Archives for February, 2009
Weekly Update – February 20, 2009
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
THIS WEEK
Bush Payment Limit Rules to Stay in Place for 2009: On Monday, February 16, USDA Secretary Vilsack stated his intention to review the farm commodity payment limitation interim regulations he inherited from the Bush Administration but to leave those rules in place for the 2009 crop year. He made no promises, though, that the rules would remain unchanged for 2009 and beyond. NSAC has criticized the Bush rules as too weak and ineffective.
As we reported last week, a group of 23 Senators wrote to Vilsack arguing that the rules went too far in the reform direction and should be scaled back. Following Vilsack’s remarks this week, the National Cotton Council indicated it might seek legislation in Congress to either force USDA to return to the old rules, without the small reformist changes made by the Bush Administration, or to declare a moratorium on any further rulemaking in an attempt to stop Vilsack from even contemplating real reform.
COOL Dance: You have heard of the two-step. This week UDSA Secretary Vilsack did the three-step. On Tuesday, he told meatpackers to put more information on labels for meat from livestock born, raised and slaughtered in the U.S. than required by the final rule for mandatory country-of-origin labeling (mCOOL) issued by the Bush Administration on January 15.
The Secretary’s comments, however, coincided with President Obama’s visit to Canada this week. Last year, Canada had filed an action in the WTO against mCOOL but withdrew it when the Bush Administration issued regulations that provided for a mixed origin label which could say that the origin of a meat product was in the U.S., Mexico or Canada. So, on Wednesday, Vilsack stepped back and canceled a press conference where it was expected that he would announce his plan for revising the mCOOL regulation to require U.S. country of origin labels and do away with the multi-country of origin labeling. In Canada, there was no indication that President Obama discussed mCOOL with the Canadian Prime Minister but Canada has indicated it would refile its WTO claim if the U.S. revises mCOOL to eliminate the multi-country of origin labeling.
Then late Friday afternoon, February 20, the Secretary announced the final rule will go into effect March 16 and he released a letter inviting the packers to follow the additional requirements. In making the end- of-week announcement, Vilsack indicated USDA would review industry compliance and evaluate the practicality of the additional voluntary actions, strongly hinting that if voluntary compliance does not work, additional rulemaking could happen next year.
NSAC Forwards Budget Requests: This week NSAC sent USDA Secretary Vilsack budget recommendations on several key programs for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2010 USDA budget request (see more on budget news below). USDA and the White House are in the process of settling on the Obama Administration budget requests, expected to make their way to Congress by early April. We highlighted our recommendation for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program to reach full funding in stages over each of the next three fiscal years as well as funding recommendations for our priority programs funded by the 2008 Farm Bill.
NEXT WEEK
Big Budget & Appropriations Week Ahead: The House is expected to take up the Omnibus Appropriations bill for FY 2009 next week, nearly 5 months into the fiscal year. The bill will be before the House Rules Committee Tuesday afternoon, which should mean that by Tuesday or at least by Wednesday we will know for the first time all the details of secret House-Senate conference agreement for the annual food, agriculture, and rural development spending bill. The agreement was worked out in large measure in late December but held under very tight wraps while Congress dealt with the economic recovery bill (signed into law by President Obama earlier this week).
The Senate is scheduled to take up the conference agreement the following week, which should just beat the clock. The current “continuing resolution” which is keeping the government functioning at funding levels set in 2007 expires March 6.
Obama Budget Preview: With the Congress finally finishing work on the FY 2009 budget, the White House turns its attention to the 2010 budget next week. Next Thursday the President will unveil a budget framework or outline. It will not include the traditional big fat volumes with all the program line items for all the departments of government. Rather, it will establish the new President’s key spending priorities and provide the broad, general funding levels for each federal agency.
The full detailed budget that will tell us how our priority programs have fared under the new regime will then be sent to Congress in early April. According to the Congressional Budget Act, the budget resolution for 2010 should be completed by April 15. However, there may well be some slippage in that date in this transition year. Generally, the budget resolution must be approved before the appropriations process can begin for the following fiscal year.
