Byron Dorgan: “I intend to vote for this farm bill. It is not a perfect piece of legislation by any means. I will talk about some of…”

“I intend to vote for this farm bill. It is not a perfect piece of legislation by any means. I will talk about some of the shortcomings. But it is far better than current law. The current Freedom to Farm law is a very flawed piece of legislation. It was always a flawed piece of legislation. It required us every year to come in with an emergency piece of legislation to try to deal with the problems in Freedom to Farm. Is what is brought to the floor of the Senate today a much better approach than Freedom to Farm? The answer is clearly yes. But it is always interesting to me that people in dark suits who shower before they go to work will come to the floor of the Congress and talk about the economic future of people who wear work clothes and who shower at the end of the workday. These are family farmers. They work hard. They live on hope--hope that they will be able to raise a crop, have some livestock, survive a season, and go to market and make some profit. They live on that hope. Most of all, they work very hard. And they live in a world in which more and more people are hungry. We are told half a billion people go to bed every night with an ache in their belly because it hurts to be hungry.”