BROOKVILLE, Pa. – Leland Swenson, former National Farmers Union’s president, encouraged the legislative involvement of nearly 100 area farmers and ranchers attending a April 9 Jefferson County Farmers Union meeting in Brookville, Pa.
Swenson, who recently stepped down after 14 years as NFU’s leader, spoke of the pending farm bill discussions and urged the group’s participation in shaping their own destinies.
Policies do nothing. “It is clear, in the debates and development of this farm bill, that our leaders are continuing policies that do nothing to increase commodity prices at the farm gate or to address concentration in the growing, processing and international trading of agriculture commodities and food products,” Swenson said. “Even when the farm bill is finished, farmers will be looking at continued dependence on government to survive.”
One-year bill. Swenson encouraged the farmers to look at the farm bill not as a five- or 10-year bill, but as a one-year bill that will need improvement.
“Family farmers and ranchers will need to be back in Washington again, collectively and aggressively, to bring about constructive changes,” he said.
