10/10/05 Johanns says chart new ag policy

Farm and Ranch October 10, 2005 In a speech before the Commodity Club in Washington D.C. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said U.S. agriculture policy must chart a new course with the 2007 farm bill. The Secretary who has held numerous listening sessions around the country in preparation for the next farm bill, related his impressions from those meetings emphasizing they were impressions and not outlines for legislation. But based on the input he's heard, Johanns was critical of the distribution of current federal support for agriculture. Johanns: "Program crops represent a quarter of production value yet they receive virtually all the funding. Let me state that another way. Ninety-two percent of commodity program spending was paid on five program crops, corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice. The farmers who raise other crops, and that's actually two-thirds of all farmers, received really little support from current farm programs." Yet, Johanns said that in his travels around the country he has not heard those two-thirds of farmers like fruit and vegetable producers and others, ask for program support. He said what they want is more research, promotion, increased phyto-sanitary enforcement and access to new markets. The Secretary also said that if current policy is continued, existing safety nets are at risk of being disassembled by challenges at the WTO. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.