"I think the crisis here is going to endure unless we change our policies; and every family farm
in America, I believe, is genuinely threatened," Buchanan said in a 20-minute policy address to
insurance executives in Des Moines.
Government Regulation: Requiring price disclosure on livestock contracts; enforcing anti-trust laws to prevent mega-mergers
which threaten to monopolize the agriculture industry; exempting family farms from Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) regulations; rewriting the Endangered Species Act; ending government seizure of farmland without just compensation.
Buchanan also expressed support for the tax benefits now given to the corn-based ethanol industry.
"The specter of depression haunts the farmlands of America," he said, calling the situation a "harvest of heartache in the
Heartland."
Prices for agricultural commodities such as corn, soybeans and pork are at historic lows and a bumper crop this autumn will further
depress prices, experts believe.
Iowa State University economists predict half of Iowa's hog farmers are in weak to vulnerable financial positions which could soon
bring about foreclosure.
"Washington and Wall Street may believe it is inevitable that the family farm, too, shall pass away. But as a conservative, I believe
that family farms and rural towns must be conserved," Buchanan said.
Buchanan, sounding Populist themes, decried the consolidation which he said has left five corporations controlling 89 percent of all
U.S. beef processing.
"Say it ain't so. Farms turned into factories, controlled by far-away investors, with farmers as assembly-line workers," he said. "Is
this what the first American farmers envisioned?"
The farm economy has become an often-addressed topic among those seeking the GOP presidential nomination ahead of
Saturday's party-sponsored straw poll, a contest that could winnow the crowded field.
