06/08/06 Farmer cooperatives lobby D.C.

06/08/06 Farmer cooperatives lobby D.C.

Farm and Ranch June 8, 2006 The Board of Directors of CHS met in Washington D.C. this week in conjunction with the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives annual lobbying trip to the nation's Capitol. Dave Bielenberg of Silverdale, Oregon, made the trip and says the farm bill was one of the items on the agenda. Bielenberg: "The cooperative system, especially CHS does want to see us trade away our negotiating capabilities with the WTO negotiations. So the recommendation there is not to change the 2002 Farm Bill, to leave it the same until the WTO is decided so we don't give up any negotiating positives we have in the WTO." CHS board member Jim Kile of St. John, Washington, says waterways was another major issue. Kile: "And we are always talking about lock and dams on the Mississippi and the dams and channel widening and dredging on the Snake and Columbia Rivers because it is so important to farmers and our company because we transport grain and all the supplies from fuel to fertilizer up and down those rivers." And Kile says energy, be it renewables or expanding natural gas supplies, was also on the agenda. Kile: "We've just gotta get more natural gas in this country. Because I tell people, we talk about dependency on foreign oil, as a farmer I am worried becoming dependent on foreign fertilizer." And Kile says its natural gas that powers all those ethanol plants being built in the U.S. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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