Copyright 2002 The Columbus Dispatch Columbus
Dispatch (Ohio)
May 14, 2002 Tuesday, Home Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 01A
LENGTH:
1325 words
HEADLINE: FARMERS WELCOME BIGGER
SUBSIDIES ; Legislation reverses policy to reduce government
support
BYLINE: Paul Souhrada and Jack Torry,
Dispatch Staff Reporters
DATELINE: BOWLING
GREEN, OHIO
BODY: Politicians and
economists have the luxury of debating the merits of spending billions of
dollars to prop up the nation's farm economy.
For Wood
County grain farmer Chuck Bresler and thousands like him across the country,
it's a matter of simple arithmetic: Without government price supports, there
would be no point to staying in agriculture.
"I would
have lost $40,000 last year without the government," said Bresler, who estimates
that he and brother-in-law Andy Jones count on farm subsidies for as much as
half their income. The pair grow corn, soybeans and wheat on about 2,000 acres
about 85 miles northwest of Columbus that previously was farmed by Bresler's
father and uncle.
Countering critics who claim that the
farm bill signed yesterday by President Bush is too expensive,
Bresler says the subsidies are the cost of the government's food policy.
"Do they want food grown here? Do they want cheap food?
"If they do, they are going to have to live with the farm bill for a long time."
One of the
state's top wheat and corn producers, Wood County ranked No. 1 in Ohio in
federal agricultural payments over the past five years, according to figures
compiled by the Environmental Working Group, an activist organization based in
Washington.
Nearly 3,000 Wood County farmers shared
about $84.4 million during that period.
In a turnabout
from his administration's position last year, Bush yesterday hailed the farm bill, saying it "will promote farmer independence, and
preserve the farm way of life for generations."
Critics
complain that Bush and White House officials simply yielded to politics and
agriculture lobbyists. Control of the Senate next year hinges on races in
November in Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and South Dakota.
Both Ohio senators voted against the bill.
In a floor speech last week, Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, charged
that the bill "dispenses with any lip service toward fiscal conservatism and the
other obligations our nation now faces and plunges full speed ahead with
spending."
Voinovich warned that the "effect of this
legislation will be to encourage production resulting in commodity surpluses,
lower prices, and the need for greater government support."
The bill authorizes $82.9 billion of new federal spending during the
next 10 years -- with half of that going for higher commodity-loan rates.
Combined with nearly $100 billion in farm spending that Congress previously had
authorized during the next decade, the government has committed to spending $180
billion on farm programs through the next 10 years.
Agriculture organizations suggested that the bill was more realistic
than the 1996 farm bill. They noted that although the '96 bill
attempted to reduce subsidies, Congress was forced in the past four years to
spend billions of dollars in emergency payments to farmers to compensate for low
prices.
In a rare show of unanimity, the Ohio Farmers
Union, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and the state chapter of the Grange all
favored the legislation.
"Farmers do not want to make a
living from receiving government payments," said Kit Fogle, executive director
of the Farmers Union, which represents about 6,500 family farmers.
"But it's kind of a decision the government made to secure
a high-quality and abundant food source for all Americans."
In Wood County, farmers still wait for the rain to subside to return to
their fields, but they and their suppliers greeted the news that the farm bill had passed last week with relief.
"If it wasn't for the farm subsidies, we would probably be hurting,"
said Ed Miller, the agronomy sales manager at Mid-Wood Inc., a grain and supply
cooperative in Bowling Green.
Even with the subsidies
trickling through the local economy, agriculture is far from a sure thing.
It's like that old joke that circulates through farming
communities: How do you make $1 million farming? First, get yourself $2
million.
Last year was a perfect example of the
double-edged sword of the farm bill, Miller said.
Dry weather depressed crop yields throughout northwest
Ohio. Farmers had less crop to take to market and their production-based
government checks were lower.
That meant less money for
businesses that supply the farms.
"When their cash flow
is stressed, it stresses ours because they start looking for ways to cut
corners," Miller said.
