Political Quotes

“I acknowledge that Ranking Member Collin Peterson on the committee has done a good job balancing many special interests that are profoundly affected by the farm bill; solving a delicate series of political problems; and holding firm, protecting vital nutrition programs and things that I care about, that I have been working on for years, like hemp. But unfortunately, the bill is not addressing the crisis in American agriculture. I published a book earlier this year. The Fight for Food had an alternative farm bill. Some of the provisions have found their way into it. But this bill does not affect the crisis that we are facing in American agriculture; having small and medium-sized producers being squeezed out; the battle in terms of the chemical warfare in parts of America with Monsanto products that are threatening agriculture production; and we are actually seeing violence break out in terms of being unable to deal with this. We have a profound problem in terms of the environmental context that farmers face. Only one in four farmers are going to get access to the environmental programs they need. Now, there are some improvements in there, things I have been working on for years, but the fundamental problem, by flatlining it, we are not meeting the needs and, in fact, it is going to represent a reduction in absolute terms. It does nothing to address the crisis that agriculture is facing because of climate change and carbon pollution.…”