr. Baker that we\'re not going to do
that permanently \-- will you be able to give us, or will the Farm Bill
give us some marketing skills so that we can, or some areas where we can
\--\
\
Because as a group we don\'t come together very much. Some skills to be
able to market our products and use them to get the best dollar out of
what we grow.\
\
I also would like to see you make our programs easier to use, more
farmer-friendly so that like Mr. Carlisle said we don\'t have to have a
lawyer come up and do the things we need done.\
\
And the environmental programs that you offer us I\'d like to see some
of them be a little more open-ended so that our local agencies had a
little more flexibility in what they could and couldn\'t do with the
program you offer and with the funds that are available to them.\
\
And that\'s all. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Someone else was getting ready to come up.\
\
MR. JIM DEETS: My name is Jim Deets. I farm in the Middletown area about
600 acres. I\'m not a public speaker, and I don\'t usually get out in
the public.\
\
You gave us this nice handout, which is handy, and as the other guy said
if we\'d had it earlier we would have probably been more prepared.\
\
Number 1, 2, 4, and 5. It all says, number one, how do we bring young
people in? Number two, be competitive overseas? Number four, how can the
policy achieve conservation and environmental goals? And number five,
how can rural and farm programs provide effective assistance in rural
areas?\
\
Well, these are all important issues. But the number one issue right now
for the farmers is how are you going to help preserve us farmers?
Because without us farmers none of these goals you set are going to be
usable.\
\
Number 3, it seems to work. It\'s just that it\'s not keeping up with
our production cost. Right now as a grain farmer without the programs
not figuring in any labor, any equipment upkeep or cost for any
insurances, if I\'m selling 125 bushels of corn at \$2 a bushel I\'m
losing \$21 an acre. On soybeans without any program help I\'m losing
\$8 an acre, and that\'s just what I\'m spending for seed, lime,
fertilizer, and fuel and hauling, stuff of that nature, stuff that\'s
risen with the cost of inflation that farmers can\'t pass on to truckers
that\'s hauling grain. They\'re getting a fuel adjustment cost. I\'m
sitting in the grain-mill lines with them and I\'m not getting a fuel
adjustment cost.\
\
And all of industry is raising their cost but we have no way of doing
that. Anyway, that\'s basically \--\
\
The program\'s working. I think it needs some tweaking. And a lot of
special interest groups have interests, and I think their interests are
important, but if we don\'t keep the farmer around it\'s not going to
help to do that.\
\
Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. And thank you for sharing that cost data. As Mark
said, this input does get processed and it does get saved. And the
analysts and everyone else will factor all this in. So that\'s very good
information. Who else would like to speak? Yes, sir. Remember to state
your name as everyone comes up to the mike, and try to stand close to
the microphone too.\
\
MR. MICHAEL HAGGY (sp): My name is Michael Haggy. I come from Crumpton,
Maryland. And I\'m a part-time farmer, and I did not put my hand up when
the gentleman over there mentioned full-time farmers because I do not
derive more than 25 percent of my living from agriculture.\
\
I grow corn and soybeans and a small amount of hay in Talbot and Queen
Anne\'s Counties. For my accent I\'ll put anybody to rest since I am a
first-generation immigrant, and I\'m enormously grateful to be in this
country. I left my homeland because I was almost regulated out of that,
because of the agricultural restrictions. My family had farmed there for
nearly 800 years. My brother is continuing that battle.\
\
That aside, I wanted to say that the existing programs, particularly the
conservation programs as set forth in the 2002 Farm Bill are I believe
exceptional. Unfortunately I have not had that confidence because of the
article that the lady produced of a commitment to continued funding. I
don\'t think we need to reinvent the wheel. The existing conservation
programs are effective, and there must be a commitment to them. And
these include CSP, CREP, EQIP, etcetera. But there must be an equity in
