Archives for the 'Local Food and Marketing' Category
Revised Senate Food Safety Bill Includes Important Amendments
Friday, August 13th, 2010
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee released a copy of the “manager’s amendment” to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) which is, in essence, the bill as reported out of the HELP Committee late last year as modified by a long and arduous set of negotiations that have taken place since that time to work out particular issues.
The manager’s package has the support of HELP Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) as well as the four lead sponsors of the underlying bill, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Richard Burr (R-NC).
The manager’s amendment will be adopted if and when the bill comes to the Senate floor in September when Congress returns from its summer recess.
The full manager’s package is available at http://help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/WHI10337.pdf.
The Congressional Budget Office has scored the Manager’s package version of the bill as costing $1.6 billion over the next five years.
In releasing the new version of the bill, Senator Harkin said, “For far too long, the headlines have told the story of why this measure is so urgently needed: foodborne illness outbreaks, product recalls and Americans sickened over the food they eat. This 100-year-old plus food safety structure needed to be modernized. I am pleased that after a great deal of time and effort from members on both sides of the aisle, we have a strong, bipartisan proposal that will overhaul our current food safety system – a system that right now fails far too many American consumers. I am confident that the remaining details will be worked out and am hopeful that the measure will come to the Senate floor as soon as possible.”
Most sustainable agriculture and family farm groups think the Senate bill is a very significant improvement over the companion bill passed by the House of Representatives (HR 2749) last year. We’ve been able to help make substantial improvements in the Senate bill through the HELP markup and in changes that will be adopted as part of the manager’s amendment when the bill comes to the Senate floor. Assuming the Tester amendment (see below) can be worked out and agreed to before Senate floor action, we will be able to support the Senate bill. However, we strongly oppose the companion House measure, and stand ready to defend the Senate bill in conference with the House should that prove necessary.
The Managers package includes the following important improvements to the bill as reported out of committee last year:
- The amendment sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pertaining to farms that engage in value-added processing or that co-mingle product from several farms. It will provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the authority to either exempt farms engaged in low or no risk processing or co-mingling activities from new regulatory requirements or to modify particular regulatory requirements for such farming operations. Included within the purview of the amendment are exemptions or flexibilities with respect to requirements within S. 510 for food safety preventative control plans and FDA on-farm inspections.
- The amendments sponsored by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) to reduce unnecessary paperwork and excess regulation. The Bennet language pertains to both the preventative control plan and the produce standards sections of the bill. FDA is instructed to provide flexibility for small processors including on-farm processing, to minimize the burden of compliance with regulations, and to minimize the number of different standards that apply to separate foods. FDA will also be prohibited from requiring farms and other food facilities to hire consultants to write food safety plans or to identify, implement, certify or audit those plans. With respect to produce standards, FDA will also be given the discretion to develop rules for categories of foods or for mixtures of foods rather than necessarily needing to have a separate rule for each specific commodity or to regulate specific crops if the real food safety issue involved mixtures only.
- The amendment sponsored by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) to provide for a USDA-delivered competitive grants program for food safety training for farmers, small processors and wholesalers. The training projects will prioritize small and mid-scale farms, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, and small food processors and wholesalers. The program will be administered by USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture. As is the case for all of the provisions in S. 510, funding for the bill and for this competitive grants program will happen through the annual agriculture appropriations bill process.
- The effort championed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to strip the bill of wildlife-threatening enforcement against “animal encroachment” of farms is also in the manager’s package. It will require FDA to apply sound science to any requirements that might impact wildlife and wildlife habitat on farms.
- An amendment proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to amend the traceability and recordkeeping section of the bill that will exempt food that is direct marketed from farmers to consumers or to grocery stores and exempt food that has labeling that preserves the identity of the farm that produced the food. The amendment also prevents FDA from requiring any farm from needing to keep records beyond the first point of sale when the product leaves the farm, except in the case of farms that co-mingle product from multiple farms, in which case they must also keep records one step back as well as one step forward.
Not in the package but still under serious negotiation for inclusion in the bill when it reaches the floor of the Senate is an amendment by Senator John Tester (D-MT) to exempt food facilities with under a certain annual gross sales threshold from preventative control plan requirements and to exempt farmers who primarily direct market product to consumers, stores or restaurants from the bill’s produce standards regulations. Our expectation is this amendment will be successfully negotiated over the coming weeks and will be accepted as part of the final bill once the bill reaches the Senate floor.
