-Caveat Lector- > > The Principle Group -- Des Moines, Iowa > August 9, 1999 > > A FAMILY FARM BILL OF RIGHTS > Patrick J. Buchanan > > For many Americans, these are the best of times. Unemployment and > interest rates are low, prices are stable, and on Wall Street the bulls > have been running wild. But not everyone is marching in the great parade > of American prosperity. > > Look past those brimming silos and fields of corn, and you'll see a > harvest of heartache in the heartland of America. Those silos store last > year's crop that was packed in because prices were too low to turn a > profit. As for those full fields, some of that crop may rot on the ground > because farmers can't afford to harvest it. > > This year, the price of cotton is down 46%; wheat prices are off 61%. > Corn has reached the lowest price in two decades, and soybeans that sold > for $8 a bushel three years ago bring just $3.50. > > The specter of depression haunts the farmlands of America. But this > crisis is different. > It has struck Iowa when the growing conditions are good and farmers > anticipate a > record soybean harvest and the third greatest corn crop ever. The problem > is price. > > The Asian economic disaster that spread to Russia and Latin America sent > foreign demand for U.S. farm products crashing 40%. Desperate to offload > their own subsidized oversupply, countries began dumping into the U.S. > market. Invoking the Global Economy, Mr. Clinton refused to take action. > America's farmers are paying the price, as are implement companies and > hardware stores, coffee shops and car dealerships across the great > American breadbasket. > > Washington and Wall Street may believe it inevitable that the family farm > must pass away. But, as a conservative, I believe that family farms and > rural towns must be conserved. So, today, I offer this ten-point pact, a > Bill of Rights for the Family Farm: First, I will, as President, abolish > all inheritance and capital gains taxes on family farms. Americans over > the age of 55 own half of our farmland. But inheritance taxes prevent > these farmers from bequeathing a birthright to their children. > > When I was here in Iowa in 1995, I visited a farm in Ida County where the > Paulsrud family had lived nearly a century. Like many of their neighbors, > their grandparents had started with a small plot, farmed it, added > buildings, and bought nearby land. Their son did the same, building up > and adding on. By 1995, the Paulsrud family had 2,000 acres worth about > $1,500 an acre. When I spoke to that elderly farmer, he told me he > dreamed of passing the farm on to his son. But his son couldn't buy it > because of the capital gains taxes. And if he died, his son would have to > pay a federal inheritance tax of 55% -- a million dollars. Where would an > Iowa farmer get that kind of money? Only by selling that family farm that > had been cobbled together over a century. It shouldn't work this way in > America. > > Second, we must repeal NAFTA. Since NAFTA passed, U.S. agriculture > imports from Canada and Mexico have increased 57%, and our agriculture > trade surplus with the two countries has shrunk by two-thirds. Stand on > our northern border and you'll see four times as many head of imported > cattle heading south as you did a decade ago. 2000% more spring wheat. > Seven times as many hogs. > > Move to the southern border and you'll see Mexican trucks hauling the > tomatoes that have cost Florida farmers $1 billion in lost revenue, or the > strawberries that infected 270 Americans with Hepatitis A in 1997. This > is the fruit of a NAFTA trade deal that failed to consider the possibility > that our neighbors would cheapen their currencies to take unfair advantage > of American farmers. > > Now, make no mistake: I am not against trade. I believe we must take > aggressive action to open overseas markets to U.S. farm products. But we > must stop unilaterally throwing open our markets to Japan, China, the > Pacific Rim and the EU, when they deny us free and fair access to their > markets. Over the past decade, we've courted the Chinese with trade > privileges and unrestricted imports at the cost of a $60 billion annual > trade deficit. Meanwhile, Beijing has slashed U.S. farm imports by $100 > million, and slapped 40% tariffs on U.S. agricultural products. > > Why do not Republicans stand up to the Beijing regime, and stand up for > the American farmer? Those Republicans, like Mr. Bush and Mr. Forbes, who > have embraced the Clinton-Gore policy of appeasing China with Most Favored > Nation trade privileges bear equal responsibility for the Iowa farms that > today hover on the brink of bankruptcy. > > Mr. Bush, Mr. Forbes and Mrs. Dole now say we must open foreign markets. > But when you have unilaterally given up total access to your own market, > what leverage do you have left to pry open the protected markets of > Europe, Asia and Latin America? > > Mrs. Dole says the road to prosperity for American farmers lies in giving > "fast track" authority to Bill Clinton. But fast track is the surrender > by Congress of all rights to amend trade treaties. Why should a > Republican Congress sign a blank check to a Clinton-Gore