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Kansas Wheat calls producer to actionKansas farmers are urged to contact their Congressional Delegation as soon as possible with strong support for efforts to restore Direct Payments. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts and Congressman Jerry Moran have teamed up for the fight for Direct Payments. Today they will be offering an amendment to the farm bill conference committee to rebalance the three-legged stool, not to the detriment of direct payments. Kansas farmers are urged to contact the offices of Roberts and Moran to voice your support for this initiative. These calls are very important for debate with Congressional colleagues. The U.S. wheat industry whole-heartedly supports an increase in Direct Payments. Two-thirds of Kansas wheat producers surveyed identified the Direct Payment as the most important program for their wheat operation. These fixed, reliable payments are non-trade distorting, depended upon by lenders for farm financing, and do not evaporate in a drought. All Kansas farmers know well, the past several years have been a time of skyrocketing prices for inputs such as diesel fuel, natural gas, fertilizers, nutrients and seed. Direct payments help offset these historically high costs. The direct, or fixed, payment program is a green box program, whereas spending for increases in loan rates or target prices may be classified as amber or possibly blue box. Without attempting to guess the outcome of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, our farm policy generally should not move in the opposite direction of the WTO negotiations by putting more emphasis on what might be determined to be trade-distorting programs in the future. Therefore, we support trading the support provided by LDP’s for increased fixed payments with an appropriate increase in payment limitation. Partisan politics are showing in the historically bi-partisan farm bill debate. On Tuesday President Bush said Democrats were “considering a massive, bloated farm bill” that would fail to eliminate farmers’ subsidies as food prices skyrocket and the farm economy thrives as reported in this morning’s New York Times. “It’s not the time to ask American families who are already paying more in the checkout line to pay more in subsidies for wealthy farmers,” he said. However, although consumers and our media buy into the myth that the increased price at the checkout line is from increases in commodity prices, the truth is that only 20% of the price of food makes it back to the farm gate. With less than 15 cents of wheat flour in a loaf of bread, the largest portion of American’s food dollar, more than 38% goes to labor to make and deliver the food to the grocery store shelf. As the world has consumed more wheat than it has produced in six out of the last 7 years, increased demand for food has allowed the free market economy to work. Just as Americans are dealing with increased transportation and energy costs, so are the farmers who are growing the safe and secure food supply for the U.S. and consumers around the world.
Contact Senator Pat Roberts Date: 4/28/08 |
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