Washington, D.C. - For someone who once suggested abolishing the U.S. Agriculture Department, John Kerry is showing new interest in farmers.
The platform that the Democratic Party takes up in Boston this week has little to say about agriculture, save some scattered references to promoting bio-energy, trade and guaranteeing farmers have "a strong safety net."
But Kerry's campaign has separately issued a little-noticed, two-page list of proposals dealing with agricultural and rural policy. My personal favorite is a proposal to pay farmers to allow hunting, fishing and bird watching on their land.
Take that, PETA. Real Democrats don't just hunt, they propose subsidies for hunting.
Kerry pledges to ban meatpacker ownership of livestock and require that meat and produce be labeled with the country of origin.
He also wants to boost spending on conservation and rural development, and he promises to provide disaster assistance to farmers to supplement federally subsidized crop insurance.
His proposals, not counting the disaster assistance, would cost $1 billion annually.
What keeps Kerry's ideas from being taken too seriously is his plan for paying for them, a Reagan-esque proposal to freeze federal government travel expenses for 10 years. That would save $10 billion if it ever happened. But it won't.
But what's more interesting about both the Democratic platform and the Kerry campaign's list of agricultural and rural priorities is what is missing - discussion of the biggest issue facing farmers, the Doha Round of international trade negotiations.
Agricultural trade is the linchpin issue of the negotiations, because developing countries are demanding that the United States and the European Union slash their farm subsidies.
Brazil recently won a key decision in the World Trade Organization that U.S. cotton subsidies unfairly drive down world prices.
"Everyone is worried about the Doha Round with the cotton ruling," said Tom Buis, a lobbyist for the National Farmers Union, a group close to congressional Democrats.
"That's a huge, huge concern because basically you have the (trade organization) challenging the safety net, not just for cotton, but implicitly for all the other commodities as well."
If the talks are successful, there may need to be major changes in how the U.S. government subsidizes farmers, starting with the 2007 farm bill.
"There's going to be a gap between what the payments were in 2002 and what they are going to be going into 2007," said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center. The reference to 2002 was when the latest farm bill passed.
Environmentalists see the possibility of a new trade agreement as a chance to shift farm spending from production-stimulating crop subsidies to programs that encourage conservation and bio-energy.
I asked Kerry campaign officials why they were not talking about Doha, but they had little to say other than to reiterate Kerry's promise to review all trade agreements when he takes office.
"John Kerry's position is that he wants to make sure we have balanced trade laws," Kerry ag adviser Heather Zichal said.
To be sure, farm issues are unlikely to be a significant factor in the presidential election, especially given the strong commodity prices recently.
But Kerry would dearly love to cut into President Bush's rural vote in battleground Midwest states, such as Iowa and Minnesota. Why talk about Doha when you can stick to issues like the meatpacker ban, country-of-origin labeling - or hunting subsidies?Des Moines Register
