July 9, 1999

The same organization that vigorously promoted the 1996 "freedom to farm" law now proposes $9 billion in new and previously authorized funds to help farmers through "a dire period of depressed prices." The American Farm Bureau Federation wants $4 billion of that in direct financial assistance.

AFBF leaders from around the country will take the organization's proposal to Congress next week in an effort to secure emergency financial aid for farm and ranch families "caught in the throes of today's farm economic crisis," according to an AFBF statement.

The proposal, approved by the AFBF board of directors, calls for $4 billion in direct financial assistance, another $2 billion for immediate export initiatives and $2 billion for reform and expansion of crop insurance and other risk management programs. In addition, AFBF proposes contingency funding for 1999 weather problems, expenditures to allow maximum enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program, export enhancement spending to make farm products competitive with subsidized foreign commodities, expanded use of the dairy options pilot program and sufficient funding for the cotton Step 2 program.

Also included are a mandate for milk marketing order reform that most analysts say means higher milk prices to farmers, continuation of the milk price support program through 2002 and $5 billion in federal assistance for farmers faced with the cost of complying with federal regulations.

A program this ambitious significantly moves the AFBF away from its far more conservative position of advocating less government control and intervention in farm programs and farm policy of only a few years ago. Republicans in Congress have made it clear they intend to wait until fall before making any moves on farmer relief. Before then, they say, the parameters of need will not be known; crops must be harvested and price projections more reliable before they'll act. Democrats, however, have advocated a $6.5 billion relief package that should come up on the Senate floor for debate in the next several days when the agricultural appropriations bill resurfaces for debate.

"The economic situation facing America's farmers and ranchers has reached a critical stage," says AFBF President Dean Kleckner. "It is a moral imperative that steps be taken immediately to shore up a farm economy that has not shared in the nation's overall economic boom." The provisions are needed "immediately to halt the human toll the farm crisis is taking in rural America and to prevent further economic disasters from destroying America's family based system of agriculture."