The Republican War on the EPA

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Feb 14, 2011 at 01:35:13 AM PST

House Ag Committee Gets a Progressive Influx!

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 20:54:00 PM PST

Here's the new Democratic roster:

Blue Dogs:

1. Ranking Member: Collin Peterson (D-MN)
   
2. Tim Holden (D-PA)
   
3. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
   
4. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
   
5. Joe Baca (D-CA)
   
6. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
   
7. David Scott (D-GA)
   
8. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
   
9. Jim Costa (D-CA)
   
10. Kurt Schrader (D-OR)

(With the exception of Schrader, the group of Blue Dogs here are the most senior Democratic members of the committee, listed in order of seniority.)

Progressives:

1. Marcia L. Fudge (D-OH)
   
2. James McGovern (D-MA)
   
3. Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
   
4. Peter Welch (D-VT)

Others:

• Joe Courtney (D-CT)
  
• Larry Kissell (D-NC)
  
• Bill Owens (D-NY)
  
• Terri A. Sewell (D-AL)
  
• Timothy Walz (D-MN)

A little bit of info on some of the new members: Bill Owens comes from a formerly Republican and likely still-conservative district. He was elected in that special election in Upstate New York where the Republican dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat (Owens), who went on to beat the Tea Party candidate.

Joe Courtney, of Connecticut, is not brand new to Congress and I visited his district in 2009. They've got quite a bit of dairy there, including some small, grass-fed herds.

Terri Sewell will be incredibly interesting to watch. She's newly elected in 2010 and she's the first black woman to represent Alabama. She comes from a legal/finance background, and the only agricultural background she seems to have come from childhood summers spent with her grandfather, a farmer.

New House Ag Chair Speaks Out Against the EPA

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 13, 2011 at 00:45:03 AM PST

"I want to commend the Farm Bureau for taking a strong stance on one of the most significant issues facing American agriculture:  the hostile regulatory approach of the EPA.  As the new Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, I pledge to hold vigorous oversight of the administration on a number of issues that threaten the livelihoods of our farmers and ranchers.

"I welcome the Farm Bureau's continued efforts to rein in the EPA's aggressive attempt to impose new regulations on agricultural production throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, which has far reaching consequences for the entire U.S.  We all support the goal of achieving clean water, but EPA is moving forward with accelerated and questionable regulations without considering the consequences for farmers and rural communities or without considering the ongoing conservation measures our producers are using to improve water quality.

House Drops "Organic" From Sub-Committee Name

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 06, 2011 at 10:45:46 AM PST

Fruits and vegetables, honey and bees, marketing and promotion orders, plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds, and insect pests, and organic agriculture.

It is now:

Food stamps, nutrition and consumer programs, fruits and vegetables, honey and bees, marketing and promotion orders, plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds and insect pests, and organic agriculture.

That is an absolute TON of stuff to cram into one committee, compared to what there was in the past.

Other changes:
The Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research has been renamed "Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry."

The Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry is now the "Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, and Credit"

The Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture is now the "Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture"

The Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management and the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry remain the same.

Gah! House Ag Committee Priorities Under Frank Lucas

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 06, 2011 at 08:51:05 AM PST

• Killing Cap and Trade: He's got a paragraph up on this that says:

  The Waxman-Markey bill amounts to a national energy tax that would devastate the agriculture industry and wreak havoc on the entire rural economy.  If signed into law, the bill would cause energy prices to skyrocket for farmers and agriculture producers, reduce farming and production jobs, and broaden the scope of government intrusion into the agriculture industry.  The Waxman-Markey bill creates a national energy tax that will do more harm to production agriculture, American industry, and our standard of living for dubious environmental benefits.  From higher energy costs to lost jobs to higher food prices, cap and trade promises to cap our incomes, our livelihoods and our standard of living, while it trades away American jobs and opportunities.

  He follows that up with links calling cap and trade "job killing," "cap and tax," and an "energy tax." However, he does NOT post anything disputing the science of the climate crisis. I wonder if he believes it's really happening, and if he thinks it's man-made?

• Spray Drift: Oh good, you think. Lucas wants to reduce harmful drift of pesticide sprays. Um, NOT. He starts by bringing up the EPA's efforts to reduce pesticide spray drift by adding warning labels to pesticides and then says:

  These changes are unnecessary, confusing and represent a radical departure from current law.  The EPA's proposal creates an unachievable and unenforceable zero-drift standard that could lead to excessive litigation against agriculture producers and significant loss of farm productivity.  This current action by the EPA is just the latest example of the EPA blindly following its radical environmental policies and ignoring its effects on American agriculture, America's food security and the American economy.

  Really? This is just lame, on both sides. You're going to reduce spray drift with a warning label? And you're making opposition to a warning label one of your top priorities? Puh-LEASE. Here, Lucas lists a few links labeled, "EPA's Agenda Could Harm the Entire Ag Industry," and "EPA Continues to Attack American Agriculture."