trade team that > this year will amass a $325 billion merchandise trade deficit-equal to 4% > of our Gross Domestic Product? > > The Clinton-Gore team is the most incompetent collection of trade > negotiators this continent has seen since the Indians sold Manhattan for > twenty-four dollars worth of baubles and beads. > > Critics call me a protectionist. But if our trade laws are not there to > protect Americans who are they written for? Today, the price of virtually > every farm commodity we produce-hogs, corn, beans, cattle, wheat, apples, > milk, cotton -- has fallen below their cost of production. When that > happens, imports kill farms. > > If prices remain at these levels for any extended period of time, every > family farm in this country will face bankruptcy and ruin. Therefore, as > President, I would impose this policy: Whenever the price of a commodity > falls below the cost of production, we stop importing that commodity into > the United States, to save our family farms. It is time Republicans and > Democrats both put the American economy before the Global Economy and > America's farmers ahead of the claims of any and all foreign regimes. > > Third, I will abolish the IMF and end these taxpayer bailouts of foreign > competitors of U.S. farmers. > > Twenty years ago, we produced 70% of the world's soybeans, Brazil 5%. > Today, our share has fallen to 47%, Brazil's has risen to 20%. And Brazil > has lately cleared 150 million new acres for soybean production. Yet, in > 1998, the U.S. led a $41 IMF bailout of Brazil, which then devalued its > currency by 40%, giving Brazilian farms a new 40% price advantage over > Iowa farmers. Thus, via the IMF, are U.S. citizens forced to subsidize > the destruction of Iowa farms. Last year, the World Bank lent $10 billion > to Asian countries, with promotion of agriculture the bank's highest > priority. These loans are guaranteed by U.S. taxpayers. > Thus, via the World Bank, are Americans citizens subsidizing the > destruction of Iowa > farms. It is time to privatize the World Bank and abolish the IMF. > > Fourth, I will stop using food as a weapon, and review all existing > embargoes and sanctions of foreign countries. The denial of food does not > hurt dictators; it hurts their subject peoples and American farmers, while > our faithless allies rush in to fill the orders. > > Fifth, I will enforce existing anti-trust laws to prevent the mega-mergers > that are forcing vertical integration of American agriculture. In 1921, > the Packers and Stockyards Act was passed in response to near 50% > consolidation of the U.S. meatpacking industry by five packers. Today, > five corporations control 89% of all beef processing. But rather than > blocking the consolidation of these giant conglomerates, the federal > government continues to approve mergers like the Cargill-Continental deal > that concentrates 42% of U.S. corn exports, one-third of soybeans, and 20% > of U.S. wheat exports in the hands of a single transnational corporation. > > Family farms cannot compete against transnationals that fix prices by > closed contracts, leverage trade deals, secure tax benefits that are > unavailable to independent producers, and operate branches of their > empires at a loss until small competitors collapse. > > Witness what industrialization has done to poultry: In 1940, 85% of farms > raised chickens. Today, ten companies control two-thirds of the industry, > with Tyson roosting on top with a 22% share of the market. From egg to > chicken, total control of the production process belongs to corporations > with no stake in local communities. > > A June USDA report states that, "The poultry industry models the type of > business organization that may characterize U.S. farming in the future." > Farms turned into factories controlled by far away investors-with farmers > as assembly-line workers-is this what the first American farmers > envisioned? > > Sixth, just as resisting consolidation will encourage fairer competition, > so, too, will requiring price disclosure. Last year, when pork producers > were getting eight cents a pound -- $20 for a hog that cost $75 to raise, > IBP, the country's second largest pork processor, reported quadrupled > earnings in the fourth quarter, and Hormel Foods enjoyed the most > profitable year in its 107-year history. While bankrupt family farmers > were shooting hogs or giving them away, giant hog confinements were > cashing in on contracts with packers willing to pay premium prices for > large shipments. By law, processors only have to reveal the prices they > pay on the open market; contract prices are private. So the family farmer > with his perishable commodity and single community buyer is not only being > muscled out by the mega- producer. He must also contend with an > anti-competitive producer-packer partnership that makes basic pricing > privileged information. > > Seventh, just as I support the independence of the family farm, I support > a policy of U.S. energy independence that includes a strong stand for > ethanol. This industry creates 40,000 jobs, adds $12 billion in net farm > income each year, and decreases the demand for foreign OPEC oil. Here in > Iowa, with the move on