WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chomping on his trademark unlit cigar, Barry Flinchbaugh holds court in the lobby of a Holiday Inn a few blocks from Capitol Hill.
Flinchbaugh, an agricultural economist who has had the ear of many key architects of American farm programs past and present, remembers being in Saskatoon shortly after the 1996 farm bill came into law. The bill was a package of farm programs that fundamentally changed the way the United States government supports its farmers.
A Canadian reporter asked Flinchbaugh what he thought the bill meant for Canadian producers.
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“I said, ‘Santa Claus died,’ ” recalled Flinchbaugh in his slow, Kansan drawl, explaining how he felt the programs made American farmers more competitive in world markets.
Starting in the 1930s, the United States Congress had run programs that propped up prices farmers and exporters received for crops.
But in 1996, it replaced them with a scheme that put a floor under farm income, and let prices fall where they may.
Freedom to Farm, as the programs were branded, seemed benign for Canadians when world demand for grain was strong.
But the slump in demand caused by the 1997 downturn in Asian economies made Canadians take a closer look at the new U.S. subsidies.
As prices fell, U.S. farmers grew more and more grain, adding to burdensome stocks, and driving down the prices Canadians get for their crops in export markets.
“Freedom to Farm resulted in giving producers freedom to farm from fence row to fence row; freedom to flood the market,” said Fred Oleson, chief of market analysis for Agriculture Canada.
Now, American farmers are asking for more.
The next farm bill is expected to fatten the wallets of U.S. farmers in time for the 2002 crop.
Farmers, lobbyists and policy-makers expect the new raft of programs to look a lot like Freedom to Farm, only richer.
North of the border, market watchers are alarmed the new U.S. farm bill may continue to distort agricultural markets. Understandably, Canadian farmers aren’t amused.
Marching toward the Manitoba Legislature during a recent farm protest aimed at shaking more money from Canadian government coffers, Rich Nield warmed up a well-oiled rant during a chat about U.S. farm programs. Nield gets riled at U.S. president George W. Bush’s frequent calls for a “level playing field” for agricultural trade.
Nield farms near the border at Darlingford, Man., and sees how his U.S. neighbors have been shielded from low grain prices.
“Oh man – like he’s saying they’re victims,” said Nield. “They’re part of the leaders of this problem.”