• Rural America: Oh how nice. Lucas wants to help the economy of rural America. In fact, they've formed a new committee to do this. What will they focus on? From the links he lists here, it seems they want to stop the EPA's "job-killing" policies and get rid of health care reform, which they say has a "job-killing tax on small businesses."

• Free Trade Agreements: They are for them. So is Obama. How sweet, bipartisan support for a really bad idea. Specifically, they want new FTAs with Panama and Columbia.

He also lists Food Safety and the Farm Bill, but these seem less consequential. His Food Safety page completely focuses on the already-passed Food Safety Modernization Act (he just wants to complain about it, even though it's already passed and he can't do much about it), and he's already said he wants to wait a while before getting into the 2012 farm bill.

Meet Your House Ag Commitee Republicans

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 06, 2011 at 08:13:50 AM PST

Sub-Committee Chairs
   * Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson (PA-5):  Conservation, Energy, and Forestry
     Jurisdiction:  Soil, water, and resource conservation, small watershed program, energy and biobased energy production, rural electrification, forestry in general and forest reserves other than those created from the public domain.
   * Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (NE-1):  Department Operations, Oversight, and Credit
     Jurisdiction:  Agency oversight, review and analysis, special investigations, and agricultural credit.
   * Rep. K. Michael Conaway, (TX-11):  General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
     Jurisdiction:  Program and markets related to cotton, cottonseed, wheat, feed grains, soybeans, oilseeds, rice, dry beans, peas, lentils, the Commodity Credit Corporation, risk management, including crop insurance, commodity exchanges, and specialty crops.
   * Rep. Tom Rooney (FL-16):  Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
     Jurisdiction: Livestock, dairy, poultry, meat, seafood and seafood products, inspection, marketing, and promotion of such commodities, aquaculture, animal welfare, and grazing.
   * Rep. Jean Schmidt (OH-2):  Nutrition and Horticulture
     Jurisdiction:  Food stamps, nutrition and consumer programs, fruits and vegetables, honey and bees, marketing and promotion orders, plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds and insect pests, and organic agriculture.
   * Rep. Timothy V. Johnson (IL-15):  Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture
     Jurisdiction:  Rural Development, farm security and family farming matters, biotechnology, foreign agriculture assistance, and trade promotion programs, generally.

Members
Frank D. Lucas (OK), Chairman-elect
Bob Goodlatte (VA), Vice Chairman-elect
Timothy V. Johnson (IL)
Steve King (IA)
Randy Neugebauer (TX)
K. Michael Conaway (TX)
Jeff Fortenberry (NE)
Jean Schmidt (OH)
Glenn Thompson (PA)
Tom Rooney (FL)*
Rick Crawford (AR)*
Scott DesJarlais (TN)*
Renee Ellmers (NC)*
Stephen Fincher (TN)*
Bob Gibbs (OH)*
Chris Gibson (NY)*
Vicky Hartzler (MO)*
Tim Huelskamp (KS)*
Randy Hultgren (IL)*
Reid Ribble (WI)*
Martha Roby (AL)*
Bobby Schilling (IL)*
Austin Scott (GA)*
Steve Southerland (FL)*
Marlin Stutzman (IN)*
Scott Tipton (CO) *

* = new member

House Ag Committee Hearing on Federal Nutrition Programs, Part 1

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 17:44:24 PM PST

Panel 1
Lisa Pino, Deputy Administrator
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service

Christine Webb-Curtis, Chief
California Department of Social Services, Food Stamp Branch

Nancy Swanson, Director
Human Services Transitional Assistance Department of San Bernardino, CA

Factory Farms Talk to the House Ag Committee - April 23 Food Safety Hearing

by: Jill Richardson

Fri May 29, 2009 at 21:45:06 PM PDT

The first diary covered the testimony from the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). This diary covers the second panel, which consisted of a number of factory farm representatives. You can basically skip reading what they actually had to say if you want because it can all be summed up as: We're so glad to have the safest food supply in the world and we're committed to food safety. The government's regulatory system is very strict already and it's working - we don't need stricter regulation. Please fully fund the USDA and the FDA. And really, no more regulation.

Sampler Platter 05.22.09

by: Jill Richardson

Fri May 22, 2009 at 22:08:08 PM PDT

• Hard plastic drinking bottles leach the endocrine disruptor BPA. So says a Harvard study. Let me remind you that there is an anti-BPA bill in Congress right now, cleverly named the Ban Poisonous Additives (BPA) Act. Write your Congresscritters to ask them to co-sponsor it!

• Really, I just like the title of this one: The House Aghghghghg! Committee. That's exactly how I feel about the House Ag Committee and it's asshat chairman, Rep. Peterson (D-MN). As Tom Philpott puts it, Peterson is declaring Waxman-Markey is mine, all mine. He wants to derail the Waxman-Markey climate change bill unless the EPA stops using sound science to assess the environmental impacts of ethanol. Of course, if you listen to what Public Citizen has to say about the current state of Waxman-Markey, it might be so watered down already that Peterson isn't really making much of a threat.

