Archives for the 'Rural Development' Category
Letter Supports Reinstatement of Shirley Sherrod
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
The Rural Coalition has crafted a sign on letter that expressed disappointment in the hasty removal of Shirley Sherrod from her position as USDA State Rural Development Director for Georgia on July 19, 2010.
The letter—which went out to the press, the Secretary, the President, and the Attorney General multiple times last week—acknowledges the leadership Sherrod has taken in promoting fairness within USDA and commends some in the press for “digging deeper” to restore Sherrod’s reputation as a leader on farm discrimination issues.
Sherrod had been forced to resign early last week after false revelations broke following distribution of video of a portion of a speech she delivered to the NAACP.
The Rural Coalition, along with NSAC and a plethora of organizations that also signed the letter, called on President Obama and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to apologize and to reinstate Sherrod. Vilsack and the Obama administration have officially expressed regret for its actions and have offered Sherrod a different USDA job, an offer she is contemplating.
Senate Deliberates On Rural Development and Energy in the Farm Bill
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
On Wednesday, July 21, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry convened to hear from several witnesses regarding rural development and the farm bill. The hearing centered on the potential benefits of alternative fuels production and research both for developing rural communities and for strengthening national security. A list of witnesses and a link to an audio replay is available here.
Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) commenced the hearing with an optimistic forecast of job creation and reduced dependence on foreign oil, both of which she said will stem from a growing rural enthusiasm to play a role in reviving the national economy and ensuring energy security.
USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Dallas Tonsager showed support for fuel diversification, which he identified as an opportunity for investment in rural communities. Accordingly, increasing confidence in the advanced biofuel industry has become a primary goal for the USDA.
The Committee warned against bureaucratic attempts to “improve legislation” and encouraged the USDA to coordinate with multiple agencies, such as the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure that energy regulations do not inhibit rural development.
Growth Energy Co-Chair General Wesley Clark strongly emphasized the effects that energy independence will have for job creation and national security. “We do not need to be spending $300 billion a year on foreign oil,” Clark asserted.
Clark strongly advocated for the diversion of a portion of the ethanol blender’s tax credit toward development of ethanol infrastructure—namely blender pumps, flex-fuel vehicles, ethanol pipelines, and an increased blend wall to E15—to support a strong market for corn-based ethanol. “We have to work on the demand side, and the supply side will follow.” According to Clark, once the government provides demand stimulation, market innovation will lead the way toward an advanced renewable energy future.
With respect to the next farm bill, Senator Mike Johanns pointed out that the budget for the Energy Title of the next bill will be only $500 million compared to the $1.9 billion energy title from the 2008 Farm Bill. Johanns questioned how a strong renewable energy and biomass package could be put together with so many fewer dollars.
This hearing was the second of a series that will continue to review the implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill in preparation for the 2012 reauthorization.
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.
Revised Chart on FY 2011 Ag Appropriations
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
With both the House Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee and the full Senate Appropriations Committee now having taken action on their Fiscal Year 2011 agricultural spending bills, NSAC is posting a revised version of its annual agriculture appropriations chart to our website. The chart provides detailed funding level decisions on a program-by-program basis for about 40 USDA programs that we follow closely each year.
Appropriations bills generally only become public once the full appropriations committees have voted on them. Since that has not yet happened for the House bill yet, the numbers represented in our chart for the House bill are based on the best available information we have been able to obtain. In a few instances there are blanks where information has either been lacking or inconsistent and therefore possibly unreliable. The Senate numbers are all confirmed. The Senate bill and committee report can be found here.
Looking ahead to later this year when a final bill is put together, we will be emphasizing:
- attaining the historic House Subcommittee-approved $30 million funding level for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program;
- removing the cuts to mandatory farm bill conservation funding contained in the Senate bill for the Wetlands Reserve, Grasslands Reserve, Farm and Ranch Land Protection, and Agricultural Management Assistance program;
- achieving the higher Senate total funding level ($8.35 million) for the Rural Micro-entrepreneurship Assistance Program and farm operating and ownership loans;
- obtaining the higher House funding level ($7 million) for the USDA Office of Advocacy and Outreach that coordinates policy and programs for beginning and minority farmers and farmworkers; and
- inserting into the final bill funding for the groundbreaking Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Account program.
As the process continues, we will update our appropriations chart as information changes.
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.
Senate Committee Adopts Ag Spending Bill
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
On Thursday, July 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2011 Agricultural Appropriations bill by voice vote. The action on the agriculture bill came after a lengthy partisan debate over the overall discretionary spending levels for the entire government for FY 2011, which concluded with the adoption of Chairman Inouye’s proposed spending allocations.
The agriculture bill proposes to spend $22.838 billion for all discretionary spending (net of a variety of cuts to mandatory programs) for the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and several smaller government agencies. This is nearly $300 million less than the FY 2010 level and $27 million less than what President Obama requested.
