Capital Press, OR
06-22-07
Growers urged to speak on farm bill
Scott A. Yates
Capital Press Staff Writer
It hasn't been a particularly auspicious farm bill debate for the National
Association of Wheat Growers so far.
First, they were told their $5.29-per-bushel target price idea coupled with a $1.19
direct payment (base acres/historic yield) was dead on arrival. They protested
the numbers that were analyzed by the Food and Agriculture Policy Research
Institute of the University of Missouri and Iowa State University. The lobbyists
and congressional aides said it didn't matter, and it didn't.
Now the one thing wheat growers have come to depend on in terms of
government support - the one leg of the three-legged 2002 Farm Bill stool that
actually worked - is under attack. The preliminary discussion draft for the
commodity title of the 2007 Farm Bill puts direct payments squarely in the
crosshairs for reduction. Under the 2002 Farm Bill wheat growers received a
direct payment of 52 cents a bushel a year.
A letter NAWG President John Thaemert wrote Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.,
expressed his concern over the effort to reduce the decoupled payment to
provide increases in target prices and loan rates.
"Severe weather conditions, like we are currently experiencing, create a short
crop and push prices higher, leaving those who are unable to harvest a crop
without any support from the counter cyclical program. And, as you know, if you
don't have a crop, the loan program is useless."
Thaemert also reminded the agriculture committee chairman that, while it may be
a long time before negotiators reach a compromise in the Doha Round of World
Trade Organization talks, "the direct payment is the most WTO-compliant
component of farm programs we currently have." He said changing the structure
now puts the country in a "more vulnerable position when it comes to possible
litigation from our foreign competitors."
NAWG feels strongly enough about maintaining the direct payment that it has
issued an action alert to its members by e-mail urging them to write their national
political leadership. In the 21st century, that no longer requires much effort. The
e-mail alert directs members to a NAWG website that includes a sample letter,
which reads in part: "Wheat growers have ONLY received the direct payment
over the term of the last farm bill. While we continue to support the three legged
safety net, the direct payment has been the most beneficial program for us, and
we see the merits it has."
With the addition of name and address (which the site insists "will not be used for
any purpose other than to identify you to the recipient"), correct politicians are
targeted and off the e-mail goes. Growers with strong feelings but little time can
go to www.wheatworld.org to submit their own e-mail.