Photo by Aaron Burnett

Kathy Ziegler from the National Farmers Union addresses area producers Thursday during a presentation on the 2008 Farm Bill. Ziegler was one member of a panel of guests speaking on the subject during the work session. About 30 or 40 producers from Prowers and surrounding counties took advantage of the informational meeting.

LAMAR—Understanding the ins and outs of 1,100 pages of legislation can be a daunting task, just ask Kathy Ziegler. The National Farmers Union vice president of governmental relations was on hand in Lamar Thursday to explain the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, more commonly known as the Farm Bill.

In a forum sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, issues surrounding the implementation of the recently approved legislation were highlighted. Ziegler said the new legislation was the result of compromise on all sides.

“Congress had 60 percent less money to write this bill than they had in 2002, but more people and more interests sitting around the table that wanted a piece of that pie,” said Ziegler.

The Washington policy expert said the new legislation provides several key programs and reforms over the 2002 version.

“For Farmers Union, our number one priority was to include a disaster program,” Ziegler said. The latest legislation establishes a permanent disaster program. “For many years out here in Colorado and all throughout the country, weather related disasters strike. And the way that the safety net is structured there is no recourse for producers to provide them assistance. The system has been ad hoc disaster assistance,” said Ziegler of the old system.

A second program that was included for the first time in 2008 was mandatory country of origin labeling on fruits, vegetables, nuts and most meat products. The previous country of origin labeling program only was applied to seafood items. The new system, which is slated to roll out September 30, 2008 will provide country of origin labeling on packages in retail outlets.

Aside from new programs, the Farm Bill also contains several reform measures. One reform, argued by many to be the most important reform in the bill, ties all payments to an actual person. Proponents of the reform argued the old system allowed for multiple payments to be collected numerous times through the use of shell companies.

“There was quite bit of reform in the payment limitation situation,” said Kent Peppler, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union president. “A lot of detractors from the farm bill complained that too many people that made too much money were getting aid to subsidize their farms.”

Between 30 and 40 producers were on hand Thursday at the Cow Palace for the presentation. Attendees included individuals from Prowers, Bent, Baca and Kiowa Counties. Earlier in the week, similar sessions were held in Sterling, Greeley, Wray and Torrington, Wyo. Workshops were also scheduled for the next week in Alamosa and Clovis, N.M.

The Farmers Union representatives related that the reasoning behind the multi-state workshop schedule was to guarantee producers stay aware of the programs in the legislation and involved in the implementation.

“As important as Congress doing its work, is USDA doing its work in implementing all the programs that are part of the language (of the legislation),” said Ziegler.

“We need to make sure that producers stay engaged, that they understand what the programs are, but that they also stay engaged in the process and weigh-in with USDA to talk about how the programs are intended to work and ensure that they work for the growers that they are designed to work for,” concluded Ziegler.

The government relations agent said the bill, which includes 14 titles, each containing multiple programs, leaves room for interpretation in the implementation of some programs but is very specific regarding other programs.

“Congress does outline in some of the programs very prescriptive language on how the programs should be implemented, but in other programs they give the department a lot of discretion to interpret the language. That interpretation is what we want to ensure meets the intent of what Congress wanted,” said Ziegler.

“USDA’s interpretation needs to match Congress’s interpretation and what the producers interpretation is so that we’re all on the same page.”

The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union is an advocacy group for farmers and ranchers in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. The organization is a member of the 250,000 member National Farmers Union.