to ban MTBE, ethanol's chief competitor, the > expanded market for ethanol could add 50 cents a bushel to the price of > corn. > > Eighth, saving the family farm will require a rewrite of the Endangered > Species Act so that Congress is forced to vote on every species that is > listed as endangered. Let me tell you about the Domenigoni family in > Winchester, California. They've lived on the same land for over a > century, but recently the endangered Stephens kangaroo rat took up > residence on their ranch. The feds found the rats, and forced the family > to idle 800 acres at a cost of $400,000. > > The Domenigonis were not compensated, and after they were forbidden to use > farm equipment to build firebreaks, 25,000 acres were scorched by > wildfires. The rats perished, but not before they took that family's > livelihood with them. > > Ninth, we should exempt family farms from OSHA and begin a regulatory > revolution to restore sanity to federal regulation. I will impose a > moratorium on new regulation, require a sunset provision of five years on > all regulation, and institute a defined annual cutback in paperwork for > family farms. > > Tenth, we must restore farmers' property rights under the Fifth Amendment > and end the regulatory theft of property rights without just compensation. > In Forest City, here in Iowa, when the Johnson family tried to install > drainage on 36 acres of their farm, a federal judge declared it a > protected "wetland." The Johnsons were threatened with jail time and > fines of $25,000 a day, unless they spent their own money to turn the > farmland into an eco-preserve. Enough is enough: Private holdings are not > public habitats, and unelected bureaucrats must not be allowed to force > citizens to cede their property without due process and just payment. > > I want to close with a story. It started 120 years ago when Terry Naas' > great- grandfather staked out a homestead in Nelson County, North Dakota, > and sank deep roots into this soil. He didn't have much to bequeath to > his son, but by the time Terry's father took over, the Naas family farm > had grown to 3,000 acres. > > This year, Terry planted wheat, barley, and sunflowers, but the land > farmed by his father and uncles won't provide enough for his wife Karen > and their two young children. Last year, they moved 55 miles away so > Karen could work at the Post Office. As he commutes back to his family's > farm each day, Terry struggles with the same dilemma facing many American > farmers. "You can't afford to keep going, but you can't afford to quit," > he says. "After 120 years in the family, you hate to be the one to end > it, especially when it's all I've thought about for the last 30 years. > It's all I ever wanted to do, but am I the one to end it?" > > In 1785, Jefferson wrote to John Jay that America's farmers were our "most > vigorous, most independent, most virtuous" citizens, who are "tied to > their country and wedded to its liberty and interests with the most > lasting bands." > > We must keep faith with these Americans, by ensuring that their dreams are > not buried beneath dumped imports, or plowed under by transnational > corporations with no allegiance to anything but their own bottom line. > Family farmers are not begging for federal handouts. Proud, hearty stock, > they have, for love of the land, weathered droughts, overcome disease, and > outlasted depression. They simply want their labor to be valued, their > products to be competitive, and their own government to take their side in > the global marketplace. America's farmers are asking nothing more. They > deserve nothing less. > > -------------------------------------- > > BUCHANAN FAMILY FARM BILL OF RIGHTS > > 1. Eliminate all inheritance and capital gains taxes. > > 2. Insist that all countries that trade with the U.S. give American > farmers open access to their markets absent tariffs and quotas. > > 3. Abolish the IMF and end American taxpayer bailouts of foreign > competitors of U.S. farmers. > > 4. Review all embargoes and sanctions of foreign countries that use food > exports as a weapon. > > 5. Enforce existing anti-trust laws to prevent mega-mergers from forcing > the vertical integration of American agriculture. > > 6. Require price disclosure. > > 7. Support ethanol production as integral to a policy of national energy > independence. > > 8. Rewrite the Endangered Species Act to require a vote of Congress on > every species listed as endangered. > > 9. Launch a regulatory revolution by exempting family farms from OSHA, > imposing a moratorium on all new regulation, requiring a sunset provision > of five years on all regulation, and instituting a defined annual cutback > in regulatory paperwork. > > 10.Restore farmers' Fifth Amendment property rights and end the regulatory > theft of property without just compensation. > > -------------------- end -------------------------- > > > Help Pat and the Brigade in our Battle for the White House... > Go to: http://www.gopatgo2000.org/000-v-helppat.html > Spread the word -- forward this email across the USA! