ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702070023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: agriculture
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
As a state senator in 1982, Virgil Goode sponsored a piece of legislation that made milk the official State Drink of Virginia.
For Goode, it was a natural. He's a son of Franklin County, home to 10,600 dairy cows, more than any other Virginia county but Rockingham.
"Virgil Goode had a very fine relationship with agriculture and rural Virginia," recalled John Miller, secretary of the Virginia State Dairymen's Association.
But now, Goode has left Franklin County for the District of Columbia where he's a freshman member of the 105th Congress. Voters in the 5th District picked the wiry, plain-spoken, conservative Democrat last fall to succeed L.F. Payne Jr. in the House of Representatives.
In Washington, Goode is expected to continue looking out for the interests of farmers and agricultural industries in Franklin County and his native state. He'll be in a good place to do that. He has joined Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, on the House Agriculture Committee.
Miller believes this Congress is the first, at least in this century, in which Virginia has had two representatives on the Agriculture Committee. Alex Hamilton, chief lobbyist for the Virginia Farm Bureau, said it's for sure never happened during his 25 years on the job.
Virginia isn't unique in that regard. Other states with two representatives on the committee are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana. Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas and Tennessee. North Carolina has three representatives on the committee, and California has four.
It's good to have two votes on the committee instead of one, Hamilton said. Both Goodlatte and Goode, he said, will be looking out for the interests of the whole state.
Goodlatte, in particular, is in a position to influence legislation that could touch on agricultural businesses in Virginia. A member of the majority party in the House, Goodlatte has already gained the respect of the Republican leadership.
As chairman of the subcommittee on department operations, nutrition and foreign agriculture, Goodlatte has responsibility for overseeing the workings of the Agriculture Department, the operation of the government's food-stamp and consumer programs, and the administration of foreign food aid and of trade programs not assigned to another committee.
Major issues coming before the Agriculture Committee and Congress this year that are important to Virginians include possible amendments to the federal dairy program and the reauthorization of federal support for agricultural and forestry research.
Last year, Congress voted to phase out federal support for milk prices by 2000. The government has supported the prices by buying butter, cheese and nonfat dry milk. Congress is currently considering whether to change the system of milk marketing orders, which set minimum prices that processors must pay farmers for their milk in certain markets.
Dairy farmers, who have seen the price of milk drop $4 per hundredweight to the $12.50 to $13.50 range, are keeping a close eye on Congress. There is some sentiment for Congress putting some kind of safety net back in place, but also doubt that a Congress intent on cutting the budget deficit will be willing to do that.
Virginia Tech's Agricultural Experiment Station gets $4.4million from the federal government or 11 percent of its annual budget. The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service also depends heavily on the federal government for its funding. Tech's department of forestry receives more than one-third of its $2.45million annual research budget from federal sources.
Some in Congress have shown an interest in phasing out federal support for agricultural research. If that were allowed to happen, it would be devastating to the agriculture industry, said the Farm Bureau's Hamilton. He and others view the money spent on research as an investment in the future.
Robert Cannell, director of Tech's Agricultural Experiment Station, said the federal funds help provide stability to research programs at Tech, some of which run over periods of several years. The research is important to the public, he said, because "everyone depends on safe food that's available at a good price." Agriculture is also one of the sectors of the U.S. economy that has a favorable international trade balance and research helped make that possible, Cannell said.
It's important to Virginia to have two people on the House Agriculture Committee, who have a direct knowledge of the programs at Virginia Tech, Cannell said. Goode, he said, has been understanding and supportive of the needs of Virginia agriculture, a sector of the economy that provides one-sixth of the state's jobs and income.
Goode, for his part, said he is a supporter of agricultural research and is happy to be joining Goodlatte on the committee. When he was asked to indicate his preference of committee assignments, he listed Agriculture as one of his top three choices, Goode said.
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