“The Voice of Oregon’s Wheat Producers Since 1926Making Every Resource Count"
PAPER
Oregon Wheat Growers League
January 2013 / 115 SE 8th Street ● Pendleton, OR 97801
541.276.7330 ● Fax 541.276.1723 ● e-mail:
Blake Rowe, Chief Executive Officer
The Oregon Wheat Growers League represents nearly 1100 farmers who account for the majority of the wheat grown in Oregon. While we work on a wide variety of issues on behalf of our growers and our communities, the three most critical issues at this time include the effort to develop a new multi-year Farm Bill, regulatory processes that are reducing our ability to use crop protection products in our operations, and the continuing availability of federal funding for research efforts critical to maintaining and enhancing our ability to provide safe, nutritious, and affordable food supplies for our nation and the world.
Long Term Farm Bill Legislation
Food is essential to life. Our citizens, as well as the expanding world population, depend on America’s farmers to produce abundant, affordable, and safe supplies of food. There is a shared public interest in insuring that America’s farmers are able to meet these needs.
Oregon’s wheat growers depend on the farm support programs contained in the 2008 Farm Bill to manage risk, provide a safety net, ensure market access overseas, and offer incentives for conservation. Continued authority and funding for these programs is critical to maintaining the production of vital food crops, the productivity of our farmlands, and the continued flow of jobs, investment and tax revenues from our operations and supply chains. The Oregon Wheat Growers League believes that the following provisions are an essential part of a new, long-term Farm Bill:
· Consistency and Certainty. Farmers need the consistency and certainty that can only be provided by a long-term Farm Bill. The decision to invest in farmland, the selection of crops, equipment, and inputs like fertilizer, are long-term commitments for most farmers. The current approach to farm policy of short term extensions and continuing resolutions, make these decisions much more difficult and risky for farmers. Our highest priority is to get a long-term Farm Bill that provides certainty and stability to farm support programs.
· Crop Insurance. Among the many farm support programs within the Farm Bill, the highest priority for Oregon’s wheat growers is to maintain and improve the crop insurance program as the central component of the farm safety net. Crop insurance helps producers to manage both price and production risk, to market effectively, and to secure needed credit. For the 2012 crop year, 73% of wheat acres in Oregon were covered by crop insurance, with an average coverage level of 80%, with growers paying extra premiums for the higher coverage level. A strengthened crop insurance program can serve as the foundation of the farm safety effort in a way that serves both producers and taxpayers and we are supportive of changes that would better match coverage to actual production history and provide flexibility for crop versus whole farm coverage. These changes can be accomplished in a revenue neutral fashion if necessary.
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· MAP/FMD. Nearly 90 percent of Oregon’s wheat production is exported, and thus funding for the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development program is essential to ensuring U.S. competitiveness in foreign markets. A study of wheat promotion activities, including MAP/FMD and producer funds, show these efforts return $115 to the economy for every $1 spent.
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· Conservation. Conservation programs provide important environmental benefits to the general public as well as supplemental income for producers. These programs should be maintained and appropriately targeted. We would support recognition of riparian areas enrolled in these programs as providing adequate protection for Clean Water Act purposes.
· SNAP/Nutrition. We recognize that funding for Farm Bill programs will be reduced. We believe that reductions should be shared equally between nutrition (SNAP) programs and farm support programs.
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· Approaches to Pass Farm Bill Legislation.
o We would support an approach consistent with proposals passed by the Senate and the House Agriculture Committee in 2012. The elimination of programs like direct payments, ACRE, and counter-cyclical payments, can be partially used to fund improvements to crop insurance and develop a “shallow loss” program, although we remain opposed to approaches that are based on target prices.
o Given the extreme difficulty of developing consensus on a Farm Bill proposal, we could also support an approach that mirrors the 2008 Farm Bill, with across the board cuts to all programs.