By Joshua Vice
Hillsboro was the site of a farm bill meeting with Senator Kent Conrad, Minnesota Congressman Collin Peterson and North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture Roger Johnson on Tuesday, August 28 at the Lynn Kritzberger Farm.
The meeting was held to celebrate the work Peterson had accomplished on getting a overwhelming majority vote for passage of the farm bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and to also inform the public on how the bill is progressing. The public was also allowed to ask the politicians questions in an open forum.
The farm bill must still pass in the Senate, but the response from the house has Conrad, Peterson and Johnson optimistic about its prospects. 
“What Collin Peterson did in the house with the farm bill is nothing short of a miracle,” said Conrad.
Peterson stated that while it was nice to be able to get the bill passed by such a large margin in the house, it was the goal all along and he did not deserve all of the credit.
Peterson is the chairman of the agriculture committee for the house. He said that enlisting Congressman Earl Pomeroy to have a seat on the agriculture committee was a great benefit, because Pomeroy worked tirelessly to get the bill passed.
Some highlights of the 2008 Farm Bill include low rate and target price increases for wheat, barley, oilseeds and soybeans, a new permanent disaster program, payment limit reforms, new mandatory COOL provisions and new investments in renewable energy.
Conrad said that the majority vote in the house means there is a bipartisan effort being built in the capitol.
“Farms in North Dakota and Minnesota have the same kind of concerns as farms in any other region in the country,” said Peterson, who alluded to the fact that agriculture affects everyone.
Although Peterson says he could not get the house to add another $5 billion into the bill for additional aid, he felt that the work done in the house provided great strides for agriculture.
“If you don’t want your program taken out, you have to stop fighting each other and work together,” Peterson added.
Peterson said that agriculture in the United States has been divided by region for many years and that this division has hindered farmers in getting the benefits that they need.
In closing, Peterson thanked Senator Conrad and Commissioner Johnson for their work. Senator Conrad was then given the microphone and he addressed the crowd.
“I want to start by once again thanking Collin Peterson for his leadership in developing the Farm Bill,” said Conrad. “This has been a tough challenge,” he added.
Conrad stated that regionally, agriculture is not supported in other places like it is in North Dakota.
“Eastern headlines have told only one part of the truth about agriculture. They don’t talk about the costs that farmers incur or the work that they put in,’ Conrad stated.
In fact, in other parts of the world, agriculture is supported on a much larger scale by its governments than it is in the United States.
For example, in the European Union, farmers get $251 per acre in government support funds as opposed to just $48 per acre in the United States.
Conrad stated that writing farm bills in the future will only continue to get harder and harder. The reason Conrad states for this difficulty is that the national deficit is only getting larger. Conrad said that by the year 2012, the United States will have a deficit of $12 trillion.
Arguments have been raised against the farm bill that it has been increasing the deficit. Conrad says that isn’t the case.
All money spent on agriculture, which not only involves farmers but a wide range other areas only takes up 4% of the national budget.
Without the farm bill, Senator Conrad stated that even the most successful farms in the U.S. would have failed. “This is critical moment in the United States and agriculture,” he said.
“We have to make the decision on whether or not we want to shift from an energy importer to an energy producer or not. We can choose to send $200 billion a year to the Middle East for oil or we can send that money to North Dakota or Minnesota for homegrown renewable energy,” commented Conrad.