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4. Making use of local produce In the past few years,
Vermont-grown tomatoes, zucchini, and basil have started showing up in the
school cafeteria meals of Vermont children. This is no coincidence. This new
development required a great deal of coordination between public schools,
nonprofit organizations, area farmers and school food service staff. 5. Countdown to the Senate Farm Bill Review This gives us a great opportunity to share with you
some aspects of the Farm Bill that we don’t usually have the time or
space to talk about in our regular updates. For one thing, we thought that it
might be useful to point out that we have a document on our website that goes
over the ten separate sections of the Farm Bill and what all is included in
these ten different components of the legislation. You can check it out here. Along with
these ten sections of the Farm Bill, there are some additional titles that
have been proposed in the past and are coming up again in this round. One of these proposals is a set of bills known collectively
as the Competition Title. These proposals seek to combat increased
concentration and lack of competition in the agricultural sector that occurs
as a result of a few companies owning most or all of the components of the
food production chain. Small farmers are hurt by concentration and
consolidation because it lessens their bargaining power, enables prices to be
manipulated, and restricts their options in negotiating contracts. The
National Farmers Union found that the top four companies in the beef, pork,
poultry, flour milling, and soybean crushing sectors controlled more than 40%
of the market, which is the limit at which economists say that competition
starts to decline. That report can be accessed here. An agricultural market that lacks legitimate
competition not only affects small farmers, but also consumers. When
competition decreases, consumers can be faced with fewer choices, higher
prices, and lower quality products. With the recent upsurge of food recalls,
it is important to consider how the consolidation of food production can
negatively affect food safety. In February of 2007, the Center for Food
Safety, along with the National Black Farmers Association, criticized a
Monsanto merger in a report found here. The version of the Farm Bill that was passed in the
House in July did not address competition in a meaningful way. A competition
title was proposed for inclusion in the 2002 Farm Bill, but was blocked in
part by the lobbying efforts of large livestock companies. More information
about what is specifically contained in the bills known as the Competitive
Title can be found on the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s
“Understanding the Farm Bill”
report. Aimee Witteman from the Sustainable Agriculture
Coalition also wrote a piece about the competition title on the Grist blog,
found here. While CFSC does not have an official position on the
Competition Title, we do believe that
promoting fair and active competition in the food system helps keep our food
safe, the marketplace healthy, and family farmers on the land.
We encourage you to follow the links above and become more educated on these
proposals. Senate Dynamics The “Washington Insider” section of DTN stated that
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) are working with
other members of the Agriculture Committee to come up with enough votes to approve
the alternative plan they have generated. The article states that Sen. Conrad
has already wooed Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), by offering more funding for the
Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, and he will continue to work on
other members. The alternative plan is considered by some to be a direct
challenge to proposals made by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom
Harkin (D-IA). (FarmPolicy.com, Oct. 10) Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made some
comments regarding the Farm Bill process in the Senate so far. Sen. Grassley
mentioned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has a different
approach from former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) who worked aggressively on the
2002 Farm Bill. Sen. Grassley said Sen. Reid is pretty consistent in keeping
out of committee work and relying upon the chairmen to get their work done.
Sen. Grassley also defended Sen. Harkin's handling of the Farm Bill, stating
“Harkin ‘can’t be condemned for not coming forth with a
bill if he doesn’t know how much money he’s dealing with,’
says Grassley. Grassley urged Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom
Harkin and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss to use those dollars for
conservation programs and value-added agriculture. He would also like to see
some of the money go to the African-American farmers who were denied entry in
the Pigford settlement case. (FarmPolicy.com, Oct. 11) "Make the Farm Bill Fair" A coalition of nine groups including Oxfam America,
the Environmental Working Group, and Taxpayers for Common Sense are putting
pressure on the Senate to institute meaningful reforms to commodity payment
programs. The campaign includes a tagline "Make the Farm Bill
Fair". Although united for reform, the groups making up the
coalition have some different goals. Some, like Environmental Working Group
and the Land Stewardship Project, based in Minnesota, want more money for
land stewardship and rural development. Taxpayers for Common Sense would
phase out crop supports altogether. (FarmPolicy.com, Oct 11) Conservation Advocates Push Senators Twenty-three conservation and environmental groups
have co-signed a letter to U.S. senators telling them the Senate farm bill
has to at least match the House farm bill on conservation spending or the
proposal "falls short." The groups called on the Agriculture
Committee to add at least $2 billion more in funding to the pot created by
the Finance Committee package. The letter sent to Senate leadership as well
as the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee. A spokeswoman for Harkin
said Thursday that he is still looking to spend more on conservation than the
House bill, though he noted in a news conference last week that conservation
was "under attack" by forces wanting to spend more money elsewhere
in the bill. (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Oct. 11th). Specialty Crop Growers An article in the Financial Times
talked about the demands of specialty crop growers, which include increased
money in research on issues specific to specialty crops, and also market
development. They have not requested subsidy payments similar to what is
received by crops like corn, wheat, and rice. Specialty crop growers do support the current
restriction on planting fruits and vegetables on acres that are considered
"base acres" for commodity crops. They feel that landowners who
receive commodity payments would have an unfair advantage over farmers who
have traditionally only planted specialty crops, and therefore can't fall
back on subsidy payments. This restriction has been a point of contention in
the World Trade Organization, and there is some movement to do away with that
planting restriction. The Price of Food Food prices are up, and many people have ideas as to
why this is. Some factors may include the rising cost of oil, federal
subsidies, a weak US dollar that raises the price of imports, higher
commodity prices, and a larger global growing middle class increasing demand
on foods, especially meat. Demand for wheat is also at a record high due to a
shortage of supply, making the price skyrocket. Many of these issues were
discussed on The Diane Rehm Radio Show last Tuesday, and the guests included Bruce Babcock (professor of
economics and the director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural
Development at Iowa State University), Dan
Morgan (special correspondent, Washington Post and
fellow, German Marshal Fund of the United States) and Lauren Etter (reporter, Wall
Street Journal). You can listen to the show by clicking here.
(FarmPolicy.com, Oct. 9) Concerns Over Ethanol Cornelia Dean
reported in the New York Times on Oct. 11 that increasing the acres of crops
grown for ethanol could harm water quality and leave some parts of the
country more prone to water shortages. Corn is the most widely grown crop to
produce fuel in the US, and it may cause more damage per unit of energy than
other fuel crops. This makes conservation provisions in this coming Farm Bill
more important than ever.
6. Alerts
from Our Allies Thanks for your support, and be sure to call our
Senate champions to say thank you! Sincerely, Steph, Kacie, and Sarah *** Community Food Security Coalition . |