funding distribution between the landowner and the tenant, and that has
led to a tremendous amount of disregard for them and nonacceptance from
operating farmers \-- those who are purely tenants I mean and not
owner-occupiers.\
\
With a subsidized food system of food and fiber that we have in this
country, there must be a public commitment to that production and to the
people who produce those materials because otherwise there will be
continued pressure on the biosphere. Agriculture needs to diversify, not
just nationally but locally, and utilize regional products. There needs
to be a public commitment to this. I thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Sir, can I just ask a question? What \-- I assume
your home country was Great Britain?\
\
MR. HAGGY: It\'s England, yes.\
\
MODERATOR: England. And I\'m just curious because I love going there,
what part?\
\
MR. HAGGY: In Gloucester, in the west part of England. It\'s a nice
place to visit, but this is a great country to live.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Christina.\
\
MS. CRISTINA GALLANT (sp): I am Cristina Gallant. I\'m from the Delaware
FFA Association. I come from Smyrna, Delaware. And as a young
agriculturalist, it\'s impossible not to notice the globalization of the
agriculture industry. What we from the Delaware Association FFA
Association think\-- (audio break)\
\
\-- other sources of energy we could really prosper as an industry.\
\
My last point is that we have learned that we can live without oil
because we\'ve found other ways of producing it, but we can\'t live
without food. So it\'s really important with homeland security that we
keep youth interested in the agriculture industry and that they don\'t
feel that we are going to be put down as we try to prosper in our future
endeavors in the industry.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Let me just pause for a moment. Cristina and the
young lady sitting next to her, Hally Thompson (sp), are students in my
class. I teach three courses at the university \-- vegetable science,
fruit science, and then in the winter session I teach a course called
\"Issues in Agriculture.\" And in that course we try to get the young
people to understand and grapple with the things that are being
mentioned today.\
\
It\'s easy to teach the course because basically I throw them in a van
and take them out to farms and processing plants and just have fun that
way. I don\'t build a lot of lectures. But I would also say it\'s
probably the most productive course I teach, and I was proud of
Cristina. She\'s taking fruit science this semester, and she worked in
that 14 percent apples from China. She\'s working for extra credit is
what she\'s doing here, not that she needs it. But anyway, it\'s good to
see the young people proceeding.\
\
Okay, someone else, or someone that has spoken that would like to come
back?\
\
MS. BARBARA MOORE: The name is Barbara Moore. We have farmed in the
Smyrna area. I\'m a fourth-generation farmer, and I\'m still trying to
do all the bookwork. I don\'t have anything prepared, but we also
need\-- on the way down here beings we\'re doing conservation and I was
very rude to a conservation man here the other day that wanted to ask
questions because we have so many interviews. I apologize to him for
being rude.\
\
But we need to also educate the lawn people. Beings the sun is out this
morning, I passed five lawn people that are running around putting
fertilizer on so they\'ll have job security. They have no idea, they\'re
not interested in whether it\'s going to the Delaware Bay, Chesapeake
Bay. But it comes back on to us farmers. We have to fill out reports,
how much fertilizer, how much nitrogen, all the things. After you pay
\$500,000 to \$600,000 for your fertilizer bill you\'re not going to put
an ounce more than what you need. In fact you\'re going to do less. The
same thing with sprays.\
\
Also, I have a dairy farm. We are constantly having people move in,
getting around us, reporting us to the state because we stink. We need
to have some help. I was in one of the foreign countries with Dr. Henlei
(sp). They make gas from manure. We can do the same thing here with
chicken manure, we can do the same thing with cow manure. I was in
Sweden and they have a great big furnace. I live close to Kent County.
