Vilsack to NFU: It’s up to you
By Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report
| Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told National Farmers Union members in Washington for a fly-in on Monday that the continuation of his programs to diversify the sources of income for farmers depends on their ability to convince Congress to continue the funding sources that have made those programs possible. “Do you want a farm bill for the few or for the many and the most? It’s up to you,” Vilsack told the members of the Democratic-leaning Farmers Union, who had been invited to assemble in the Jefferson Auditorium of the Agriculture Department’s South Buildings across from the headquarters in Washington. Using a whiteboard on which he wrote, Vilsack went through the speech he has been giving in Washington and around the country in recent months. In that speech Vilsack says that for small and medium-sized farmers to be able to stay in agriculture, they need broader sources of income than just commodity sales of crops and livestock, and that the Biden administration is determined to help them develop a broader set of markets. Vilsack noted that the sources of funding for the climate-smart agriculture programs to pay farmers to change their practices, the biobased programs involving ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel, and the programs to develop local and regional markets for foods go beyond the farm bill to the Inflation Reduction Act and his use of the Commodity Credit Corporation, USDA’s line of credit at the Treasury to help farmers when they are in trouble. |
| In a separate presentation, Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie pointed out that the Partnerships for Climate Smart Agriculture program is a commodity program, not a conservation program. Bonnie told the Farmers Union members that when they are lobbying on Capitol Hill, “the ripple” can be felt at USDA. Republicans in Congress have said they want to raise the reference prices that trigger farm subsidy payments because both farm prices and input costs have risen, and have suggested that taking money from a climate-smart conservation program in the Inflation Reduction Act would be a way to come up with the budget authority. But Vilsack said that raising reference prices for all commodities would cost $2 billion per year and would help only “a few farmers,” while the conservation money in the IRA is for all farmers. (The Environmental Working Group said last week that raising reference prices would be an advantage for fewer than 6,000 farmers, mostly in the South.) Vilsack also noted that the Biden adminstration “didn’t wait for Congress to start” the climate-smart agriculture program, and that he had used the CCC. Some Republicans claim this was an improper use of the CCC and have proposed limiting Vilsack’s authority to use it. Vilsack said that since he was secretary the first time in the Obama administration, the country has lost 16,700 farms and 6.9 million acres in agriculture. When Vilsack reminded the Farmers Union members that Sonny Perdue, the Agriculture secretary in the Trump administration, had once said farmers had to get big or get out, and asked whether they were OK with that, shouts of “no” rang out from the audience. Vilsack also noted that the IRA contains “enormous tax credits” for sustainable fuels and that he is “confident” USDA can work with Treasury and the Environmental Protection Agency to produce economic models that are flexible enough to encompass a variety of feedstocks. |
| Agriculture Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small, who welcomed the Farmers Union members, said she liked the whiteboard speech because “it is not a tag line but a speech to make sure farmers get their fair share of the food dollar.” Agriculture Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt, whose responsibilities including overseeing the Packers and Stockyards Act and organic agriculture, said that USDA is planning to finalize some rules this year and others next year. While Farmers Union members gave Vilsack a standing ovation and Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen said President Biden’s executive order on competition is a “high water mark” on policy, not all members appeared totally satisfied with Vilsack’s approach. George Davis, a member of the California Farmers Union, told Vilsack that, while these long term plans were good, there is an immediate need to help California dairy farmers. Vilsack said those farmers should look into applications for the climate-smart program and noted that USDA is currently holding hearings on restructuring the Federal Milk Marketing Order system. |