There is a widespread expectation that the budget outline will show unprecedented deficits for years and years to come. The expected near trillion dollar deficits stem in large measure from the severe recession and the $2 plus trillion emergency spending and financial bailout measures taken to try to ease the economic fallout, not to mention ever-rising health care costs and the wars and tax cuts of the previous Administration.
The Obama Administration faces the very difficult task of laying out how it intends to keep campaign promises on big ticket items like expanded health care coverage and middle class tax cuts while juggling the just-passed $800 billion stimulus measure and at the same time talking seriously about controlling deficits. To help make that inherently tricky pivot, the President is holding a White House summit on fiscal responsibility on Monday and addressing a joint session of Congress on Tuesday to talk about the economic crisis, all of which leads up to the budget outline release on Thursday.
Bleak Brookings Preview…: On Thursday, February 19, two fiscal experts from the Brookings Institution in Washington issued a bleak forecast on the federal deficit situation. According to their “optimistic” assumptions about the economy, they project a deficit of at least $1 trillion per year even ten years from now. Their optimism includes an economy that returns to full employment in the midterm, no new housing or financial bailout funding, and stimulus spending that really lasts just the two years written into the recovery bill signed into law this week. The deficit has already reached its highest level relative to GDP since World War II, and according to the new study, to keep the current long-term debt to GDP ratio steady at current levels will take tax increases and/or spending cuts equal to about 7-9 percent of GDP. Wrapping up their not-cheery assessment, they conclude:
“Recent trends in credit default swap markets show a clearly discernable uptick in the perceived likelihood of default on 5-year US senior Treasury debt, a notion that was virtually unthinkable in the recent past. While it is difficult to know exactly how to interpret these results, it is clear that – although fiscal policy problems are usually described as medium-and long-term issues – the future may be upon us much sooner than previously expected.”
…And Ye Old Standard Commission Fix: Also on Thursday, February 19, budget experts from seven think tanks issued the now very familiar appeal for a bipartisan budget commission to address what they call the unsustainable budget outlook. Saying that our fiscal problems require a degree of sacrifice impossible for the existing policy process to deal with, they say a bipartisan commission is needed to develop a package with all options on the table and with its recommendations to be voted on by Congress in an up-or-down vote, similar to how Congress votes to ratify international trade agreements on a “fast track” basis. The statement, from well known individuals associated with Brookings, American Enterprise, Progressive Policy, and Urban Institutes plus Heritage Foundation and the Concord Coalition, will likely get considerable attention at the White House fiscal summit on Monday.
USDA NEWS
NSAC Comments on Rural Development Loan Rule: On Tuesday, NSAC filed comments on USDA Rural Development’s Interim Rule for a common platform for guaranteed loans which would cover four programs, including the Business and Industry (B&I) Loan Program and the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The Interim Rule also had separate regulatory provisions for each program.
NSAC urged Rural Development to void the regulation for a common platform and immediately draft revised interim rules for the B&I Loan Program and REAP. NSAC objected to the confusion of implementing programs under the common platform regulation and program regulations. NSAC also emphasized that the B&I Program regulation was legally inadequate because it does not provide that 5 percent of the Program’s annual appropriations be targeted to a new 2008 Farm Bill provision for local and regional food enterprises that process, distribute, aggregate, store, and market foods produced either in-state or transported less than 400 miles from the origin of the product. NSAC championed that provision.
FSIS State Meat Inspection Guidance: Last Friday, February 13, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a new directive detailing the methods and principles to be used by federal auditors in reviewing State meat and poultry inspection programs. These federal reviews are conducted to determine if state inspection programs meet requirements “at least equal to” federal standards imposed by FSIS on federally-inspected plants. Last summer, FSIS published “At Least Equal To” Guidelines for State Meat and Poultry Cooperative Inspection Programs to assist the state programs.
