Congressman
CHARLIE STENHOLM
17th District of Texas

AG  TALK
By Charlie Stenholm
May 23, 2002

 USDA Authorizes Emergency Grazing for Drought Relief

 Agriculture Secretary Veneman announced this week the early authorization of emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres in an effort to provide drought relief in the areas hardest hit by drought conditions during the past year. 

It’s no secret that farmers and ranchers in Texas have been devastated by extreme drought, and USDA believes that announcing this emergency relief measure a month earlier than in previous drought years will provide immediate relief for producers when they need it most. 

This action by USDA will permit approved CRP participants to graze livestock on CRP acreage, providing supplemental forage to producers whose pastures have been negatively impacted by drought. 

Generally, in order to be approved for emergency grazing, a county must have suffered at least a 40 percent loss of normal moisture and forage for the preceding four-month qualifying period. 

USDA will notify eligible counties that have been approved for grazing and will require CRP participants to submit applications with their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. 

Grazing may be authorized until August 31, 2002, or until disaster conditions no longer exist, whichever comes first.  Only livestock operations located within approved counties are eligible for emergency grazing of CRP acreage.

CRP participants who do not own or lease livestock may rent or lease the grazing privilege to an eligible livestock farmer located in an approved county. 

Annual rental payments will be reduced 25 percent to account for the areas grazed, and at least 25 percent of the CRP contract acreage must be left ungrazed for wildlife. 

Ag Secretary Addresses Farm Bill Critics

This week, Agriculture Secretary Veneman took on the critics of the 2002 farm bill and, in the process, made some very compelling points about this landmark piece of legislation. 

I would like to share some of the Secretary’s comments with you, along with some of my own observations. 

First and foremost, one of the most important things the 2002 farm bill does is to provide stability and certainty to US producers on whom Americans rely for a productive, reliable and inexpensive food supply.   

Contrary to what some critics have said, the farm bill does not include massive increases in spending.  In fact, spending is increased in a manner consistent with US farm policy since the passage of the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act.   

Those who say that the 2002 farm bill increases spending by 60 to 70 percent may be technically correct if you disregard the emergency spending passed by Congress during the past four years. 

That spending added $30.5 billion to farm spending. 

If you look at the whole picture, however, the increase in farm spending is roughly the same as it has been over the past four years: $7.5 billion per year.

There is a significant difference, however.  Farmers and ranchers now have stability and do not have to watch as Congress wages a spending battle each year.   

Some critics of the farm bill have said that it violates US commitments under the World Trade Organization (WTO).  This is simply not true.   

One of the key measures in the farm bill requires that US farm spending must be in compliance with our existing trade agreements.   

Unfortunately, some of our international trade competitors have been the strongest and loudest critics of this farm bill. 

At the same time these countries complain about our level of farm spending under WTO rules, they are able to spend much more to support their farmers.  And believe me, they do. 

While the US is limited to spending $19.1 billion annually in farm subsidies under the WTO, the European Union (EU) has a limit of $62 billion.  Japan, with a population less than half of the US, has a spending cap of $31 billion. 

The new farm bill makes significant changes in farm program structure and funding.  And as I indicated earlier, it will bring much needed stability to US farmers and ranchers as they make planting and other decisions. 

This new farm bill continues direct payments based on historical planting and yields, and creates a new system of countercyclical payments based on market prices in relation to target prices. 

It revises and rebalances loan rates for the marketing loan program for major grains and oilseeds.  

This farm bill increases conservation spending by 80 percent, the largest single increase in such spending in the US since the “dust bowl” years of the Great Depression. 

The bill also provides funding in research, in animal and plant disease protection, in food safety and in rural development.  In so doing, this bill is an investment in rural America. 

The US exports tens of billions of dollars in agricultural commodities each year, and the new farm bill includes new tools to support the expansion of trade for US agricultural products.  

With 96 percent of the world’s population living outside of the US, expanded trade is critical to the future profitability and well-being of our producers. 

This farm bill is not perfect, but when you hear folks criticizing it, keep in mind that our nation’s ability to produce and process food is a national security issue.

Americans enjoy the safest and most abundant food supply, the highest quality food at the lowest cost to the consumer of any nation in the world.  None of this happens by accident. 

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