We also continue to note and emphasize the additional provisions NSAC helped secure when the bill was marked up in Committee last year. Those changes included:
- requiring FDA and USDA coordination (including with respect to organic farming);
- limiting recordkeeping for farmers to just the initial sale to the first purchaser of the crop; and
- language in the produce section directing FDA to create rules that are appropriate to the scale and diversity of the farm, that take into consideration conservation and environmental standards established by other federal agencies, that do not conflict with organic certification standards, and that prioritize high risk crops.
Still pending is an amendment from Senator Feinstein (D-CA) banning the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in all food and beverage containers. The Grocery Manufacturers Association and other industry groups have come out strongly against the measure. Negotiations are ongoing to work out compromise language, but it is unclear to us what the status is of those talks.
Senate Passes Child Nutrition Bill
Thursday, August 5th, 2010
On Thursday, August 5, the Senate passed a child nutrition program re-authorization bill by unanimous consent.
The bill provides a 6-cent per meal increase in school lunch reimbursements, expands school meal eligibility, and establishes stronger nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools. It also includes $40 million in mandatory funding for the Farm to School competitive grants program, a measure that NSAC has helped champion.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act passed after an intensive effort by its chief sponsor, Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and other Senators to get the bill done before the Senate adjourns for a month-long summer recess. The First Lady also weighed in with a Washington Post op ed in favor a Senate action earlier in the week.
In a major change in how the $4.5 billion bill is paid for, the version passed today removes a controversial multi-billion dollar cut to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and replaces it with a similarly controversial shortening of the time frame for the temporary increase in SNAP (food stamp) benefits included last year as part of the economic recovery bill.
Overall, the Senate bill is less generous than a $10 billion measure originally suggested by the White House and also less than the pending $8 billion House version of the legislation. However, to date, the Senate bill is the only one of the three proposals that is paid for with the required offsetting budget cuts or tax increases.
NSAC joined other organizations that support farm conservation and environmental programs in praising the Senate for dropping the earlier plan to pay for nutrition improvements with farm bill conservation money.
Some anti-hunger groups are quite naturally upset and opposed to the substitute SNAP offset. For instance, the Food Research Action Center (FRAC) put out a statement opposing the bill saying “it will increase hunger in America by cutting SNAP benefits. This bill, if enacted, will do more harm than good.”
Nutrition and public health groups on the other hand generally backed the bill and praised the Senate for passing it.
Action will now turn to the House, where the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act has been approved by the Education and Labor Committee and is awaiting House floor action. First, however, an offset package to pay for the measure must be developed.
Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chief sponsor of the House and Chair of Education and Labor, commended the Senate for its action today, calling it an important step forward.
NSAC will continue to urge the House leaders and sponsors to avoid cuts to food stamps, conservation or other farm bill funding when developing its offset package, and instead to close regressive tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and distort the economy.
Time is running short for final action. The current child nutrition provisions expire on September 30.
While the House is being called back into emergency session next week to deal with a bill to provide aid to the states for education and medicare, a bill that also uses an additional reallocation of SNAP recovery bill dollars as part of its offset package, it currently seems unlikely they would deal with the child nutrition bill at that time.
If so, they will only have about two weeks once they return from the summer recess to take action, or Congress will be forced to extend the sunset date in current law.
If a final bill passes and gets signed into law with a major increase in funding for school and related feeding programs, it will be the first federal funding increase for school meals in three decades.
Farmers Markets Week and New Resources
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Farmers markets improve access to the freshest possible fruits and vegetables while providing direct market farmers with an important source of income. To celebrate the bountiful services they provide, the USDA has declared August 1-7, 2010 as National Farmers Market Week.
As USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack declared, “farmers markets play a key role in developing local and regional food systems, support family farms, revitalize local communities, provide important outlets for producers and the opportunity for farmers and consumers to interact.” He continued, “The USDA strongly supports farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer marketing activities for agricultural producers.”
The USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service began tracking the number of farmers markets in 1994 and found that they have multiplied continuously in the last two decades, with the number increasing by 16 percent in the last year alone.
The Midwest has seen the greatest surge in the number of farmers markets, with Missouri and Minnesota leading the way. The number of year-round markets has also increased, improving winter-time access to local and regional foods. Of the 6,132 farmers markets nationwide, 886 of them continue through the winter.
However, amidst all the momentum for fresh fruits and vegetables and local and regional food systems, critics point to charges of elitism often associated with the prevalence of farmers markets in higher income neighborhoods.
