Kent Conrad: “The basic idea is that we have enormous economic distress out across farm country. Certainly, in my own State, we have…”

“The basic idea is that we have enormous economic distress out across farm country. Certainly, in my own State, we have seen a triple whammy of bad prices, bad weather, and bad policy. The result has been collapsing farm income, and the result of that is thousands of farmers being forced off the land. This chart shows North Dakota farm incomes being washed away in 1997. According to the Government's own figures, from 1996 to 1997, farm income reported to the Commerce Department, reported by the Labor Department, went down 98 percent in North Dakota from 1996 to 1997. We all know there are many factors here. Low prices are a chief culprit. In addition to that, dramatically reduced production as a result of unusual weather patterns that have led to a massive outbreak of disease, so-called scab, which is really a fungus, which cost us a third of the crop in North Dakota last year.”