Release No. 0002.97 Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623 Jim Petterson (202) 720-4623 Remarks Remarks Prepared For Secretary Dan Glickman American Farm Bureau Federation Nashville, TN -- January 7, 1997 INTRODUCTION Thank you. It's good to be here again, and to see so many familiar faces, especially your president's. Dean Kleckner was with me in Rome recently for the World Food Summit, and with the Deputy Secretary in Singapore for the World Trade Organization Ministerial. Dean's presence -- along with a large contingent representing U.S. agriculture at the WTO ministerial -- sent an unequivocable message to the world: The U.S. government and U.S. farmers are united and serious about moving forward on freer and fairer trade. I know the Farm Bureau's serious about moving American agriculture into a new century. One look at the people you honor here today and the ambitious agenda for this conference which covers everything from trade, to world hunger, to managing risk, to the environment, and I know this is a Farm Bureau for the future. It's good to be in Tennessee, the home state of our great Vice President, and I'm particularly pleased to be back in Nashville. This town holds sentimental value for me. Back when I was a Congressman from Kansas, I came here as a member of the House Agriculture Committee and had the opportunity to sing a duet with Tammy Wynette ... Stand by your man.' She did ... through the whole song. I was proud of myself for holding my own ... until she leaned over and whispered, Don't quit your day job' ... That's when I decided Secretary of Agriculture might be a little more realistic than country music star. AMERICAN AGRICULTURE IS ON STRONG GROUND I think it was the right choice. I've enjoyed my 2 years in this post. American agriculture's seen a lot of change and progress, and I'm proud of that. Agriculture is now America's #1 exporter -- hitting record highs in sales overseas, and reaching more foreign markets than ever before. This has helped drive up farm incomes, and bring people home to rural America. Last year, 1 million more people moved in to rural America than moved out. And for the first time in my public life, I see young people who are once again excited about agriculture, and see a future for themselves in it. We need to attract more of them. A NEW BEGINNING For me, there could be no better sign of the times than a new generation of Americans who believe they can make a living and raise a family on the farm. Optimism has come back to American agriculture. But we can't ignore the fact that the agricultural world is changing dramatically. Things are not as they have always been. Some trends are ominous -- like the trend toward increased concentration, whether it's in railroads, the livestock industry, or the growing size and declining number of farms. I'm proud to be the first Secretary of Agriculture to tackle this issue head on and come up with solutions to make sure our livestock family farmers have a fair chance to compete in today's markets. But most trends in agriculture are promising: Agriculture is entering the Information Age. On the farm, Microsoft is becoming as big a trade name as John Deere. Farmers are free to plant for the market instead of for government, and they're reaping the financial rewards that come with freer markets and less government intervention. We've finally recognized that protecting the environment' doesn't have to mean punishing farmers.' We're now helping both with voluntary incentives that protect the land and the people who feed us. President Clinton has dramatically expanded USDA's conservation mission. His philosophy is simple: We accomplish infinitely more for the environment and for farmers by working together. So you'll see a continuing shift toward greater cooperation and more emphasis on conservation. We're also about to release new CRP guidelines which will get us back to basics -- protecting the land that needs it and returning fertile soil to production. This will be one of the biggest decisions -- in terms of number of acres -- any Secretary of Agriculture has made, so we'll have an exciting and positive year on the conservation front. And as agriculture's global aspect becomes more dominant, our policies are grounded in the recognition that U.S. agriculture needs to speak to the world with one voice -- in support of free and fair trade and a global farmers' market. That's the only way to sustain and expand our record trade growth of the past 2 years. All this change may make some uncomfortable, but I see a world of opportunity. After all, the word stability' doesn't mean much to most farmers. The volatility of the markets -- not to mention Mother Nature -- often mean that instability comes with the farm. That's why we have a Department of Agriculture -- to help smooth out the rough times instability causes. Our farmers perform the most essential work around. Every American depends on your success. It's in our national interest to expand your opportunities and help you weather rough times. Of course, one of our challenges today is to do that in the context of balancing the budget. The President is very serious