Senate Agriculture Committee Announces Witness List
For Vermont Hearing On The 2007 Farm Bill

. . . Senate Field Hearing To Be Held March 12 At State House

(MONDAY, March 5) – The Senate Agriculture Committee Monday announced the list of witnesses who will testify at the March 12^th Vermont field hearing on issues for the 2007 Farm Bill. 

The field hearing, by the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, was requested by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) and will be one of the first congressional hearings in the new Congress to examine issues in the next multi-year Farm Bill.  The current Farm Bill expires this fall.

Leahy, former chairman and the most senior member of the Agriculture Committee, will chair the field hearing, to be held at Vermont’s State House.  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and Rep. Peter Welch (D) will join Leahy in hearing testimony from the four panels of witnesses invited to testify at the Committee field hearing on the 2007 Farm Bill.

The witness list for the official March 12 hearing includes:

• Governor Jim Douglas
• Mark Magnan, St. Albans Cooperative Member, Dairy Farmer
• Jackie Folsom, President, Vermont Farm Bureau
• John Roberts, Agrimark Cooperative Member, Dairy farmer
• Richard Hall, Dairy Farmer (conservation)
• Enid Wonnacott, Executive Director, Northeast Organic Farmers of Vermont
• James “Jad” Daley, Northern Forest Alliance
• Willard “Bill” Rowell Jr., Dairy Farmer (energy)
• Andrew Meyer, Vermont Soy (rural development)
• Linda Berlin, Food and Nutrition Specialist, UVM Extension Service

The hearing will be held March 12 at 10 a.m. at the State House, 115 State Street, in Montpelier.

Vermonters are invited to submit written comments for the official hearing record.  Comments can be hand delivered on the day of the hearing or postmarked within five business days of the hearing.  In addition written comments should include the name, city and state of the person submitting the statement for the record, and including reference to the March 12 hearing on “2007 Farm Bill Opportunities for Vermont and the Northeast.”  Written statements should be addressed to: Robert Sturm, Chief Clerk; U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Room 328-A Russell Senate Office Building; Washington, D.C.  20510-6000.

# # # # #