After winning support from USDA, the White House and then the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee asked for a $30 million funding level for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. We regret to say that today the Senate Committee adopted a far lower,, $23 million, SARE funding level. Both bills include $15 million for research and education grants and $5 million for extension and outreach grants, but they differ on funding for the SARE state matching grant program, with the House at $10 million and the Senate at only $3 million. NSAC strongly supports the $30 million funding level and will continue to urge the Senate to come up to that level before finishing work on its bill this year.
As with the House Subcommittee-passed bill, the Senate bill moves forward on two Administration initiatives. The USDA portion of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative would receive $30 million under the Senate bill compared to $40 million in the House bill and $50 million requested by USDA. The Senate bill, like the House bill, also approves a somewhat scaled-back version of the new Regional Rural Innovation Initiative, which includes funding for local and regional food system projects. Both bills also provide $2 million for USDA’s Farm to School “tactical teams” to help school districts source more local food.
Whereas the House Subcommittee-passed bill refrains from cutting any farm bill mandatory conservation programs other than the traditional $270 million cut from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and $165 million cut from the Small Watersheds program, the Senate bill includes some but not all of the additional conservation cuts proposed by President Obama. The Senate Committee-passed bill adopts a $75 million cut to the Wetlands Reserve Program, a $14 million cut to the Grasslands Reserve Program, a $15 million cut to the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program, and a $5 million cut to the conservation portion of the Agricultural Management Assistance Program. The Administration had also requested cuts to the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, but those cuts were rejected by the Senate Committee. NSAC appreciates the sparing of those two programs, but continues to oppose the additional raids on farm bill conservation spending, and will continue to urge the Senate to find alternative offsets before bringing their bill to conclusion later this year.
A few other bill highlights follow:
Research — In addition to the SARE news above, the Senate Committee bill includes $5 million for Organic Transitions research, the same level as the House bill and $5 million more than the zero budget requested by the President. For the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the Senate bill provides $310 million, compared to $312 million in the House bill, $262 million in the current year, and the $429 million Obama requested level.
Rural Development — Like the House bill, the Senate bill would level funding for the Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG) program at $20.4 million. The total Senate funding level for Rural Business and Industry Guaranteed Loans would provide $49.7 million in loan guarantees for local and regional food enterprises versus $47.1 million in the House bill (the same as the FY 2010 level). The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP) fares much better in the Senate bill than the House bill. The House bill would allow the $4 million in mandatory farm bill money to move forward, but provides no additional discretionary funds above that level, whereas the Senate bill provides an additional $4.35 million, for a total of $8.35 million. The President had requested an additional $7.7 million. Rural Coop Development Grants would get a modest increase to $12.4 million in the Senate bill. The ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service program would receive $2.8 million in both bills, same as the current funding level.
Credit — With additional emergency funding for farm loans still pending in the supplemental appropriations bill slowly making its way through Congress, the Senate regular appropriations bill passed out of Committee today includes higher farm loan amounts than the House bill. Whereas the House bill provides $475 million for Direct Farm Ownership Loans, the Senate bill provides $650 million. For Direct Farm Operating loans, the Senate provides $1.1 billion versus $900 million in the House bill. The Senate bill also includes more for guaranteed operating loans.
Beginning and Minority Farmers — The majority of direct farm ownership and farm operating loans go to beginning and to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, so the credit numbers above are relevant here as well. Sadly, neither bill has provided funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Account (IDA) program. NSAC will continue to push both houses of Congress to find a way to provide $5 million for this important farm bill program. The two bills have a big difference of opinion over the new Office of Advocacy and Outreach, the central USDA coordinating and policy arm for minority farmer, beginning farmer, and small farm issues. The House bill would match the President’s request for $7 million, but the Senate proposes only level funding at $1.7 million. NSAC will continue to press for the full requested amount.
Organic – Both the House and Senate bills adopt the requested level of $10.1 million for the National Organic Program, and as noted above, both adopt $5 million for the Organic Transitions integrated research program. It also appears that the Senate bill has included $1 million for the Organic Data Initiative, though we are still waiting on confirmation.
NSAC will be posting a chart on its website with more complete details on sustainable food and farming programs in the two pending bills in the near future.
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.
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.
Vilsack: Farm Bill Should Emphasize Beginning Farmers
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
A funny thing happened on the way to a Senate Agriculture Committee farm bill hearing to review progress on implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill’s commodity, crop insurance, and disaster assistance programs. As the lead witness at the June 30 hearing, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack did not read a single word or convey a single idea from his prepared written remarks on the day’s subject at hand. Instead, he used the opportunity to launch into an eloquent plea to focus significant attention in the 2012 Farm Bill on new and beginning farmers.