about getting this accomplished. We're still in the very macro stages, so I don't have many details for you today. But I can tell you that protecting America's priorities will be this Administration's bottom line, and there are few priorities higher than protecting the livelihoods of America's farmers and ranchers. DAIRY ANNOUNCEMENT On that note, I'd like to announce today actions the Clinton Administration is taking to help America's dairy farmers. Everywhere I go, I hear the same story: Our dairy farmers can't afford to milk, feed or even sell their cows. I believe government has an obligation to help farmers and ranchers who've hit hard times due to circumstances beyond their control. We need to ensure a basic safety net. That's a foundation of the Clinton Administration's farm policy. 1996 was a year of cautionary extremes. We saw record exports and prices for grains and dairy products. But we also saw cattle prices drop and drought stunt our winter wheat crop. But the most dramatic swing has been in dairy. After a record high in September, milk prices plunged almost 25% by November. On top of that, dairy farmers have been paying record-high costs for feed and getting abnormally low bids for their cull cows and calves. With the input of many producer, processor and consumer organizations, including the Farm Bureau, I'd like to announce today that: USDA will purchase $5 million worth of cheese for use in domestic food assistance programs. This is in addition to the accelerated school lunch purchases already underway. USDA also will explore making additional purchases for other food assistance programs. We will also work with private voluntary groups to increase the flow of dairy products into our international food assistance programs. To stimulate exports, we will reactivate the DEIP for butterfat, which has been idle since mid-1995. We've also stepped up our DEIP sales activity for non-fat dry milk. And beginning this month, we'll start collecting data for a national survey of cheddar cheese prices received by manufacturing plants. This is in response to concerns about the accuracy of reported prices. USDA will also review our own use of cheese prices as part of Congress' mandate to reform and consolidate federal milk marketing orders. I understand that some would like me to use the marketing order program as a price support program. There are 2 compelling reasons why I cannot. First, in the farm bill, Congress instructed me to phase out price supports, and second, placing a rigid floor under fluid milk prices would have widely different effects in different regions of the country and would likely raise prices for consumers and reduce sales -- running counter to our intent. These actions today will strengthen a dairy market that for the most part has a solid foundation. TRADE In order to expand economic security for all our farmers and ranchers, we have to expand economic opportunities, and these opportunities increasingly lie overseas. Since President Clinton took office, we've become the United States' #1 exporter. NAFTA, GATT, and more than 200 other trade agreements have opened countless doors around the world. Farm prosperity here at home has increased as a result. I know when it comes to good news -- especially good economic news -- politicians like to take all the credit. But when it comes to our trade success, a lot of credit goes to the Farm Bureau and the rest of American agriculture which had the courage and foresight to support free trade. These agreements don't win many popularity contests. But they should. The fact is we now have the most open world markets of this century. The fact is American agriculture is feeding those markets over $1 billion in goods every week. The fact is that thanks to NAFTA, trade with Mexico and Canada is at record highs. The fact is in the Uruguay Round of GATT alone, we won America's farmers more than 10,000 commitments on import access alone. So the simple fact is America's farmers are far better off in a free trading environment. The numbers -- the trade numbers -- speak for themselves. You might not know that from listening to talk radio. But you should also listen to each other. Listen to truck farmers in the Carolinas, Georgia and Mississippi who are finding buyers in Toronto and Montreal for their cucumbers, okra, collard greens, peas and watermelons ... Listen to ranchers in Texas and Colorado who've seen beef exports top $2.6 billion -- fueled by increased purchases by Japan, Canada, Korea and Mexico ... Listen to U.S. feed grain growers across the nation: Washington State to Ohio, Minnesota to Texas. One-quarter of the U.S. corn crop is exported; one-third of the soybean crop, one-half of the wheat crop. So the question is not whether or not free trade is a good idea ... any farmer with a pocketbook understands that it is. The question is what more can we do to expand free trade and ensure that it's fair. The answer is: Plenty. As tariffs and other traditional trade barriers come down, many countries -- including the United States -- are under pressure to come up with more creative and covert ways to protect their markets -- causing one of our