By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

South Georgia farmers told congressmen in Valdosta, Ga., March
28 that the United States’ current domestic farm policy works
for farmers and rural Georgia. With a few modifications, they
should keep this in mind when making future policy decisions.

But the farmers were told it’s going to be tough to keep things
the same.

“Georgia producers have been well served by the current farm
bill,” said Mike Newberry, an Early County row crop farmer. “We
strongly support its balanced approach to commodity,
conservation, nutrition and rural development.”

Newberry and five other farmers testified to eight members of
the House Agricultural Committee’s subcommittee on general farm
commodities and risk management. The group was there to take
suggestions about the country’s next farm bill, due to Congress
in 2007.

“(The current farm bill) provides benefits and support in times
of low prices without distorting overall planting decisions,”
Newberry said.

U.S. taxpayers benefit when they invest in agriculture through
the farm bill, said Donald Chase, a Macon County farmer. They
get an affordable, secure food supply, environmental benefits
and a solid tax base for rural economies.

Chase, a Georgia Peanut Commission board member, said the peanut
program under the current farm bill has been a success. But the
U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn’t run the program well. It
sets the peanut loan repayment rate too high. Peanut farmers
have lost a large part of their export market because of this.

All the farmers said U.S. growers are not on an even playing
field with those in countries that have cheaper input costs and
labor. The current farm bill has helped keep them globally
competitive.

But one big unknown will influence future U.S. farm policy, said
Jim Marshall, a Democratic congressman from Georgia’s 3rd
District.

The World Trade Organization’s “Doha round” of trade
negotiations began in Doha, Qatar, in 2001 and has continued in
four other cities. Its aim is to lower trade barriers between
its 149-member countries, including the United States. And its
focus is to provide fairer trade for developing countries.

Some U.S. farm subsidies could be on the chopping block,
Marshall said. Last year, Brazil and west African countries sued
and won a case in WTO court against U.S. cotton subsidies that
are part of the current farm bill. The next farm bill would have
to gel with any agreements made in Doha.

A Doha agreement will probably force farmers and Congress to
come up with new ways to support U.S. agriculture in the future.
But farmers are a minority in the United States, Marshall said.
And the people who represent them are a minority in Washington.
To have influence, U.S. agriculture will need to speak with one
voice.

“We’re in an era where people want an excuse to vote against
spending money,” Marshall said.

Wavell Robinson, a farmer from Colquitt County, said it costs
him 17 percent more than last year to grow cotton due to recent
spikes in fuel and fertilizer costs. The next farm bill should
include a support mechanism that kicks in during a time like
this.

Unlike most businesses, “farmers can’t pass that cost on,”
Robinson said.

Bill Brim, a Tift County vegetable farmer, said Georgia farmers
stay competitive through agricultural research like that done by
scientists with the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

He and the other farmers told the committee they must continue
to support research programs, particularly those that study the
use of farm crops to make biofuel.

“Our future to stay competitive depends on research,” Brim said.