Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991 TAG: 9103280315
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: STAUNTON LENGTH: Medium
John B. Campbell, who oversees international agricultural affairs and commodity programs for the Department of Agriculture, was the Bush administration's point man in Congress during the writing of the new farm bill.
"I think the environmental section of the farm bill turned out a lot better than I thought it would," he said.
Campbell said the department worked closely with some of the more responsible environmental groups. He said those groups learned that it's more effective to use a carrot than a stick when talking to farmers about the environment.
In addition to the environment, the new law contained other provisions not normally associated with farm bills, he said, such as food safety and aid for rural development.
The 1990 bill was modeled after the market-oriented 1985 law, which was working well, he said. Campbell described the result as a rare instance in which almost everybody was pleased with the law.
Government aid to agriculture was cut by $13 billion in the new bill, which was passed in October. It will cost taxpayers $40.8 billion over its five-year life span.
Society's commitment to agriculture is changing, and the amount of the nation's resources going to agriculture is going to continue to decline, Campbell said.
Many farmers who attended Olin's conference do not get farm subsidies, because livestock farming - the predominant type in Western Virginia - has no support programs. Livestock farmers do benefit indirectly, however, from programs that help feed-grain growers.
The dairy industry maintained more of its share of federal support in the new law than other segments of farming, Campbell said.
A feed salesman in the audience asked Campbell why the government considers the purchase of surplus milk, which goes to schools and the military, as a subsidy for farmers when it doesn't consider the purchase of planes, tanks and uniforms for the military as a subsidy for the industries that produce them.
Olin said legislative work remains to be done this year with regard to the dairy industry. Dairy prices are extremely volatile and dairy farmers are experiencing some of the lowest milk prices in years.
Charles Shaw, who leads the dairy and sweeteners group in the department's Economic Research Service, said the agency is studying ways to manage milk inventory, including the feasibility of a system of target prices and deficiency payments similar to that used for feed grains.
by CNB