Agriculture:
In Nebraska - and in Iowa and Illinois, Kansas and Colorado - economic pressures are driving independent farmers to sell out to agribusiness conglomerates or real estate speculators. With the prices of farming inputs like diesel, nitrates and fertilizer set to reach record levels, this trend toward consolidation is sure to accelerate in 2006. Government cannot reverse these economic pressures, but it must do more to provide family farms and ranches the tools they need to stay competitive. American agriculture is at a crossroads, and federal agriculture policy is not keeping up.
Under the $249 billion farm bill approved in 2002, two-thirds of farm subsidy payments go to the top 10 percent of farm-subsidy recipients. Meanwhile, the incomes of most farm families remain stagnant, and our rural communities continue to decline.
We need a new generation of farm incentives that will reward farmers who support local economies, practice responsible land stewardship, and invest in bringing value-added farm products to market. We need to shift incentives to boost innovation. Because, as we all know-especially farmers-the best subsidy is a higher price.
We need to invest in expanding the markets for specialty agricultural products. We need to invest in growing the market for value-added farm products like alternative grains and branded beef, poultry and pork. We need to invest in agritourism, which taps into the growing urge among city-dwellers to reconnect with the land. We need to double and treble government support for biodiesel, biomass, wind power, methane and hydrogen fuel cells. These investments can bring healthier food to American tables, reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and keep Nebraskan farmers and ranchers competitive in the 21st Century. These investments can ensure that the promise of globalization is fulfilled here at home.
Take just one example: consumers are paying ever-higher premiums to know that their beef wasn't rushed to market; to know that it was raised in a natural environment and in a natural way. They are paying ever-higher premiums to know that the grains in their bread, cereal and pasta comes from a farm practicing common-sense conservation. Nebraska must tap into this value-added market. And, if government provides the same incentives for sound conservation practices as it provides for bulk production, more Nebraska farmers and ranchers will tap into this market. If it provides the same technical support for diversified farming business models that it provides for bulk commodity agriculture, Nebraska farmers and ranchers will diversify to increase their profit margins. If government follows through with implementation of country-of-origin labeling, it will simultaneously empower American consumers and help give Nebraska ranchers the competitive edge they deserve.
If government passes state and federal policies that level the playing field for family farms and ranches, and if it moves aggressively to support new agricultural business models, then our children will inherit a Nebraska agricultural economy many times stronger than the one we have today. But if government does not change its ways, we will squander our competitive advantage, and our local farm base will continue to erode. We will lose the infrastructure and the people who, with government investment, might have kept American agriculture strong through the 21st Century.
Nebraska's farms and ranches have the expertise and adaptability needed to hit the ground running in the field of diversified agriculture. We are a globalization success story waiting to happen. But, like anything else, we need to invest in the systems, infrastructure and people that will enable us to take advantage of this new environment.
There is a way. It is up to us to summon the will.