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
I was initially going to title this "USDA Competition Reform Under Threat" but that won't get anyone's attention. The sum total of the impact of this story is that there's a proposed rule (details here) that would dramatically reform the livestock industry to make it more competitive and to take away the unfair advantages factory farms and meatpackers enjoy so that all farmers can fairly compete... and the meat industry is putting Congress and the USDA under heavy pressure to do away with this proposed rule before it goes into effect. The House Ag Committee, in turn, just totally grilled the USDA in a hearing this past week, and they are obviously willing to take action on behalf of the meatpacking and factory farm industries here. Congress NEEDS to hear from us. They need to know that we support fair competition and that we are FOR the proposed GIPSA rule.
I'm leaving Guadalajara tomorrow and likely won't have internet for the next week or so after that, so I can't follow up on this immediately. But I will follow up once I get back in order to provide more information on this so folks can write informed letters to the USDA and to Congress.
Now, one year after the Honduran coup that ousted Honduran President Zelaya, Zelaya has come out saying that the U.S. was behind the coup. According to Zelaya:
His ouster was the result, the letter said, of adopting measures in 2006 that affected U.S. oil companies, and a plan to convert the U.S.-built Palmerola airbase into a civilian airport.
Another reason for his fall, according to Zelaya, was his rejection of the "recessionary policies of the IMF (International Monetary Fund)" in favor of subsidizing transportation and boosting wages.
Zelaya also claimed that Washington also didn't approve of Honduras' decision to join Venezuela's Petrocaribe initiative, under which Caribbean and Central American nations receive Venezuelan oil on generous terms.
The U.S., of course, denies it. That said, the U.S. is having a great time in post-Zelaya Honduras. Last week, a USDA press release described how the U.S. is promoting biotech in Honduras, which Zelaya's successor, President Lobo, supports. The press release tells how the U.S. donates excess U.S. agricultural commodities to a group in Honduras, which sells the commodities and uses the money to buy the inputs for industrial agriculture. Awesome. I must say that the only benefit of being flat broke is that I pay minimal taxes to the U.S. government to support this garbage.
The USDA has come out with a new proposed rule and - based on the reaction it has gotten thus far - it's a big fucking deal. In a good way. Here's how the AP described the new rule:
The rules would place the sharpest limits on meat companies since the Great Depression, drastically lowering the bar that farmers and ranchers must meet to sue companies whom they accuse of demanding unfairly low prices.
The rules would dictate how meatpackers buy cattle on the open market, and prohibit them from showing preference to big feedlots rather than buying from small producers.
They would also limit the control chicken companies have over the farmers who raise birds for them. The companies couldn't require farmers to take on debt to invest in chicken houses, for example, unless farmers were guaranteed to recoup 80 percent of the cost.
The law would also make it easier to file suits under the Depression-era Packers and Stockyards Act by stating that farmers don't need to prove industrywide anticompetitive behavior to file a lawsuit under the act.
Sen. Feingold, a longtime champion for fair competition in agriculture, has already come out praising this rule in a statement I've included below. South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson praised the rule as well, as did R-CALF USA. You can see the USDA's press release about this here and the actual rule itself here.
One of the biggest hurdles to producing or obtaining local, sustainable meat is the lack of slaughterhouses that are USDA-inspected (or even state-inspected) and willing to slaughter livestock in small, occasional batches from small farmers. The big slaughterhouses want a constant supply of animals to kill - they aren't interested in processing 15 cows a year if that's all you've got. A friend actually looked into what it would take to have a local slaughterhouse process her chickens. The answer came back: Don't bother asking the price, you can't afford it. The reason? For the slaughterhouse to do all of the required cleaning before accepting her small number of chickens, it would cost so much that the cost-per-chicken would be outrageous.
It's with this in mind that I read a very disturbing email that was forwarded on by the Cornucopia Institute. The email lays out a problem very well, so I have pasted it below but removed anything identifying the sender. The basic problem is that the USDA wants to impose regulations on all slaughterhouses (big and small alike) that would cost the little guys (or their customers, small farmers) more money than they can afford.
