Kent Conrad: “We saved $17 billion just from the commodity provision alone from what was projected at the time the last farm bill was…”

“We saved $17 billion just from the commodity provision alone from what was projected at the time the last farm bill was written. Part of it was, we did a good job of fashioning an agricultural policy that when prices are higher, the support is reduced. The result was very significant savings for the American taxpayer; in addition to that, a food policy that meant the lowest cost food, as a share of national income, in the history of the world. That is a fact. And by a long way. We have the lowest priced food, as the Senator well knows, of any country in the world, and by a big margin. We are spending 10 percent of our income on food. That includes food eaten at home and food eaten out. Other countries are spending, most of the industrialized world, 14 and 15 percent. That is just for food eaten at home. So we are beating them by a country mile.”