Stenholm says, ‘Work together on the 2007 farm bill'

By ANDREA JOHNSON, Assistant Editor
Sunday, March 18, 2007 3:17 PM CDT

Work together if you want success in the next farm bill.

That's the word from Texan Charles Stenholm, who served as ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Ag Committee from 1996-2004.

“There is no room for partisan politics in agricultural policy. If we ever succumb to that, we'll have real problems,” said Stenholm, speaking March 2 at the National Pork Industry Forum in Anaheim, Calif.

Stenholm served in the U.S. Congress from 1979 to 2005. He is a cotton farmer from western Texas and also a lobbyist with Olsson, Frank and Weeda, P.C., considered one of the nation's premier FDA, USDA and health care law firms.

The 2007 farm bill is the eighth farm bill he has worked on.

The National Pork Producers Council, which focuses on legislative and public policy issues for its members, asked Stenholm to help them understand the farm bill debate.

He made a number of points on how to garner success in the farm bill:

- Talk to elected officials and their staff members.

- Become personally involved in communicating with those in Washington, so they understand what your industry needs. That's how Congress gets information to pass intelligent bills.

“When I was in Congress, I could not keep up with everything and everyone's business, unless you came and talked to me about it,” said Stenholm.

There are 46 members on the U.S. House Ag Committee. Only 15 have ever participated in writing a farm bill. Stenholm said there is a “real education job to do,” and he encourages farmers to remember that many staff members are young.

- Recognize that change is inevitable, and change doesn't have to be bad. It can be good.

- Act short term. Think long term.

“We have to act quickly with the 2007 farm bill and make some decisions in a hurry, but think long term,” he said. “Be careful what you ask your Congressman or woman to do. They might just do it. Sometimes we ask for things that we haven't thought through.”

Stenholm encourages farmers to think about whether or not we want to continue with federal deficit spending. The U.S. has an $8.5 trillion debt.

“If we stay on the current economic game plan for another five years, we will owe in excess of $11.5 trillion and 60 percent of the banking of the U.S. will be by our ‘friends' in foreign countries,” said Stenholm. “I say ‘friends' in parentheses, because on the one hand we worry about some of our friends, and on the other hand we're perfectly willing to allow them to finance that which we are doing in the United States.”

The ag committees know the U.S. is going to attempt to have a balanced federal budget in five years without raising taxes.

- Discuss and consider Ag Secretary Mike Johanns' farm bill document.

Stenholm thinks this blueprint for the next farm bill will be very helpful and constructive to the House and Senate ag committees.

“It's clear the Administration wants to be a player in the 2007 farm bill. That's good,” Stenholm said. “They chose not to be a player in 2002.”

- Remember that 96 percent of the world's consumers live outside the United States.

“Anyone who believes that our future is internal is heading for a rude awakening,” said Stenholm. “Our future is in trade.”

- Immigration is probably the number one short-term challenge facing agriculture.

“Building a fence is not the answer,” said Stenholm, in an issue that profoundly affects Texas. “Until we can get comfortable with having a passport or some individual personal ID that is counterfeit-proof, we're never going to solve our immigration challenges.”

He added that processing facilities cannot be held responsible for who is working at their facilities unless there is a way to find out who is legally in the United States, and who is not.

- Build coalitions to be heard.

“Specialty crops felt they got short changed in 2002,” said Stenholm. “And they did. I told them very clearly after that, ‘You never came together and told us what you wanted. You had a multitude of voices saying what you wanted, but you didn't really get together and tell us what you wanted in a way that we could do it.'”

He added that fruit and vegetable organizations have come together, and should get most of their funding because they have built coalitions.

- Many who are not involved with the commodity industry want to see changes to Title I, the commodity portion of the farm bill.

Stenholm defends it on the basis that Title I maintains a level playing field on the world market.

“There's no justification for subsidizing anything in the U.S. for food production, but if you are going to compete in an international marketplace that's not level, then you better get ready to lose some marketing to those countries that do stand shoulder to shoulder with their producers,” he said.

He added that he expects to see large changes in the way Title I subsidies are carried forward in the 2007 farm bill. We need all of the alternative energy that we can produce.

Stenholm says it's risky for the U.S. to remain dependent on some regions of the world for energy production. He thinks that nuclear energy is the cleanest burning fuel, and could help reduce global warming.

He thinks it is a mistake to store radioactive waste material in the mountains. He thinks radioactive waste should be kept in the state where it is created based on the belief that technology will come along to turn the waste into a resource.

“Ethanol, biodiesel, bio-gas. One of my recommendations for you as an industry is we have to quit being against, we have to be for (alternative energy),” said Stenholm. “Let's recognize that whatever decisions we make, ultimately it has to be market oriented, otherwise it's government directed. Government picking out the choices - usually it's not right.”

Stenholm believes there will be an energy portion to the farm bill, although that portion is not under the ag committees' jurisdiction.

He also thinks that corn is not the ethanol of the future. It's the ethanol of today. Cellulosic ethanol is being talked about, but that is still in the research and development stage.

Finally, he encourages livestock producers to drop the words, “animal waste” from their vocabularies. It's “surplus animal nutrients that can be converted into energy.”

“You can deal with the environmental issues in a positive way by joining in the alternative energy debate and using that for positive purposes,” he said. “One thing we need to do to make sure our country develops all of the alternative energy from nuclear and coal, up and down - (is) put a support price under oil.”

- Adjust to the world as it is - not as you wish it would be.

Stenholm encouraged delegates attending the National Pork Industry Forum to constantly look for ways to do the job of providing food for the U.S. and the world. He said the ag industry has to recognize the future is in the export market. Trade rules and regulations are critical for the future.

The nutrition community is essential to passing the farm bill, he added. Some people say that if food stamps were taken out of the farm bill, it would be a lot easier to make the farm bill budget.

Stenholm says that without the nutritional portion of the farm bill, there would be no farm bill.

About 150,000 farmers raise 75 percent of the agricultural products produced in the United States, he said. That's not a powerful political block.

“If you are not willing to be part of a coalition of some shape, form or fashion, you will not accomplish what you need to accomplish,” he said.

To pass bills, you have to get 218 votes in the House of Representatives, 51 votes in the Senate and the President's signature. Working with others is the only way to get that accomplished.

- Remember, far beyond any other country, United States farmers produce the most abundant food supply, the best quality of food, and the safest food supply at the lowest cost to the United States' consumer.

Comments »

Comment on this story

Comments will be approved within 48 hours

Name:

Email: (optional)

Comments:

Image Verification: (Case sensitive)