Last week, Vilsack was to give a speech on the USDA's priorities for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (which covers school lunch). This was canceled, but excerpts of the speech were released. I've included his list of priorities below, along with some analysis about what they mean. See also the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's comments on Vilsack's stated priorities.
The Obama administration's competing agricultural policies could prompt a bad case of indigestion - or whiplash.
Longtime food policy observers are having a difficult time squaring the Department of Agriculture's entrenched preference for high-tech industrial agriculture that emphasizes biotechnology and genetically engineered crops with its newfound interest in helping those who favor low-tech ag: small farmers, advocates of organic and local food and champions of sustainability.
Margaret Mellon, senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, describes the USDA as schizophrenic. "It wants to promote both organic and sustainable local," she said. "It is also committed to promotion of biotech here and around the world. So far, there has not been collision between those two priorities, but I'm not sure that situation will last much longer."
She's got it soooo right. I think this idiotic contradictory policy is due to a fundamental lack of understanding of agriculture... and a very good understanding of politics. Obama's doing very well to try and please two very disparate constituencies - the biotech/pesticide lobby and health & environmentally conscious citizens. You can't have it both ways, but they sure are trying.
In a diary posted at Daily Kos, I have outlined seven reasons to be concerned about President Obama's planned nominee for Under Secretary of Food Safety, at USDA. Unfortunately, you'll have to go there to read it because this site keeps rejecting the code I tried to cross-post. (Something about a "java" error.)
I do hope that you will read it, though, because the safety of our food supply depends on getting the right person in that job.
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a recall on 864,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The meat was packaged by Montebello, Calif.-based Huntington Meat Packing and sold to consumers under the Huntington, Imperial Meat, and El Rancho brands. Some of the meat in question was sold almost two years ago. This is the second beef recall of 2010-the first came on January 11 and was initiated by the Massachusetts Department of Health over 2,500 pounds of beef from Adams Farm Slaughterhouse, LLC.
Each year there are more and more recalls so it may seem that the government is getting a handle on dangerous tainted beef but much of the 864,000 pound recall was already sold and the reason for the Adams Farm recall was that someone got sick.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2010 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the availability of $25 million in grants to help schools operating a National School Lunch Program (NSLP) replace outdated equipment with new, energy efficient, appliances such as refrigerators, ovens, and other food service related equipment.
Often, poorly equipped kitchens are a major roadblock to schools serving healthy lunches. Schools where more than 50 percent of the kids are eligible for free or reduced price meals will receive priority when these grants are awarded.
If I understand right, this is money that was authorized by Congress previously and it is being made available by the USDA now. In other words, it's great news but it's not unexpected. However, since Rep. Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee (the committee that will pass the Child Nutrition Reauthorization this year), has put out a statement applauding these grants, perhaps we WILL see new money for future, similar grants authorized soon.
It's encouraging to know that a voice for family farmers and sustainable practices will be running Vilsack's office. In recommending Ross for an under-secretary position at the USDA, Michael Dimock of Roots of Change wrote more than a year ago,
Karen will represent well the diverse crops of our nation's largest agricultural state. We know she will be a voice of innovation and adaptation that will support full expression of a sustainable agriculture over time. She did a great job shepherding the State Board's recent visioning process for agriculture that rendered what we see as a very constructive vision for our future. Karen has also been a defining and constructive voice in the [Roots of Change]-funded California Roundtable for Agriculture and the Environment.
The visioning process Dimock mentions was California Ag Vision, an "effort to develop a broad consensus on how California might arrive at a farming and food system that can be sustained by the year 2030."
Earlier today I wrote about 17 new 2-year appointments to a federal Dairy Industry Advisory Committee. I was happy that my friend, dairy farmer Jim Goodman, was among the appointees. It turns out that another one of the appointees is someone I'm familiar with. Bob Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese is also joining the committee. There are two important things to know about Cedar Grove in my opinion. One is that they provide "domestic fair trade" cheese (available for purchase at the link). Second, they clean their waste water in an INCREDIBLE and very eco-friendly way, using a contraption they call "the Living Machine."
I realize that Jim and Bob might be just token appointees to this committee to appease sustainable ag and family farm advocates, but I am very, very glad that their voices will be heard on this committee. Also, given the crisis that dairy is in right now, if you eat cheese and you want to do something to help, I urge you to check out Cedar Grove's cheese.