Organic Liquid Fertilizer Warning: On Friday, October 20, USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) issued a memo to organic certifying agents warning that two liquid fertilizer products — Marizyme and Agrolizer, manufactured by Port Organic, Ltd. — are under investigation by USDA’s Inspector General for noncompliance with NOP regulations. Certifiers were urged to notify their farmer clients immediately. The memo also declared that by October 1, 2009, approval of all high nitrogen liquid fertilizers (nitrogen analysis greater than 3 percent) must be accompanied by documentation that demonstrates their compliance with the NOP regulations, based upon a third party inspection.
DULY NOTED
JBS-Swift Backs Off Takeover Plan: On Friday, February 20, the world’s largest beef producer and packer, Brazilian-based JBS-Swift, announced it was abandoning its attempted takeover of the National Beef Packing Company. Last year JBS-Swift purchased Smithfield Foods’ beef business as well as majority shares in Italian and Australian beef companies. It had been in talks with the US Department of Justice trying to gain approval of its next takeover target, but now appears to be backing out.
Weekly Update – February 13, 2009
Friday, February 13th, 2009
THIS WEEK
Economic Recovery Bill About to Become Law – Scorecard on Our Issues: The House approved on a party-line vote the conference report for the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill Friday afternoon, with the Senate following Friday evening. Early Friday morning the conference report became public and we quickly assessed our wins and losses.
In a major victory, the final bill includes an additional $500 million for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) feeding program, including $400 million in benefits and $100 million for state administrative costs. While not the full amount we have been seeking, the inclusion of the much higher amount from the Senate bill plus an additional $20 million in actual WIC benefits is nonetheless quite significant. This supplemental funding will bring the program closer to full funding for 2009, and limit the damage that could be done to farm bill conservation, energy, specialty crop and research programs when Congress takes up the omnibus appropriations bill for 2009 when they return to DC after next week’s recess. Each dollar of WIC funding in the stimulus bill is one less dollar that needs to be found from other sources in the omnibus appropriations bill in order to make WIC whole for 2009. Big thanks to everyone who responded to action alerts over the last several weeks — your actions made a difference!
In a partial victory, the final bill includes additional supplementing funding for $173 million worth of direct farm operating loans. Gone from the final bill, however, was a Senate bill provision for $200 million in direct farm ownership loans, $100 million for guaranteed ownership loans, and $50 million for guaranteed operating loans. The shortage in direct farm ownership loan funds is particularly severe, making the deletion of the Senate funds especially disappointing. We hope that the upcoming omnibus appropriations bill will rectify the problem and will redouble our efforts toward that end.
The final bill mirrors the Senate bill in providing for nearly $3 billion in Rural Business and Industry loan guarantees. Combined with regular funding, this additional money will bring the program up to about $2.5 billion a year in loan guarantees for each of the next two years. As a result of a 2008 Farm Bill provision championed by NSAC, five percent ($125 million) of this amount will be targeted to local and regional food enterprises that process, distribute, aggregate, store, and market foods produced either in-state or transported less than 400 miles from the origin of the product.
Sadly, the final bill did not accommodate funding for the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program or the Value-Added Producer Grants program. Earlier in the week, USDA Secretary Vilsack indicated his support for a provision granting him the flexibility to use some of the bill’s rural development funding for these programs, but the flexibility provision did not make it into the conference agreement.
Also gone from the final bill are Senate bill provisions that would have provided $50 million in supplemental funding for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). Another Senate provision did make it into the final bill though — $100 million for school lunch cafeteria equipment improvements, including the possibility of updating kitchens to be able to accommodate fresh and local product.
The final bill also includes $290 million for the Emergency Watershed and Flood Prevention program, including most importantly, a minimum of $145 million for the purchase of long-term easements to take frequently flooded land out of agricultural production in a fashion similar to the Wetlands Reserve Program.
Cotton, Rice, and Wheat Senators Push for Weaker Payment Limit Rules: In late December, the Bush Administration issued rules to implement farm bill changes to commodity payment rules. On the crucial issue of gaping loopholes in current rules that purport to target payments to individuals who are actively engaged in farming, NSAC characterized the new Bush rules as nibbling around the edges of reform while leaving the major loophole in place.
