Minnesota Farmers Union

(August 2, 2009) - One of the basic rules of my incredibly successful one-dog, two-ink pen operation is that if the government wants to give some of my tax money back I take it.

Depreciation? Thank you. Double declining balance, three-backflips depreciation? Thank you very much.

That simple principle, however, was trampled July 22 when a Senate Ag Committee hearing took a look at the recently passed, farmer-friendly, House climate change legislation.

While the House plan is complex, everyone-Dems and Repubs, cowboys and plowboys, geniuses and (ahem) journalists alike-agree: the ag side of the House plan will net farmers and rural communities billions in the coming decades.

Indeed, recent studies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and Iowa State University all point to how juicy carbon trading will be for American farmers and landowners.

But that clear message was muddied at the Senate hearing. Several Repub aggies complained that farmers would be big losers under cap-and-trade. Leading the charge was Mike Johanns, this year the junior senator from Nebraska, last year the secretary of agriculture.