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Follow us on TwitterU.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley still doesn’t hold much hope for passing production control or supply management legislation as a way of helping hard-hit agricultural sectors, but he remains optimistic that help will come in some form.
File photo: Sen Charles Grassley. (Lauren Victoria Burke/wdcpix.com)
“I’ve seen Congress step in before under the leadership of [Vermont Sen. Patrick] Leahy and when there was a [James] Jeffords [of Vermont] in the Congress,” Grassley, a Republican, said during a Tuesday morning conference call with reporters. “We have the buy-out of beef cattle now going to reduce herd size. We have government capability of purchasing products, and we also have the government subsidizing some exports at this point.”
The current economic situation, according to Grassley, is an “overriding concern” when it comes to passing federal legislation that might provide additional funding to diary and pork producers. Although dairy farmers who recently rallied in Iowa are keen on pushing Congress to pass the Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009, Grassley said he spoke with them via conference call after the rally and expressed his concerns.
“I said when you get into supply management and production controls, that that’s not favorably received in the Congress,” Grassley explained. “We’ve been moving away from that sort of control on any segment of the economy, not just agriculture, but any segment. So consequently, I don’t think it has much chance of passing. I wouldn’t say, though, that there would not be some emergency help for dairy that could come in a separate piece of legislation, but it would not be in the form of production controls and supply management.”
At the top of the call Grassley noted that June is Dairy Month and that he’s looking forward to eating “plenty of ice cream” when the International Dairy Food Association holds its annual ice cream party on Capitol Hill.
“Over the last few years, our industry of agriculture has seen its livestock producers take hit after hit with various economic factors,” Grassley said. “You know, beef producers saw exports decline due to unscientific trade restrictions placed by other countries on us. Beef, pork, chicken, dairy were all clobbered by high corn prices. Once that price issue has settled down, pork and dairy producers continued to see low prices and oversupply.”
Misinformation, he said, is continuing to impact the swine industry.
“I spoke before, maybe a month ago, about how misinformed the Chinese were about the fact that we don’t have — that they’re not letting our meat in and they’re using swine flu as an example,” he said. “We could help the swine industry by passing free trade agreements … Korea and Colombia and Panama would be one way to help.
“But in regard to China, we need to be moving aggressively there because the scientific community that’s headquartered in Paris, OIE, has made clear that our meat is safe and that there’s no transferral of swine flu through eating [it].”
