Free Market to Farm Pt 2

Free Market to Farm Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. As American ag producers navigate rough trade war waters, a Washington Policy Center speaker from New Zealand told a Farm to Free Market audience that ag trade there is much improved without government intervention.

The WPC's Madi Clark says it's something to consider as things like NAFTA and Farm Bill negotiations continue ...

CLARK ... "That's one thing when we go into this Farm Bill discussion in 2018 we wanted to bring up, talking about reform isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a difficult thing. A lot of us get very tied to the Farm Bill, but it's a good discussion to start having on is there potential for farmers to be better off and to just have that discussion and talk about ways that agriculture and society as a whole would benefit by Farm Bill changes and adjustments."

Clark says without TPP and with NAFTA talks up in the air, we should at least explore options ...

CLARK ... "Free trade is an argument that goes hand in hand with free market for agriculture because wheat growers and commodity growers often struggle to compete in that free market because other countries subsidize very, very heavily and then when we're not involved in free trade agreements, we get left out of that circle. So, NAFTA, TPP, they're all really valuable for agriculture and if we don't have a place for our commodities to go, our prices are really going to struggle, our farmers are really going to struggle."

Clark says farmers must be given the latitude and freedom to respond to the market which can do most things better and more affordably than the government.

She says hopefully, these lessons will not go unheard in the upcoming Farm Bill debate.

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