
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 5, 1995                   TAG: 9505060021
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CUTS COULD HURT SOUTHERN FARMS

If Congress eliminates federal farm supports, the South will suffer - losing agricultural income for at least five years - while the Midwest and West prosper, a new analysis claims.

That scenario from the Heritage Foundation would spell trouble for the region's new Republican representatives, who are ending a century of control by Dixie Democrats.

``It's a real dilemma for them,'' said Merle Black, an Emory University professor and expert on Southern politics. ``Can they stay in office while cutting programs important to their districts?''

The GOP's narrow congressional majority could even be threatened if the federal peanut, sugar, cotton, corn and tobacco programs that Southern farmers have relied upon since the Depression are abruptly abolished by the first GOP Congress in 40 years.

Thirteen Southerners were among 26 first-year Republican representatives who wrote House Speaker Newt Gingrich this spring and urged that farm programs not ``bear a disproportionate share of any required spending cuts.''

However, the Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative research group, has recommended that agricultural programs that cost taxpayers about $11 billion last year be eliminated or at least phased out over the five-year life of the farm bill that Congress will write this summer.

President Clinton has proposed a modest $1.5 billion cut in farm spending over five years. However, some Republicans - including House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas and Senate Agriculture Chairman Richard Lugar of Indiana - have proposed slashing subsidies to make farmers more reliant on markets and less on government.

A Heritage Foundation analysis showed that American farm income actually would increase by $14 billion over the next five years through the elimination of federal farm programs, which limit production while propping up prices for farmers.

By ending restrictions as well as subsidies, American farmers would be freed to plant on idled acres and ``take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to meet the demands of the global marketplace,'' said John Frydenlund, author of the study.

However, even the optimistic Heritage Foundation study shows that farmers would not fare equally without federal programs. While those in the Midwest and West would gain, those in the South would lose.

``The biggest benefits would come the soonest where the largest amount of acreage has been taken out of production,'' explained Frydenlund .

by CNB