Both the public and non-profit sectors have stepped up to the plate to improve access to the healthy, local foods offered at farmers markets. The 2008 Farm Bill authorized a stipulation to the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) requiring a minimum of 10 percent of the program funds be allocated to foster the use of SNAP (formerly food stamps) and Women’s Infants and Children (WIC) benefits at farmers markets.
Two recent publications also address this issue. The USDA and the Project for Public Spaces published the “SNAP at Farmers Markets: A How To Handbook” and the Community Food Security Coalition and The Farmers Market Coalition published the “Real Food, Real Choice; Connecting SNAP Recipients with Farmers Markets” guide, both intended to facilitate SNAP purchases at farmers markets.
NSAC has continuously spoken out for direct marketing options for farmers. NSAC developed and championed the creation and funding of the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) in the last two farm bills to help foster growth of farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSAs) and other direct marketing channels.
Know Your Farmer Blog and Agency Guides
Sunday, August 1st, 2010
USDA programs can often seem enigmatic and confusing. Many farmers, rural development and conservation groups in need of financial or technical assistance are often either unaware of what USDA programs exist, or lack access to the assistance they seek.
The USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative seeks to remedy this disconnect by strengthening local food systems and improving access to USDA programs.
On Friday, July 30, Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food published a blog, “USDA Programs at Glance,” with links to memorandum outlining programs that can be used to foster local and regional food systems in four areas of USDA: Rural Development, Farm Service Agency, Research, Education & Economics, and Agriculture Marketing Service.
We have reported on the first three as they were issued. The AMS memo is new. According to the memo from Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan (herself a former head of AMS): AMS research and technical assistance in the fields of food deserts and regional food hubs, along with their support and analysis of farmers markets and other forms of direct marketing, access to market news, and help for farmers working to enhance food safety practices, form the backbone of the Department’s effort to provide fresh, nutritious, easily accessible food to the public, with special focus on underserved areas of this country.
The memo provides basic information on ten programs and research areas, including two that were initiated and championed by NSAC – the Farmers Market Promotion Program and the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program.
The USDA blog post indicates they will be adding information on other USDA agencies’ programs related to Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food in coming months.
Summaries of programs created or significantly amended in the 2008 Farm Bill can also be found in NSAC’s Grassroots Guide to the 2008 Farm Bill. Another good place to find accessible USDA program information is ATTRA’s Building Sustainable Farms, Ranches and Communities: Federal Programs for Sustainable Agriculture, Forestry, Entrepreneurship, Conservation and Community Development.
House Committee Looks at USDA Rural Development
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
On Tuesday, July 20, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture held a hearing to assess progress on Rural Development program implementation and hear ideas from the field in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill.
USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager emphasized the “five pillars” the agency believes can staunch rural out-migration and stimulate rural economic growth. He proposed: new export and local and regional markets for agricultural products, broadband, renewable energy production, outdoor recreation that conserves natural resources, and ecosystems markets for rural landowners. Click here to view Tonsager’s testimony.
Tonsager reiterated the Administration’s belief that regional approaches are a more effective way to deliver grant and loan investments, and suggested that Rural Development’s 40 programs might benefit from reorganization and streamlining. He also noted the agency is currently working on a report to Congress that should be ready in a few months concerning possible new “rural” definitions for USDA programs.
The second panel of five private sector and local agency witnesses addressed Rural Development’s housing, broadband, and business and cooperative programs. NSAC was invited to provide a witness on the panel, a seat at the table filled very well by Van Ayers, who sits on the Board of one of NSAC’s member groups, the Delta Land and Community in Arkansas, and is an Agriculture and Rural Development Specialist with University of Missouri Extension.
Ayers’ testimony concentrated on ways to make particular Rural Development programs more accessible to the farmers and ranchers. He addressed the Value-Added Producer Grants program, the Rural Energy for America Program, and the Community Facilities program. Ayers also suggested the creation of a national “enterprise facilitators” program to do the organizing and training necessary for producers to design successful rural businesses and access federal funds to support them.
One clear and consistent message from all the witnesses was that Rural Development should simplify and coordinate the application process for its programs. Chairman McIntyre noted that all the USDA staff had left the hearing before they could hear this message but promised that Subcommittee staff would pursue the issue with the Agency.
Resources and Showcase for Local and Regional Food Systems
Friday, July 16th, 2010
This week, as part of the USDA Know Your Farmer Know Your Food initiative, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack reported on investments in rural economies through development of local and regional food systems.
As Vilsack said, “By connecting farmers and ranchers more closely with consumers of food, we are creating new economic opportunities for producers and helping consumers to access healthy, nutritious food.”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocated $1.57 billion dollars to the Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program, which is administered by the USDA’s Rural Development Agency, an appropriation supported by NSAC.
