The concerns come at a critical time as Congress prepares a widespread farm bill expected to address national agriculture policy ranging from emergency aid for farmers to foreign trade.

Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., were both critical of the governments traditional policies of supporting crop prices by paying farmers when markets push them down.

Our policies tend to be ones which keep every farmer in business, said Lugar, the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

This is the only industry in the country for which that is the policy, Lugar said. There is no safety net for retail stores.

Harkin, chairman of the committee, said lawmakers will be hard-pressed to find money in a federal budget already squeezed of revenue by a tax cut and a slowing economy to fully fund every commodity support program.

Should we continue to support every bushel and every bale produced in this country? I should add pound, also. Every bushel, bale and pound, Harkin said. We just cant go on like that.

Most provisions of the current farm bill will stay in place until 2002. House leaders have said they want to complete work on a new farm bill this year. Senate leaders have signaled that a vote on a farm bill may not come until next year.