On the recordMarch 17, 2010
This is National Ag Week, and I want to express my support and appreciation for our Nation's farmers and ranchers, especially those from my home State of Kansas. Kansas farmers produce more than 350 million bushels of wheat, 200 million bushels of sorghum, and nearly 500 million bushels of corn, generating more than $5 billion annually for our economy. Our ranchers produced more than 6.3 billion head of cattle this year. Each farmer feeds more than 130 people. It is their hard work that has ensured America a safe, low-cost feed supply. Now, I learned about agriculture on the seat of a tractor, not a committee, and I know firsthand just how hard farmers work. Too many people here in Washington have no clue how the policies they pass affect farm life, often making things more difficult for farmers and ranchers. Congress and bureaucracies need to freeze regulations and let the agricultural community do their job of feeding the world. We need to have the EPA step back from the regulations of everything from dust to cow gas. We need to eliminate the death tax so family farms can stay in the family. And please, let us restore the focus of the farm bill on the family farm and not on the cities. So tonight, Mr. Speaker, as you sit down to dinner, remember to thank a farmer for making your meal possible.
