appreciate how much American farmers have done for their country. The commitment and sacrifice of those who feed the United States and much of the world must not go unnoticed. A Clinton/Gore Administration will create an agriculture policy that both recognizes the small-family producers who have done so much to make America great and treats consumers and taxpayers fairly.
Bill Clinton and Al Gore understand that
guaranteeing an adequate quality food supply is an important strategic goal of the United States. Our current farm programs, properly managed, can achieve reasonable prices for producers and guarantee a safe and stable food and fiber supply for consumers. Bill Clinton and Al Gore believe that American farmers are the most competitive and efficient farmers in the world. A Clinton/Gore Administration will help them stay that way.
THE CLINTON/GORE PLAN
Trade
Protecting our environment
Expand food aid
Research, development and new ideas
A department for agriculture
Trade
* Work hard to open new markets for American
agricultural products, particularly in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
* Support full use of federal export tools like
the Export Enhancement Program (EEP) to expand trade and enter new markets.
* Act swiftly to level the playing field in
international trade when foreign competitors use export subsidies to gain an unfair advantage over American farmers -- instead of sitting idly by as the Bush Administration has done.
* Remove unfair trade barriers through tough
negotiation with our trading partners to pry open closed markets, including the support of reciprocal retaliation against the European Community unless the E.C. removes its ban on U.S. pork.
Protecting our environment
* Include farmers in the national debate on
environmental policy -- because farmers and ranchers are among the best stewards of the land; they pay taxes and bank notes on their land and they ought to have a say in what is done with it.
* Ensure that environmental decisions are based
on sound scientific data, not politics, and that Americas farmers do not carry the costs of environmental protection alone.
Expand food aid
* Expand food aid overseas to assist emerging
democracies and developing nations.
* Increase funding for the Food for Peace
program.
Research, development, and new ideas
* Provide American leadership in world
agriculture through modernization and development of current farm programs, and expansion of agriculture research and development.
* Bring existing farm programs into the
communications age by equipping federal agriculture offices with the most modern communications and computer equipment available.
* Consolidate forms and processes to cut down on
wasted time and delays.
* Utilize federal research funds to improve
cooperation among farmers and between states in the same region.
A department for agriculture
* Give American farmers a friend and advocate at
the USDA by appointing a Secretary of Agriculture who is respected by American farmers and who will work tirelessly on their behalf. The USDA must be a department for agriculture, not an annex to the Office of Management and Budget or the State Department.
THE RECORD
* Bill Clinton made numerous trade missions to
Europe and Japan to negotiate open markets for Arkansas products.
* Created the Division of Agriculture
Development to work closely with farmers and relay their concerns to the Governors office.
* Developed the Farm Mediation Program to assist
farmers and lenders in finding solutions to debt payment problems.
* Created the Arkansas Linked Deposit Program,
which provides a new source of agricultural and small business loans by allowing up to $50 million of state funds in lending institutions to be loaned at lower-than-market rates.
* Aggressively addressed brucellosis, resulting
in a reduction by herd count of over 92% from 1983 to 1991, moving Arkansas from Class C to Class A.
* Established the Small Business Revolving Loan
Fund to provide loans to small and minority businesses primarily in rural areas.
* Established the Revolving Loan Fund for
Expansion of Fruit and Vegetable Cooperatives to provide loans in rural areas to assist agricultural co-ops in marketing their produce.
* Implemented the Beginning Farmer Loan Program,
a tax-exempt bond program that assists farmers in acquiring agricultural land at low interest rates by enabling lending institutions, individuals, partnerships and corporations to receive tax-exempt interest for direct loans or contract sales made to new farmers.
* Led a bipartisan effort to strengthen farm
finance through measures designed to refinance the debts of productive farms as a meber of the National Governors Association (NGA) Agriculture Committee.
* Served on the NGA Task Force on Rural
Development, which issued strong, practical recommendations to revitalize rural communities.
* Senator Gore grew up on a farm in Carthage,
Tennessee, and now owns a farm in Carthage.
* Consistently supported the family farmer and
helped protect basic farm income.
* Fought for an Agriculture program that helps
agriculture producers move toward a profitable and sustainable production system.
* Fought to provide adequate funding for
conservation programs requiring the nation's farmers to meet numerous standards for protection of soil and water resources.
* Cosponsored a 1987 act to reform and improve
the Farm Credit System.
* Led efforts to provide disaster relief to
farmers suffering from drought and flooding.
* Aggressively insisted that U.S. negotiators
focus on trade fairness and opening new markets for American agricultural products.
* Coauthored legislation to reduce access
charges for residential and small business telephone rate payers and increase support for rural companies.