BigNews.Biz - Jan 08,2010 - GRASSLEY: Well, I wanted to tell you about what I think is this new year's -- I want to say happy new year to all of you -- it's going to be a fairly active year for agriculture.
It's not going to be on the scale of a farm bill, but there's a lot of agricultural interests that are going to be front and center. And I'm calling on the Democratic leadership to immediately bring up consideration of several tax provisions, like the biodiesel tax credit and the estate tax.
And we're also likely to see climate change legislation, which is going to be very harmful to agriculture. And I know all the agriculture groups are taking an interest in it, so I'm not worried about agriculture's voice being heard, but I hope it's respected.
And then, of course, I think we're going to have food safety legislation as well. Then we've got the -- we've got -- the EPA will hopefully come out with a favorable agreement so that we can have ethanol and biodiesel and biofuels. We need to make sure that we use common sense when attempting to apply old and new regulations to agriculture.
And I also hope that we can build on the feedback that the Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture received on their competition hearings, these workshops they're having around the country, starting in Ankeny in March, I believe, because the agriculture industry has become pretty consolidated, where it's very difficult for the family farmer, the independent producers and the small market participants to get an equal access to fair and competitive markets.
So I'm going to continue to be concerned about the increased concentration of agriculture that's a detriment to the American consumer.
And I'm going to push the Democratic leadership and the administration to pass free trade agreements, because agriculture has a lot to gain from them.
And yesterday marked the first day of a sign-up for the new disaster assistance program, the SURE program, so I hope farmers will remember that and take advantage of it if -- if it works out for them. Farmers who may have had crop losses going back to 2008 floods may be the ones that would -- that the program might help. Our county FSA offices can help anybody who thinks that they might be eligible.
I'll have you call the names, staff.
STAFF: OK.
Dan at Successful Farming?
QUESTION: Good morning, Senator.
With the weather the way it is these days, it probably isn't appropriate to bring up the subject of global warming, but you mentioned that there may be climate change legislation considered in the Senate this coming year, and I wondered if you have seen an article that ran in a recent issue of the New Yorker about China's crash program for clean energy.
The article is called "Green Giant," by a writer named Evan Osnos. And I -- I won't -- I can't possibly cover all of it,
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