Tom Harkin: “Farmers continue to suffer huge losses through absolutely no fault of their own. No other business has less control of…”

“Farmers continue to suffer huge losses through absolutely no fault of their own. No other business has less control of the price they can receive for what they produce, the cost of the inputs. Farmers cannot control the weather. They cannot control the world economy. They cannot control what is happening in Asia. But those factors do determine the price of corn, soybeans, wheat, and other commodities. The Freedom to Farm bill passed in 1996 sharply reduced the farmer's safety net to take care of those contingencies over which the farmer has no control. Now farm prices are crashing to levels not seen in decades. Many farmers are going to have a difficult time acquiring funds needed to pay their bills this year and to get the necessary money to get the fields prepared and to get the seed and the fertilizer to get the crops in the ground for next year. Many farmers could lose their farms that have been in their families for generations. I recently talked with an older farmer who said, 'That's my life's savings. I made it through the eighties. I'm a good manager. I weathered that terrible storm in the eighties. And now this may wipe me out after a lifetime of work.'”