Strong Safety Net for Family Farmers: Fight for farm programs that provide family farmers with stability and predictability. Implement a $250,000 payment limitation so we help family farmers -- not large corporate agribusiness. Close the loopholes that allow mega farms to get around payment limits.
This one was a total screw-up. He proposed the $250,000 subsidy cap - a measure that has failed to pass in the Senate on more than one occasion in the past year - but he did so along with another proposal that was absolutely naive and laughable: Cut direct payments to farmers who gross over $500,000. As an ag policy expert said to me when it was proposed, it's totally possible for a farmer to have $500,000 in revenues and $600,000 in costs. House Ag Committee chair Collin Peterson (who I typically don't agree ith at all) said that anyone who makes less than $500,000 in revenues isn't a real farmer and he hinted that a proposal to cut subsidies from farmers who make over $500,000 net might be something he'd discuss.
I'm for the $250,000 subsidy cap but Obama's got to pull some political strings to get that one through Congress. There was some talk of appointing Chuck Hassebrook as the #2 man at the USDA and the media called him "controversial" because he was for the very same subsidy caps that Obama's agenda already calls for. My advice to Obama: If you want your subsidy caps, start talking to Nancy Pelosi about restructuring the membership of the House Ag Committee in the next Congress and start making nice to powerful Senators like Kent Conrad (who strongly opposes this measure) in the Senate. And give up the plan to cut subsidies from farmers who gross over $500,000 cuz that just ain't happening.
Prevent Anticompetitive Behavior Against Family Farms: Pass a packer ban. When meatpackers own livestock they can manipulate prices and discriminate against independent farmers. Strengthen anti-monopoly laws and strengthen producer protections to ensure independent farmers have fair access to markets, control over their production decisions, and transparency in prices.
Obama appointed Christine Anne Varney as Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division in the Department of Justice. During her confirmation hearing, she promised to make agriculture a priority. That is very promising but it's all I've seen on this issue from the Obama administration in the first 100 days.
Regulate CAFOs: Strictly regulate pollution from large factory livestock farms, with fines for those that violate tough standards. Support meaningful local control.
I haven't seen any moves on this one by the Obama administration. I am concerned that "regulating" factory farms automatically assumes that they have a right to exist, and I think they don't. Obama could have easily tied his goal of regulating CAFOs in with the idea of food safety, which has been a major news item for the entire duration of his presidency. If he wants a good example of how it's done, he should follow the Organic Consumers' website. They have been hammering it home again and again - food safety legislation is great, but let's get to the root of most of our food safety problems: CAFOs.
Establish Country of Origin Labeling: Implement Country of Origin Labeling so that American producers can distinguish their products from imported ones.
Done. In a really wimpy way. Bush's USDA issued rather a rather weak rule during his last days in office. Vilsack made the Bush final rule final even though he still had an opportunity to strengthen it before putting it into effect. He asked industry to voluntarily comply with stricter standards and noted that he will pursue a stricter rule if the voluntary standards are not adhered to. I would like to see how this plays out in the future.
Encourage Organic and Local Agriculture: Help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. Promote regional food systems.
Excellent idea. Unfortunately, the only area where I see this actually happening is the White House lawn. Can Van Jones come to the rescue perhaps? To be fair, Obama's appointment of Kathleen Merrigan as #2 at the USDA is absolutely huge. She's only been in office a few weeks and over time I hope to see her having an impact on organics and local food.
Encourage Young People to Become Farmers: Establish a new program to identify and train the next generation of farmers. Provide tax incentives to make it easier for new farmers to afford their first farm.
This is a goal that goes hand in hand with the promoting organics and regional food systems ideas. I haven't seen much happen on it but it could easily be done as a part of an economic stimulus program. Van Jones, any ideas?
Partner with Landowners to Conserve Private Lands: Increase incentives for farmers and private landowners to conduct sustainable agriculture and protect wetlands, grasslands, and forests.
We already have a number of conservation programs in place. I haven't seen any major efforts to increase or improve them under the Obama administration thus far. However, Obama made an absolutely terrific appointment to head up the USDA's NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) and I know that Kathleen Merrigan is also well-versed in USDA's conservation programs, as is Carole Jett (Vilsack's Deputy Chief of Staff).
