Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

Issue Position: Agriculture

Agriculture
The 2008 Farm Bill, which I helped draft as a member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee, is critical to farmers and ranchers in South Dakota for several reasons. Why? Because agriculture is the cornerstone of South Dakota's economy in that agriculture represents more than 19 percent of our state's gross domestic product.

Since first being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, where I worked as a member of the Agriculture Committee to craft the 2002 Farm Bill, and now as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee I have fought hard to promote South Dakota's agriculture economy and to protect the way of life for South Dakota's farming families by actively engaging in creating sound Farm Bill policies.

The 2008 Farm Bill was enacted into law on May 22, 2008, after both the House and Senate voted to successfully override a Presidential veto. I am especially proud of this Farm Bill because many of the provisions I was able to include during the Senate Agriculture Committee's markup of the Farm Bill remained in place in the Senate's Farm Bill and in the final 2008 Farm Bill agreed upon by the House and Senate Conference Committee.

Provisions important to South Dakota that I authored and supported in the 2008 Farm Bill include:

* A strong Commodity Title with modified and improved safety net provisions;

* A Permanent Disaster Program for crop, livestock and grazing losses funded with $3.8 billion;

* A much-strengthened Energy Title, including the Biomass Crop Assistance Program which will expedite the transition to advanced biofuels and cellulosic ethanol;

* Language which will keep all of South Dakota's county Farm Service Agency offices in operation that were initially targeted for closure;

* Reauthorization of the Sun Grant Initiative, which is coordinated by South Dakota State University;

* A reauthorization of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) with a 32 million acre cap;

* Stronger mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) language;

* Tighter Payment Limitations with significant reform to focus farm payments to smaller family farms;

* Native American nutrition tribal assistance which authorizes $5 million per year, for the life of the 2008 Farm Bill, for the purchase and distribution of traditional, locally-grown food produced by Native American farmers, ranchers and producers;

* Authorization of "Open Fields" with $10 million per year for hunting and fishing public access programs like South Dakota's very successful walk-in program in which South Dakota landowners voluntarily enroll more than 1 million acres of privately owned land for public access.

I encourage you to check out the 2008 Farm Bill information by accessing the above links. Please do not hesitate to contact my office for further 2008 Farm Bill information or with any questions about other agriculture related issues.

Source