According to Vilsack, when a group at the Department started thinking about the farm bill earlier this year, he realized there was no firm vision for the future among the people who were gathered. He told the Committee that part of his vision is to increase populations and incomes in rural America, to improve prosperity and economic development and begin to restore lost political clout. Moreover, the Secretary said that increasing small and mid-sized farming operations has to be a subset of that broader goal, and that in order to make headway on the subgoal, significant attention needs to be paid to the needs of young, new and beginning farmers.
The Secretary noted there have been policy goals by previous Administrations and Congresses to increase the number of police officers and the number of teachers. Why not set a goal in the farm bill to add at least 100,000 new farmers in the next few years, he asked? What if we set up advisory committees in local communities to encourage new young farmers? What if we create a new venue to help provide entrepreneurial training for farmers and food system enterprises? What if we found ways to encourage transitions from retiring farmers to new farms? It is time, the Secretary said in so many words, to stop bemoaning the aging of American agriculture and to start an aggressive effort to reverse it.
The Secretary then concluded his brief remarks by moving from farmers back to small town residents, noting the high percentage of persistent poverty counties that are rural and the need to address those problems as he returned to his bigger theme of increasing rural populations and incomes.
Not exactly, perhaps, what the assembled Senators were expecting to hear at a hearing on commodity and crop insurance policy. But not ill-received either. In fact, later in the hearing, Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), the former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, noted that Vilsack’s opening statement was one of the best he has ever heard at any hearing in the House or Senate Agriculture Committees.
Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) noted in his remarks that equipment leasing is an ever more prevalent reality in farming and then pondered out loud whether there might be a creative way in the farm bill to incentivize equipment leasing for new farmers to help the beginners while helping agribusiness as well.
Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) also noted his appreciation of the Secretary’s beginning farmer remarks.
True, the hearing then mostly went back to detailed discussions about ACRE, SURE, CCPs, SRA, WTO, and the rest of the alphabet soup of farm commodity policy, which is as it should be given the topic for the hearing. NSAC, though, greatly appreciates the Secretary’s choice to highlight a major theme which NSAC has pursued, sometimes virtually alone among farm interest groups in Washington, during the last four farm bills over the past two decades.
We also have some pertinent questions, the central one of which is this – if the Administration wants Congress to pay more attention to beginning farmer and rancher policy, what is USDA doing to get its own house in order?
For instance, the last farm bill authorized the creation of a new Office of Advocacy and Outreach to coordinate policy department-wide on beginning farmer and minority farmer issues, yet progress to get it off the ground has been very, very slow, and the office itself has been housed deep within the bureaucracy rather than directly under the Secretary as specified in the Farm Bill. Hopefully with staff about to be hired, the office will be full- functioning soon.
Or for instance, the last farm bill authorized the creation of a Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Account program to assist low income individuals to become farmers through matched savings accounts and financial training. Yet the USDA budget request to Congress this year did not request any money for the program, and, as a result, it is very uncertain if the program will get off the ground.
Or for instance, the last farm bill made an earlier pilot program linking retiring and new farmers through federal guarantees of private land contracts into a nationwide program, yet USDA has yet to implement the new program two-plus years after the farm bill became law.
Or for instance, the new Conservation Reserve Program Transition Incentive Program (CRP-TIP) was officially begun by USDA’s Farm Service Agency recently. It provides incentives for CRP contract holders who do not intend to get back into farming to sell or lease to beginning or minority farmers. With the rule for the program now in place, the question now is where is USDA’s plan to aggressively promote and do outreach on the program?
Or for instance, the statutory Advisory Committee on Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, whose charge it is to advise the Secretary on how USDA can better serve beginning farmers and adopt policies to create new farming opportunities, has ceased functioning during the first two years of the Obama Administration after never missing a year during the Clinton and Bush years. Why have no appointments been made and no meetings held?
As in the past four farm bills, NSAC will likely once again try to move a beginning farmer package, working closely with member groups around the country and with a wide and increasing array of congressional offices with a strong interest in the issue. We are quite heartened by the Secretary’s remarks and very much look forward to the increased attention and the future sharing of ideas with the Department. In the meantime, we will continue to try to hold the Department accountable to fulfill the promise of the last farm bill to the country’s growing cadre of new and beginning farmers.
Rural Coop Development Grants Available
Friday, June 25th, 2010
On Friday, June 25, USDA announced the availability of almost $8 million in competitive grant funds through the Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program (RCDG). The RCDG program is designed to improve the economic conditions in rural areas by funding the establishment or operation of Coop Development Centers that can help start up, expand or improve rural coops and mutually-owned businesses.
This year USDA is specifically interested in projects that help create wealth in rural communities through strategies that stimulate economies and create jobs through:
- Local and regional food systems
- Renewable energy generation, energy conservation, and climate change adaptation/mitigation
- Broadband and other critical infrastructure
- Access to capital, or
- Innovative uses of natural resources
USDA expects to award about 35, one-year grants with an average grant size of $225,000. Paper applications must be postmarked by August 9, 2010 and electronic applications must be received by August 9, 2010. Visit the Rural Development website for more information or contact your local Rural Development office.