They heat a whole town with straw off the field to do away with the
pollution. We need to look into those areas.\
\
I was also buying a farm when \-- I\'m not picking on the potato farmers
\-- but I was trying to buy a farm when the people from Long Island came
down and bought up ground in our particular area. And we all fussed
about the potato farmers. The potato farmers are struggling just like we
are. But if you look at the map you look at Long Island and it\'s
surrounded with water just like we are. They have nothing but houses.\
\
We have a (unclear) bit of ground in the Smyrna area. You have a real
estate man that\'s calling at least once a month wanting to pay high
money for your farm. I have three generations. My husband still works as
long as he can work, 14 or 15 hours; a son, a grandson, and a child
that\'s been with us since he was 10. He doesn\'t even want to be
interested in farming on his grandparents\' farm because the risk is too
great. He didn\'t even want to go in halves. So that\'s a younger
generation that\'s 30 years old.\
\
We have quite a problem. I went in Value City the other day to get a
bargain. I found a bargain. A nice jar of carrots about this big around,
and about this high, a \$1.59. Turkey. I picked up another piece of
bargain and it was noodles made in Italy. We do definitely have a
problem.\
\
Thank you \-- if I fussed too much.\
\
MODERATOR: That\'s great. Thank you.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Bob, come on up, please. Bob, I know you came in late but
just remember to state your name and your home town and your role in
agriculture or roles.\
\
MR. ROBERT GARY: For those who do not know me, I\'m Robert Gary from
Kent County, grain farmer, chair of the Agland Preservation Program and
president of the Kent County Farm Bureau.\
\
I have a lot of mixed emotions about the present Farm Bill. I know the
money is going to be short because of the other issues we have in our
country. And I don\'t have all the answers, but I do have some angles.\
\
I\'m frustrated many times by the number of programs that come through
USDA and the paperwork and complications that go with it. I know a lot
of people that wouldn\'t be in agriculture are in agriculture now
because of these programs. Sometimes I wonder if they\'re working the
programs instead of working the ground.\
\
I\'m kind of like the old H. R. Hutton or whoever it was said they got
it through earning it. I\'m not narrow-minded enough to know that we can
compete on a world market without some help. How in the world can we
grow grain for what we\'re expected to grow it for without any
assistance against countries that can use any kind of chemical or any
kind of seed they want to use without paying any duty to the seed
company for special technology and things like that.\
\
But I also believe that many of the programs have kept farmers farming
that would have been better off if they\'d been doing something else,
supporting another farm in operation. So I guess I want to sum it up by
saying I think the Farm Bill should be much less complicated. There\'s
way too many programs, way too many angles to get money to way too many
people that\'s not benefiting the farmer himself that\'s the producer.
And we absolutely have to have producers in this country. We\'re buying
way too much out of this country and sending way too much money out of
this country for other things. Agriculture\'s one of the producers that
we have in this country, and I loved what the girl said about the 14
percent of the apples coming, not because you emphasized it but that\'s
the thinking.\
\
Where do our vegetables come from? What happens if we seal the borders,
totally seal the borders? What do we have in this country, and what do
we have supporting agriculture that will be here regardless of what
happens?\
\
I think the Farm Bill should address the security issue and the
complication of the existing Farm Bill when they write the new Farm
Bill.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, bob.\
\
BOB: By the way I would love to have been here when it started but I
have grandchildren showing so if you see me leave I\'m trying to stretch
myself two places.\
\
MODERATOR: We understand, and we appreciate everybody making the effort
to come out. And we appreciate the comments. You can tell they\'re
heartfelt, real, and they\'re good information.\
\
Who else would like to say something? Austin?\
\
MR. AUSTIN SHORT: Good morning. I\'m Austin Short, state forester. I
have the pleasure for working for Secretary Scuse as a state forester,
but also I am the fourth generation in our family farm in Sussex
County.\
\
I want to talk about one thing we haven\'t talked too much about today,
and that is forestry, not so much the concerns that were expressed
earlier about CREP but forestland in general. It\'s a very important
part of the state; it\'s one-third of our cover. It provides many
benefits and as often sometimes the CD in the bank when farms need money
in a bad year they sell their timber.\
\
I would hope that the 2007 Farm Bill will continue to have a forestry
title as the 2002 Farm Bill does. And I would also encourage USDA to
look for ways to further integrate forestry practices into existing
programs \-- be it CSP, EQIP or what have you.\
\
You know we\'ve heard a lot today about concerns about water quality and
that sort of thing. Certainly a well-managed and well-run forest is one
way we can help to address that.\
\
I would also add, working for the State Department of Ag there as was
said previously, there are numerous programs out there. It\'s hard for
landowners to keep them all straight. It\'s sometimes hard for us to
keep them all straight working with landowners. Any way we can work to
streamline those and make it easier, I think while it\'s obvious it\'s
certainly very important.\
\
It was mentioned earlier about conservation easements. I think they
certainly play an important role, particularly in a state like this.
