[Market-farming] Collin Peterson's editorial
Ploughshare
gjbrever at midwestinfo.net
Wed Aug 22 12:15:01 EDT 2007
On Friday I had an editorial in our newspaper about the new farm bill. In
today's editorial there is a letter from Collin Peterson ( a rebuttal to my
letter, I do not know). Anyone have any opinions to the Congressman's
words? I see some small nuggets in the farm bill, including country of
orgin labeling. However, thus far it seems to just be more of the
same--subsidies for the wealthy farmers.
--Gary
By Congressman Collin Peterson
The United States has an excellent system of independent family farmers.
Survival of the family farm is critical to the future economic viability of
rural America, and across the nation, strong family farms mean food safety
and security, at a low cost to consumers.
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In the years I've served Minnesota's Seventh District in Congress, few
moments have been as important to rural America as last week's passage of a
new Farm Bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
As chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, I have been given an
opportunity, and a challenging mission, in crafting a Farm Bill that is
representative of and good for the entire country.
While one or two distracting issues in the Farm Bill debate made headlines,
such as payment limits and false claims of tax increases, the bill we passed
in the House on July 27 was a true compromise among commodity groups,
regional interests, and conservation advocates, to name a few.
One of the best decisions I've made as chairman was to open up the process
and give members of the Agriculture Committee an opportunity to gather input
from their constituencies and use their expertise to write their respective
sections of the bill.
What we ultimately agreed on, in a bipartisan fashion, was a strong Farm
Bill that addresses concerns of producers, nutrition and conservation
advocates, and renewable energy efforts.
Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, for fruit, vegetables and
meat is, in my opinion, one of the most important pieces of this farm bill
that has impacted consumers in decades. This legislation says that when you
shop for steak, it will have a label to tell you if it came from China or if
it came from Minnesota. If you buy strawberries, the label will tell you if
they were grown in California or Mexico.
Given a choice, most consumers will buy U.S. grown meat, fruits and
vegetables, especially in light of recent problems with food imported from
China.
This House Farm Bill also makes historic investments in fruit and vegetable
production, conservation, nutrition and renewable energy while maintaining a
strong safety net for America's farmers and ranchers.
The bill strengthens and enhances the food stamp program by reforming
benefit rules to improve coverage of food costs and expand access to the
program with additional funding support.
We addressed rural economic development by including key provisions that
invest in rural communities nationwide, including economic development
programs and access to broadband telecommunication services.
We addressed important reforms by strengthening payment limits to ensure
that non-farmers making more than $500,000 (adjusted gross income) can no
longer collect conservation and farm program payments, and closing loopholes
that allow people to avoid payment limits by receiving money through
multiple business units.
Conservation funding was increased significantly by extending and making
critical new investments in popular conservation programs, including the
Conservation Reserve Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Environmental
Quality Incentive Program, Farm and Ranchland Protection Program, and many
others.
Finally, we created a new energy title to make important new investments in
renewable energy research, development and production in rural America.
On July 27, The House of Representatives passed the 2007 Farm Bill by a vote
of 231-191. American consumers got a heck of a deal.
. . .
Peterson is Chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and is serving
his ninth term in Congress. He is a Democrat from Detroit Lakes.
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