Wisconsin Ag Connection - Farm Bureau Looks Back at Top Stories of 2008

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Farm Bureau Looks Back at Top Stories of 2008
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 12/23/2008

Passage of a new federal Farm Bill, a big courtroom victory involving the state's Right to Farm law, volatile swings in the prices of food and farm commodities, and an historic election and flood were the top issues and stories for agriculture in 2008, according to Bill Bruins, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. These five stories rounded out this year's "Farm Bureau Picks," a year-end summary of the top issues for agriculture.

As Bruins predicted a year ago, the successful outcome of a nuisance lawsuit filed against a Sawyer County cranberry grower with far-reaching implications to Wisconsin's Right to Farm law was 2008's top issue. In May the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that it would not hear the case brought against William Zawistowski by a group of out-of-state landowners who claimed that his cranberry operation's farming practices had created an environmental nuisance on Musky Bay. The high court's decision brought a close to nearly six years of legal wrangling that involved the Wisconsin Farm Bureau and a coalition of other ag groups filing a friend of the court brief to defend the state's Right to Farm law.

"A negative outcome of this case would have been a devastating blow to all of Wisconsin agriculture, but instead farmers can operate knowing that this law protects them from frivolous lawsuits," said Bruins.

In December, Zawistowski and the Rural Mutual Insurance Company were awarded their legal fees, as provided by the state's Right to Farm law.

On the same day as the Supreme Court's ruling on the Zawistowski case, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the long-overdue U.S. Farm Bill. The massive document contained support for ag export trade programs, increased funding for conservation programs on working farmland, the continuation and expansion of the Milk Income Loss Contract program, a new emphasis on funding for specialty crop markets, and it allowed Wisconsin's state-inspected meat processing plants to ship product across state lines.

After President Bush vetoed the bill, both houses of Congress had enough votes to override the veto. However a colossal clerical error omitted left out a portion of the document before it was sent to the White House, forcing a procedural replay of the veto and congressional override. In the months that followed, the USDA's interpretation of a provision that dealt with payments to farms less than 10 acres in size prompted Congress to pass separate legislation to clarify. In December, Farm Bureau was one of nearly 30 organizations publicly expressing concern about the significant delay in publishing the regulations that implementing many commodity and conservation provisions within the farm bill.

"It is critical that program provisions be announced soon so that farmers can make decisions for the 2009 crop year," Bruins said.

The prices received for those crops were another of 2008's top issues. Strong foreign and domestic demand and low world stocks, coupled with a weak U.S. dollar pushed the price of corn and soybeans to record highs during the summer months. They have since tumbled, creating a volatile situation for farmers who are still paying high prices for farm inputs such as fertilizer, diesel and seed. While farm input prices have also softened since their spikes earlier this year, they have not fallen to the extent that ag commodities have.

Prices paid for food in grocery stores also dominated headlines in mid-2008. Factors such as foreign droughts, higher labor and transportation costs, and surging world demand were often overlooked when explaining higher grocery bills. Increased utilization of corn for ethanol production was often painted as the sole culprit. This blame game was partially fueled by a $15 million public relations campaign headed by the U.S. Grocers Association.

Ultimately the high price at the gas pump dampened the demand for ethanol, and the amount of corn used for ethanol took a dramatic dip in November. The price for corn and gas had fallen back to normal levels, but the price of food continued to climb.

"As Farm Bureau contended all year long, these recent developments show that ethanol production and the price paid for corn are not the driving force behind the increase in the price for food," Bruins said. "High oil and energy prices were always the real culprits for rising food prices, not a misguided backlash against homegrown biofuels."

The historic November election was another issue with a big impact on agriculture. Next month President-elect Barack Obama and his administration will take the reins of Washington D.C. Closer to home, Democrats took control of the State Assembly for the first time in 14 years. This change means a new set of leaders and committee chairs, including State Rep. Amy Sue Vruwink (D-Milladore) as the new chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee.

Historic and horrific were two ways to describe the amount of rain that fell throughout much of Wisconsin in June. National media outlets such as CNN and ABC World News Tonight interviewed Wisconsin Farm Bureau members about their crop losses after a series of storms turned their fields into small lakes. It's still unclear what the actual damage dollar amount was.

The floods round out the summary of headline grabbing stories in a year where, when it came to big stories impacting agriculture, when it rained, it poured.

Next week, Bruins will release the second part of his annual report, in which he will announce the five issues that he predicts will dominate headlines in 2009.

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