ST. LOUIS, MO., Oct. 15, 2012 - The American Soybean Association (ASA) reached out to President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for each candidate’s points of view on issues critical to soybean farmers.
“Agriculture is a powerful and positive segment of the American economy, and the financial health of our nation’s farms needs to be among the top priorities in the larger political dialogue,” said ASA President Steve Wellman, a soybean farmer from Syracuse, Neb. “The responses offered by President Obama and Governor Romney provide a window into how each candidate would approach soybean industry issues over the next four years.”
According to ASA, both candidates expressed a desire to pass a comprehensive farm bill as quickly as possible. President Obama pointed to importance of risk management and disaster assistance in the farm bill, saying, “we need a strong farm safety net for all of America’s farmers. That’s why I increased the availability of crop insurance and emergency disaster assistance to help over 590,000 farmers and ranchers keep their farms in business after natural disasters and crop loss. My administration has also expanded farm credit to help more than 100,000 farmers struggling during the financial crisis to keep their family farms and provide for their families.”
Governor Romney emphasized the need to maintain the competitiveness of the American farmer, saying, “we must be cognizant that our agricultural producers are competing with other nations around the world. Other nations subsidize their farmers, so we must be careful not to unilaterally change our policies in a way that would disadvantage agriculture here in our country. In addition, we want to make sure that we don’t ever find ourselves in a circumstance where we depend on foreign nations for our food the way we do with energy. Ultimately, it is in everyone’s interest is achieve a level playing field on which American farmers can compete.”
The full responses from each campaign are available on the ASA website at www.SoyGrowers.com, or by clicking here.
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