On July 12th, Victor Vasquez, Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development, announced 11 businesses in 9 states as recipients of B&I Guaranteed Loans. Click here to see the USDA press release.
The purpose of the B&I program in general is to help improve, develop, or finance businesses and employment in rural areas by bolstering the existing private credit market through federal guarantees. The purpose of the local and regional food subprogram is to support farm and ranch incomes as well as the renewal of local food system infrastructure and community development.
Loans can be used to support and establish 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. Individuals, cooperatives, cooperative organizations, businesses, and other entities are eligible for these loan guarantees.
In further support of local and regional food systems, Vilsack also announced a new feature of the Know Your Farmer Know Your Food website that highlights the vast web of connections emerging between consumers and farmers.
The new Ideas and Stories webpage creates a venue for sharing successful stories of food system entrepreneurship from around the country. The website also informs producers about USDA resources while helping consumers connect to their local farmers and ranchers.
Vilsack explained, “This showcase will serve a s a hub of ideas, local success stories, and USDA resources that showcase and strengthen the link between local production and consumption that benefits producers of all sizes.”
NSAC intends to do a more thorough analysis of local and regional food enterprise lending under the B&I program in the near future, and will share highlights with our readers.
FSIS Names Advisory Committee on Meat & Poultry Inspection
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
On Thursday, July 15, USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service announced the reestablishment of the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) and the newly appointed members of the committee for 2010-2012.
Established in 1971, the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) advises the Secretary of the USDA on federal and state meat and poultry inspection programs. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requires the Secretary to consult with a committee for advice on meat, poultry and egg inspection and safety programs. The twenty-person committee is appointed by the Secretary and each member serves for 2 years. The committee makes recommendations through the Under Secretary for Food Safety to the Secretary of Agriculture. You can read more about the committee structure on the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) website.
Congratulations to active NSAC participant Steve Warshawer of Mesa Top Farm, Beneficial Farm CSA, and La Montanita Coop in New Mexico and the National Good Food Network for his appointment to this advisory body! Steve will serve along side representatives of academic institutions, state agriculture departments, food companies, and non-profits including the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Consumer Federation of America. We know Steve will be a strong, reasoned farmer and good food voice on this important committee.
FSA Programs Get USDA Push
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative recently highlighted Farm Service Agency (FSA) resources that can be used to expand and diversify farm businesses, preserve natural resources critical to future farm income and create links with local and regional food systems.
The Farm Storage Facility Loan program was expanded by the 2008 Farm Bill to include authority for use by vegetable, fruit, and nut producers as well as other farmers to use these loans for the construction of on-farm storage and minimal processing facilities. Controlling the product from seed to sale allows farmers to target specialty markets and retain more of the final sale price, increasing economic activity in rural areas.
Farmers and Ranchers can use FSA’s Guaranteed and Direct Loan programs either for farm ownership or for farm or ranch operating expenses, including for value-added and direct sale activities. The 2008 Farm Bill included special provisions to increase FSA credit opportunities for beginning, youth and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. These direct loans and guarantees are designed specifically for producers not yet able to receive financing through commercial lending sources.
FSA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) helps producers take fragile land out of production and establish conservation practices on working lands. Implementing conservation practices not only preserves and beautifies farmland but changing to sustainable production practices can allow farmers to realize a better price for their products through adopting value-added production methods. The new wildlife habitat the conservation practices create also offer new income opportunities through agritourism and hunting activities.
NSAC submitted comments this week to FSA on the new CRP-TIP program to help beginning and minority farmers and ranchers secure land coming out of the CRP program to engage in sustainable grazing or sustainable cropping operations.
You can get more information about all of these programs at your local FSA office.
According to FSA, their direct and guaranteed lending volume was up nearly 30 percent in the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2010 and the agency has requested additional funding from Congress that may come soon. In the meantime, county offices will continue to process all applications in expectation of supplemental funding or 2011 appropriations.
Farmers Agree, Mr. Vilsack: Farm Bill Should Emphasize Beginning Farmers
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
By Anna Jones-Crabtree from Vilicus Farm
On July 1st, NSAC posted a blog to applaud Secretary Vilsack’s plea to Congress to support beginning farmers and to encourage USDA to walk the talk.
Farmers agree. Here is how Anna Jones-Crabtree from Vilicus Farm in Montana responded to our blog:
We would not be farming if it were not for some of the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) beginning farmer programs. However, all of the points made below are right on….. USDA and the farm bill continues to talk the talk about beginning farmers but we aren’t seeing the walk.