On Monday, February 9, a group of 23 senators, including most southern senators and four from wheat-producing states (Baucus, Roberts, Crapo, and Risch), signed on to a letter to USDA Secretary Vilsack saying the Bush rules went too far and should be reined back in by the Obama Administration. The Senators note correctly that the Bush interim final rule went further than required by the specific statutory language of the farm bill. What their letter did not say, however, is that in the farm bill Congress also directed USDA to revise the actively engaged in farming rules, albeit without specifying whether they should be tightened or loosened.
Specifically, the Senators requested review of an interim final rule published by USDA on December 29, 2008 in the Federal Register to implement the 2008 farm bill payment limitation and eligibility provisions. Following the review, they want even the weak reforms added by the Bush Administration to be withdrawn or watered down.
The public comment period for this rule lasts until early April. NSAC will be sending out an action alert to members and supporters in mid-March. We will also be working with pro-reform Senators on a letter urging the Secretary to strengthen the Bush rule.
For background information on payment limitations and eligibility requirements, see this section of our grassroots farm bill guide.
Letter Calls for Revocation of Naturally-Raised Label: On Friday, February 13, 2009, NSAC joined with other farm, consumer and environmental groups to urge USDA Secretary Vilsack to revoke the final, but not yet effective, rule issued on its very last day by the Bush Administration creating a misleading and deceptive “naturally-raised” USDA meat label. The letter is here on our website.
Budget Request for Conservation: NSAC joined 20 other Conservation Coalition member groups in a letter to Secretary Vilsack urging that the USDA budget request for 2010 include full funding for 2008 Farm Bill conservation programs and a more adequate funding level for technical assistance. The letter is posted here on our website.
EQIP Environmental Assessment: On Friday, February 13, NSAC submitted comments to USDA questioning the legality and adequacy of its environmental assessment of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The document is on our website here.
USDA NEWS
Vilsack I – Farmers Market Consortium Remarks: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spent almost an hour on Tuesday sharing his vision of the future of agricultural policy at a meeting of the USDA Farmers Market Consortium, attended by NSAC staff. He outlined four major policy aims he has set for his Department:
- “A safe, sufficient, sustainable, and nutritious food supply for all.” Vilsack emphasized that the food supply must be not only sufficient in quantity, but also wholesome in quality and raised in a sustainable manner. His presentation was in stark contrast to the usual mantra stating that the US has the safest, most abundant and affordable food and agriculture.
Throughout his remarks, Vilsack reminded us of the fundamental importance of agriculture to our well-being, and suggested a number of ways in which agricultural policy bears directly on other areas of public policy that are given a higher profile by many policy makers and the media. For example, he highlighted the relationship between child nutrition and long-term national health costs. He said developing a distribution system that can supply schools with a steady, sustainable supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is the central challenge for child nutrition policy.
- “Twenty-first century rural communities.” Vilsack shared a few anecdotes about his personal experience with farmers markets and the sense of connection to the land and the community they foster. Drawing a distinction between sustainable agriculture and conventional agriculture, he said he believes the greatest challenge for sustainable agriculture is to develop a full-blown distribution system parallel to the one in place for conventional agriculture.
He also said the federal government should help strengthen rural communities by ensuring they have broadband internet access and greater off-farm employment opportunities for farmers and ranchers.
- USDA should “lead the nation in the energy and climate change discussion.” Vilsack emphasized that recent U.S. energy policy has not been sustainable, and said he regards climate change as an opportunity for more sustainable approaches to agriculture, which can help sequester carbon in the soil.
He also said the federal government should help strengthen rural communities by ensuring they have broadband internet access and greater off-farm employment opportunities for farmers and ranchers.
- USDA must have “a modern workforce, and a modern workplace.” Vilsack acknowledged that USDA has a “shameful” civil rights record, which must be reversed. He also said USDA’s computer equipment is so outdated as to significantly impede the work of the Department. Many in Washington do not appreciate the importance of USDA’s role, he said, even though every significant government policy bears a direct relationship to agriculture, including health care, energy and climate change policies, and foreign policy.
