U.S. FARM BUREAU CHIEF IN AREA NEXT WEEK

The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation will be in Southeast Missouri next week.

Dean Kleckner, who operates a 350-acre corn, soybean and hog farm near Rudd, Iowa, will meet with farmers and agricultural organizations during his visit to the area Wednesday and Thursday.

Kleckner will be guest speaker at two events: the Perry County Farm Bureau Annual Meeting Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Building in Perryville, and the Cape Girardeau County Farm Bureau Annual Meeting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Nights of Columbus Hall in Jackson.

He will meet with invited commodity and farm groups at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

Kleckner, who is serving his seventh two-year term as president of the national Farm Bureau, also serves on a top-level U.S. trade advisory committee. He was first appointed to the committee by President Reagan, was reappointed by President Bush and has been twice reappointed by President Clinton.

He also has served on the National Economic Commission, which advises the president and Congress on ways to reduce the federal budget deficit while promoting economic growth. In 1995 he was appointed to the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, which issued a major report calling for a new, simpler tax system to encourage savings, investment and entrepreneurship.

Kleckner has represented the American Farm Bureau on the board of directors of the National Livestock Producers Association and Meat Export Federation.

As a farmer, Kleckner is aware of economic problems facing farmers. During a recent appearance at Plainfield, Ill., he talked about low prices of farm products before more than 600 farm producers from a half-dozen states.

"We are still the world's best producers," he said. "But below break-even prices, with no relief in sight, are taking a daily toll," said Kleckner. "The situation is so dire it threatens to destroy the very fabric of America's family based system of agriculture."

Low prices are the most basic explanation for the problems farmers are facing. The prices are attributable to oversupply caused by three years of bumper crops around the world and low demand tied to depressed economies in Asia.