Frank Kloucek, South Dakota State Senator

Speaker:

Frank Kloucek
South Dakota State Senator

SENATOR KLOUCEK: I will be a little briefer than Linus. I am State Senator Frank Kloucek from South Dakota. I ask that you consider the following in your upcoming Seattle WTO talks. Country of origin meat labeling must be supported for the good of our nation and her consumers, number one. Number two, Lee Swenson, National Farmers Union President, must be a lead negotiator for the United States. His commonsense knowledge on this issue and his support for family farm and rich agriculture is imperative. We need him.

Independent family farmers and ranchers must have 51 percent voting strength for the United States. GMOs must be regulated more closely and not allowed to hurt our trade efforts. Companies that have so-called patent rights and technology fees for their seed must not be allowed to dominate these talks or world marketing. They should not have any representation at these talks unless they have signed agreements to immediately end patent rights and tech fees in our country and worldwide.

Bst, Roundup ready, BTS hormone enhancers and all new technology must come under closer scrutiny for human food safety, animal, plant safety and long-term effects of these products. And make sure what they say they are is what they really are. We must never -- and I repeat never -- lower our U.S. standard of living, safety, and integrity when it comes to food production.

Number eight, all beef, pork, and lamb entering this country must have improved tracking and inspection standards, not only for our safety, but for the safety of all America.

Number nine, all grains entering this country must pass a means test comparing tariffs, embargoes, and costs from the exporting country to ours.

And number ten, the agriculture trade issue should be the top priority of our negotiators at these talks because the economic future of our independent producers is already in jeopardy of a total meltdown.

Mr. Secretary, members of the committee, I ask that you consider not just fair trade, but free trade. We need economic justification and not just sound science, but sound economic science for all the issues that you are to agree to in the Seattle talks. And we are in jeopardy out there, ladies and gentlemen. The corporate meltdown, the corporate takeover of agriculture is real. The corporate takeover of world agriculture is real. We can talk all we want about free trade, but until our family farm producers have a fair representation at the table worldwide of all countries, we are going to be in dire consequences for the future of food production in the world. Thank you.