The American families who produce our food and fiber are hemorrhaging. The pressure from one sided and unfair farm and trade policies is taking a tragic toll on farm families, farm businesses, rural communities, and the soul of America. Yet, where is the outrage? Where is the public debate over the horrific and massive failure of the 1996 Farm Bill?

While spring is the seasonal time of hope, many of our nation's farm and ranch families did not get their operating loans from the bank renewed this spring. Some quit because of credit failure, some quit because they want to get out while they still have some assets left, some quit because their families have disintegrated from the prolonged stress, and some quit because they are worn out from work and worry, and see no glimmer of hope from either the Bush Administration or Congress for a better future.

The calls to the Farm Crisis Hotline in Nebraska remind us that there are very real human consequences to non-competitive agricultural markets, one sided trade and farm policies, and public elections and public policy dominated by big money. Last year, for the fourth year in a row, the number of families asking for help increased, and the severity of the situations that people found themselves in, also worsened. Our farmers are proud, independent, and self-reliant. How much pain must they be in to set aside their pride and call a hotline to ask for emergency food assistance, legal help, financial counseling, and personal counseling?

The 1996 Farm Bill was strong-armed through Congress by a Republican leadership that continues to claim they are pro-family. Yet, their big business sponsored Farm Bill is destroying both our nation's traditional food production system of family owned and operated farms and ranches, and the families in our nation that farm and ranch. Make no mistake about it, the

1996 Farm Bill, and the politicians that support it, all self serving claims to the contrary, are anti-family. Our American farm and trade policy no longer represents the hopes, dreams, values, or interests of America. Our farm and trade policy has been hijacked by a group of American-based transnational big business extremists with an appetite for world wide control.

The simple facts tell the story. The average national price comparison for the major crops from 1996 to 2000 quickly shows who won the battle between the food producers and the food processors. Not counting the loss of value from inflation, the average national price of corn has collapsed 32%, soybeans 35%, wheat 38%, cotton 25%, and rice 37%. What most taxpayers fail to appreciate, is that the loss of earned income from the sale of our crops, and the increased cost of production from inflation, energy, and non-competitive ag suppliers, when added together outweigh the increase we received from federal income transfers.

Our farmers do not ask for more subsidies, we ask for fundamental economic fairness. We want to be paid a fair price for the products we grow in a competitive marketplace. But thanks to the political power the agricultural sectors conglomerates can buy, farmers have neither competitive markets, or fair prices. As a result, most of us who represent family farmers and ranchers, spend most of our time doing short term bail out, hand on, damage control.

The 1996 Farm Bill authority expires in 2002. Now is the time to overhaul our nation's fundamentally flawed and unfair national farm and trade policies. Our nation's current farm and trade policy must be overhauled, not fine tuned. It does no good to fine tune the engine on a bus headed over the cliff to economic destruction. We need folks who can put their hand on the steering wheel of public policy.

As a state leader of a general farm organization that represents the economic interests and well being of family farmers and ranchers, I ask everyone who has an interest in the food they eat, cares about our soil and water resources, appreciates our farmer's contribution to our national culture and political society, or cares about families that farm to lend us a hand. We need it, and appreciate it. My organization lives by the motto that we should never ask for anything for ourselves that we would not also want for our neighbors.

By:
John K. Hansen, President
Nebraska Farmers Union
PO Box 22667
Lincoln NE 68542
Phone: 402-476-8815
E-mail: nefujohn@aol.com