The federal farm bill isn’t just about farming. It covers a host of issues, from ethanol and biodiesel to wetlands and hunting. A Farm Bill forum is scheduled for 10 A.M. today at the National Pheasant Fest, underway at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.
Bob St. Pierre is spokesman for the main sponsor, Pheasants Forever. St. Pierre says "2007 is a critical year. It’s the year where the current Farm Bill, which was put together in 2002, expires. During this session of Congress, the folks in Washington D.C. are going to be making decisions that effect over 50-million acres across the country."
St. Pierre says two key lawmakers have been invited to preside over the forum, U.S. Senate Ag Committee chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa and U.S. House Ag Committee chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota. St. Pierre says Harkin and Peterson will lead the Farm Bill forum where people can ask them questions about implications in the Farm Bill for hunters, sportsmen, biofuels, switchgrass, ethanol and what else might be coming. He explains more about why this forum is being held at the Pheasant Fest event.
St. Pierre says "You hear ‘Pheasants Forever’ and you think hunting and that’s absolutely right, but to put those birds on the ground for hunting, we have to be engaged in habitat and there’s no greater tool out there that effects habitat than the federal Farm Bill." For more information, surf to www.nationalpheasantfest.org .