It\'s not the only answer. But anything we can do to work toward those
type programs I think is also important, not just for farmland but for
forestland as well.\
\
And I think the last two things I want to say is, there\'s a lot of
concern about the loss of commodity payments. If that does occur I think
perhaps one other alternative we can look at, as I think Mr. Baker
mentioned earlier, is environmental services. To date landowners do not
receive any income from the many benefits they provide such as clean
water, carbon sequestration, clean air, that sort of thing. I think that
may be one option we can look at that both farmland and forestland can
help provide and landowners can be compensated for as a means to offset
perhaps future reductions in commodity payments.\
\
The last thing I\'d mention, we heard a little bit about energy, use of
agriculture products for energy. I will also echo that as well as
forests. It may not have a large role here in Delaware but certainly in
some parts of the country the use of wood products for energy is a
renewable resource and I\'d argue much better than fossil fuels.\
\
Thank you very much.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Who else would like to make some comments? Yes,
sir.\
\
MR. BRUCE SNOW: I didn\'t come down here necessarily to say anything. My
name is Bruce Snow and I\'m a fifth generation farmer. My son is just
getting into farming, and I live across the street more or less from
Michael.\
\
A couple concerns on the new Farm Bill. I got out of college in the
early \'80s and they wrote the first Farm Bill where they started
throwing money at us, and then they finally got into the \'96 bill where
they were going to wean us off. And that was, you know not wean us
completely off but then midstream I had a crop planted, you guys wrote a
new Farm Bill, I had already made my business plans based on the old
one, and that\'s a big part of my income. I\'m a businessman. I\'m a
family farmer, but if I\'m not a businessman I\'m broke and then I\'ll
be working in town.\
\
But you know, you wrote a Farm Bill and tried to implement, middle of
the crop year. That was a big concern for me that, and I hope that
doesn\'t happen with the next Farm Bill.\
\
If we look at the amount of money we\'re being given today through the
Farm Bill to help the farmer compared to the last Farm Bill when they
were saying they were going to wean us off, I just read where this is
going to be a good chance this crop year will be the largest money ever
paid out by the USDA for commodity programs.\
\
Big concern for me is, we need \-- I read the questions and unintended
consequences, you know that they made some major improvements on the
insurance programs offered to farmers, and I have taken the opportunity
to learn from USDA a little bit about them and participate in some of
them. Disaster programs, they don\'t want to do them, they want to do
them. You know, when there\'s a disaster that\'s when obviously people
need help; we need to have some money available for that I feel.\
\
You know, maximize U.S. competitiveness and kind of in the rural areas
\-- I don\'t know the Farm Bill addresses the transportation needs for
the commodities that we have. Fuel prices increasing. Our rail system
has been improving a little bit in the last few years, but it\'s been
overlooked.\
\
The biggest part of the commodities I grow come down the Mississippi.
There\'s a lot of fighting between different environmental areas and
stuff to rebuild the locks, improve the river system, make it more
usable. You know, maybe we need some money there.\
\
But I realize LDPs this year are a lot of money, and I think it\'s going
to contribute greatly to the cost of the farm program for the
government. And that\'s a problem with trade organization. It\'s a world
market but at the same time we get back to direct payments and you talk
about land values, I don\'t think in my area I don\'t think the USDA can
keep my values of land at all competitive with what\'s happened to land
values. I don\'t think they need to fool with it. It is what it is. The
amount of people, the price of land, everything else. But as a
profitable farmer, I need to look at land rents and things like that.
