Legislator says food supply is national security issue

California farmers representing a cross section of commodities made their views heard last week as they told members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture what they wanted to see in the next Farm Bill. Food supply safety was a recurrent theme. Whether keeping the nation’s farms free of pests and diseases or protected from forms of terrorism, food safety is an important issue for many who spoke at the hearing including Crows Landing specialty crops grower Earl Perez. “The purpose of the Farm Bill is to create a sustainable and affordable food supply for this country. A nation without food is very weak,” Perez said. “In addition, with all of the concern about food safety and bio-terrorism today, a secure domestic food supply is critical to our national security.”

Representative Lincoln Davis (D-Tennessee) said he agrees with Perez and believes agriculture is a national defense issue. “We often look just at the defense department, the CIA, the NSA (National Security Agency) the FBI and homeland security agencies as being our national defenders, but if our need for energy that now is 60 percent supplied by a foreign nation has not put us in a situation where our national defense is jeopardized, we better wake up,”Davis said. “Only less than 2 percent of our entire population is involved in agriculture today. If we make a mistake with this new Farm Bill and if we abandoned the farmers in this country, it as far as I’m concerned is a national security issue.”

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