05/26/05 Preparing for the next farm bill

05/26/05 Preparing for the next farm bill

Farm and Ranch May 26, 2005 Even as it works to minimize the impacts of budget cuts on the 2002 Farm Bill, the National Association of Wheat Growers is preparing for the debate over the 2007 Farm Bill. NAWG CEO Daren Coppock says the next farm bill was the focus of a recent meeting in Denver. Coppock: "What we wanted to was have a brain storming session with our board and say all right, get away from a regular board meeting, kind of retreat away, and think if we could rewrite this farm bill or if we could pick and choose what we get rid off, expand on, or keep, what would the priorities be? And we didn't get to a clear set of concise answers but we got people thinking. And we brought some people in from the millers. We brought a guy in from Europe. Some folks we don't always hear from when we are designing farm bills and I think that helped us kind of shatter some of the barriers and think a little bit differently about what we do and how we do it. What we learned and what we talked about there will be refined and worked on over the next couple of months so that when hearings start in the House and Senate sometime later this year we will be ready with the direction that we want to go." The House Agriculture Committee is expected to begin hearings on the next farm bill later this year. Senate Agriculture Chairman Saxby Chambliss says his panel will probably not begin hearings until 2006. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced last week that he wants to hold a series of listening sessions around the nation beginning this summer to get input on the next farm bill. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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