The Macon Telegraph | June 28, 2001 | By Skippy Davis
Stewart Bloodworth told four U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee members Saturday he is selling part of his Houston County cropland because national farm programs are making him too dependent on government payments that won't last.
"I can no longer farm as I have in the past and meet my financial obligations," said Bloodworth, who raises row crops, hogs and beef cattle on 4,000 acres near Perry. "I therefore am in the process of selling 1,200 acres of good farming crop land for residential development."
Bloodworth was one of four Georgia farmers who addressed the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management in a hearing at Wesleyan College.
The panel, headed by Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., is seeking input from farmers in preparation for drafting a farm bill to replace the current farm bill, which expires next year.
The Federal Agriculture Improvement & Reform Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996, is an omnibus bill containing a variety of provisions that will expire next year. When these programs expire, outdated permanent statutes would take effect, which observers say may not be compatible with current government regulatory and trade policies or with the current economic needs of producers.
Chambliss said House Agriculture Chairman Larry Combest wants the new bill written by August and ready for consideration by the full House of Representatives in September.
The Georgia farmers, beset by low commodities prices, high production costs and competition from Midwest grain growers and the international market, told Saturday's panel that changes must come soon. The widespread drought now in its third year has added to the pressures on Southeast farmers.
"A lot of us won't make it to the 2003 crop," said Glenn Heard, a corn and cotton producer in Seminole County.
The 1996 farm bill was enacted in a time when high commodities prices, good crop weather and a strong export market were expected to continue, noted Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., who serves on the subcommittee with Chambliss, Marion Berry, D-Ark., and Robin Hayes, R-N.C.
When those three factors changed, Bishop said, farmers were left with no safety net.
"Perhaps no farm bill has ever been as crucial to the future of farming as the one we will enact next year," Bishop said.
Also speaking to the subcommittee were Bulloch County farmer Chuck Lee and Willacoochee farmer Donnie H. Smith.
Smith called for target prices on all crops.
"We need some kind of safety net whenever yield or prices fall below a level of profitability," he said. "Before we plant the crop we would know the minimum price we would receive."
Lee said current government support systems, including disaster and economic assistance and crop insurance, reward the least efficient farmers.
"There are growers who have a tendency to give up and stop spending on a crop that is protected by crop insurance," Lee said. "These growers then collect their crop insurance indemnity and are eligible for any disaster assistance that becomes available. These farmers will usually net more profit than a farmer who struggles to produce the best crop possible given the conditions at hand."
During the recent years of drought, farmers often found themselves producing just enough to make them ineligible for a crop insurance payment or disaster payment.
"This is the producer who is truly at risk," Lee said.
Bloodworth said yields during the drought years certainly should not be considered when calculating payments to the growers.
"The past five years have been disastrous for the farmers in my area because of severe drought," Bloodworth said. "As you develop a farm program, you will put all of us out of business if these low yields are used for production history."
Addressing the farmers' concerns over the lowest commodities prices in decades, Arkansas' Berry suggested farmers try buying the competing imported commodities early in the season and holding them until the prices go up.
"Two world economists who's names you'd recognize have told me that's the craziest idea they've ever heard," Berry said after the hearing. "And, of course, the biggest problem would be to get the farmers together to make it work. But at some point in the cycle, it matters who owns the stuff."
Saturday's hearing was the third in a series of three for the House panel. About 100 people attended. The subcommittee also has heard from farmers in Minnesota and California.
"We have heard options ranging from supply management and reserve establishment to keeping the current farm program components," Chambliss said. "Past programs, including target prices, are even being reviewed."
Chambliss said the record will remain open for 10 more days for comments.
Also at the Saturday hearing, Chambliss announced the appointment of Fort Valley peach grower Duke Lane as chairman of the USDA's Georgia Farm Service Agency State Committee. The official appointments to the committee will be announced Monday.
The FSA is responsible for administration of farm commodity programs, operating loans and emergency loans, disaster assistance and other programs.
The state committee resolves complaints and maintains informative relationships with farmers and the agribusiness community.
Copyright 2001 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
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