August 4, 1999
Web posted at: 6:17 p.m. EDT (2217 GMT)

WARREN CITY, Iowa (August 4) -- Iowa is not only the state of crucial presidential caucuses but it is also a farm state, and when presidential hopefuls come to Iowa, they talk about farm problems.

Most of them are not for repealing the Freedom to Farm Act, which ended some farm price supports. But most do favor emergency financial help for farmers now.

"All of the American people stand to lose if we allow a short-term crisis to drive thousands of small family farmers into bankruptcy and off the farm," says Vice President Al Gore, who is seeking the Democratic nomination.

Gov. George W. Bush

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the GOP front-runner, seems to agree.

"I think what the president ought to do is call upon Congress to enact disaster relief," he says.

But most presidential hopefuls, including Bush, want to do more.

"It's more than just supporting some emergency funding," says Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who recently entered the GOP field. "We've got to do that. But we've got to do more than that. We've got to be competitive with the rest of the world."

What Iowa farmers would like is several urgent measures from the government: Fast-track authority, so the president can negotiate trade deals; preventing the U.S. from declaring that it won't trade with this country or that, which only encourages other exporting countries; and selling more food to China.

That is why GOP presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole thinks the government has not done enough.

"I think the Clinton Administration has really been at fault in not getting the fast-track legislation and helping to open up trade with China," she says.

And Bush thinks that China should be allowed to join the World Trade Organization. The Clinoton Administration is currently negotiating with China over its proposed entry into the WTO.

Pat Buchanan

"I think we ought to open China's markets to Iowa producers, farm producers all over the United States," Bush says.

Pat Buchanan, on the other hand, would get tough with China. His credo is: "We'll keep your goods out unless you let our goods in."

"China buys less pork from us now than they did in 1989, even though they've got on enormous trade surplus with us," he says. "Why? They've put something like a 100 percent tariff on pork from the United States, but we let all their goods into America."

Most of the candidates also endorse wider use of ethanol, a corn-based product which works as an additive to gasoline. Only one of them, former Vice President Dan Quayle, speaks of another top issue: How does a family farm compete with a corporate giant which controls everything from breeding hogs to selling pork chops.

Washington, Quayle says, doesn't care even if that means fewer farmers. "They don't really care that much about the family farm anymore."

No wonder thoughtful farmers worry about that too.

"Farmers have lost control of that food as it's going through the chain," says Craig Hill, a farmer. "And maybe it's about time that farmers held on and had a tighter grasp of that production, and took it through processing and packaging."

All the things the candidates are suggesting -- ethanol, increased exports, emergency aid -- would help. None will, however, answer the long-term question of how the family farmer can compete against a corporate giant.

Wednesday, August 4, 1999

• Showdown appears likely over tax cuts
• Final 'hold' lifted on Holbrooke nomination
• Court postpones sentencing for Trie
• Clinton says his childhood not 'a bed of roses'
• Conflict within House GOP leadership leads to resignation threat
• Presidential candidates propose farm remedies in Iowa
• Treasury explores bond buyback plan
• Musgrove, Parker win Mississippi gubernatorial primaries
• House panel votes to subpoena records on immigrant crimes
• House eases cuts in legal aid for poor
• Welfare to work group plans moving into trenches
• Russians: Jackie Kennedy wrote Khrushchev after JFK assassination
• Committee chairman calls for more study of vaccine safety
• House passes bill to protect inventors
• Backers of hate crimes bill buoyed by Senate vote, House hearing
• Customs to change policy on passenger searches
• House votes to delay federal rules on workplace injuries
• Rep. Brown's widow seeks congressional seat
• Nethercutt ally may now be foe
• Black and Hispanic leaders announce coalition
• Ex-congressman Robert H. Mollohan dies

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