Chuck Grassley: “what the Senator from Montana is trying to do has to be done if we are going to have justice for the family farmer. We…”

“what the Senator from Montana is trying to do has to be done if we are going to have justice for the family farmer. We have been involved in suits regarding the packing houses for 20 years. I remember when I first came to Congress, we were trying to overturn the Illinois Brick case because it stood in the way of the family farmer getting justice in business. So you end up fighting the National Manufacturers Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to bring justice to family farmers. Finally, in a lawsuit down in Alabama, we get a jury who says the family farmer is right, but you get a judge who overrules the jury. Now, I want to speak about not just this particular case, because Senator Tester is doing that, but I hope everybody in this Senate remembers that on several different occasions, everybody in the food chain beyond the farmer's gate was lining up against the farmer. I will cite just a recent example in regard to food and fuel and the ethanol issue and corn going to $4 and the price of food going up and every farmer getting blamed for it. Every person in the food chain outside of the farmer's gate was involved in that conspiracy that had nothing to do with the price of food rising, but the family farmer got blamed for it when food went to $4--or when corn went to $4. But when the price of corn went down to $2.85, I didn't see the price of food go down. But the conspiracy exists.…”