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Written by Richard R. Oswald
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Monday, 28 January 2008 |
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Speaking at the annual meeting of the Missouri Farmers Union
in Moberly, Missouri on January 25th,
National Farmers Union President Tom Buis talked about the time line of the
current farm bill. Still waiting for reconciliation between the House and
Senate, Buis pointed out that a failure to act would mean reverting to laws
first enacted in 1933 and revised several times thereafter. While that would
offer a fair safety net for some forms of agricultural produce like milk and
corn, some other crops like soybeans were not widely enough grown at that
time to be mentioned in the original or subsequent Agricultural Adjustment Acts.
Thanks to the fact
that Congress retained the original farm law after enacting Freedom to Farm in
1996, Buis said that farmers still have some leverage to help assure that
Congress will ultimately act, but that barring further
spending cuts in the bill of about $8 billion, support by rank and file members of
Congress may be necessary to avert a possible presidential veto.
Buis said that were
it not for Senator Bob Doles offer to Congressional Democrats in 1996 allowing
them one final wish in the Farm Bill, farmers today might be left with little
recourse in the face of rising input costs and commodity prices.
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