WASHINGTON, D.C. - Philosopher George Santayana once said that, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Even though the last farm bill was signed by President Obama just three years ago, it's amazing how much has been forgotten. In part, that may be because it was such a tortured process.
One aspect of the process that was not completely forgotten - but also not widely reported - was how some of the policy discussions easily split along regional "fault" lines. It's the essence of part three of our new series, "The seven things you should know before you write the next farm bill."
Farm bill veterans know that some of the biggest fights in farm policy usually fall along regional rather than party lines. Depending on who is in the House and Senate committee seats, farm bill strategies need to vary in order to pass a bill out of committee that can meld those different interests.
During an interview with Agri-Pulse, Sen. Pat Roberts - who previously served as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and now chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee - recalled advice from former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Kika de la Garza, D-Texas, when he first took over the helm of the House Agriculture Committee in 1995.
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"He said, 'You aren't going to have any problems with our side. I'll take care of our side. You know where we are coming from and you can deal with that. Where you are going to have problems is on your side'"
"And it's true because a lot of your friends expect you to do things for them that you cannot do or you shouldn't do."
In many ways, regional divisions are expected because farmers across the U.S. grow a lot of different crops and raise livestock under a variety of different conditions.
The production risks involved in producing a bountiful crop, milking healthy cows, birthing cattle, pigs and lambs, are almost too numerous to count. On any given day, a producer might wonder: Will it rain? Will it rain too much? Will my animals be killed in a freak blizzard? Will my chicken flock get struck by disease and have to be destroyed? Will my vegetables be hit by an early frost?
Depending on how the production varies - both in the U.S. and around the world - there is also the price risk. Prices can respond quickly and dramatically - up or down - if you are a corn and soybean farmer and a major player in terms of global production. For example, U.S. producers benefit when South American corn and soybean farmers have a drought - falling short of market expectations - and vice versa.
But for cotton, where the U.S. had such a small share of the market, a bad U.S. crop won't be much of a blip in global trading.
There are also a multitude of financial risks: What if market prices skyrocket but a farmer doesn't have any crops or livestock to sell? What if interest rates shoot up and he or she can no longer repay loans on assets or operating loans? What if other countries manipulate their currencies in a way that make it more difficult to export U.S. agricultural products?
And finally, one can't rule out the political risks that have battered farm incomes around the globe over the years. What if the president declares a grain embargo, as President Jimmy Carter did in 1980 to respond to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan? Grain prices plummeted as a result. Almost two decades later, the Russian government shut off exports to the world in response to drought and wildfires at home, sending commodity prices soaring.
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Editor's note: Wyant is president and founder of Agri-Pulse Communications Inc. This is the first in a two-part look at the regional divisions that affect farm bill formation.