Other Food Reforms
The three other major areas not covered under Obama's rural agenda are global hunger, food safety reform, and childhood obesity.
Global Hunger: Obama's plans for global hunger sound noble - he's promised more money to help with the problem and Vilsack just met with the G8 on the subject - but their approach is "business as usual" and that's precisely what is NOT needed. In fact, business is usual is more likely a good way to make the problem worse, not better. Sadly, the U.S. is too fond of "multitasking" with its foreign aid by trying to profit U.S. corporations at the same time (i.e. promoting technologies like pesticides, fertilizer, or GM seeds, or buying food for aid from U.S. companies and then using other U.S. companies to ship it overseas). If we could bolster our own economy AND solve world hunger at the same time I would be for it, but I think we have decades of proof that feeding fat corporations is not the way to feed the starving poor of the world.
Right now there's a bill in the U.S. Senate (the Global Food Security Act) that's got a good chance of passing. If it passes, it will put a lot of money and power in the hands of USAID (the US Agency for International Development) to focus particularly on S. Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it seems so far that the U.S. government wants to have a second "Green Revolution" and THAT is a bad thing. Particularly because we've got 40 years of evidence that the first green revolution didn't work.
Food Safety: So far it's been all talk and no action. Obama did a presidential address on the subject, but so far he hasn't gotten some of the key nominees confirmed that he plans to put on his Food Safety group in the White House. Meanwhile, the House is kind of slowly taking a look at a food safety bill (H.R. 759 or something similar) and we might see that pass in the next few months. I haven't heard of any White House influence on the bill though. Even if it's a good bill, so far it seems that the credit goes entirely to Representatives Dingell, Stupak, Waxman, and perhaps DeLauro.
Childhood obesity: Obama spoke about it during the campaign. Both he and Vilsack have brought the issue up in the past 100 days too. And yet... nada. But in this case I think that might be OK. It's OK because we already know the vehicle for any major reforms that will happen. It's the child nutrition reauthorization bill and Congress is kind of slowly debating it right now although no bill's been introduced yet. Lynn Woolsey introduced one bill (and Harkin will introduce a counterpart in the Senate) to update nutritional standards of what food is and isn't allowed in schools. A similar bill was introduced in the last Congress and it did not pass, so unless Obama uses some of his political capital to push it through, it may not pass in this Congress either. Either way, when the right time comes I hope to see some leadership on this from Obama or from Vilsack.
I harshly criticized Janey Thornton, the Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services at the USDA, as "business as usual" but one theme I hear consistently is that the new leaders at the USDA - Vilsack, and Janey Thornton in particular - is that they are good listeners.
I hear that Thornton has a holistic outlook, she'd like to connect school nutrition with education, and she's interested in drawing a straighter line between macro policy and how it is actually carried out at the local level. That's actually terrific - provided that her idea of what constitutes a nutritious lunch is something better than chicken fried steak and corn dogs (two of the foods served for lunch in the school district where she ran the lunch program for the last 25 years).
Thornton's boss (Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services) will be Kevin Concannon, who most recently served as Director of Health and Human Services in Iowa from 2003-2008. I don't have much info on him or or how he will affect the obesity/poor nutrition issue.
For me, the most significant areas of progress we've made in food policy are the appointment and confirmation of Kathleen Merrigan as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and the creation of the White House organic garden. I would have considered the garden to be 100% symbolic but apparently it made the pesticide and biotech industries so mad that it was really a bold move by the administration after all.
UPDATE: I've been reminded of two things. First, Obama promised justice to thousands of black farmers who were discriminated against by the USDA in the past. Those farmers are owed quite a bit of money and Obama promised it to them. In recent days, the administration has tried to backpedal on it a little bit. They aren't trying to get out of paying totally, but they want to cap the amount they pay in a way that could result in each individual farmer getting a very insignificant amount of money.
Second, there's the National Animal ID System. It's not something Obama has spoken out about (to my knowledge) but it's a bad thing that his administration seems to be pursuing. To his credit, Vilsack IS meeting with and listening to opponents of NAIS. He's getting a lot of pressure to move ahead with NAIS from members of Congress like Rosa DeLauro (and she's quite influential because she quite literally controls the purse strings for the USDA). |
