Political Quotes

“I just want to reiterate, while this has a major impact on specialty crop and dairy and livestock States like California and Florida, it is a national issue because under current law, if 75 percent of your income is from farms, then you are eligible for this higher AGI. By taking that out, you are redirecting conservation dollars from people who are full-time farmers, full-time producers, presumably the people that the farm bill is intended to benefit, and directing it to hobby farmers, people who are enjoying their gentlemanly estates in the suburbs of Washington or New York or other metropolitan areas, where they enjoy the bucolic lifestyle, while the people who get up before dawn every morning and go to bed after dark every night, and live and die by the vagaries of the marketplace and pests and disease will be ineligible for the additional conservation help. So you either drive them out of business because of the impact on watersheds, or you will pay for it out of a different program; but one way or the other you will either drive agriculture out of the Chesapeake, drive agriculture out of the Glades, drive agriculture out of the prairie potholes, out of the Dakotas, out of the flyways, or we can make this minor amendment to let the people who farm full time eligible for the green payments that recognize the social benefits that come from their activities. I urge the adoption of this amendment, and I thank my friend from Florida for his assistance.”