Political Quotes

“As I talked to my colleagues, there is an impression that farmers are rich and therefore do not need any help. I think it would be good if I just covered how some of the farmers in my district live. Most of the farmers average 320 acres, a lot of dairy farmers. That means they get up at 5 o'clock in the morning since cows have to be milked roughly 12 hours apart. They get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes the water is frozen. It is tough to get out of that bed. They get home at night after doing chores in the evening at about 7:30. These farmers live on very meager incomes, often having to take their kids out of music lessons because their income from farming is not that good. We look at some farmers that have maybe thousands of acres of land and maybe end up being millionaires, but that is not the norm. What is keeping this industry the strongest in the world are the individual owners that are putting in those 14-hour days and producing the food and fiber that has allowed this country to grow.”