| Last night I had the distinct pleasure of co-hosting the Media Matters show with TwoPuttTommy on AM950. In the second segment we interviewed Doug Peterson of the MN Farmers Union about Sen. Al Franken's Dairy COOL Act. COOL stands for country of origin labeling.
One of the points Doug made is that dairy farmers are getting financially slaughtered because they cannot compete with foreign milk producers who are subsidized by their governments. In reality these are multi-national ag conglomerates making the profit by undercutting US farmers. Plus, there are concerns that these foreign governmnets don't have the same labor and environmental laws we do which means we have no idea about how safe this milk is.
Which brought me to a thought about Rep. John Kline. He's utterly clueless (and intentionally so) about the plight of MN farmers.
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) is seriously out of touch with his district. He rarely meets with constituents and the only times he does, his staffers vet every attendee to make sure no liberals get near him. So it is no surprise that Kline and his staffers haven't got the faintest clue that rural America is in crisis and has been for a long, long time.
- Bob and Rose Zoubek hosted a meeting at their dairy farm in rural Montgomery July 10 to talk about low milk prices. About 40 people attended to discuss the issue with state Sen. Kevin Dahle of Northfield, state Rep. Laura Brod of New Prague and Mike Osskopp, district director for U.S. Congressman John Kline.
Osskopp said the meeting was, from his perspective at the district office, the first time he's heard that dairy farmers are suffering. Politicians tend to respond to what they hear coming from constituents, but agriculture isn't on the top of the pile right now, he said. The major priorities in the federal government are the economy, health care reform and the energy bill.
His district office received about 1,200 telephone calls in three days on the cap and trade legislation, but only one phone call -- the one to let him know about that day's dairy meeting -- about low milk prices.
(Agri News)
I wrote that post back in July. This has been a problem for years, but in the last year MN dairy farmers it has gotten so bad that even the clueless Kline became aware. It's comical is that Kline, a retired Marine from Texas, claims to own a farm and be aware of farmers' issues. And the joke is on the people of his district who he continues to fail to represent.
Don't worry though, I'm sure that Kline will take a strong stand on this issue and oppose Franken's Dairy COOL Act. |
