STAFF: The following is an unrehearsed interview with Iowa
Senator Chuck Grassley speaking to you live from Washington.
Participating in today's public affairs program are Rhonda Gritton
with KVIK in Decorah and Maureen Olson with the Neola Gazette in
Neola.
The first question will be from Rhonda Gritton.
QUESTION: Good afternoon, Senator Grassley.
June is Dairy Month, and I've talked with a lot of dairy farmers
lately. I was wondering if you have any ideas on how to save the
family dairy farms that are losing an estimated $4 per cow per day
because of the price they're getting for milk.
Now, the cost of milk hasn't really dropped in the grocery store,
but what farmers receive for hundred weight has dropped by about 33
percent.
GRASSLEY: That's a very good question and, of course, we've had
a lot of inquiries from dairy farmers, some seeking, as you said, some
help from the government and others with organizations in dairy that
have come in and said, you know, we've got an oversupply problem, and
the only thing that's going to do any good is to work our way out of
it -- of the oversupply problem, and -- and it'll just take some time.
Now, I accept the former -- well, both of those are correct
positions. There's some things we can do to help dairy, but the big
problem is oversupply and work our way out of that oversupply.
So what are some of the things we can do to help the process of
economics along because the latter approach is kind of an economic
free-market approach, just work your way out of it?
Well, number one, there's a dairy buyout that's going on to
reduce the number of herds. And we've done that one or two times in
the last 20 years before, and that's under way now.
Then we also have under way the effort on the part of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to extend exports by a promotion program
that the federal government -- U.S. Department of Agriculture will put
in place. And then we also have the opportunity to buy more supply of
milk product from -- for our school lunch program or call it a
commodity program, whatever you want to call it. But some of that is
school lunch program.
And then we already have on the books something that's never been
there before for the helping of a -- specifically, the dairy farmer.
We don't do this for beef or don't do it for hogs or chickens or
anything else, but for dairy, we have in the Farm Bill a year ago a
factor in federal milk support price for the increased cost of food --
of feed for livestock.
Let's go back to Neola.
QUESTION: Hello, Senator.
Iowa has, so far, before somewhat buffered from the full effects
of the recession. Do you think that our state has experienced the
worst? Or do you think that we're just going to lag behind the
coasts?
GRASSLEY: I think as far as this specific recession is
concerned, we're going to lag behind and not be as bad as the national
economy has been. Although, I think you can see in the last month, we
had a big increase, maybe seven tenths of 1 percent up to, I think,
5.8 of unemployment in Iowa. This is the highest in 30 years.
So it's getting worse from the standpoint of unemployment, but I
don't have it's going to get as bad as the nation as a whole.
Now, I want to go on and say, though, that if you looked at the
long history of recessions nationally and then how they affect states
that have a great deal of -- of dependence upon agriculture, you'll
find that they tend to be countercyclical. And in other words, the
national economy could be doing very well and, in rural America, we
could have a very bad recession or even a depression.
And I think during the 1980's is an example of that. The
national economy was doing very good, but we had foreclosures on farms
and people that paid a lot of money for farm land lost it, and it was
kind of a depression era repeat the 1930's, maybe not quite as bad,
but it was bad.
And then -- now, you've got the national economy down, and the
agricultural economy in the states that are impacted by agriculture,
even though there aren't many -- there's just a minority of people in
Iowa are farmers, we're doing pretty well.
So we could maybe five years down the road, have a recession in
Iowa that we don't have nationally.
QUESTION: Thank you.
GRASSLEY: Back to KVIK?
QUESTION: Hi, Senator.
One farmer that I visit -- I am talking about dairy still. One
farmer that I visited with is a sixth-generation dairy farmer, and he
says that one big problem that they face is animal rights activists
have so much money and so loud a voice that it's hard for the farmers
to be heard yet many have never -- of these activists -- have never
been on a farm and have no idea, really, how the animals are being
treated.
So I was wondering how can we educate these people that are from
the larger communities who think that milk comes from a grocery store?
GRASSLEY: Well, we aren't going to educate them because they're
not worried -- or they're not interested in how good farmers treat
their animals. You've got to realize that this is a religion with
them. They're worshipping animals. And from that standpoint, their
goal isn't just to have more equitable treatment of animals. They
want -- they don't want animals to be used for meat or milk or things
of that nature.
I'm not so sure, but what some of them aren't even against your
eating eggs even though it doesn't kill the chicken, you know. So
you've got to live with where they're coming from.
Now, can we do something about it? Yes, we've got to educate
people about agriculture, and so I don't disagree with your example
about milk not coming from grocery stores. I say that exact same
thing many times even right on the floor of the Senate.
We have to do a better job of getting Americans to appreciate the
farmers. Now, we have -- you're talking about having trouble with
PETA. I have trouble with government bureaucrats.
EPA has recently gone into four regulations that would be very
detrimental to agriculture. And this one woman bureaucrat that -- and
it's not because she's says woman -- it could be a man, too -- never
been on a farm. And can you imagine that? Doing all these things to
harm agriculture and never been on a farm?
GRASSLEY: So we're bringing these people to Iowa in September
the 3rd to -- to see a family farm and to visit an ethanol plant and
to look to see what we're doing in agriculture.
Now, maybe we won't change their mind, but at least they won't be
doing everything out of ignorance.
QUESTION: Yes. I think it's great that you're doing that.
Thank you, Senator.
GRASSLEY: Yes.
Neola?
QUESTION: You've been a financial voice of reason in Congress
for many years. What are the pluses and minuses of dealing with the
Obama administration specifically on budget matters?
GRASSLEY: Well, I think it's all negative right now because --
and listen, I'm not going it blame it all on Obama. So...
QUESTION: OK. You can blame whoever you want.
GRASSLEY: Well, right now, for what's gone on in the last three
months, we can blame Obama, but he did -- where I don't want to
totally blame him, he did inherit a trillion dollar deficit. But
within three months, he more than doubled it.
And we adopted a budget that's going to put us on a course of
tripling the national debt by the time he ends his presidency. So I
think that, from that standpoint, he's setting a very bad environment
for the young people of America to take up the national debt that's
tripled.
By the end of eight years, I think it'll be, per person, $130,000
per person.
QUESTION: That's scary.
GRASSLEY: Back to Rhonda?
QUESTION: That was the only other question I had other than do
you have any suggestions on how those of us just general public, who
can we help the farmers be heard? What can we do as just average
American citizens?
GRASSLEY: Well, you know, you've got the biggest voice of them
all. Just think of the number of people we're talking to through your
radio station. And you need to -- even though you're in Iowa, there's
still a lot of people in Iowa don't understand all they need to do
about agriculture.
Use the voice of KVIK and use the print of Neola Gazette to
educate people about agriculture.
Thank you, Rhonda and Maureen, for participating in today's
public affairs program. This has been Senator Chuck Grassley
reporting to the people of Iowa.