David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, we have had one of the wonders of congressional history plaguing every farmer in this country the past few…”

“Mr. Chairman, we have had one of the wonders of congressional history plaguing every farmer in this country the past few years; it has been called the Freedom to Farm Act. And under that act, farmers have had the freedom to experience record lows in the prices they are getting for their products. Dairy farmers, for instance, are getting about 40 percent less than they were getting just a few years ago for every hundred pounds of milk they sell, and you have lots of other commodities where farm prices are in the tank. You have suicide rates in farm-dominated counties at very high levels, and one would think that a Congress, which is supposedly dedicated to the free market to letting the 'wondrous' market forces work, would insist that you have really true markets. Mr. Chairman, but if you look at the adequacy of this budget in terms of enabling the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assure that we have the tools to prevent undue market concentration so that you can maintain real markets, you see this bill is woefully inadequate.”