Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Rancher buffaloed by letter

I think Ms. Bertram ("Taxpayers foot buffalo bills," Jan. 23) had better get her story straight.

I am a small bison rancher in North Dakota. Bison ranchers do not receive a dime of direct subsidy from the government. I should know. Our industry has gotten Section 32 bonus buys of bison meat ($6 million in 1997), but if Ms. Bertram would do her homework she would find that the meat purchased by the U.S. government is purchased from meat packers, not bison ranchers.

And besides that, Uncle Sam purchases over $40 billion (that's right, BILLION) worth of commodities every year including close to $150 million worth of chicken.

If she wants to complain about subsidies, why doesn't she complain about those?

Michael Rohrer

North Dakota

mcrohrer@stellarnet.com

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