Farmers turn to generic
fertilizers and seeds, he said. And maybe they try to ride out one more season
without adding lime to rebalance the soil.
Instead of
trading in a combine on a new model every three years, farmers will invest more
to maintain their old one. Bresler and Jones still have the 1995 combine
Bresler's father and uncle used before the brothers-in-law took over the
operation five years ago.
At best, the farm bill offers some level of predictability in an industry
buffeted by things farmers cannot control -- the weather, crop yields in Brazil
and the strength of the U.S. dollar among them.
"Farmers need to be able to plan ahead," said Joe Cornely, Farm Bureau
spokesman.
Miller said he's already sensed a different
attitude among his customers since Congress approved the farm
bill.
"It's almost as if there's been a weight
lifted from their shoulders," he said.
He laughed,
however, when asked whether he thought farmers were more optimistic, because
there's always the weather.
psouhrada@dispatch.com
jtorry@dispatch.com
Box Story:Farm bill highlights COST * $180 billion
over 10 years, a 70 percent increase over the cost of continuing existing
programs. FARM SUBSIDIES * Raises price guarantees,
known as loan rates, for barley, corn, oats, sorghum and wheat. Continues fixed
annual payments to grain and cotton farms. Creates new target-price system,
similar to one abolished in 1996, to provide supplemental payments for those
farms when prices fall below certain levels. Allows farmers to update planting
records used in calculating certain payments. * Caps payments at
$360,000 with a loophole that allows farmers to receive unlimited subsidies
under the loan program. * Establishes new subsidies for dairy
farmers as well as producers of chickpeas, honey, lentils, mohair, peanuts and
wool. The dairy subsidies are limited to production equivalent of about 135
cows. Continues price support system for sugar, using controls on imports. * Ends a quota system that props up peanut prices. As compensation,
farmers and others who own quotas will receive 11 cents a pound annually for
five years. CONSERVATION * Establishes the Conservation
Security Program, at a cost of $2 billion, to pay crop farmers for improved
environmental practices. The program, which pays farmers to idle environmentally
sensitive land, will be expanded from its current limit of 36.4 million acres to
39.2 million acres. * Quadruples the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program, which subsidizes manure cleanup and other improvements, at a
cost of $9 billion over 10 years. A single farm or feedlot could receive as much
as $450,000. FOOD LABELING * Fish, meat, peanuts and
produce must be labeled with their country of origin, starting in the fall of
2004. * Bans catfish imported from Vietnam from being labeled as
catfish. FOOD STAMPS * Noncitizens who have lived in the
country for at least five years become eligible for food stamps. *
Low-income families getting off welfare can receive food stamps for an
additional five months. BIOENERGY * $405 million to
encourage development and use of fuels made from crops. RURAL
DEVELOPMENT * $1 billion in new spending for rural development,
including $360 million for water and sewage assistance, and $240 million for
assisting farmer-owned businesses. TRADE * $1.1 billion
for trade assistance, including $650 million for overseas promotion of U.S. food
and beverages. -- Associated Press
GRAPHIC: Photo, (1) Chris Corder / UPI,, Above: President Bush
got up early yesterday for the bipartisan signing, ceremony of the farm bill, which greatly increases government spending on,
agriculture during the next 10 years, much to the chagrin of many conservative,
Republicans who say the $180 billion cost is too much. The bill reverses,
national policy, set in 1996, to reduce those subsidies.,, (2) Mike Munden /
Dispatch,, Right: The bill is good news for Ohio farmers, say Wood County
brothers-in-law, Andy Jones, left, and Chuck Bresler, right, who took over
farming almost 2,000, acres of grain near Bowling Green from Chuck's father,
Phil, center, in 1997., Last year, farm subsidies provided half the income for
Bresler and Jones and, they welcome the increased spending on agriculture that's
included in the new, legislation, which passed Congress last week. They say the
bill ensures, Americans a steady supply of food at low cost.
Document 473 of 803. 