Angie Craig: “I want American agriculture to modernize and develop the flexibility that it ought to have. I want to help them when…”

“I want American agriculture to modernize and develop the flexibility that it ought to have. I want to help them when they need help. That is what we are on the floor discussing. The Senator from North Dakota talks about trade deficit. Trade deficits have occurred, and I do not like it either. But I have also watched our ability to trade expand with every agreement that we have struck. We know that in American agriculture today, if you don't sell 40 percent of the crop you raise in a foreign market, you are in trouble financially. That is why they are in trouble financially today--because this Government, this administration, this USDA, didn't help them sell the product at a time when markets were collapsing and other governments were aggressively pursuing those markets. So there are things we can do, but I hope this Senate will not step backwards into a dark age of government programs, farming controlled by Government, forcing farmers to live with a government check arriving in the mailbox as their only source of income. My farmers don't want that. Most farm groups don't want that.”