PROSPER, N.D. - Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns used folksy charm to try to defuse criticism of Bush Administration trade and budget policies as he came to the Red River Valley on Thursday.

Topping the list of hot topics: the Central American Free Trade Agreement and its effect on sugar, 2006 ag budget cuts and the impending reintroduction of Canadian cattle to the U.S. market.

"My friends in the sugar industry just want to throw their shoe at me, but I'll tell you straight, I've looked at this very carefully from a sugar standpoint and we're talking about 107,000 tons of sugar," Johanns said, in an informal meeting with about 30 ag leaders on the lawn at Peterson Seed Farm near Prosper, about 10 miles west of Fargo.

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, who hosted Johanns, interjected that he is opposed to CAFTA, as long as it includes sugar. He says sugar should be negotiated in the much larger World Trade Organization. Johanns, who, like Hoeven, wore cowboy boots for the event, noted that 47 percent of North Dakota's farm products must be exported, almost double the national average.

"We can certainly disagree without being disagreeable," said David Roche, president of Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative of Wahpeton, N.D., who did most of the talking for the sugar industry. He said the careers of 500 shareholder-farmers and 500 employees are hanging in the balance.

"Where are we headed?" Roche asked, adding that 16 percent of U.S. sugar already is imported, and the market is already in a glut. "We need to keep No. 1, in my mind, the employment situation and that farmers make a reasonable return."

Manage it

Johanns said he's comfortable that the U.S. Department of Agriculture can manage the U.S. imports under CAFTA and pooh-poohed the idea that subsequent agreements will become unmanageable.

"You don't know what those trade agreements are, and I don't, because they haven't been negotiated yet," Johanns said. "They will be negotiated working with the industry. If you have a problem with future trade agreements, make your views known. But this trade agreement is good for agriculture."

Duane Maatz, president of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, based in East Grand Forks, warned Johanns that any impact on the region's sugar beets would have a big impact on the potato industry, as growers would flee to that and other higher-value crops.

After a news conference at the farm, Johanns then spent an hour and a half in a public session at Reineke Fine Arts Center at North Dakota State University. On a spring day that neared 70 degrees, the event was poorly attended, drawing a number of university staff and students, but only a few farmers who weren't at the farmer leader event.

How many lumps?

At each of the events, Johanns held up two small consumer packets of sugar and said that's the amount of new sugar per week per person in the U.S. that CAFTA would let in, or an amount less than 1 percent of national consumption.

He repeated earlier assertions that up to 25 percent of the sugar industry is in favor of CAFTA including some producers but declined to say who they are, or why their opinion differs from the region's beet industry.

As for the Canadian beef, Johanns said the reopening of the Japanese export market will be linked to reopening the border to Canadian live cattle. He said cattle 30 months and younger should be allowed in, and that U.S. assessment of the Canadian ban of ruminant-based feed products seems "robust."

One of the most spirited questions came from Randy Richards of Hope, N.D., who protested the Bush administration budget cuts for farm programs. Richards told Johanns agriculture has "taken its share of cuts" and asked how he could support cuts to farm support programs at a time when farmers are facing high fuel, fertilizer and other costs.

Johanns said the savings on farm programs are not as great as once thought, and that every agency except national security agencies must take their share of the cuts in order to put the budget in better balance.

Besides the larger questions, farm leaders brought specific requests. Mark Kok, a Plaza, N.D., farmer and vice president of the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Association, asked for more Cuba-friendly commerce policies, among other things.

Doyle Lentz, Rolla, N.D., a board member for the North Dakota Grain Growers, asked Johanns to consider adding protein levels to the list of damage for which disaster payments could be eligible. He said a quality factor called "falling numbers" was adequate on last year's crop in his area, but "protein went all to pieces."

Johanns' visit was the second time he's been in North Dakota since he was named to his post in January. His predecessor, Ann Veneman, didn't come to North Dakota in four years. Dan Glickman, secretary in the second Bill Clinton term, was in North Dakota at least three times.

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