Dwight Grotberg: A Better Plan for Farmers

From today's Fargo Forum

Your opinion: A better plan for farmers
By Dwight Grotberg - 10/08/2006

On Oct. 3, The Forum asked the question of where I stand on disaster legislation for our farmers. I believe we can secure funding for current disasters by laying out a new plan for future ones now.

A few days ago the disaster supplemental bill for our agricultural losses failed to pass again. The blame has been put on the president and Republican members of Congress for striking it down.
I believe it’s also the responsibility of our senator to write legislation that will get passed. This is the third year in a row that tying disaster assistance onto other pending legislation has failed. As a state, we need the president and both houses of Congress on the side of our farmers. We are losing national support, and we need to change our approach to making our needs known.

Three years of inadequately covered disasters are taking their toll on many farmers. In the future, North Dakota farmers need a plan that protects them from inevitable hard times.
I will work for legislative changes for our farmers as well as all consumers of energy. These changes include an overall strategy and long-term approach to secure a greater demand base for American agricultural products and stimulate a National Security Initiative through domestic energy production:

- A National Security Initiative for energy that works together with the 2007 farm bill. Energy prices are causing serious inflation throughout our economy. America can and should be the source for our energy needs, and traditional petroleum products and bio-fuels from America can meet this demand at a lower cost to consumers and the federal government.

- Reducing restrictions on building refineries and increasing domestic petroleum production. We must be able to meet petroleum demand by tapping into our reserves on coastal waters and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge region, as well as North Dakota’s own oil and coal reserves.

- Billions of dollars can be saved in the farm bill by higher demand for energy commodities such as corn, soybeans and canola. Increase in demand for these types of commodities helps to solve overproduction of other commodities. Livestock producers benefit from an abundant feed by-product supply. To prepare for disasters, we should use these potential savings to invest in a disaster relief fund and offer affordable insurance that matches cost of production. Federal assistance for emergencies can be provided quickly if the funding is already available.

- Protect our farmers and ranchers from environmental mandates that negatively affect production. Both grain and livestock producers are threatened from over-reaching national programs that don’t work for their local situations. Farmer-initiated and controlled conservation should be encouraged.

- Allow farmers and ranchers to put a significant percentage of their annual gross income into a tax-free shelter they could draw upon when a crisis occurs or when opportunities arise.

- Compensate farmers for land planted prior to flooding. Farmers are now covered only on those acres that are prevented from being planted. Yields should be calculated on only the harvested acres. Excess water is costing North Dakotans millions of dollars every year. Both farmers and local suppliers of inputs such as seed and machinery are affected. We need a solution to this problem.

- Protect our bio-fuel, sugar and livestock industries from unfair world trade issues. Free trade as a whole is beneficial; unfortunately, some industries become negatively affected and need to be protected.

We have to stop legislating from crisis to crisis. We need to be represented as a people with a plan in order to regain support from non-agriculture-centered states and our president. My plan will be based on growing both food and energy, for our farmers and for our national security.

Grotberg is a Wimbledon, N.D., area farmer and the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.