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Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Madam President, I just want to add my voice of support. Why do we need a farm bill? Because we need farmers, and we need food. And one of the wonderful things about our farmers is they do a job that is incredibly hard to do.

It is a job that is filled with uncertainty. What is the weather going to be today? What are the prices on the futures market tomorrow? What is going to happen in our neighborhood?

It is incredibly uncertain, but the farmers love the work.

And who among us works harder than farmers? Maybe coal miners, but not many more. So they stand for hard work and feeding America.

The second thing is farmers need stability because they have no control over things that profoundly affect them. But the other thing is farmers actually are the custodians of our landscape. And they, in all of our communities--whether it is dairy, say, in Vermont, or it might be wheat or corn in Illinois, or cherries in Michigan--they are providing a benefit to all of us who are not farmers and can't take on the courage they have to do that work.

And on the conservation title, I have talked to a lot of farmers in Vermont. They are so appreciative that, in addition to feeding us with nutritious food, they have a chance to actually get some income to help us conserve the land. That is a good thing because that is another income stream for the farmers.

So this should not be a fight among opposing sides. What do we have to do to provide stability to farmers? They have to get a fair price for their crop. And then, if they are going to make contributions on the whole issue of conservation in reducing carbon emissions, they have to get some income for that. And that is in the farm bill.

So let's pass the farm bill because we need farmers, we need food, and we need a clean and healthy environment.

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