02/23/05 New NAWG president from Oregon

02/23/05 New NAWG president from Oregon

Farm and Ranch February 23, 2005 President Bush's proposed cuts in agricultural spending for fiscal year 2006 will be one of the issues the new president of the National Association of Wheat Growers will have to deal with. The new leader of the nation's wheat producers is northwesterner, Sherman Reese of Oregon. Reese: "We are concerned that the attempt to gut the Farm Bill on the face of it doesn't look that bad, but when you start talking five percent here or ten percent there in either direct price supports or commodity programs, the overall effect, particularly in the rural infrastructure of America, could be huge. So these commodity groups have already started an effort to get around as a team to lobby not to shrink the pie. I am sure that at some point there may be some division over who gets the biggest piece, but at this point we are concerned about keeping the pie whole." Reese says wheat growers view the 2002 Farm Bill as a contract with rural America. Reese: "And this stage in the U.S. economic recovery we don't need to burden the rural infrastructure by taking that money out of the system. So there is going to be a real strong effort in that regard." And that's an effort Reese says is already underway. Reese: "Yes, we have met with congressmen several times already and in fact we are holding weekly meetings on progress in the NAWG building every Friday morning." Reese says at this point the National Association of Wheat Growers is not yielding anything. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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