By Gayle Weber, FHSU
DENVER -- Few Kansas delegates were in attendance Monday for the first installment of the rural council at the Democratic National Convention.

While much of the session was spent discrediting the voting record of presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain, National Farmers'' Union President Tom Buis addressed some of the issues facing rural residents, including health care.

"We don''t just have an affordability problem, we have an availability problem," Buis said.

He also said rural residents need to have access to education and jobs in order to keep communities thriving. However, economics has proven to be a major talking point among many delegates at the convention so far.

"What we need is what the rest of American needs. We need a profit from the marketplace," Buis said. "I get so tired of all these nay-sayers in Washington, in the media and others that say the one sector of our economy that doesn''t need a drop of (help) is America''s farmers and ranchers."

Keeping trade lines open will be an essential part of the next administration, according to Buis.

"We need a level playing field," Buis said. "As farmers producing in the global economy, we have to produce on that level playing field."

He said recent problems with food safety and products made in China are evidence that not everyone follows the same standards. Buis said he thinks for America''s farmers to compete with the world, environmental, health, safety and labor standards need to be met by all governments.

Buis also touched on the need for research and implementation of renewable energies including ethanol, biodiesel, wind, solar and geothermal.

"Every one of those is going to be found in rural America," Buis said. "For any of you that have been to a rural community with an ethanol plant or a biodiesel plant ... it creates jobs.

The boards are coming off the storefronts instead of on."

Buis said he was not speaking in support of presumed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, but rather wanted to express the needs of rural residents. However, he did share a piece of advice with the approximately 75 delegates in attendance.

"I have never, in my 20 years in Washington, seen farmer-friendly and John McCain together," Buis said.