WASHINGTON, D. C. — In an issues briefing before members of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation on Capitol Hill this week, American Farm Bureau Federation farm bill specialist Mary Kay Thatcher said that farmers have a big problem right now. She referred to a negative editorial which ran Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, which criticized the Farm Bureau for lobbying for increased funding in the farm bill at a time when crop prices are at record high levels.
“Everyone thinks you all are rich,” Thatcher said.
She said that what far too many members of the public do not understand is that farmers’ costs have skyrocketed along with those commodity prices. She cited in particular Monsanto’s recent announcement that the cost for the fertilizer anhydrous ammonia was going up 70 percent this year. Thatcher also said that corporate media control is becoming a serious issue. According to Thatcher, now that one large publisher owns many of the midsized newspapers in Ohio, the Farm Bureau is having trouble getting those papers to run news releases and articles about agriculture.
Tom Thomas, president of the Montgomery County chapter of OFBF, said he has had members of the public accuse him of lying when he said he is currently losing approximately $40 per head when he sells hogs, due to rising costs.
“Some ask me, ‘Why do you that?’” Thomas said. “But you can’t just stop [the process of raising animals].”
The presidents of many OFBF county chapters were in the nation’s capitol this week to promote the positions which state farm bureaus have assembled as the American Farm Bureau Federation’s policy. As the 2007 Farm Bill continues to be the subject of fierce political battles on Capitol Hill, it remains unclear how many, if any, of the Farm Bureau’s issues will be addressed.
The primary focus of the Farm Bureau is on getting a new farm bill passed. The currently drafted 2007 Farm Bill has remained at an impasse, forcing a 30-day extension of the old farm bill to allow further negotiating for what may prove to be a stripped-down, base-line spending version of the bill. The AFBF wants to see a farm bill that features no less than the items suggested by the House and Senate on the 2007 bill.
An important item for which the Ohio branch is lobbying is getting permits for National Pollution Discharge Elimination Systems moved from the jurisdiction of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which has agreed to relinquish it, to the Ohio Department of Agriculture. The roadblock according to Ohio Sen. George Voinovich, who spoke to the group Thursday at the Capitol Hill Club, is that the Chicago regional branch of the federal EPA does not want to give up the authority. Voinovich said he has told top officials at the EPA that he wants an answer very soon on why they are stalling on transferring this jurisdictional power. The NPDES transfer would allow ODA to issue permits for waste control systems for concentrated animal feeding operations.
The OFBF and the AFBF in general support repealing the estate tax, which they feel endangers family farms. Several lawmakers, including Voinovich and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, are in favor of keeping the estate tax, but modifying it to have a higher exemption level, allowing most family farms to be exempt from the high estate tax.
One pending piece of legislation which the Farm Bureau is strongly against is H.R. 2421, the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007. This would expand jurisdiction of the federal Clean Water Act to all intrastate waters, including groundwater, ditches, culverts, pipes, desert washes, sheet flow, erosional features, farm and stock ponds. The law previously only applied jurisdiction to all “navigable” waters, but the follow-up act would remove that word, establishing EPA and Army Corps of Engineers over all water. AFBF members see this as a potentially disastrous intrusion of governmental regulation into the operation of farms.
The other main issue being pursued is preserving agricultural trade markets opened up by the North American Free Trade Agreement. As NAFTA has become increasingly cited as the cause for the drain of industrial jobs from such states as Ohio, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have proposed scrapping or heavily revising NAFTA. Farmers want to see their market gains preserved.
Other AFBF issues being presented to Congress include the promotion of energy tax incentives to encourage the research and development of alternative energy sources; getting clarification from the government about the classification of animal manure as a pollutant in the Comprehensive Environmental Recovery, Compensation & Liability Act; opposing legislation which would prohibit or unduly restrict the use of animals in research and opposing the use of public funds to promote animal rights; improving food safety and giving government agencies the power to recall unsafe food items; and supporting discussions on climate that would establish voluntary carbon-trading systems. Other issues mentioned include reforming immigration policy to allow seasonal agricultural workers; strengthening rural communities with infrastructure, economic development, education and health care; supporting H. R. 3098 which would update the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations to permit exceptions for farmers from high-use commercial trucking operations; and repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax by supporting Senate Bill 55.
“We’ve got some problems, folks,” Voinovich said, “We’ve got to face up to them.”
News reporter Mark Jordan is attending the Ohio Farm Bureau’s forum. He will write several articles from Washington, D.C., over the next several days.