Vilsack II – One Food Safety Agency: In remarks at a meeting of the U.S. Rice Federation this week, Secretary Vilsack sent a shock wave through the food and agriculture community by commenting that he was in favor of a single food safety agency, adding that he was unsure if it should be at USDA, FDA, or housed at a new independent agency. The idea of a single agency or of stripping USDA of its food safety domain over meat, poultry, and eggs has been heavily opposed by agribusiness, but a few legislators, largely led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) have championed the call for a single food agency. The statements came as part of commentary on the recent salmonella outbreak in peanut butter.
Vilsack III – The People’s Garden: Commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Secretary Vilsack, with jackhammer in hand, broke ground on “The People’s Garden” – a community garden named after Lincoln’s reference to USDA as “The People’s Department.” At the ground-breaking ceremony, (pun intended), Vilsack announced the goal of creating a community garden at each USDA facility worldwide.
Vilsack IV – Washington Post Interview: Secretary Vilsack sat down with Jane Black, Food Columnist for the Washington Post, to talk about his position and his vision for transforming USDA. His answers included partnering with local school districts and states to do a better job to provide nutrition options at school and supporting strategies that will facilitate local food distribution. The full interview can be accessed here.
Conservation Program Conference Calls Revised Schedule: Technical difficulties beset the first of several scheduled USDA net conferences on farm bill conservation programs. The new schedule for the phone calls to discuss key changes to conservation program rules is as follows:
February 17: Technical Service Providers
February 18: Regional Equity and State Technical Committees
February 19: Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, and Agricultural Management Assistance Program
February 23: Wetlands Reserve Program
February 24: Grasslands Reserve Program and Healthy Forest Reserve Program
February 25: Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program
All net conferences will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time (EST). The call-in number is 1-800-857-3202, password 6240511.
Annual Farm Income and Costs Report: USDA’s Economic Research Service issued its annual Farm Income and Costs report for 2009 on Thursday, February 12. Highlights of the report include:
- Net cash income, net value-added, and net farm income are all forecast to decline in 2009 from the record levels they reached in 2008, but to remain above the average for the last 10 years.
- Total farm expenses are forecast to decline for the first time since 2002.
- Crop receipts are forecast to decline for the first time since 1999.
- Government payments are forecast to fall in 2009 to their lowest level since 1997.
WTO NEWS
Ag Chair Talks Tough: On Thursday, February 12, WTO agriculture chair Crawford Falconer indicated agricultural trade talks will continue whether or not the Obama Administration is ready to deal. The chair indicated that he is concentrating on getting the views of individual countries and blocks of countries on his December 6 revised draft of the agriculture negotiating text. The New Zealander is quoted as saying “I get as much information that I need to have so that, irrespective of whether the U.S. or anybody else is ready to engage, there is capacity for making progress which can then, at the right moment, be conveyed collectively,” adding, “What I think is unacceptable is that we sit on our behinds and do nothing until somebody has a green light and says I’m ready to participate.” Ouch!
Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk, President Obama’s nominee to be US Trade Representative, will have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee in late February or early March.
DULY NOTED
Ethanol Wars: This week the Environmental Working Group, Friends of the Earth and others issued a biofuels platform that calls for a freeze on the federal renewable fuels mandate for conventional ethanol and the phase out of the large federal ethanol tax credit. The platform calls for replacing the credit with subsidies that are scaled in accordance with a fuel’s relative environmental and public health merits. It also called for proceeding with caution on “advanced biofuels” to avoid unintended consequences, calling current policy a “blind rush.”
The National Corn Growers Association was quick to respond, citing studies showing positive environmental and climate change outcomes from ethanol and citing the Keystone Alliance report issued in January, with participation from several major environmental organizations, which they characterize as showing the corn production is becoming more sustainable. Also lurking behind this week’s debate is one from last week over a new study from researchers at the University of Minnesota showing larger greenhouse gas emissions from corn ethanol relative to gasoline, in part because of a land use change from Conservation Reserve Program retirement to corn production. The NCGA and ethanol trade associations dismiss the idea that much CRP land will be used for corn production.
