Farmers Seek Glickman Pledge To Resist Harmful Budget Cutting

Fearing the loss of millions in farm subsidies and research money, Inland Northwest farmers today will urge Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman to stand against a tide of budget cutting in both parties.

In private sessions and a midday town hall meeting at a Rockford ranch, farmers will ask Glickman for $3 million to build a wheat-breeding facility at Washington State University and his promise to block potentially harmful cuts in the nation’s $10 billion-per-year farm program.

Glickman’s whirlwind tour will be his first visit to the Inland Northwest since becoming agriculture secretary in March.

“Our message to Glickman is that we hope the president is sincere when he promised to veto a (bad) farm bill,” said Jim Walesby, an Almira wheat farmer and chairman of the Spokane-based Washington Wheat Commission.

Farmers are having doubts about Clinton’s resolve. In his budget proposal this week, Clinton surprised Glickman’s office by saying changes in farm policy could save $4.2 billion over seven years. That number was nearly three times larger than the administration’s proposal for the 1995 farm bill, which Congress will write this summer.

“We haven’t put out anything yet about the extra cuts,” said Jim Petterson, a spokesman for Glickman. “But what the president is proposing is still far less damaging than what Congress wants to do.”

Glickman will meet with commodity groups before conducting a town hall meeting at Larry Gady’s farm near Rockford. The two-hour town hall meeting begins at 11:45 a.m. and is open to the public.

Steve Appel, president of the Washington State Farm Bureau, wants to remind Glickman that farm payments affect many lives.

“The small communities live and die on agriculture,” he said.

Officials with the Washington Cattlemen’s Association said they’ll urge Glickman to go slow on meat inspection reform, but aggressively challenge powerful packing companies that won’t pass on low beef prices to consumers.

Wheat growers will emphasize their dependence on export subsidies and other programs, using the audience with Glickman to plant seeds of support for the programs at the height of the farm bill debate.

“It’s a great opportunity to see Glickman in Spokane early in the summer,” said Gretchen Borck, director of issues for the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. “It’s perfect.”

, DataTimes MEMO: To get to the town hall meeting at the Gady farm from Spokane, drive south on Highway 27. Two miles past Freeman, turn left onto Elder Road. Follow Elder for two miles, turning right onto Harvard Road. After passing under a black train trestle, travel a half mile on Harvard to the Gady farm on the left.