American millers say Farm Bill needs to resolve market distortions

American millers say Farm Bill needs to resolve market distortions A trade group representing American millers warned both the House and Senate agriculture committees this week that continued government-caused distortions of grain production decisions would result in buying more grain from foreign sources.
   The millers also called for Congress to use the proposed Farm Bill to reduce the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) by allowing sustainable acres back into production and to invest in research to give growers better crop options.
   “Wheat and oat millers are willing to compete with processors of competing crops to encourage farmers to plant more of the cereal grains we need, but we cannot compete with the government-funded programs that have created massive distortions in planting decisions,” testified Rick L. Schwein, senior vice president of Grain Millers Inc., and a member of the North American Millers’ Association (NAMA), to the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management on Thursday.
   Schwein noted that wheat plantings have dropped by 18 million acres in just the past 10 years, and that the United States harvests fewer wheat acres than it did in 1898. Oat production in 2006 was a mere 107 million bushels, the lowest since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began keeping records in 1866.
   The recent trend by many farmers to plant more corn to feed the emerging biofuels industry has also strained access to other grain crops.
   “Biofuels production will require enormous acreage, so failure to significantly reform CRP will mean that reducing our dependence on foreign oil may result in increased dependence on foreign grain,” said Lynn Rundle, a NAMA board member and chief executive officer of 21st Century Grain Processing, to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on Wednesday.
   NAMA, based in Washington, represents 48 companies that operate 170 wheat, oat, and corn mills in 38 states and Canada. Their collective production capacity exceeds 160 million pounds of product daily, or more than 95 percent of the total industry production.