When I get into direct payments they really get tacked on to my land
rents. If there was some way we could maintain the countercyclical and
LDPs more and not in favor of the direct payments because they just seem
to just float right through my operation.\
\
But I think the conservation programs are here to stay. They\'re not a
bad thing. They provide incentives to good farmers that are good for the
environment, and but my concern is the amount of money as a taxpayer and
just I\'m also a committeeman for FSA and it concerns me the closing of
offices across the country. I see all this money you\'re spending and I
see my office having to cut back on postage. You talk about you guys
didn\'t get these? Because we\'re limited as just the dollars we can
spend on stamps, but yet we\'re going to spend \$4 or \$5 billion just
on corn LDPs alone this year, not that that\'s a bad thing, but we need
to look at where that money is going through this thing.\
\
If we want some assistance then we have to have the people to implement
it.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone that would like to come back
that thought of that important point they wanted to make? Anyone that
hasn\'t spoken yet? Bill. Please.\
\
(off-mike)\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Bill. That is a theme. I know Mark\'s comments
earlier, just casual comments before the meeting started, I think
you\'re hitting on a theme about that the farm bill should address the
transition to the next generation and what you just said Bill and Bruce
said, who owns the land? In my case I own a small farm, not that this is
an official deal. You\'ve all been through it. But Nathan Hayward is
planning to put a bunch of concrete through it, or thinking about it.
Now whether my farm stays as a farm won\'t mean much to the future of
agriculture anyway, but if you add mine up on top of thousands of others
then that\'s the issue.\
\
Incidentally, I\'m working on that issue. I\'m going to make that
highway go somewhere else. But that\'s not the purpose of this meeting.\
\
Okay. Someone else? There must be some good comments, some good
thoughts, more good thoughts. It\'s a little bit after 11:00. We\'re
scheduled to go to 12:30. Obviously I don\'t think we\'ll do that. We
were scheduled to have a break at 11:00 but with the number that we have
we thought we\'d just keep working through for awhile and make sure
everyone got a chance. There\'s an opportunity for more comments or new
comments. Bill?\
\
(off mike)\
\
MODERATOR: You\'re asking Mark or someone to comment? The USDA bill or
the audience? Mark\'s going to make some comments at the wrap-up that I
think he says we\'ll talk about that.\
\
Yes, sir?\
\
MR. FREEMAN EVANS (sp): Thank you. My name is Freeman Evans. I come from
Catonsville, Maryland. I also represent Chesapeake Fields Farmers Co-op.
For those of you not familiar with that, we have three new organizations
under the Chesapeake Fields that we\'ve started in Chestertown, and our
motto is \"Preservation Through Profitability.\" We are focused on
value-added and specialty crops presently marketing overseas and getting
into the snackfood business in this country.\
\
USDA has been very helpful in our start-up and technical assistance, and
we would like to see that continued as we move into an infrastructure
building phase of this development. We feel we can eventually take some
of the burden off the government of direct support to us by these
value-added and specialty crops. And we would just like to see more
support as we continue that endeavor. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Someone else that would like to comment? Keith?
Please.\
\
KEITH: I got just one comment. Economics said food and fiber will be
paid for. Young businesspersons will see it happens. And our government
needs to know whether it will be through subsidies, subsidies and the
marketplace, or all subsidies. So I push that out there for you. And I
agree with Bill that when you lose the incentive to own your land the
work ethic\'s going to go down the tube. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Okay. As many of you know Michael\'s family have
been in the auctioneering business. I\'m going to do this almost like an
auctioneer. Anybody else that would like to make anymore comments? Going
once \-- gentleman just walked in the room. You saved us. Come forward.
Tell us who you are and where you\'re from and what\'s on your mind.
Thank you.\
\
MR. ALAN JONES (sp): My name\'s Alan Jones. I\'m chair of the
Governor\'s Council on Forestry, past president of the Delaware Forestry
Association, and I am a private landowner and tree farmer.\
\
I just would like to speak to the landowner assistance is really, it\'s
the main incentive for people to put their land in trees and to maintain
it that way. And then I know the federal dollars are very important to
the operation of the Delaware Department of Agriculture, and for that we
thank you and hope it continues.\
\
Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Okay. Before Under Secretary Rey makes some wrap-up comments
we\'re going to do the auctioneer thing. Anybody would like to make any
final observations or comments for the record, for input into the next
Farm Bill? Yes. Go ahead. Kristie.\
\
MS. KRISTIE ANGSTADT: Hi. My name is Kristie Angstadt, and I actually
come from Camden, Delaware, where I grew up on my grandparents\' farm
for my first 15 years. Right now when we\'re talking about the young
people with farming, honestly I wear this jacket today because I have a
history in farming. Without my history in farming right now there would
be no hope for me to have a possible future in agriculture. As we said
before there\'s hardly any land for us to go around and be able to
purchase.\
\
If you want to give a future of agriculture to your young people then
you need to start providing us with land, money, any help we can get
because without that you aren\'t going to have the future
agriculturalists. You\'re going to have metropolitan areas everywhere
that you look.\
\
So I\'d just like you to keep in mind as you\'re writing this bill that
you are affecting your youth and your possibilities of having to deal
with those other countries that don\'t have to depend upon the same
regulations that we do for our crops that guarantee that you\'re getting
something that hasn\'t been treated with some sort of pesticide that
isn\'t regulated on how much there\'s in it or \--\
\
It upsets me to see that, you know, there might be no possibility for me
to have my own farm one day. Thank you.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you, Kristie. That hits on the theme that Bill and some
others had talked about and makes it very real. Any other comments?