• Here is a really brilliant point: How many people out there pay the equivalent of $10/gal for bottled water (which is free from the tap) and then say they can't afford organic milk?

• Civil Eats takes a fantastic look at how farmworkers are treated. A Slow Food chapter actually highlighted the issue by going as a group to have lunch with some farmworkers. What a great idea!

• I am very curious about the film The Garden, about the fight to preserve South Central LA's community garden. It sounds absolutely amazing. If you haven't gotten a chance to see it yet, read a Q&A with the director here.

• Farmer Carol Ann talks about whether small farming can feed the world.

• Lucky Massachusetts residents now live in the only state that has gay marriage AND calorie labeling on menus at chain restaurants.

• Very sad but true graphic: Your waistline in charts.

• This picture just drives me nuts. It's a supermarket trying to pretend its a farmers market. Sort of.

• Well holy shit. Did you hear about the salmonella/pistachio recall? Turns out Rep. Dennis Cardoza was one of the victims. So that means that at least ONE member of Congress REALLY GETS IT about the need to update food safety laws.

NAIS Marches Forward

by: Joanne Rigutto

Wed May 06, 2009 at 19:30:31 PM PDT

House Ag Committee Food Safety Hearing, USDA Testimony - April 23, 2009

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

This diary covers the testimony from the USDA, who spoke on the first panel. I will post a follow-up diary with summaries of the testimony from the meat industry.

Food Safety Bill Update

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Apr 22, 2009 at 10:52:19 AM PDT

The powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee is busy preparing for a legislative trifecta.  On the docket for the coming months are a mega climate change cap and trade bill, health care reform, and food safety reform.  The tentative schedule set by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) calls for subcommittee and full committee consideration of climate change in May and health care reform in June.  A half-finished working draft of the cap and trade bill has been in circulation for several weeks.  No health care bill has been laid on the table as yet.

Even that much would normally seem overly ambitious.  But interspersed between those two mammoth efforts, the Chair also intends to introduce his food safety bill in May, hold hearings, and then in June schedule mark-ups in subcommittee followed by full committee.  His intent would be to have the bill out of committee and ready for floor action by the July 4 recess.

As we have previously reported, the bulk of the Chairman's mark will be based primarily on the food sections of H.R. 759, the food and drug safety bill introduced by Representatives Dingell (D-MI), Stupak (D-MI), and Pallone (D-NJ).

Separately, the House Agriculture Committee intends to begin a series of food safety hearings, with a building expectation that individual committee members or perhaps the committee as a whole may want to weigh in on food safety legislation in some fashion before the Energy and Commerce bill reaches the floor of the House.  Agriculture Committee member Jim Costa (D-CA), along with seven of his committee colleagues, has introduced the so-called SAFE Feast Act, HR 1332.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration, whereas the Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over USDA.  Both agencies control different parts of the food safety regulatory regime.

They also note that the Senate is going with a slower, wait-and-see approach and their actions will likely depend on what the House does first.

House Ag Chair Peterson Talks About Food Safety, NAIS, Cap & Trade, and Subsidies

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT

ACTION: Last Day to Comment on NAIS

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Mar 16, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

Below, I've pasted the National Sustainable Ag Coalition's newsletter blurb about the NAIS hearing held in the House Ag Committee last week. It did NOT go well, sadly. You can find instructions to send them a piece of your mind here (do this by the end of today as well).

Help Me Fill Up the House Ag Committee's Inbox!

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Mar 14, 2009 at 12:00:00 PM PDT

Hello,
I am a consumer of sustainable foods and friend to many small farmers who fear that NAIS will put them out of business. After reading all of the hearing testimony, it seems to me that the primary motivation behind NAIS is for our export markets.

It seems that NAIS is detracting from attention on prevention, inspection, and testing for animal disease, and instead using our resources for tracking, which is only good AFTER we have disease already here. I'd prefer to see us prioritize on prevention FIRST (for example, keeping all downer cows out of livestock feed) and then work on testing (like testing > 0.1% of cows for BSE). Without doing those two things first, in the case of BSE, it seems like we would be allowing a problem to form and grow for a long time before we would discover it and then use an animal ID system to track down the sick animals.

If a national animal ID system IS in fact necessary for our export markets, why can't we make it mandatory for farmers who export live animals or animal products but truly voluntary for all others. The problem is that there are two food systems in this country - the industrialized, mainstream one, and the small, sustainable local one - but we are making policy that only works for the mainstream system. Those of us who are trying to improve our health and our safety (not to mention our environment and our communities) by opting out of the industrialized system and buying from local farmers should not be punished with one-size-fits-all laws. It seems to me that if NAIS is to benefit an export market, then we are putting the needs of the international community above the needs of U.S. citizens and I find that unacceptable.

Sincerely,
Jill