On the recordMay 16, 2018
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Only two times each decade do we in Congress have the privilege to effect productive, meaningful change for America's farmers and ranchers--those same citizens who help feed and clothe the entire world. Let us not forget that America's farmers and ranchers make up only 1 percent of our Nation's population, yet they make sure that dinner tables across the country have food on them. In fact, one farm feeds 165 people in the U.S. and abroad. As such, U.S. farm policy is now a target due to its own success. Politically driven think tanks and antifarmer groups believe that there is no longer a point to have a farm policy in the United States. They fail to realize that America's farmers and ranchers do business with foreign competitors who do not share the free market values our country adopted at its founding, placing them at a disadvantage; therefore, we have to properly equip our producers to compete with countries that directly subsidize and own the means of production. It is, indeed, an issue of national security. The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
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