Youngquist Auditorium on the University of Minnesota, Crookston campus was nearly filled Thursday morning as U.S. 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar hosted a public meeting to address the concerns of constituents in the area, which were primarily geared toward agriculture. Both Democrats, Peterson is chair of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and Klobuchar serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
“We're working on the farm bill, and I think we need to make some changes to it,” Peterson explained. “The current bill expires in September 2010, so the timetable we're looking at now is to try to get the bill passed and signed by the president by next December so we have time get it implemented.”
The 2008 farm bill, and others before it, was not signed until the previous bill had expired and was slow to get the provisions implemented, he added.
Peterson said he has an issue with the government's broad definition of a farmer, that you could have $1,000 of ag-related sales a year to qualify as one.
“So if you have a horse you could sell for $1,000 or more, you're a farmer,” he said. “I think this misleads the public. We've go a lot of hobby farmers who don't do this for a living. The problem is, programs are geared toward this inflated number of farmers, 2.2 million, when we really only have about 350,000.”
One of the things he'd like to change is direct payments to farmers, which “could be better utilized in crop insurance and a better safety net so that when you have a bad year, you have better protection, but in good years you don’t need money from the government,” said Peterson.
Peterson said he would also like to take pop. candy and other junk food out of the food support program, which would help to address the growing obesity problem in the nation. “I don’t think we should be using taxpayer money to buy that kind of stuff for people,” he said.
Opening up more trade with markets such as Cuba, Russia and Japan would greatly benefit farmers, said Klobuchar, as their prices would go up. She is also working on bio-fuels issues, including ethanol.
“We just have to hang in there with bio-fuels,” she said. “The market is there, but we have to let everyone know that.”
Both Klobuchar and Peterson agreed that the more urban states and areas know little about the farm bill and agricultural economy, which makes some provisions difficult to get passed.
“Our urban friends have no clue what’s going on here,” said Peterson. “They think their food all comes from the grocery store, not the farm.”
Diversion
Peterson addressed the controversy surrounding the Fargo-Moorhead Red River Diversion project and the potential effects downstream.
“The (Army) Corp of Engineers cannot build this without dealing with the problems downstream,” he said. “There’s a lot more things that have to get done before it's approved.”
The Minnesota side in Moorhead is five feet higher than Fargo's in North Dakota, said Peterson, so Minnesota does not need actually need the diversion as dikes would be sufficient. The current number shows that 94 percent of the project would go to Fargo.
“We were able to convince them to divert the water on the North Dakota side, where it should be since they're benefitting the most,” said Klobuchar. “That took a lot of work to get it moved from Minnesota, but this is the better plan.
Although the Corps tends to look only at building more dikes in smaller communities, Peterson thinks this is a waste of money and favors a multi-prong approach to solving the problem. Tiling the land in the valley is one solution that, if done right and in conjunction with control structures used to control water when needed, could also double ag production, he said. He mentioned other options, including the waffle plan, which he doesn't necessarily agree with but admits it's worth looking at for some areas.
“I'm looking at a full range of things to try to take a million-acre feet off this river. If we can do that we won’t have to build anywhere near as big of a diversion project, and maybe not one at all,” he said.
Peterson said he is trying to secure a provision in the 2012 farm bill that allocates $500 million in funding over the next 10 years to improve water retention and conservation in the Red River Valley. This is separate from the F-M Diversion project.
Public opinion
When an audience member asked for Klobuchar's thoughts on voters' frustration and the tea party movement, she expressed wishes that everyone would just get along.
“It bothers me when both the right and the left start making things up, in all areas,” she said. “We can't just keep pointing fingers and getting nothing done. There is a lot of anger and frustration among Americans today. Hopefully this election will get it out of their system and we can get together afterwards to get things done.”
Peterson added that this district doesn't seem to have a whole lot of tea party members, partly because it's in relatively good shape economically. He's come across many employers that are looking for workers, he noted, which is a good problem to have.
As things stand now, he's in a strong position with lots of clout on the House Ag Committee to see the farm bill and all the provisions key to the valley through. However, if the Republicans win back control of the House as a result of this fall's election, he would lose his committee chairmanship, which would change the strategy in securing funding.
“A lot depends on the election, but we can't worry to much about it,” he said. “Things are kind of in a holding pattern right now.”
