[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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