Statement of Congressman Bernard Sanders at the Monthly Meeting of the Northeast Dairy Compact Commission on April 11, 2001

Thank you very much. Let me begin by reiterating what Jim Jeffords just said, and that is that the issue we are dealing with is of enormous consequence and I want to applaud Senator Jeffords and Senator Leahy and almost all of the representatives from your states for their strong support of the Compact. We have worked well together in a non-partisan way. We have reached out to the other states around the country and we’re going to win this again. It’s terribly important that we do win this again.

Let me just make a few points. Number one, I don’t have to tell the people in this room that not only are family based dairy farmers fighting for their lives but family farmers all over this country are fighting for their lives. It is not talked about enough, but in the last 20 years, we have lost 700,000 family farms in every commodity you can think of. And it’s not just dairy, Idaho potato farmers are going out of business. Virtually every commodity you can think of is losing their family farms. And some people say, “Well, that’s the way the world goes. You know, the economy changes,” and so forth and so on. “It’s no big deal.”

I think it is a huge deal.

The point that I want to make to you today is that not only is the Dairy Compact a ray of hope for dairy farmers, which is obviously our main concern in the state of Vermont and in the Northeast, but it is a ray of hope for all family farmers throughout this country who are desperately trying to come up with some sort of legislation to create a mechanism to save family farming in America. And that’s a point that we should all be very proud of.

I think the concept of the Daily Compact will spread to other commodities. But furthermore, we should be very honest in understanding that even with the Dairy Compact, as enormously important as it is, as the lifeblood that it is for family farmers in this state and throughout this region, we are still losing family farmers and we’ve go to go beyond that.

What we have got to do, and I think Jim Jeffords touched on some of the outlines of the program, as a nation we have got to be very clear and make a simple statement, and that is: do we think it is important as a nation that we continue to have family based agriculture all over America. Do we or do we not?

And there are some people who will say, “No, we don’t. Doesn’t matter to me where my corn comes from. Doesn’t matter to me where my potatoes come from. If it comes from China, what’s the difference? If it comes from Mexico, who cares?” I care. And I’ll tell you why I care. Because I think the issue of food security in this nation is in fact an issue of national security. And I recall last year (the Massachusetts Delegation is where? Right there?) Governor Celucci made an excellent point in defending the proposal. And he said that for the city of Boston, which I gather does not have too many family farms, it is important that family farms in this region remain alive so that you will continue to have an access to milk. And that’s true for Providence and that in fact is true for every city in the United States of America.

Does this country really want to be in a position where the production and distribution of food rests in the hands of a handful of multinational corporations? Do you really want to be in that position? I don’t think we do. I don’t think we do if we’re in big cities, I don’t think we do if we are in rural America.

So this is an enormous fight that not only effects our world economies, it effects the health and well being of this entire country. And clearly, in the House and as Senator Jeffords indicated, we have a heck of a job on our hands and we’re going to have to work very closely with you. The easy case to be made is to the representatives to the six states here. Most of those, almost everybody, understands the importance of the Compact. It will be a pretty easy case as we move out to New York state, to Pennsylvania, New Jersey to Maryland and so forth. They know the importance. The hard part will be to reach out to urban America, the minority communities, to California, who says, “what’s in it for us?”

And we’re going to have to work together to show every segment of this society that preserving dairy based agriculture and dairy based family farming is of enormous consequence, as I believe that it is.

As of now, at last count I think we’re going to introduce the bill with about 150 supporters in the House. Of the gentlemen who is going to introduce the bill is Congressman Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican. We want to reach out, to make a great effort to reach out to Republicans. Obviously a concern that we have is that during the campaign at least, President Bush indicated his opposition to this legislation when he came here. We hope that we can turn him around or at least get him to be neutral.

But I think there is a growing concern all over this country about the importance of saving family based agriculture. I think if we all keep our nose to the grindstone, we keep going forward, we reach out to our friends and neighbors all over this country we are going to be successful. And in doing so, as I said earlier, we are not only going to play a role in saving dairy farm agriculture, but maybe family farms of the United States. Thank you very much.