Ag Official Previews Farm Reform for 2007

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The farming community is a-flutter over plans this year to renew the Farm Bill - but with significant differences from the 2002 version. Details have yet to be released but during a stop in Utah yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns said the new bill will likely change the way farmers are subsidized by the government:

"The way the 2002 Farm Bill was structured, it tends to be counterintuitive," says Johanns. "During the high production years, farmers are often times receiving more from the 2002 Farm Bill, but in years with a crop disaster where they didn't raise anything they walk away with nothing when they need it most."

Johans says the 2007 Farm Bill will distribute government support more evenly to farmers and focus on renewable energy production and agricultural research. He says the U.S. agriculture economy has rebounded to record highs. In particular, U.S. beef exports are up 65-percent over last year. Beef is Utah's top producing segment of the agricultural economy. To keep farms thriving in the U.S., Johans says the country needs to find a way to preserve the migrant labor force:

"Agriculture historically has relied upon temporary work force - that's the hand-intensive labor picking fruit and that sort of thing," says Johanns. "And so in certain parts of the country this is the main issue - it's not Farm Bill, it is labor availability."

Johanns backs the President's push for guest worker permits and comprehensive immigration reform. He says farmers across the country expressed support for the plan during a coast-to-coast "listening tour" last year.

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