Archives for December, 2008
Transition Team Recommendations: Support for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition recently presented a set of policy briefing papers to members of President-elect Obama’s Transition Team. The briefing papers lay out SAC’s recommendations for addressing the most urgent priorities of the sustainable agriculture movement. This is the first in a series of blog posts that features some of those policy recommendations. All of the recommendations follow the same format, building off promises the Obama-Biden campaign made before the election.
Obama-Biden Platform
“Encourage Young People to Become Farmers: Becoming a successful farmer is a lifelong endeavor. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will establish a new program to identify the next generation of farmers and ranchers and help them develop professional skills and find work that lead to farm ownership and management.”
Relevant Program
Program: Office of Advocacy and Outreach
Agency: New Office within USDA Executive Operations
Recommendation – Administrative Action
As directed by the 2008 Farm Bill (authorized in Section 14013), create the new Office of Advocacy and Outreach and place it at the Departmental level, as a clearly separate office equal to other Executive Operations offices, directly under and reporting to the Secretary of Agriculture, rather than under or through any other office, mission area, Assistant Secretary or Under Secretary. Ensure that the new directors and staff of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach have significant previous experience working with small farms and with beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, as well as a deep understanding of the current and emerging programs of the Department. Ensure that the new office is adequately funded. Make the Office the new Secretary’s centerpiece for moving forward aggressively with major policies and programs for small and moderate-sized family farms and beginning farmers and minority farmers and ranchers.
Weekly Update – December 19, 2008
Saturday, December 20th, 2008
THIS WEEK
Obama Names Vilsack Secretary of Agriculture: On Wednesday, President-elect Barack Obama officially named former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as the incoming Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack, who previously served two terms as the governor of Iowa, has worked most recently as a lawyer in Des Moines since ending his brief 2008 presidential bid in 2007. This fall he served as a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and worked for the Iowa State Biosafety Institute.
In making the nomination, Obama indicated his intent “that the policies being shaped at the Departments of Agriculture and Interior are designed to serve not big agribusiness or Washington influence-peddlers, but family farmers and the American people.” During the press briefing, Vilsack mentioned the importance of nutrition and is expected to work with fellow Iowan, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, on the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act this year. As governor, Vilsack was a strong supporter of conservation programs (and an early champion of the Conservation Stewardship Program) and alternative energy, including ethanol and wind. In recent interviews he has mentioned the need for the enforcement of payment limitations and livestock market reform.
John Crabtree from SAC member group Center for Rural Affairs interviewed Vilsack in mid- November about a few of these issues. The blog post is available here.
Request for Applications Announced – Risk Management Outreach Assistance for Underserved Farmers
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Today, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, operating through the Risk Management Agency (RMA), issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for the Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program. $3.4 million is available for collaborative outreach, assistance, and training on risk management solutions for socially disadvantaged, limited resource, or traditionally underserved farmers and ranchers who produce priority commodities. Priority commodities are defined as agricultural commodities covered by (7 U.S.C. 7333), specialty crops, and underserved commodities.
Applications will be given higher points if they demonstrate that their projects will: specifically incorporate training on the benefits and implementation of the Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite (AGR–LITE) insurance coverage plan, promote energy alternatives for small farmers and ranchers, and partner with organizations that can meet the needs of limited resources, minority, or beginning farmers and ranchers.
Several SAC member organizations have taken advantage of the RMA Community Outreach and Assistance Partnership Program in the past. In FY 2008 SAC groups received $470,000 collectively in RMA Outreach Partnership Agreements award funding:
· Land Stewardship Project received $50,000 for preparing farmers to successfully manage risks and allow them to meet their farming goals.
· Michigan Land Use Institute received $80,000 for training and tools in northwest and lower Michigan to manage risks among underserved and aspiring farmers.
· Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) received $38,660 to deliver training and risk management information to producers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
· Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS) received $100,000 to provide educational opportunities and access to risk management tools for small scale, limited resource and minority producers in Michigan.
· Agriculture and Land-based Training Association (ALBA) received $100,000 to advance economic viability, social equity and ecological management among aspiring, limited resource and immigrant farmers.
· California FarmLink received $100,000 to provide trainings and technical assistance that promote a wide range of risk management strategies.
Applications for this competitive awards program are due by February 13, 2009 at 5:00 pm (EST) and all awards and partnership agreements will be completed by September 30, 2009. For more information on eligible commodities, applications, and awards, please see the complete edocket. You can also visit the Partnership and Cooperative Agreements webpage.