Weekly Update February 6, 2009
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
THIS WEEK
Senate Continues Economic Recovery Bill Debate: As we go to press, the Senate is still debating the economic recovery or stimulus bill. Many major amendments to the bill have been and will be debated, none of which are getting more attention than the efforts of a handful of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans to strip the bill of tens of billions of dollars worth of spending. The emerging amendment will likely include some reductions to USDA-related items in the underlying bill, including the over $200 million in the bill to modernize Farm Service Agency computer systems and the $100 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. Some form of the amendment appears likely to pass, though details change by the minute.
All three amendments that we alerted readers on earlier this week are still in the queue for amendments that could still be considered before the vote on final passage. Those amendments would provide funding for the rural microenterprise program and for farm bill energy programs for new generation bioenergy and prioritize the use of farm loan funds already in the bill.
The final vote could happen late Friday night or could not happen until the weekend. We will provide readers a brief update on final action early next week.
Get Ready for Action! Almost as soon as the Senate passes the economic recovery bill, a conference committee will get underway to work out the substantial differences between the House and Senate bills. We will urge every one of our members and supporters to engage in the effort to get the best possible bill.
Only the Senate bill, for instance, has significant funding for the Women, Infants and Children feeding program. While still not as much WIC funding as is actually needed, it is vital that the conference agree to at least the Senate level, and preferably more. The House bill also lacks critically needed funding for direct and guaranteed farm operating and ownership loans. If any of the amendments we are supporting on the Senate floor are passed, there will be additional issues of major importance.
The action will need to be fast. Congress intends to finish the bill and send it to the President by the end of next week. Get ready to act! We will send you an alert very early next week, and urge you to respond and to send it to your action lists.
EQIP Guidance Requested: NSAC this week urged USDA to take immediate steps to issue additional guidance concerning implementation of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) in 2009. In a letter to Secretary Vilsack, we indicated that major problems with the Interim Final Rule for EQIP issued by the Bush Administration need to be corrected in the final rule for the program, but that in the meantime guidance needs to be developed to clarify the interim rule. The letter highlights six issues – new priorities for energy conservation, organic farming, forest management, and soil quality; a moratorium on payment limitation waivers; environmental restrictions on assistance for animal waste storage and treatment; full implementation of the organic conversion assistance subprogram; selection of priority resource concerns; and financial assistance for comprehensive conservation planning. For a copy of the letter, email Mark Hertel. mhertel@sustainableagriculturecoalition.org
Put Sustainability at the Center of NIFA: On Friday, February 6, NSAC submitted very brief stakeholder comments to UDSA on the implementation of the new National Institute for Food and Agriculture, the successor agency to what is known today as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. We urged that sustainability be the central organizing principle and also reminded the agency of the legal requirement that competitive and special research grants funded by CSREES (soon to be NIFA) must emphasis the development of sustainable agriculture. The comments can be found here.
USDA NEWS
USDA Announces Planting Flexibility Pilot Project: On Tuesday, February 3, USDA announced a new Planting Transferability Pilot Project which implements a 2008 Farm Bill provision to allow limited acreage of specific processed fruits and vegetables to be planted on acreage enrolled in farm commodity support programs. The pilot program is limited to farmers in IL, IN, IA, MI, MN, OH and WI, limited to specific fruits and vegetables needed by food processing companies, and limited to a specific number of acres that varies by state. Base acres on a farm will be temporarily reduced each year on an acre-for-acre basis, for each base acre planted with an approved fruit or vegetable on that farm. Farmers must agree to produce the crop as part of a program of crop rotation on the farm to achieve agronomic, pest and disease management benefits. Sign-up for the Pilot Project is open until March 2, 2009 at local Farm Service Agency offices. More information about the Pilot Project is available in a USDA press release. (Note: During consideration of the 2008 Farm Bill, NSAC proposed a provision allowing farmers enrolled in the commodity programs the option of using up to 25 acres for fresh fruits and vegetables for the local market, but the proposal was beaten back by the farm bill alliance organized by the specialty crop industry.)
