Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 17, 1990 TAG: 9004170045
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Wayne Ashworth, president of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, said the Farm Bureau supports a federal law that lets the free market set the price of farm commodities. "Let farmers grow for the market and not the government," he said.
Ashworth, who visited Roanoke Monday, said the bureau would like to see more flexibility in the federal programs for some commodities.
If a farmer has corn acreage enrolled in a federal program, he should be able to plant soybeans or any other crop the market might dictate without fear of losing his base corn acreage, Ashworth said. But a farmer should not be allowed to collect support payments for the alternative crop, he said.
The bureau also differs with the Bush administration in that it would like to see the federal crop insurance program continued, Ashworth said. But it would like to see disaster payments ended.
Crop insurance, which requires a farmer to pay a premium, offers protection to more farmers than disaster payments because an area does not have to be declared a disaster before a farmer can be compensated for a crop loss, he said.
The bureau proposes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rather than putting money into disaster programs, pay 50 percent of the cost of farmers' crop insurance premiums, Ashworth said.
The bureau supports a proposal by Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke, to continue the system of milk price supports with a few refinements, Ashworth said, but opposes one by Texas and Wisconsin congressmen that would set up a two-tier price-support system.
The new farm bill won't take its final form until at least the fall, Ashworth said.
Another issue at the top of the state bureau's list of concerns, he said, is the federal government's enforcement of laws designed to protect salt- and fresh-water wetlands.
The bureau supports protection of swamps and true wetlands, Ashworth said, but last year, the federal government adopted a definition of wetlands that includes a great deal of productive farm land.
His organization supports a bill in Congress that would exempt present farm land from the wetlands regulations, Ashworth said. Under current law, if a farmer is working land that could be classified as a wetland and he takes it out of production for a year, he has to get a federal permit before planting it again.
The bureau also opposes any further efforts to tighten restrictions on the use of farm chemicals, he said. Farmers want to use chemicals safely, but chemicals are necessary to ensure the quality and quantity of American harvests, he said.
Ashworth pointed out that the bureau supported a new Virginia law that provides a 25 percent tax credit to farmers who buy more efficient machinery for the application of farm chemicals.
Ashworth, who owns a tobacco and flower farm in Pittsylvania County, sees a continued role for tobacco farmers in Virginia.
No other crop can take the place of tobacco with its high-income potential, he said. Tobacco is Virginia's top cash crop, accounting for $113 million in income in 1987.
"People are going to continue to smoke. If they continue to smoke, we should be allowed to grow a legal product," Ashworth said.
The export market for tobacco has offset the declining demand in this country, he said. Because of the demand from abroad, tobacco farmers are looking less for alternative crops, such as broccoli, than they were a few years ago, Ashworth said.
The state bureau says it has 92,000 family members in 88 county organizations.
by CNB