John Thune: “Mr. Chairman, I too want to add this morning to what has already been said about how important this issue is to…”

“Mr. Chairman, I too want to add this morning to what has already been said about how important this issue is to producers across this country and to say that agriculture has been hit by an unprecedented set of issues, the lowest prices in decades, loss of foreign markets, unprecedented levels of concentration within the industry itself. These are all issues, many of them over which producers do not have control; and those are things that I hope as we move forward in our discussion in agricultural policy in Congress, that we can begin to address. There is tremendous room for improvement in many of these areas. I certainly hope that, as a member of the Committee on Agriculture, that I know our chairman is focused on these issues; and we intend to move forward and try to create an environment with respect to our producers to have an opportunity to make a living and to compete in the world marketplace.”