Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
In the "market year" (MY) 2008-2009 (September 2008-August 2009), the U.S. produced 12.1 billion bushels of corn. Where did they all go?
About 41% went to "food, seed, and industrial use." That is broken up as follows:
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS): 3.85%
Glucose and dextrose: 1.90%
Starch: 1.91%
Alcohol for fuel: 30.38%
Alcohol for beverages and manufacturing: 1.11%
Cereals and other products: 1.59%
Seed: 0.18%
Exports made up 15.35% of our corn harvest. That leaves nearly 44% of our corn unaccounted for. And THAT is (most likely) the exact amount of U.S. corn that was used as livestock feed in MY 2008-2009.
Yesterday I posted a list of the top ten items purchased at supermarkets (by dollar value). It turns out that there are various statistics on these things and they don't all match. So, for what it's worth, I'll include all of the lists here (below).
If we are what we eat, we're in trouble. This list won't explain the greed of the insurance companies and the failure of our country to provide coverage to 45 million Americans, but it certainly DOES explain (at least in part) the high costs we pay for health care. These are the top 10 items sold at grocery stores for the 52 weeks ending June 14, 2009. They are ranked by dollar sales.
There's a lot of complaining that healthy foods like fruits and vegetables cost a lot, but we clearly aren't breaking the bank on fruit and veggie expenditures. Also, I love the list item "natural cheese." Would that be instead of unnatural cheese?
Farmers selling directly to consumers is on the rise all over the country - but all regions of the U.S. are not equal. For example, according to a new USDA report, the value of direct-to-consumer sales in 2007 was:
North Central (IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI): $300.8 million
Far West (AK, CA, HI, NV, OR, WA): $274.2 million
Northeast (CT, ME, MA, NH, NY, RI, VT): $212.9 million
Mid-Atlantic (DE, DC, MD, NJ, PA, VA, WV): $166.7 million
The USDA recently released a report on emerging issues in the U.S. organic industry. A major finding was that demand for organics is outpacing supply. Two-thirds of Americans purchase organics at least occasionally and 28% at least weekly. In the past, you may have had to go to a natural foods store to find organics, but now you can find them at Wal-Mart. Organic sales QUINTUPLED since 1997, growing from $3.6 billion to $21.1 billion in 2008. In 2008, organics were equal to 3% of U.S. food sales.
Organic sales may have quintupled, but between 1997 and 2005, organic acreage in the U.S. only doubled. Just to give you an idea of how American agriculture is keeping up with that demand, consider these stats from the 2007 Census of Agriculture:
Organic Farms: 18,211
Total Farms; 2,204,792
Organic Farm Sales: $1,709,111,000
Value of All Agricultural Products Sold: $297,220,491,000
Organic Cropland: 1,288,088 acres
Organic Pastureland: 975,380 acres
Land under Organic Conversion: 616,358 acres
Total cropland in America: 309,607,601 acres
(While obviously a very small percent of land is organic, the numbers differ from food to food... 5% of vegetable acres are organic, as are 2.5% of fruit and nut acreage, 0.5% of pasture, and 0.2% of corn and soybeans.)
So it's no wonder why 44% of organic handlers reported a shortage of organic ingredients or products in 2004... we're just not producing enough! To solve the supply problem, we're getting more and more organics from overseas. As the report notes, the USDA is working to fix the supply program by providing incentives for farmers to convert more land to organic. You may remember the recent announcement of $50 million in conservation grant funding (under the EQIP program) for farmers converting to organic production... that's part of what they are doing to increase our organic production.
Another nice detail is that government spending on organics has gone up five-fold between 2002 and 2008. See below for more numbers and facts about organics...
A friend sent me this website that gives data on international food demand. The numbers all come from 1996, so it's not the newest information around, but it's rather interesting to see how different countries allocate their food dollars compared to one another. They show you two things. First, out of the average person's budget, what percent of money goes to food? Second, out of the average person's food budget, how much goes to each type of food. I've listed some of the information below.
In "A Boom for Whom: Family Farmers Saw Lower On-Farm Income Despite High Prices" (PDF), Timothy A. Wise and Alicia Harvie analyzed the latest numbers on farm income. They noted that many headlines about the fate of farm income are wrong because they include retirees and hobby farmers in their numbers - people who have no interest in making money by farming. Their headline "Rising Prices, Declining Farm Incomes" says it all.
When you look at food stamp (now called SNAP) participation rates, California as a state ranks 4th from the bottom. And if you look at the food stamp participation rates of the 24 largest metropolitan areas in the nation, San Diego ranks dead last. This means hungry people don't eat, but it also means that San Diego county loses $144 million annually. And that's $144 million in the form of the very best economic stimulus the government can give us - each dollar of food stamps generates about $1.80 in economic activity.
Let's take a look at San Diego as a case study: Why aren't San Diegoans getting food stamps? And what can we learn from San Diego that might help us increase the participation rate nationally.
Over 80% of U.S. crop land is devoted to just 4 crops: corn, soy, wheat, and hay. Yesterday I wanted to know if small farms and large farms were equally likely to grow these 4 crops. Turns out, the larger the farm (in general), the more likely it is to grow corn, soy, or wheat (I didn't look at hay).
Does it follow then that the smaller you are, the more likely you are to grow "real food" (what the government refers to as "specialty crops")? In other words, which farms are growing our fruits and vegetables? The numbers there were less clear, particularly for vegetables.
