The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

Our Views

Agriculture may have a tough row to hoe if the three most popular candidates for the coming presidential election succeed in their campaigns.

None of the three most talked about candidates - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. - have any known ties to agriculture, with the exception of Clinton's babysitting for migrant workers in her youth.

Only two, Clinton and Obama, mention agriculture in their plans for America, and only when concentrating on improving rural American lifestyles and renewable energy plans.

McCain gave farmers and ranchers an approving nod only when naming the members of his agriculture advisory team in July 2007, according to his Web site.

Having led a suburban childhood in Park Ridge, Ill., Clinton is a strong advocate for women, children and families, but shares little knowledge about the agriculture industry. Her only connection to agriculture, it seems, is through her babysitting experiences when she watched children of migrant workers during her youth.

However, Clinton plans to improve the lifestyle and economic status of rural America through broadband Internet connection, a better healthcare system, better educational opportunities, renewable energy research and implementing mandatory country-of-origin labeling on all U.S. products.

Born in Hawaii, Obama spent a lot of his childhood on the islands before moving to Indonesia for a few years and then finally to New York to attend Columbia University.

Obama's Web site shares no indication of him having any ties to agriculture, but promotes his plan for green energy and agriculture's involvement through incentives and rewards to farmers, ranchers and foresters for planting trees, restoring wetland and grasslands and undertaking farm practices to capture carbon.

An Alexandria, Va., native, McCain spent his younger years following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather with a highly decorated career in the Navy, but it seems agriculture never crossed his path, at least according to his biography on his Web site.

McCain's campaign focuses on the financial side of government, such as economic stimulus and government spending, while focusing on improving the environment with stewardship of natural heritage through clean water, clean air, open spaces and sustainable land uses, as well as the management and care of the nation's natural treasures, like the National Park System. He also plans to guide the military forces to a win in Iraq and work on the nation's space program.

Interested voters wishing to further their education on the candidates beyond the mainstream press can check out the candidates' voting records on important issues and industries, such as agriculture, on the Project Vote Smart's Voters' Self-Defense System Web site at www.votesmart.org.

It is interesting to note that McCain participated in several agriculture-related legislative votes, where he voted against the Federal Ag Improvement and Reform Act of 2002 and in favor of an agriculture research bill in 1998, the Public Range Management Act of 1996 and the 1996 farm bill.

Obama voted on a single agriculture-related item - to limit farm subsidies to married couples to $250,000 and make direct involvement in production a requirement in order to receive the subsidies.

Clinton also voted in favor of the Limit on Farm Subsidies bill of December 2007, as well as in favor of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

The Vote Smart Web site also allows voters to see how special interest groups, such as National Association of Wheat Growers, National Farmers Union and American Farm Bureau Federation, rank the presidential candidates in terms of agreeing with their legislative decisions. The ranking is done in terms of percentages, percentages of time the candidates' decisions' agreed with the goals of the organizations.

On average, special interest agriculture groups agreed with McCain's decisions about 45 percent of the time in the last 14 years of his congressional career, while agreeing with Obama 66 percent of the time in the last two years of his congressional career and 56 percent of the time with Clinton in the last five years of her congressional career.

Obama and Clinton both have the opportunity this month to expand their knowledge about the agriculture industry, more specifically Montana's agriculture industry, as they have planned visits to Missoula, Mont., and Butte, Mont., respectively.

According to his Web site, McCain has no plans to campaign in Montana this year.

We believe all the candidates should take the time to see Montana's agriculture in action on the ground to gain more perspective on the industry, its issues and the people who live the life and enable themselves to make more informed decisions down the road, should they be making those decisions from the Oval Office or elsewhere.