Access to land, financing/credit, and time are the three biggee’s for beginning farmers. There are minimally supportive programs for financing and access to land. The time issue isn’t even dealt with since most of us are working two jobs to support the dream of farming.
It’s clear to us; we need systematic reform.
We need to rework the risk structure system so we can get crop insurance on ’specialty crops’ like flax and spelt in our first year of production since we choose to not follow the recipe of a simple wheat/fallow/spray rotation. Society needs to provide farmers with health insurance so we don’t have to work second jobs. We need a formal farmer mentorship program to ask questions like how deep do you set your blade plow? Or, at what stage does mowing your cover crops work?
We need a much more robust, creative and integrated research program at our universities. We need research that targets real life systems approaches to sustainable agriculture. We need researchers to inform and cooperate with the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) on their conservation programs. We need to value and compensate our farmers just as we do our doctors. We don’t ask our physicians to jerry-rig and duct tape the heart lung support machine– we ask them to be doctors. We need to ask our farmers to be farmers.
In my vision of the future, I see well-informed farmers captivated by the wonders of soil microbial action. I see farmers working with their communities to create biodiesel from their oilseed crops that they grew as part of their complex rotational — improving the sustainability of not only their operation but also their community’s. I see farmers growing vegetables for their local community. I see farmers, such as myself, growing grains and legumes, that change vast tracts of land into functioning robust ecosystems, that are not just based on ‘nature’ but also weave humans into natural systems. I see rigorous academic opportunities to study farming systems that produce farmers held in as high esteem as engineers.
My husband Doug and I are committed to this longer term vision. It has taken us 15+ years in other careers, saving money, and building good credit to even be able to entertain a return to farming. Even with all of our ducks in a row, it was not, by a long shot, an easy path.
We have to make the entry to farming easier. We have a whole generation who would relish the opportunity to farm but don’t know where to start. Their hands have spent more time text-messaging than shaking off hydraulic oil from an implement that just didn’t want to plug or from playing with the tractor. They need exposure to climate change science, business planning, skills to navigate USDA programs, agronomy, wildlife, moisture management along with the basics of growing carrots, or safflower, or buckwheat, or eggplant or, or, or…..
I was one of 100+ folks that applied for about 10 positions on that Beginning Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee. The Committee was supposed to be in place by the end of last calendar year. I spent a lot of time on that application and had some wonderful letters of recommendation. Try as I might to call, ask, probe, USDA is moving slower then molasses in December on our farm in north central Montana.
I would welcome a spirited conversation about what we can do in Montana and elsewhere to grow our next generation of farmers in a way that creates the systemic change I think we all hope for. We need a dialog with all the parties in the food system – the farmers, the buyers, the consumers and the retailers- about the challenges inherent in the current system and how we change it for the better – for all of us.
We need to start somewhere. At some level, I believe we as a society have written our farmers off… it’s not something our best and brightest strive to become. It’s not a career you go into if you are smart. All that has to change if we have any hope of creating a sustainable way of living on this planet.
And heck, if the Beginning Farmer Rancher Committee ever gets appointed and I get the chance to be on it, I would welcome a way to take the grounded, real life ideas from a bunch of Montanan’s to DC.
Child Nutrition Bill with Farm to School Begins to Move in House
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
On Thursday, July 1, the full House Education and Labor Committee held its first hearing on Chairman George Miller’s (D-CA) Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act. Throughout the hearing endorsements for the Farm to School program were loud and clear, both from Committee members and from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. The Miller bill includes $50 million in mandatory funding for the Farm to School competitive grants program.
Secretary Vilsack began his testimony with an impassioned plea for Congress to move child nutrition legislation quickly, stating that ”nothing is more important than getting this done this year.” While there was bipartisan agreement that the legislation authorizing the school meals programs and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) is a priority, some Representatives have balked at the $8 billion price tag for the bill.
Only a few offsets have been identified yet. There is only one likely offset under the jurisdiction of the Education and Labor Committee, a change to the bonus commodity program that will yield about $1 billion in savings. Hence, once the bill is reported out of Committee, the leaders will then need to go shopping for offsets from other committees, most likely including the Ways and Means Committee and the Agriculture Committee, before the bill can be brought to the floor.
The bill may be marked up in Education and Labor as soon as the week of July 12. That quick movement to move the bill out of Committee is very welcome given the additional time it will take to get offsets lined up and the bill ready for floor action.