Dear Members of the United States Congress:

We, the undersigned farmers, ranchers, bankers, small-business owners, taxpayers, consumers and other concerned citizens, encourage you to soundly reject any legislation that would destroy current farm policies and/or raid the safety net for farmers and ranchers.

Specifically, we urge you to oppose any and all provisions contained within the reckless Food & Agriculture Risk Management for the 21st Century Act (FARM 21). Reps. Kind and Flake want to repeal and cut holes in the farm safety next, and that would spell disaster for this country's food security.

Given record high farm production costs and high foreign subsidies and tariffs, the current farm safety net should be the floor, not the ceiling, of the 2007 farm bill. This farm policy has been a tremendous success and is more popular in farm country than any farm policy in history. This policy works for America because it:

• ensures that America has the safest, most affordable, and most abundant food and fiber supply in the world.
• has saved U.S. taxpayers $25 billion over the life of the current farm bill.
• supports an industry that employs 20% of the U.S. workforce and contributes $3.5 trillion a year to the U.S. economy.
• increases the country's food security by ensuring that we don't have to rely on other countries for food like we rely on them for oil.
• gives U.S. producers a chance against foreign competitors, which are far and away more subsidized and have prohibitive tariffs in place.