Okay. Go ahead, Bobbie.\
\
MR. ROBERT THOMPSON (sp): Robert Thompson, Hartly, Delaware.\
\
We do some grain farming, raise some dairy replacements. My only comment
is, if we could get Bill\'s question answered directly now it might
stimulate some more questions or comments. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Okay. If that\'s all right with Secretary Rey, maybe he\'ll
make a wrap-up, and that may stimulate a few more questions or comments.
Bill?\
\
BILL: (off-mike)\
\
MODERATOR: If anybody else speaks from the audience and doesn\'t come
up, we\'ll just pass that mike around because \-- yeah. It\'s for the
record.\
\
BILL: I was just curious. I have no idea how anybody feels about
this\--I haven\'t heard. But the government has to decide how they want
to run the system of agriculture. Rather they can\'t give everything
away. They can\'t not support farmers. This is a very complex issue, and
I don\'t know what\'s going to happen. I have no idea. A lot of us that
are farmers now have other interests \-- Mike, myself. And you know
we\'re moving into real estate and Mike\'s doing other things. But the
farming, somebody does have to do that like Bruce said earlier. And I\'d
be curious to see how the government really does feel. Thank you.\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Okay. With that, I will turn the microphone over
to Under Secretary Rey for wrap-up comments and his thoughts on today\'s
event and the Farm Bill in general.\
\
SEC. REY: Thanks, Ed. And thank all of you for your contributions today.
In numbers you are a somewhat smaller group than the average that we\'ve
experienced, but I can tell you in terms of the percentage of those of
you who wanted to offer your thoughts that was much higher per capita.
So while you may be smaller in numbers you\'re larger in opinions and
insights.\
\
I also want to welcome the Marylanders that are here. We will be doing a
similar forum probably November 18 in a location in Western Maryland,
but it was good that you could make it here today. This is probably an
easier trip for you, all things considered than making it out further
west in the state.\
\
As I have worked on these, there\'s been sort of an unintended symmetry
to the states I\'ve ended up holding these sessions in. Last month I
held one in Alaska, and yesterday I held one in Rhode Island. So I\'ve
got the full sweep in terms of geographic distribution. Today in
Delaware I\'m sort of working my way back up in the size categories now
to somewhat larger states.\
\
As you might guess there\'s a lot of diversity of views reflecting the
diversity in American agriculture. But there are some themes that are
emerging that are pretty constant from state to state whether you\'re
talking about a large western state like Idaho or a smaller eastern
state like Delaware. One of those themes is the pressure of development
on agricultural tenure. You all experience that firsthand here in
Delaware. What you probably don\'t appreciate is that it\'s just as big
a problem in Idaho as it is here, Idaho being one of the five or six
fastest-growing states in the country right now. You think of Idaho as
much bigger, but of course much of the land is not suitable for
agriculture because it\'s too arid or it\'s owned by the federal
government. The amount of land that is in private ownership that\'s
suitable for agriculture is what is directly in development\'s path,
much like that same category of land is here.\
\
And that\'s something that seems to be a pretty consistent thread
throughout a number of agricultural states that we visited.\
\
Another constant theme, probably the single most consistent theme we\'ve
heard, is a concern about what the future holds for the next generation
of farmers and ranchers. And that\'s of critical concern to us because
as we look across the demographics of U.S. agriculture today the median
age of a U.S. farmer is about just under 55 years of age, and we are now
up to close to 40 percent of U.S. agricultural land that\'s leased
rather than being farmed by a primary owner.\
\
We don\'t believe that tenure is irrelevant to productivity. Indeed, we
think quite the contrary that one of the things we\'re hearing is a
developing concern over land tenure and the difficulty, A, keeping in
agricultural production and, B, making it available to the next
generation of farmers.\
\
So I think in the next Farm Bill you\'ll see something that will be more
forward-looking and will look at trying to make it easier for new
entries into the agricultural market and making it easier for farmers to
retain ownership of their lands. Not all of the problems associated with
that can be dealt with in farm legislation. Other parts of it involve
tax legislation and capital gains treatment of land and other assets.
