How will Obama affect
global agriculture?
BY SALLY SCHUFF
FEEDSTUFFS
12/11/2008 10:35:00 AM
By any honest measure, the election of Barack Obama as the
next President is an epic in the American experience, but the tale is just
beginning, and farmers around the world have no idea how it will end.
Will his Administration derail the trade deals so necessary
for agricultural exports?
Will new environmental regulations prove so burdensome that
US farmers will look across our borders for new lands?
Will Obama prove to be the left-leaning liberal his
opponents portrayed?
·
·
But fears about trade, environmental policies
· Ethanol to be a problem policy area
There is a chance that he will veer toward the centre and
build an action-based coalition in Congress, with moderates of both parties
working to actually solve problems. Legislative stalemates could end under that
scenario, empowering Obama's mantra: Yes we can.
One clue may be Obama's appointment of Rahm
Emanuel as his chief of staff. Emanuel, the House Democratic Caucus chair and
top fund-raiser, was known as a free trader in his previous role as White House
aide in the Clinton Administration.
His current role in Congress makes him aware of the dynamics
that will play out in the new Democratic majority between the party's liberals
and the moderates, such as the Blue Dog Democrats, a powerful group that is
fiscally conservative and pragmatic on policy issues.
Before the election, the Blue Dogs - which include many with
interests in agriculture, like House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson
- were a major voting block of 47 members, about 20pc of House Democrats.
It's not yet clear if they have increased their power base,
but the Blue Dogs will certainly be a factor neither the Obama White House nor
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will want to ignore.
National Farmers Union president Tom Buis,
an Obama supporter and one of
On a teleconference the morning following the election, Buis said: "If you look at the election results,
Barack Obama won by addressing the forgotten middle."
He noted that in every campaign, charges are made that a
candidate is liberal "and will put me out of business".
Buis said he has had no hint from
Obama that he intends to put any farmer out of business. Quite the contrary:
"He has a rural vision."
Yet another
"To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I
may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices," Obama said in
"I need your help, and I will be your President. I will
listen to you, especially when we disagree."
The nation's two major general farm organisations
were quick to support Obama's victory.
Buis said the time is ripe to call
a national agricultural summit. Recalling a similar event in the late 1990s that
created a national conversation for production agriculture, Buis
said he planned to seek support for another such event in the prelude to the
Obama Administration.
Buis, who has been mentioned as a
possible choice for agriculture secretary along with others, including Kansas
Gov. Kathleen Sibelius and former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack,
said he was not seeking the post but would be open to giving it consideration
if asked by the President.
On the key issue of trade, Buis
supports Obama's call to include labor and environmental standards in US trade
agreements.
Buis said he believes recent
problems with food imports also make an argument for including health and
safety standards.
"I don't know what melamine looks like, but I don't
want it in my food," he said.
Obama's first priorities will be "the economy, the
economy, the economy", Buis
told reporters, predicting that the new Administration will quickly address the
continuation of farm bill implementation - "as intended by Congress"
- in the face of rising input costs and falling commodity prices.
Reforming commodity futures market regulation will also be
an early goal for the new Administration, Buis said,
and Obama will continue to support renewable energy, including a commitment to
ethanol, wind and solar energy.
American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman
immediately issued a statement congratulating Obama and the members who will
serve in the 111th Congress on a "decisive and historic election".
He said the Farm Bureau's issues included the economy,
energy, immigration, trade, implementation of the farm bill and many others.
"We know there are many points of view on these issues,
but we also know that our elected leaders have one thing in common: Each person
elected to office ran for office to improve this country," Stallman said.
"We look forward to working with the new Administration
and Congress to create those opportunities that will improve agriculture and
rural
National Cattlemen's Beef Assn. (NCBA) president Andy Groseta, whose organisation
endorsed President George Bush in the 2004 election but did not endorse a
candidate this year, immediately congratulated Obama.
NCBA said it looks forward "to working with the Obama
transition team and providing information, advice and counsel, as needed, on
the many challenges the next Administration will face in regards to food and
fuel policies".
"We have been assured a seat at the table," Groseta said, noting that NCBA appreciates Obama's
commitment to basing decisions on sound economic and scientific evidence.
NCBA said it is eager to "share the stories of cattle
producers and discuss the challenges they face today, from estate taxes that
cause families to lose century-old ranches to the high corn prices resulting
from ethanol subsidies that create unfair competition in the marketplace."
Policy on government support for ethanol subsidies may be
one of the thorniest for Obama, who hails from
In a USA Today interview, American Feed Industry Assn. Joel
Newman noted that his organisation disagrees with
government support for ethanol and seeks "a more comprehensive energy
policy".
Feedstuffs,
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