monday, april 9, 1979
daily nebraskan
paga 7
Congressman offers plan to preserve family farm
ByValSwinton
Rep. Thomas Ha r kin, D-Iowa, outlined
Friday a nine-point program which he
claimed will reverse the current trend away
from the family farm in the United States.
Harkin delivered his address during the
fourth annual Hendricks Symposium spon
sored by the UNL Political Science Depart
ment Thursday and Friday in Lincoln.
Harkin, a member of the House Agri
culture Committee, said the committee is
beginning to take a more general attitude
towards farm policy, instead of addressing
just pricing of farm commodities.
The congressman said the committee
concentrated on pricing because that was
exclusively within the jurisdiction of the
Agriculture Committee.
"We have jurisdiction over that, and
don't want to share it with other commit
tees," he said. "What's happened then,
many of us are saying now perhaps the
problems of agriculture go beyond just
pricing."
Outnumbered
In outlining his nine-point plan, Harkin
. expressed the need to cooperate with other
committees in order to benefit the farmer.
He said the committee used to be content
in its own little niche, concerning itself
with problems it had exclusive jurisdiction
over.
"But when you've got 90 congressmen
out of 435, that's a bad attitude to take,"
he said.
Currently, only 90 congressmen repre
sent rural areas in the house. Harkin also
expressed doubt mat Congress would in
crease farm price supports.
"I've always been a proponent of 100
percent parity," he said. "But we won't get
100 percent of parity. We won't get 90 per
cent of parity. We won't get 80 percent of
parity. Congress won't substantially in
crease farm price supports."
Harkin's nine-point program includes a
taxing policy which discourages absentee
land ownership and changes inheritance tax
laws so family farms can stay in the family.
He said he also favors a graduated farm
program, much like the graduated income
tax program used in the United States.
Need Robin Hood
"Now, the bigger you get, the more you
get," he said. "All price support mechan
isms only reduce risk. That's the key to
expansion, forcing out the smaller farmer."
Harkin's plan would also prohibit, under
any circumstances, foreign ownership of
American farmland.
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'That's not much of a problem right
now," he said. "But the potential is there
so that in just ten years it could result in a
drastic change in ownership of our farm
land."
Harkin would also establish a special
money pool to help young farmers get
started and compete against more establish
ed ones and his policy would also encour
age land conservation.
"In 100 years of farming, nearly one
third of our topsoil has been lost,' he said.
Alcohol freak
Harkin said his policy would recognize
that farmland can be used for the product
ion of fuel as well as food.
"I happen to be an alcohol freak," he
said. "Not in the terms of drinking, but to
replace our petroleum base."
The Iowa congressman said a relatively
small number of farmers could produce
enough grain for alcohol to make a signific
ant dent in gasoline needs, while still leav
ing enough farmland to produce an ade
quate amount of food for the country.
The last two points in Harkin's program
would reduce expenditures for agriculture
research and extension and use the money
to help the family farmer. The final point
would establish a national grain board, for
the purpose of selling grain to foreign
countries.
"I believe our attitude on farm policy
must be bro. I and comprehensive " he
said. "If the old policy is continued we're
doomed."
Building bridges
Harkin said his program would require
the cooperation of other congressional
committees, and said with the influx of
several new members on the Agricultural
Committee, that committee is now "build
ing bridges" with other members of
congress.
Harkin was critical of the recent tractor
cade to Washington, D.C., sponsored by
the American Agriculture Movement.
"I think the effect was all negative,'' he
said. "And again, this has a big effect on
Congress." Harkin said television stations
carried a story showing a group" of farmers
sitting in a mobile home, "drinking beer
and having a gay old time.
"We're trying to build bridges with our
urban cousins," he said. "But we're seeing
a lot of it damaged by i very minute few."
Harkin added "Only 90 out of 435 con
gressional seats are rural, so we just don't
have the horse power. If we're going to get
our point across, we must have their help."
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