Weekly Update – December 12, 2008
Monday, December 15th, 2008
THIS WEEK
SAC Members Meet in Memphis! This week SAC members and staff congregated at the St. Columba Retreat Center outside of Memphis to strategize our work with the new Obama Administration, set priorities for the FY 2010 appropriations campaign, and consider future legislative and grassroots advocacy work on new issues such as climate change, food safety, and child nutrition. Those gathered spent part of the first day discussing SAC’s policy recommendations to the Obama Transition Team which SAC will be delivering before the end of the year. On Monday, SAC’s Policy Director Ferd Hoefner was invited to present conservation policy recommendations at a meeting with the Transition Team – see this news article regarding Ferd and others’ participation in that meeting.
SAC was also pleased to be joined by members of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group’s board of directors for the meeting. On Wednesday afternoon, SAC and SSAWG hosted a joint afternoon presentation and discussion with special guests from the national leadership for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) program and the southern leadership for the SARE program.
House Member Musical Chairs: Committee appointments were in the news this week. On Wednesday, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) was named Ranking Member on the House Agriculture Committee. Lucas was previously the top Republican on the subcommittee that handles conservation, energy, credit and research. Leaving the Agriculture Committee will be Bob Etheridge (D-NC), current Chair of the subcommittee for commodity programs and crop insurance. Etheridge won a coveted seat on the House Ways and Means Committee. His exit possibly opens up a subcommittee chair for Rep. David Scott or Jim Marshall, both Georgia Democrats. Also leaving Agriculture is Rep. John Salazar (D-CO), recently mentioned as a possible candidate for USDA Secretary in the Obama Administration. Salazar won a prized seat on the Appropriations Committee. Joining Salazar as one of the two new members on Appropriations will be Lincoln Davis (D-TN). Rep. Zach Space (D-OH) nabbed a seat on the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, but has not yet found out if he will need to relinquish his seat on Agriculture or not.
USDA NEWS
RFP Announced for FSMIP: On Tuesday, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service announced the availability of approximately $1.3 million dollars (subject to final appropriations action by Congress) in competitive grant funds for FY 2009 for the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP). FSMIP funds will be awarded to a wide range of research projects that aim to help market, transport and distribute U.S. food and agricultural products domestically and internationally. Eligible applicants include State departments of agriculture, State agricultural experiment stations and other appropriate State Agencies. Applicants are encouraged to involve industry groups, academia, community-based organizations and other stakeholders in the proposal development and research process. Several SAC groups have had involvement with FSMIP projects in previous years. Proposals are due before February 11, 2009. For more information, please visit the FSMIP website.
Farm Bill Credit Rule Finalized: On Monday, USDA’s Farm Service Agency published a final rule on farm bill credit program changes in the Federal Register. The rule enacts the SAC-instigated improvements to the Down Payment Loan Program and increases to the maximum loan size for direct loans, as well as the change to FSA inventory rules championed by the Rural Coalition and the Diversity Initiative on behalf of minority farmers. These rules changes, which are all in order, went forward without the usual public notice and comment, under the “public interest” exemption. The changes actually became effective automatically with the passage of the 2008 Farm Bill.
WTO NEWS
No Doha Deal before the New Year: To the delight of U.S. agriculture lawmakers, an attempt to try and tie a bow on the Doha round of global trade talks before the end of the year was rejected by the WTO Director-General on Friday. The latest draft negotiating texts were released last weekend raising the possibility that a meeting to reach a final agreement would be called before the New Year, but concern over the high risk of failure led the WTO Director-General to hold off on calling a meeting. U.S. agriculture and manufacturing sectors opposed the latest draft negotiating texts, arguing that other countries still have not made enough concessions on lowering trade barriers. Senator Grassley (R-IA), Senator Harkin (D-IA), and Senator Baucus (D-MT) commented on the decision to hold off on a final agreement noting that any proposal that did not satisfactorily address U.S. agricultural concerns would also face an uphill battle in Congress.
DULY NOTED
New EQIP Report Finds Industrialized Livestock Disproportionately Benefit: A new report written by Elanor Starmer for the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment concludes that between 2003 and 2007, 1,000 industrial hog and dairy operations captured at least $35 million per year in funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The report, Industrial Livestock at the Taxpayer Trough: How Large Hog and Dairy Operations are Subsidized by the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, acknowledges that a complete analysis of EQIP can only be done when information about the exact size and use of EQIP contracts is made publicly available. Still, the new report cites data that shows a disproportionate amount of EQIP funding goes to industrial livestock operations because of changes in the 2002 Farm Bill that made highly-polluting livestock operations priorities for funding. For a press release and link to the full study visit the Iowa CCI website.
