Farms and ranches are the heart of North Dakota. Agriculture is the state’s number one industry, contributing over $4 billion to our economy. One of my top objectives in Washington is to ensure our agricultural producers and our local communities get a fair shake when it comes to farm policy, trade deals, and other issues important to rural areas.
With Congress beginning to examine a new farm bill, the need for disaster assistance, and the ongoing negotiations on trade agreements, much is happening in Washington that could affect North Dakota farmers and ranchers. I will continue to provide updates on this page and I encourage you to continue to visit this website and provide your input on these issues.
The Next Farm Bill: We all know that farmers have to take on a lot of risk – farmers have to leverage huge amounts of capital and face risks that are completely beyond their control. Farmers can do everything right but if severe weather wipes out their crop or the commodity markets bottom-out, they will inevitably lose money. Our national farm policy needs to provide a safety net for when prices collapse and times are tough.
The 2002 Farm Bill – the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act – restored part of what we lost in the 1996 bill by adding a countercyclical program that pays when prices fall. Now, we are starting to write a new farm bill and my hope is that we can continue to close holes in the farm income safety net while maintaining the progress we made in 2002.
In the next month, the House Agriculture Committee will kick off the debate by holding two field hearings on the farm bill. You can listen to these hearings at the following website: http://agriculture.house.gov.
Crop Insurance: The crop insurance program, although far from perfect, is playing an increasingly important role in helping farmers manage the significant risks they face. Back in 2000, when Congress rewrote the crop insurance program, I strongly advocated for increasing the amount of funding that would go to producers to help them purchase additional coverage. We succeeded in adding over $8 billion in extra premium help for producers and it has worked. In North Dakota alone, only 23 percent of insured acreage was insured at the 70 percent or higher coverage level in 2000. By 2003, that amount had increased to 68 percent.
The crop insurance program has undergone no less than six reforms in the past ten years, and we are still finding ways to refine it. I want to continue to hear from crop insurance agents and farmers about the problems they have within the program, and I’ll do whatever I can to solve the problem.
Currently, I am working to improve the quality loss provisions of the program to make sure that it covers the full economic risk faced by producers. For a state where producers enroll almost 90 percent of their crop acreage in the program, the crop insurance program must deliver credible value that includes an accounting of the conditions faced by farmers at the elevator.
Trade Negotiations: On even ground, North Dakota farmers can produce a better quality product than any in the world. The key is leveling that ground.
The Administration continues to focus on several individual free trade agreements and the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations. I strongly believe that we cannot and should not bargain away the interests of our farmers and ranchers at the trade table.
I will continue to examine trade agreements closely with an eye for what real benefits they bring the people of North Dakota. Some trade agreements, such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), open up our markets to subsidized sugar from Central America and pose too great a threat to our sugar industry in the Red River Valley. Those trade agreements are simply unacceptable.
Trade brings a lot of benefits to our agricultural industry in North Dakota. After all, one out of every two bushels of wheat is exported out of this country. But we have to make sure that – in all trade negotiations – our farmers receive the fair deal they deserve.
