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Friday, August 20, 1999
By GUY PRIEL Journal Staff Writer NEW ULM -- Seeking input on possible solutions to the agriculture crisis in America, U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone (DFL-Minn.) spoke with concerned citizens at the Brown County Fairgrounds Thursday. The main focus of his visit was to garner local representation at Minnesota's Rural Crisis Accountability Day, which will be held 11 a.m. Sunday at Carver County Fairgrounds in Waconia. "This is an opportunity for all rural citizens to join together and show a strong voice," he said. "We (rural Americans) can't make a change for the better unless we put on the pressure." In a recent conference in the northwestern part of the state, Wellstone met with over 100 representatives from farms, implement manufacturers and bankers regarding the current status of farming in America. "Everyone is painfully aware of the economic hardship and social disruption caused by the farm price crisis," Wellstone said. "We need to begin a grassroots effort to protect the family farm system of agriculture and help maintain the quality of life in our rural communities." Bankers are also worried, because they are stressing their resources to help farmers through the situation, he said. "The stakes are very high. Not only is this a Minnesota problem, it is a nationwide problem," he said. "There are a number of pieces that go into getting legislation enacted and it is a terrible injustice that our farmers have to suffer through this." The Freedom to Farm bill, which Wellstone refers to as the Freedom to Fail, has removed the support family farmers have traditionally had and with support gone, only the giants can survive, he said. "There will be no support left by December if we continue on the path we are on right now," he said. "We need to rewrite the farm bill. We need a new bill in place." The whole process is a simple matter of getting back to a base price in agriculture and getting the loan rate up to an affordable level for everyone, he said. "The conglomerates in this country have muscled their way to the dinner table and we need to put a stop to it," he said. There is, at best, a two-year period before something dramatic will happen or an entire generation of farmers will be lost, Wellstone said. "We have been through this before, but the farmers struggling the most are those in the middle," he said. "The health and vitality of the farming situation depends on the number of people who support the changes that need to made." The Senate was successful in blocking the Northeast Dairy Compact Extension, that would have substantially hurt farmers in the Midwest, but that was just one solution. "Dairy prices are low, but they will go up, thanks in part to the drought, but it will take more than that to bail farmers out," he said. "Freedom to Fail is the nail in the coffin for our farm economy." The rural farm crisis accountability day is one step toward beginning the process and leadership is needed to get things rolling, Minnesota Farm Association President Dave Frederickson said. "I am pleased with the broad base of support we have gathered so far." The purpose of the event is to help citizens come together with a common goal to develop solutions. The entire goal is to get the idea of accountability to Congress, he said. "There are a lot of things we can agree on and there are some flaws," he said. "Let's fix this thing. It is good to have some mystery in the market, but that is just one of the tools in the toolbox." The current situation is far worse than that suffered in the 1980s and America is in danger of losing the very basics of their farm economy, Wellstone said. "People I have talked to say the current situation is unacceptable and the policies aren't working," he said. "If rural America doesn't take a stand, we'll lose it. It starts right here with us." Wellstone's goal is to get the basic ideas of the Emergency Financial Bill out to the voters.
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