If you follow this site, you know that dairy is in a colossal crisis. The USDA knows it too, and thus far none of the government's "fixes" (like buying up lots of extra milk) have worked. Now Vilsack has announced the appointment of 17 members to a federal Dairy Industry Advisory Committee. From their press release:
Over the next two years, the committee will review the issues of farm milk price volatility, dairy farmer profitability and consolidation, and offer suggestions on ways USDA can best address the needs of a struggling dairy industry.
The best news of all is that LVL blogger Jim Goodman is on the committee!!!! The USDA announced that the committee would include "producers and producer organizations, processors and processor organizations, handlers, consumers, academia, retailers, and state agencies involved in organic and non-organic dairy at the local, regional, national, and international levels." Goodman is an organic dairy farmer in Wisconsin, a member of Family Farm Defenders, and a Kellogg/IATP Food and Society Policy Fellow.
Here is the full list of members:
Producer members appointed to the committee are: Erick Coolidge (Pa.), Timothy den Dulk (Mich.), Debora Erb (N.H.), James Goodman (Wis.), James Krahn, (Ore.), Edward Maltby (Mass.), Manuel Souza (Calif.), Ed Welch (Minn.), and James Williams (Ga.).
Representatives from the processing industry include: Jay Bryant (Va.), Patricia Stroup (Calif.), Sue Taylor (Colo.), and Robert Wills. (Wis.).
Members representing state government, retail, academia, and consumers are: Rodney Nilsestuen (Wis.), Robert Schupper (Pa.), Andrew Novakovic (N.Y.), and Paul Bourbeau (Vt.).
UPDATE: From the comments:
Paul Bourbeau, VT, Paboco Farms, Inc.
Jay Bryant, VA, Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association
Erick Coolidge, PA, Le-Ma-Ra Farm
Timothy Den Dulk, MI, den Dulk Dairy Farm, LLC
Debora Erb, NH, Springvale Farms/Landaff Creamery, LLC
James Goodman, WI, Northwood Farm
James Krahn, OR, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association
Edward Maltby, MA, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance
Rodney Nilsestuen, WI, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
Andrew Novakovic, NY, Cornell University
Robert Schupper, PA, Giant Food Stores
Manuel Souza, CA, Mel-Delin Dairy
Patricia Stroup, CA, Nestle
Sue Taylor, CO, Leprino Foods Company, Inc.
Edward Welch, MN, Associated Milk Producers Inc.
James Williams, GA, Williams Dairy Trucking, Inc.
Robert Wills, WI, Cedar Grove Cheese Inc.
Another commenter spoke highly of Ed Maltby, so that's good news too. Plus I wrote a diary to follow up on this one about Bob Wills and Cedar Grove (he's great, his cheese is great). And I've heard some not so good things about Rod Nilsestuen.
The USDA's assessment of the House climate change bill (H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, a.k.a. ACES) was just released. Here's a short summary of the 80-page report (below). Also check out Tom Vilsack's statement on the report.
The USDA is doing a 3-year project to assess the effectiveness of hoophouses for conservation. This is part of their larger, "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" effort. They say in their press release (below) that they know hoophouses are useful in helping farmers extend the growing season but they want to know if they are good for conservation too. Very cool!
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is using our tax dollars to make loans to hog and poultry factory farms at a time when we have too many factory farms, too much pork and poultry on the market, and record-low pork and poultry prices.
To make matters worse, USDA is also using our tax dollars (about $150 million so far) to buy overproduced pork and poultry off the market in an effort to stabilize prices. [...]
Based on its own data, USDA has provided over $264 million in loans to build new factory farms in the past two years. [...]
In the past, USDA has said it doesn't want to suspend these loans because it doesn't want to eliminate credit going to beginning farmers. We have to remember, though, that these loans - which are averaging about $500,000 each - are going solely for the construction of new and expanding hog and poultry factory farms. Why encourage beginning farmers to put up capital-intensive factory farms when there is already severe overproduction and record-low prices? USDA could provide much smaller loans to many more beginning family farmers if it stopped making factory farm loans, and directed the money elsewhere.
