On the recordSeptember 21, 2012
The gentleman is correct. We had over 70 farm organizations from the American Farm Bureau, the National Farmers Union to the, as we say, the ``barnyard coalition'' that represents all of the poultry and pork and dairy and beef cattle industries, because they understand that a farm bill is a safety net. Without it, we don't have a farm policy, we don't have a food policy for not just American farmers, ranchers, and dairymen but for the consumers who, each night, enjoy the highest- quality food produced with the safest quality anywhere in the world. Let me just close by saying two things. The dairy industry is hurting. We have had a drought in the Midwest that has devastated a whole host of the farm country. And yet, what is one of the ways that farmers, ranchers, and dairymen are able to produce next year's crops? Well, they get loans. They get loans from banks and production credit associations. What are those loans made of? They are based upon the value of their farm and how much they were leveraged, but they are also based upon a farm bill, a farm bill that provides the ability to ensure that there is a safety net and that there is crop insurance. Without any farm bill, we don't have any crop insurance. Without a farm bill, we don't have that safety net. With the overwhelming bipartisan support that we have in the Senate, the bipartisan bill that was voted out of the House Agriculture Committee, it seems to me that we ought to let the process work.…