Senators Letter to Vilsack on COOL Regulation Revision: On Tuesday, Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Russell Feingold (D-WI) and Jon Tester (D-MT) delivered a letter to USDA Secretary Vilsack asking that USDA revise the Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (mCOOL) regulation before it takes effect on March 16. The Senators specifically objected to a provision in the rule allowing meatpackers to label meat exclusively from U.S. sources as meat of multi-country origin, if the meat was processed in the plant on the same day as meat from foreign sources. According to a report in Congress Daily, the provision was added by the Bush Administration after negotiations with the Canadian government over an action against mCOOL filed by Canada in the World Trade Organization.
Specialty Crop Research Initiative RFA Released: USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) is requesting applications for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) for fiscal year 2009. CSREES estimates that $47.3 million in grant funds will be available in FY 2009 for projects that address critical United States specialty crop issues and priorities.
CSREES has identified the following five high priority research areas for FY 09:
- plant breeding, genetics, and genomics to improve crop characteristics;
- efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators;
- efforts to improve production efficiency, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing);
- new innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and
- methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production and processing of specialty crops, including fresh produce.
A full list of research topics and areas can be found in the RFA. Letters of Intent are due by March 2, 2009 and final applications are due April 15, 2009.
2007 Census of Agriculture: USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its 2007 Census of Agriculture on Wednesday, February 4, 2009. Census results are available online.
Several of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s comments at the release were encouraging and hopefully highlight agricultural areas that will be of particular interest to the new administration. Vilsack said he considered it a “hopeful” development that the number of farms in the United States has grown by 4% since the previous Census of Agriculture in 2002. Although numbers of small farms and very large farms increased, Vilsack expressed “deep concern” that the number of mid-sized farms continues to decrease. He also said he believes that the overall number of farms has grown largely as a result of USDA policies that promote organic agriculture and conservation practices.
Vilsack said he is “heartened” that an increasing number of minority and socially disadvantaged farmers are benefiting from economic opportunities in rural America, and that USDA must continue to work to ensure that every socially disadvantaged farmer is aware of assistance that USDA can provide. The 2007 Census shows a 30% increase in the number of women farm-operators, a 10% increase in the number of Hispanic farm-operators, and smaller increases in numbers of Native American, Asian, and Black farm-operators.
DULY NOTED
Bison Abuse: On Friday, February 6, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) called on USDA to investigate media reports of animal neglect and abuse at a bison ranch in North Dakota owned by a millionaire real estate developer from Florida who also is a multi-million dollar recipient of farm commodity payments on farmland he owns in several Midwestern states. Press reports say the hundreds of bison have escaped from the ranch owned by Maurice Wilder of Clearwater, Florida and show signs of starvation and illness. Dorgan asked USDA to have the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service investigate the situation.
Organic Breeding Conference in August: The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements and Seeds of Change are partnering to host the first IFOAM conference on Organic Animal and Plant Breeding – Breeding Diversity. The Conference will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on August 25-28, 2009. Registration is now open and IFOAM is also inviting farmers and scientists, traders and certifiers, gardeners and animal breeders, professionals and dedicated hobby breeders to submit papers for the conference by March 1, 2009. More information on the conference, Call for Papers, and how to register can be found here.
First National Ag Pollinators Forum: The Native Pollinator in Agriculture Work Group will be holding their first national meeting on February 24-25, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, VA just prior to the 85th annual Agriculture Outlook Forum on February 26-27. The First National Ag Pollinators Forum will include discussion on opportunities and benefits of native pollinators, the latest developments on the colony collapse disorder, habitat establishment and proper pesticide use, as well as the launch of a national ag pollinator alliance. For more information, visit here.