But those are also things that we\'re concerned about and looking at as
we move forward in other areas of public policy.\
\
A third area of concern that we\'ve heard about pretty consistently
although with some different points of view depending on which region we
are in and what kinds of producers we were talking to, was the
importance of trade. As was indicated earlier Trade Representative
Portman along with Secretary Johanns were in Geneva this week offering a
very aggressive proposal to our trading partners. One side of that
proposal was our offer to reduce trade-distorting subsidies, both crop
subsidies and export subsidies. But the other side of that proposal was
what we expect our trading partners to do in response to that. And that
is, to remove trade barriers to our products entering into their
markets.\
\
The reason we think that formula is essential to the success of American
agriculture lies in a single statistic, and that statistic is that our
rate of productivity in agriculture today in the United States is
increasing at twice the rate of our consumption of food products. So
unless we\'re all going to commit to eating twice as much as we do
today, which would probably not result in a happy prospect for many of
us, myself particularly, then the secret to our increased success in
productivity lies in developing expanding markets abroad.\
\
So that\'s why we made the trade proposal that we did. That\'s why we
hope to succeed in a round of trade discussions that will open foreign
markets to U.S. products, and why we hope to continue the increase in
trade of U.S. products abroad, which has been escalating rather rapidly
over each of the past four years.\
\
Those are some of the themes that we\'ve been hearing as we\'ve been
going around the country. At this point I\'m not in a position to tell
you what exactly we\'re going to do in response to them. Probably
wouldn\'t be that fair to those states we haven\'t yet visited because
we\'re still collecting information from people like you in other
states, and we\'d like to have all of that before we sit down and start
to look at what the next Farm Bill should look like.\
\
But I can tell you, those are the things we\'re hearing, and we\'re
going to do our best to reflect on what we hear and to make the next
Farm Bill something that is forward-looking for the future of American
agriculture.\
\
With that, I\'m appreciative for all your thoughts. I\'ll give the
microphone back to our moderator to wrap this up in whatever way he
chooses.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
MODERATOR: Thank you. Mark, I thank you for coming. I just hate to cut
off any comments, so here is the absolute final chance. Does anyone else
have anything they\'d like to share for the record? I think you\'ve done
a great job. I think it\'s been across the board, and as I said earlier
it was heartfelt and sincere. And to me the heartfelt and sincere part
is a reflection of what I\'ve found with every Delaware farmer I\'ve
interacted with over the last 30 years, which means just about all of
them.\
\
It\'s a great industry, but it\'s great because there\'s great people.\
\
Michael, you\'re sitting over there patiently. Would you like to make a
comment before we finish?\
\
SEC. MIKE SCUSE: Yeah, thank you, Ed. I appreciate it. I wasn\'t
disappointed. What I heard here today is pretty much what I had expected
to hear. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture\--
we have also been working on the Farm Bill. We had a meeting in Chicago
in August. We had one in Cooperstown, New York, three weeks ago. And in
three weeks we\'re going to have another meeting in Kansas City.\
\
And many of what you said here today is the same thing that we\'re
hearing from around the United States. One thing I\'ve urged my
counterparts to seriously consider is something that was brought up here
earlier today, and that\'s our conservation practices, to make sure
money for those conservation practices goes to the farmer, not
necessarily the landowner.\
\
We have got to find a way to keep that money in our producers\' hands if
we\'re going to make changes to the Farm Bill and put more conservation
in it. Alternative energy has been a hot topic of conversation with our
counterparts, and we\'d like to see more done in the Farm Bill to
promote alternative energy.\
\
And yes, from one end of the United States to another, we all would like
to see changes made in crop insurance.\
\
One of the things I was disappointed in this week was in fact the
proposal that was laid on the table at the WTO to eliminate the
subsidies in exchange for the elimination of tariffs. This country
tariffs products coming into this country is approximately 12 percent.
