ISSUES/LEGISLATION: AGRICULTURE: THE 2002 FARM BILL

The 2002 farm bill is not perfect. If this farm bill contained all of the initiatives I helped include in the Senate-passed bill, it could have been more beneficial to South Dakota agriculture. Overall, it was a modest step in the right direction.

I was very pleased that, under the 2002 farm bill, conservation programs experienced the most significant amount of funding ever in a farm bill, an 80% increase over past levels. Program implementation is crucial, and I will continue to pay close attention to this process. At this point in time, substantial budget deficits present challenges in obtaining funding not only for conservation programs, but for farm bill programs in general.

Unfortunately, the farm bill didn't include my "Johnson Amendment" to ban packer ownership of livestock. Packer ownership is an important issue for South Dakotan producers. I will continue to represent our farmers and ranchers in the face of market concentration and vertical integration.

We must ensure that farm program payments are targeted to family farmers, and that South Dakota producers get their fair share. I cosponsored an amendment in the Senate, which imposed common-sense $275,000 per-couple limitations on farm program payments. However, the House of Representatives insisted on changes that significantly weakened payment limitations.

The Farm Bill contained language from S. 280, the Consumer Right-to-Know Act, legislation I sponsored to require country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef, lamb, pork, fruits, vegetables, fish, and peanuts. Country of origin labeling should be implemented for all products in a timely fashion, not only for the fish producers, whose special interests were represented during closed-door consideration of the 2004 Omnibus Appropriations bill. This bill contained language to delay the mandatory date of implementation for all other covered commodities to September 30, 2006. My first meat labeling bill was introduced in the House of Representatives fifteen years ago, in 1992.

I will persist in working to speed up implementation of this invaluable and effective law with my colleagues. Consumers and producers overwhelmingly support COOL, and it's time to see this program come to fruition.

USDA: The 2002 Farm Bill | Economic Research Service: Provisions and Economic Implications | Congress.gov: The Farm Bill in Brief