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Texas Agriculture Archive

February 7, 2003

Delegates support
disaster assistance

By Mike Barnett
Editor

Delegates at the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting in Tampa, Fla., reaffirmed support for financial assistance for agricultural producers who suffered crop and livestock losses due to weather disasters in 2001 and 2002, opposed a ban on packer ownership of livestock and reiterated support for the country-of-origin labeling provisions of the 2002 farm bill.

Newly-elected president of the Texas Farm Bureau Kenneth Dierschke led a body of 24 delegates and several alternates from the Lone Star State as policy for 2003 was decided for the nation's largest farm organization.

Delegates from across the U.S. approved a resolution that urged "Congress to complete action on emergency weather disaster assistance for the nearly 90 percent of all U.S. counties that have received disaster designations," during both the 2001 and 2002 crop years.

"This a critical issue for many Texas producers," Dierschke said. "We've had about a five-year drought in some areas. And, if disaster assistance is passed, we want to make sure we don't open the farm bill up. Those payments need to come from other funds."

Dierschke said the Texas representatives, as well as the entire national body of delegates, were evenly split on the issues of a ban of packer ownership of livestock and country-of-origin labeling. Delegates, by a narrow margin, voted to remove AFBF policy in 2002 that called for a prohibition of "packer ownership of livestock for more than 14 days prior to slaughter" except in certain circumstances. The policy also includes language that encourages USDA, in conjunction with the Justice Department, to "closely investigate all mergers, ownership changes or other trends in the meat packing industry for actions that limit the availability of a competitive market for livestock producers." Delegates also recommended that AFBF establish a task force to examine the impact to agriculture of a ban on packer ownership of livestock.

"Country-of-origin labeling was also a heated issue," Dierschke said. "It's going to be very costly to follow an animal from birth through the marketplace. We want to make sure the consumer understands this when they do see a price increase in some of their stores."

Delegates reaffirmed Farm Bureau policy that supports the labeling of agricultural products as "grown in the USA." The policy states that for animal products to receive this label, the animal must have been "exclusively born, raised and processed in the United States." The delegates also asked the board for a study of the impact of country-of-origin labeling on producers of livestock and livestock products.

Of particular importance to Lower Rio Grande Valley farmers was policy aimed at resolving the U.S./Mexico 1944 water treaty crisis. Mexico has repeatedly refused to pay water owed to the Rio Grande Valley under that treaty, and South Texas farmers are in a state of crisis because they lack water to irrigate their crops. Specifically, delegates reaffirmed their support for Texas and U.S. government efforts to resolve the crisis, supported federal and state programs designed to help Texas agribusiness as a result of Mexico's noncompliance, and supported financing improvements for water delivery systems along the Rio Grande.

The Texas delegation also pushed policy aimed at resolving issues arising from landlord/tenant relationships. In a nutshell, this issue, which mainly affects rice producers but has the potential to spread to those who raise other crops, centers around some landlords unfairly taking advantage of the farm bill by taking back property rented to tenant farmers, and collecting subsidies when they don't meet the criteria of a producer or "actively engaged" in a farming operation.

The resolution presented from Texas asked that the authority to make eligibility determinations be placed with FSA County Committees. Currently, those decisions are made at the national level.

"The resolution presented did not bring the power back to the county level, but put it with the state FSA committee, which will help," said rice producer and TFB Board member Bob Reed. "That brings it a step closer to the county level and the states that have the authority to delegate that to the counties.

" Hopefully, that's what will happen."