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >From TheIndependent (UK) > SUN SETTING ON AMERICA'S FAMILY FARMS > > > FROM HER farmhouse kitchen, Lavon Griffieon can see field after field of green, > stretching out to the horizon. On one side, that is. On the other, marching up > almost to the farm, are serried ranks of brown and beige houses, concrete > evidence of a problem that America is starting to notice: urban sprawl. > > Like their British counterparts, America's family farmers are under huge > pressure as prices plunge to ever-lower levels and their debt rises to > unmanageable levels. Many are simply selling out to land speculators. Their > concerns rarely make it very high up the list of issues in Washington DC but the > problems spawned by the farm crisis, are starting to coalesce into a new > political agenda, against developers and the agricultural conglomerates that are > squeezingsmall farmers from both sides. > > And Mrs Griffieon, sitting in her neat kitchen with her husband and children, is > at the forefront of that agenda. This Iowafamily is part of a growing political > movement attracting attention at the highest levels. For several years, Mrs > Griffieon led a local group that sought to educate Iowans about the workings of > agriculture. > > It might seem an unlikely task in a state where agriculture dominates the local > economy, a state that seems to be submerged in fields of rolling green but, as > she points out, "most Americans are three generations removed from agriculture > and don't understand what goes on on farms". > > In the past few years, the scale of the troubles that she and her farming > friends faced started to move her towards something else, a more active > campaign. What had been the small town of Ankeny to the south began to expand > relentlessly, eating up those green fields like a swarm of locusts. > > And as the farm crisis bit, more and more land become new housing. Mrs Griffieon > founded 1,000 Friends of Iowa, a group that campaigns for farmers and against > the insidious spread of development into farmland. Just up the road are four > lifesize cows that bear her message in large letters: "Urban Sprawl/Ain't Too > Pretty/Save Our Farms/Build In The City". > > The scale of the crisis for family farmers is terrifying. Take pork, a staple of > the Iowa economy. Pork prices had been good in 1997, but collapsed last year and > have now sunk even lower. In 1997, hogs were going for over $50 a hundredweight > in the auction pens at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, about $5 over the > 10-year average. This year, those prices were dipping toward $30. > > Economists are used to the pattern of the pork market, which even has a name: > the "hog cycle". Prices go up, so farmers invest in more pigs. Overproduction > reduces prices, and the pigs get slaughtered so prices sink again. But this > time, the dip is lower and there is no sign of recovery. > > Part of the reason is the massive spread of industrial pig farming, or "hog > confinement" as it is called. The large food producers have created vast pork > factories across the Midwest and the West and they aren't going to cut back. > More and more small farmers go out of business every day. Farmland is worth > about $2,700 an acre; development land goes for six times that. Just by selling, > a farmer can erase his debts and turn himself into a wealthy man. But the land > goes out of farming for ever, and another street of houses is added to the Iowa > countryside. > > Urban sprawl has started to pop up on the political agenda in other parts of > America. There are several "1,000 Friends" groups across the nation, and similar > efforts are multiplying. There were hundreds of proposals to limit urban > expansion on the ballots at last year's election, and there will be more next > year. > > Vice-President Al Gore, the most likely Democratic candidate in next year's > election, has become an advocate of Smart Growth. But it isn't just sprawl. The > massive hog farms also became an issue in last year's elections, as dozens of > small groups raised questions over the pollution they cause. America has also > become more concerned for food quality, questioning both the reliability of > imports and what goes into the food produced by the big industrial companies. > > For these problems, and many others, many Iowans blame the producers. Todd Lust, > a 36-year-old farmer, told Mr Gore to enforce competition rules to stop family > farmers from going out of business when he visited the State Fair this year, but > he didn't get the answers he wanted. > > "Did you hear him say he was going to fight the corporations?" he asked a Des > Moines Register reporter afterwards. "I think it's too late. They waited too > late." Many farmers are giving up the struggle and are becoming contractors to > the big conglomerates. > > "It's becoming a lord-serf kind of thing," says Mrs Griffieon. But she will go > on fighting. The family has been farming for six generations. "That's a hard > thing to break up," she says. "You don't want to be the link that breaks." A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Universal Declaration of Human Rights + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." --- Ernest Hemingway + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
