Amy Klobuchar: “It might be easy to forget as we sit in this Chamber all that goes into growing the most abundant, safest food supply in…”

“It might be easy to forget as we sit in this Chamber all that goes into growing the most abundant, safest food supply in the world. But when I travel across our State, I am impressed by the work and planning that goes into making each farm and ranch operate in the face of market failures, in the face of natural disasters, in the face of volatile weather. Well, guess what. This is the time when that planning goes on. It goes on right now. Anyone who learned in kindergarten about how we plant crops and how we get things done knows that the fall and winter is the time when you plan ahead, and then you plant your crops, then you move ahead, and then pretty soon you are harvesting them. Well, they need to know what the rules of the game are to get this done. Each year family farmers make tough decisions about which crops to plant, what equipment to purchase, and when to market their crops. Congress should be no less committed to completing work on the farm bill, which provides the safety net and certainty for farmers, for ranchers, for rural communities. The stakes are high for Minnesota. Agriculture is our State's leading export, accounting for $75 billion in economic activity every year and supporting more than 300,000 jobs. Minnesota is No. 3 in the country for hogs and soybeans. It is also home to pork processors and biodiesel plants. Minnesota is No. 4 in corn, and it is also home to 21 ethanol plants that produce over 1 billion gallons of ethanol every single year.…”