biggest trade stumbling blocks: phony sanitary and phytosanitary measures -- the use of fake science to protect markets. When I first came in as Secretary, I set up a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Action Team to improve our responsiveness to this new breed of free-trade violations. USDA is undergoing significant reorganization -- partly to streamline and partly as a result of changing policies. I think now is the time to look at how we're organized to solve trade problems. We all recognize the new challenges we face -- phony science barriers, for instance. I think we need to see whether we -- meaning USDA -- are set-up properly to handle them. I want to make sure we have no organizational barriers standing in the way of our scientists and ag attaches working together to break down import barriers. I'm announcing a thorough, across-the-board look at this problem to ensure USDA is best equipped to help you export in today's markets. I was with the President at the Asian Pacific Economic Summit and in his recent meeting with the head of the European Community. I know he's dead serious about resolving these issues. That means the United States will be very aggressive in protecting our rights and enforcing the commitments made by our trading partners. If our trade is being unfairly curtailed, there will be consequences. That's a message I've heard the President deliver personally. And it's a message I'm delivering to my counterparts around the world. But I should also add, that if we're going to successfully challenge political science with sound science, we've got to practice what we preach. We can't pull up our own drawbridge and expect to walk into Japan, China, the European Union and elsewhere. We will never allow imports that truly threaten our health and safety. But neither can we threaten our trading opportunities, by using unfair excuses to protect our own markets. The United States has always led by example. That's never been more important than in building this new trade environment. Only if we act with integrity can we demand the same from our trading partners. RURAL AMERICA Not all of the challenges ahead are overseas. Some are right in our own backyards. We need to make rural America once again synonymous with prosperity and abundance. Of course, it helps to have a President from Hope, Arkansas -- population 9,768. President Clinton's a son of rural America. He understands the challenges we face there. That's why we now have a Fund for Rural America. That's why we're bringing safe, running water to the 2.5 million rural Americans who currently don't have it. That's why we're using the latest computer and satellite technology to bring health care and education to remote areas. And that's why we're lending in rural communities where banks refuse to go -- so rural citizens have a shot at the American Dream -- whether it's owning a home, going to college, starting a business, or just living a healthy and fulfilling life. CIVIL RIGHTS All rural Americans deserve these opportunities. USDA is proud to provide the services that help them get there. But we need to make sure our services reach everyone who needs them. Anyone who's picked up a paper recently has probably read about the problems USDA's been having with charges of discrimination in the farm loan program. That's going to change on my watch. Every American has a right to be treated with respect and given the highest standard of service by their government. Any other approach hurts USDA, hurts farmers, and hurts America. In just a few minutes, you will hear from a great American ... a man who -- through hard work and determination -- the blood, sweat and tears of the American Dream -- pulled himself out of adversity to lead our nation to victory in the Persian Gulf. Just imagine what America would have lost if Colin Powell had been judged by the color of his skin instead of the content of his character. Everyone in this hall knows how essential America's farmers are. And everyone here understands what an unfairly delayed loan means to a farmer -- especially a small family farmer. I'm proud to have suspended all foreclosures until they can be reviewed for discrimination. I'm proud of the progress this nation has made on civil rights, and the laws we now have to protect them. And I promise, that as long as I am Secretary of Agriculture, we will go county by county and ensure that these laws are enforced and all America's farmers are treated with the respect they have earned. CONCLUSION We have many challenges ahead, and we need to face them together. American agriculture cannot be a house divided in the 21st century. Of course, we're all individuals with our own opinions. But I believe we share basic values. As Thomas Jefferson once said, the cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interest by the most lasting bonds.' We know in our hearts that America will not be strong unless American agriculture is strong. Together, we will make America strong, and our farmers and ranchers will prosper as a result. Thank you, and congratulations on another successful conference. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov