One tremendous benefit of a farmer-owned cooperative like MFA is having a board of directors composed of 14 full-time farmers. The practice gives farmer cooperatives a unique perspective. That perspective serves members well. MFA Incorporated and its members benefit from the arrangement. Take for instance a recent trip to Washington, D.C., by the legislative committee of the MFA board of directors. The committee includes David Cottrill, vice chairman, Albany, District 1; Lester Evans, Lebanon, District 13; Ron Heins, Concordia, District 5; and Keith Schnarre, chairman, Centralia, District 6.

David Cottrill has a row-crop operation and a cow/calf and feeder calf business. Lester Evans has a cow/calf operation and is involved with his son in a dairy operation. He's served on the National Dairy Board and on the board of Dairy Farmers of America. Ron Heins has a row crops, cow/calf pairs and a hog operation. Keith Schnarre has row crops, cattle and hogs. These men represent mainstream agriculture. They represent agriculture well.

So when your legislative committee called on U.S. senators and representatives as well as the heads of national departments and agencies in mid-June, Midwest agriculture was well represented. I make no secret of the fact I'd like to avoid Washington and the political process, but I know it is not possible in today's world. What happens in Washington happens on our farming operations. And yes, I have a row-crop farm of my own.

Each year, as I've written before, the legislative committee of MFA's corporate board makes a trip to Washington. The trip corresponds with a meeting of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. NCFC hosts a series of meetings each June with a very selfish agenda in mind. NCFC wants those of us in farmer cooperatives to barnstorm Washington, visit with political leaders and make the views of our memberships known. We do.

NCFC works to bring farmer/owners and management of cooperatives together with key decision-makers in Washington to discuss federal policy affecting farmer cooperatives. One excellent way the organization does that is a grassroots initiative in which the voices of real farmers and ranchers are directed to key senators and representatives. To accomplish this, NCFC asks each cooperative to compile an individual list of e-mail addresses of producers who would like to participate. When legislation is proposed, NCFC alerts us to the proposal and provides standardized letters with which to respond directly to key senators or representatives. It can make your individual voice heard on Capitol Hill. I heartily recommend participating. For those of you who'd like to be part of MFA's list, e-mail the board's assistant corporate secretary, Larna Concannon, at lconcannon@mfa-inc.com. She'll compile MFA's confidential list of participants.

While in Washington, the legislative committee and I made seven non-partisan visits to legislators. We wanted to voice our positions to the people who will have influence on agricultural issues. In the Senate we spoke with Kit Bond and Jean Carnahan; in the House, we visited with Roy Blunt, Jo Ann Emerson, Sam Graves, Kenny Hulshof and Ike Skelton. We also were given a White House briefing by members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa also spoke to our group. I'll admit up front to misgivings about Sen. Harkin's focus on conservation in the upcoming farm bill. But he assured us he was not in favor of returning to set-aside programs. He praised flexibility.

Most of those we spoke with said because of current economic conditions, there will be yet another economic assistance package from Washington. No one likes these payments in principle. But we don't have to look much further than today's low grain prices and existing levels of foreign subsidies to realize why payments are still necessary. The economic assistance package being considered in Washington will be in the neighborhood of $5.5 billion.

As an illustration of the benefits of visiting Washington, let me share an incident that happened during the course of our visit. We had scheduled a meeting with Missouri Senator Kit Bond. His aide took us from Sen. Bond's office to a hallway that ran just outside of a room in which Sen. Bond was participating in a committee meeting. He excused himself from the meeting and met us in the hallway. We relayed a number of our concerns on current issues. But when we spoke of the Environmental Protection Agency and its heavy-handed approach to agriculture, Sen. Bond asked for specifics.

As it turned out, the meeting from which he had just come was being addressed by Christie Whitman, newly appointed administrator of EPA. He took our concerns straight to her. I'm not na•ve enough to think our concerns made her change EPA policies, but I guarantee she heard those concerns and knew they did not come from professional lobbyists with an agenda. She knew they were concerns expressed by real farmers who were in charge of practical implementation. Practicality, after all, is a concept that must be stressed over and over in Washington.