So today I decided to check into something else: are all of our fruits and veggies coming from specific parts of the country? If that's the case, then even if large farms grow as much veggies as the small ones, I think it's clear that they aren't providing us with the fresh, local, organic food that we desire. Here's what I found...
About 50% of the acres harvested in the U.S. in 2007 were planted in corn and soy. Another 36% of the acres harvested were planted in wheat and hay. Veggies made up only 1.5% of the harvested acres in the U.S.; orchard crops (fruit and tree nuts) made up 1.6%. So who's growing all this fucking corn? Are small farmers equally as guilty as the biggest farms out there? Take a look:
Farm Size
% of Sales($) From Corn
% of Sales($) from Wheat
% of Sales($) from Soy
1-9 acres
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
10-49 acres
0.8%
0.1%
0.5%
50-69 acres
1.5%
0.2%
0.9%
70-99 acres
3.0%
0.3%
1.7%
100-139 acres
3.9%
0.4%
2.3%
140-179 acres
5.2%
0.8%
3.5%
180-219 acres
6.2%
0.7%
3.7%
220-259 acres
7.4%
0.8%
4.4%
260-499 acres
10.9%
1.3%
6.1%
500-999 acres
16.2%
2.0%
8.8%
1000-1999 acres
21.1%
4.0%
11.2%
2000+ acres
18.2%
8.6%
8.0%
All Farms
13.4%
3.6
6.8%
Because this table is measured in sales dollars as a percent of all sales dollars, you can't tell how many acres were planted of each crop. You CAN tell whose business is more reliant on corn, wheat, and soy though. And that's obvious: the bigger you are, the more likely you are to grow corn, wheat, and soy.
The 2007 Ag Census came out last week. I wrote up some info about American farms through history then. In this diary, I am going to focus on the second largest group of farms - 1000 to 1999 acres.
These farms made up 4.2% of all American farms in 2007 - a slight decline since they peaked at 4.7% in 2002. In 1964, they made up 2.7% of all farms and that percent has gone up throughout history until 2002.
In absolute numbers, there had been a constant increase in farms of this size since 1964 (when there were 84,999 of them), increasing to 102,078 in 1987. They've been on the decline since then. Clearly, the successful farms grew larger and moved into the next largest category by size (farms with over 2000 acres) while the unsuccessful ones went bust and that's the source of these farms' declining numbers. The question is: did more of them grow larger, or did more of them go bust? Are they succeeding financially?
The answer to that question is: YES! These farms are overwhelmingly successful financially. The rough breakdown as I see it is: About 20% of farms of this size are owned by people with other sources of money who do not need to make money with their farms. A very small percent (3.1%) are broke and actually attempting to farm. About half, perhaps slightly more, are really raking in the cash - $250k or more in sales. And an overwhelming majority of these farms are profitable.
These farms may make up only 4.2% of all farms, but their sales represent 17.7% of sales by all farms of any size and their land makes up 13.8% of all farm acres in the U.S. And these farms are totally on the government take. 22% of all government money that goes to farms goes to farms between 1000 and 1999 acres. A farm of this size is more likely than a farm of any other size to receive government subsidies.
So who are these farmers, and what's happening on their farms?
The 2007 Ag Census came out this week. I wrote up some info about American farms through history yesterday. In this diary, I am going to focus on the largest group of farms - 2000 or more acres.
These farms made up 3.6% of all American farms in 2007 - a slight decline since they peaked at 3.7% in 2002. In 1964, they made up 1.9% of all farms and that percent has gone up throughout history until 2002.
In absolute numbers, there has been a constant increase in farms of this size since 1964 (when there were 60,293 of them), increasing to 80,393 in 2007. In fact, despite their decrease as a percent of all farms in the last 5 years, the absolute number of farms with 2000 or more acres has increased by 2423 farms.
These farms may make up only 3.6% of all farms, but their sales represent 27% of sales by all farms of any size and their land makes up over half of all farm acres in the U.S. And these farms are totally on the government take. Nearly 1/3 of all government money that goes to farms goes to farms over 2000 acres.
In short - the number of these large farms has grown consistently throughout history and does not show a sign of stopping. These farms are profiting. Only a very small percent are struggling financially, and while about 12% of these farms are retired or have a principle occupation other than farming, the remainder are farmers by occupation and financially successful to boot.
So who are these farmers, and what's happening on their farms?
The 2007 Ag Census came out this week. I wrote up some info about American farms through history yesterday. In this diary, I am going to focus on the second smallest group of farms - 10 to 49 acres.
These farms made up 28.1% of all American farms in 2007 - the largest percent they've made up of our farms on record since 1964. In 1964, they made up 20.2% of all farms and that percent has gone up and down throughout history, reaching a low at 16.4% in 1974. In acreage, these farms make up 1.7% of all American farmland.
In absolute numbers, there was a decline in farms of this size since 1964 (when there were 637,434 of them), and the numbers went up and down for several years, reaching a low of 379,543 in 1974. They've been on the rise since 1992 though, and there are now 620,283 - almost as many farms of this size as there were in 1964. In fact, in 2007 there were 56,511 more farms of this size than there were in 2002.
In short - just like the smallest farms (1-9 acres), the good news is that farms of 10-49 acres increased in numbers between 2002 and 2007, but the bad news is that most people aren't actually making a living on these farms.
So who are these farmers, and what's happening on their farms?
