ISSUE 5
January 1997

FAIR act still leaves many issues unresolved

Tom Young, Onida, SD SD Wheat Inc. President
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.

 While there are many benefits in the seven-year farm program, Denny Everson, First Dakota National Bank of Yankton, points out things the FAIR act does not do.

His quick list includes: fair trade (the playing field is not yet level); regulatory relief (property rights, Endangered Species Act still need attention); lack of research funding (shortsightedness for our future); the need for estate tax relief (agriculture as we know it will be disrupted without relief in the next 20 years as $22 trillion in ag assets need to be transferred).

Furthermore, are we ready yet to farm "profitably" without the government? Mr. Everson had me scrambling recently to find my schedule F tax return when he showed concerning evidence that over 50% of America’s farmers have profits which are smaller than the government payments received each year. Would you make a profit without the FAIR payments? It shows that we need to be working NOW on filling the void of guaranteed payments under FAIR.

You need to let your Association leaders know your ideas. You can see that there are many policy challenges ahead, and we’ll need a united agricultural sector to address them.
Copyright Prairie
Grains Magazine

January 1997