Capitol Hill as Tough Row to Hoe:Family Farm Lobbyist Seeks to Put Populist Stamp on 5-Year Bill
Susan Bright is a large, comfortable woman who has a husband, three children, one tractor and a disposition as sunny and forthright as her name. She has an opinion about almost everything and, unlike a lot of farmers, she is not shy about expressing it.</br></br>"I don't know how many times I've been told that `bigger is better and more efficient,' " she said one day last week. "Who says? If we farmed the way the corporations farmed, we'd pollute the whole country in a matter of years. And they say I'm emotional. Hell, yes, I'm emotional. We're talking about people here, and the survival of the planet."</br></br>Bright, 44, is vice president of the National Family Farm Coalition, an umbrella lobbying group representing 40 small farmer organizations in more than 30 states.</br></br>She lives and farms in Centerville, Ind., which was near the demographic center of the country a couple of censuses ago, and travels to Washington every four to six weeks to talk to legislators and congressional aides writing the 1990 farm bill, which will regulate U.S. agriculture for the next five years.</br></br>She and the National Family Farm Coalition argue for higher price supports and a "supply management program" to control crop size throughout the country. Less corn or beans or wheat or barley means higher prices and a bigger income for farmers.