RAFI Appoints New Executive Director: SAC member group Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) announced that Linda Shaw has been appointed as the new Executive Director. Shaw, who is a consultant and former Senior Community Development Officer with Wachovia Bank, has worked extensively in rural economic development and nonprofit administration. She will hold the position, which was vacated by retiring Executive Director, Betty Bailey, starting January 5, 2009.
Rodale Calls for an Organic Green Revolution: A paper released this week by the Rodale Institute argues for a paradigm shift in the way we grow, buy, and eat our food to meet the food security and environmental challenges we currently face. The Rodale Institute, pointing out the shortfalls of the Green Revolution in meeting these challenges and recent research documenting the promises of organic agriculture, advocates for organic farming systems to be at the center of this shift.
Weekly Update – December 5, 2008
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
THIS WEEK
Ag Appropriations and Stimulus Bill Timing Problem: As we have often reported, the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2009 got stuck this summer and has remained stuck through the start of the fiscal year on October 1. Now two months into the fiscal year, the process is beginning to move again. Though the House version of agriculture appropriations never made it out of full Committee and the Senate version never made it to the floor, Congress is skipping several steps and moving straight to settling differences between the House Subcommittee-passed bill and the Senate full Committee-passed bill in a “staff conference.” Staff will come up with a draft final bill in December and after review by the appropriators themselves in early January, the bill, probably wrapped together with the other unfinished appropriations bill, will go to the House and Senate floor for final passage. The congressional Democratic leadership is aiming to have the final bills passed by Inauguration Day on January 20.
At the same time, work is underway (again) on a large economic stimulus package. The “safety net” portion of the stimulus bill will almost certainly include an extension of unemployment benefits and an increase in food stamp benefits. More uncertain, however, is whether it will also include emergency money to fully fund the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) feeding program. Neither the House nor Senate agriculture appropriations bill fully funds the WIC program. The pending Senate bill comes a bit closer than the House bill, but does so in large part by cutting over $400 million in farm bill funding for conservation, renewable energy, specialty crops, organic, and beginning farmers. Even with those cuts to mandatory spending, the bill still comes up significantly short.
The obvious solution is to provide the full additional amount needed for WIC in the stimulus bill and to remove the farm bill cuts from the appropriations bill. Therein lays the timing problem. Only if the stimulus package is considered ahead of the regular appropriations bill will that solution work. It is critical for all groups and citizens who care about hunger, nutrition, conservation, renewable energy, organic, and beginning farmers to tell Congress to take up the stimulus package first and to include WIC as well as food stamp funding. Please click here for our related action alert. Read on…
“Notes from the Field”- Raising Heritage Turkeys With the Help of SARE
Monday, December 1st, 2008
Jacob Cowgill is a young farmer from Montana. He has spent the past two seasons experimenting with dryland vegetable production in north-central Montana. He and his new bride are planning to start their own farm very soon. For more information about the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, visit the SARE website.
A couple Saturdays ago, I placed the final heritage turkey in the chill tank and felt a sense of relief. The season was finally over. The wheat, sunflowers, and other field crops were harvested long ago, and the potatoes put in the root cellar at the end of October, but my flock of heritage turkeys lived on, through hard freezes, high winds, and snow flurries. They had arrived in the mail on May 1 and for the next 7 months, my days revolved around taking care of them. I had heard a little bit about heritage turkeys last winter and decided I wanted to try my hand at raising them. Starting without any feeders, waterers, a fence and shelter, and most importantly start-up capital, I looked around for some sort of funding and I found Western SARE. I applied for and received a grant to raise my heritage turkeys on pasture. It was with this support from SARE, I was able to explore the viability of raising turkeys within an organic dryland farming system.
Jacob's Heritage Turkeys
More than anything, the SARE grant gave me the chance to experiment in something nobody else in the area was doing. No information exists for which turkey breeds are appropriate for north-central Montana or what sort of shelter will survive the high winds and heavy November snows while protecting the flock. In a way, the grant allowed me to be an independent researcher, a private extension agent (and one who has already fielded numerous questions from interested farmers).
Most farmers I know are highly-intelligent and creative people. But since day-to-day farming is already a risky venture, many aren’t willing to go out on a limb to try something new. If agencies aren’t experimenting with sustainable systems, its unlikely farmers will. Grants such as these stimulate innovation on the farm level and provide producers with the guide to create a plan and the support for them to follow through with their ideas. With each successful project, the producer then becomes somewhat of an expert and a resource for others willing tackle an unconventional project. While I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on raising turkeys, now I have enough experience under my belt to do it again next year.