The worldwide average to our products going out is 62 percent.\
\
We do need the elimination of tariffs, but we also need to look at the
way that other countries subsidize their products. We receive the direct
subsidies but in many countries around the world their agriculture too
is heavily subsidized. It\'s just done in a different way. And we need
to address that.\
\
And I was disappointed that offer was put on the table without
discussion with the agricultural community and the other states\'
Departments of Agriculture and what effect it would have on our states.
We do have a conference call this Thursday that I am leading with JB
Penn from the Foreign Ag Service, and that I assure you will be the very
first question as to why that was in fact laid on the table without
discussing it with any of the states.\
\
CSP, again there\'s from one end of the country to the other everywhere
they\'d like to see CSP fully funded. The comment was made about the
attorneys going to California to the offices for sign-up and the need
for that. I have to make a comment here. We don\'t need lawyers to go do
the sign-up for two reasons here in Delaware and Maryland as well
because, number one, we\'ve got the greatest farmers in the United
States. But we also have without a doubt the very best people working in
our FSA offices. We have got the very best.\
\
\[Applause.\]\
\
SEC. SCUSE: And as a farmer who\'s got elected to the county committee
in 1976 for the very first time at a very young age, it\'s been an
absolute pleasure to work with the quality of people that we have in our
offices.\
\
There\'s a great deal of concern. We\'ve got some dairy farmers here.
There\'s a great deal of concern of what\'s going to happen to the dairy
industry. It\'s extremely difficult to be a diary farmer here in the
Northeast. We would like to see something done to help our dairy farmers
across the country and especially here in the Northeast. We don\'t need
to lose that industry here. It\'s a vital part of agriculture for the
Northeast.\
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The one common theme has been young farmers in the next generation, and
the concern is not just here in Delaware. But that concern again is
throughout the United States. Everyone out there wants to know how
we\'re going to put the land and the next generation\'s hands and how
we\'re going to keep that next generation interested in agriculture. And
again it was said here today \-- profitability. We\'ve got to find a way
to keep our farms profitable. Profitability is the best agricultural
lands preservation program in the world. If our farmers are profitable,
they\'re not going to be selling out to development. I don\'t know of a
farmer out there who really and truly doesn\'t love and believe in what
they\'re doing. But when it comes to the bottom line and they\'ve got to
go face a banker, there\'s some hard decisions that have to be made.\
\
Transportation. You\'re exactly right. It was brought up. Transportation
again is a major issue especially with the high cost of fuel today. We
need to look at our system of transportation for moving not only grain
but all agricultural goods throughout the United Sates. So the issues
that were brought up today are the very issues that we\'re trying to
address at the national organization for input and inclusion hopefully
in the next Farm Bill. So I appreciate the Under Secretary coming here
and listening to what our Delaware and our friends from Maryland have to
say. And I truly appreciate the comments. Again, you didn\'t disappoint
me, and your comments I know the Under Secretary will take them back to
Washington and I\'m going to take the comments back to our next meeting,
which is Kansas City in three weeks. And we\'re going to do our very
best to make sure that you\'re heard. Thank you.\
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\[Applause.\]\
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MODERATOR: Okay. With that I\'d just like to make one comment.
Agriculture is about change. The market forces, the forces of capitalism
is all about change. Sixty years ago as we finished and won WWII there
were 587 tomato canneries and vegetable processors in just the states of
Delaware and Maryland. Now there\'s just a handful.\
\
Agriculture changes. I think what this is about and what the Farm Bill
is about and your input is about is how to manage and direct that change
for the best good.\
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Again, your comments have been great, and I hope you all have a good,
productive and safe harvest season for the rest of the fall. Thank you.
Bye.\
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\[Applause.\]