WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2016 - Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack says he wants to make sure his successor gets off to a good start, so
he’s preparing a long, private memorandum providing advice about what he
considers potential challenges and opportunities at USDA.
Vilsack, who talked to Agri-Pulse’s Sara Wyant on
the sidelines of the World Food Prize symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, says the
memo is already up to 15 pages. He didn’t go into detail about what’s in it but
did say it will include thoughts about how the department is structured.
Vilsack says the memo will cover current projects at USDA as
well as “the things that may cause some challenges” or that the new secretary
“may want to build on.”
Vilsack: Change the farm bill’s name to broaden support. Vilsack
also has some advice for the House and Senate Agriculture committees as he
prepares to leave office: Change the name of the farm bill. He isn’t offering
any ideas, but he says Americans don’t understand how much of a stake they have
in the bill.
“They don’t think there’s any reason for them to want
investment in it. But if you say it’s an infrastructure bill, it’s a trade
bill, it’s a job bill, it’s a natural resource conservation bill, it’s a farmer
bill … then maybe folks will understand that there is something in it for every
American, regardless of where they live.”
New GIPSA move toward release. The Obama administration
appears poised to act on one of the last unfinished agricultural issues on its
plate. USDA was expected today to send a set of rules to the White House Office
of Management and Budget to tighten legal protections for livestock and poultry
producers.
According to sources familiar with USDA’s plans, there will
be two proposed rules on contracts and undue preference and an interim final
rule on competitive injury. Once the OMB review is finished, the Grain
Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) can release the rules
and accept public comment on them.
Industry groups still have a chance to head off the rules in
Congress when lawmakers negotiate a spending agreement for the rest of the
fiscal year. But that may be a long shot, since the White House is certain to
fight including language in the spending deal that would stop the rules from
being implemented under the new administration.
California dominating EQIP spending. A new searchable database compiled
by the Environmental Working Groups is giving a glimpse of where USDA
conservation spending is going. According to an
analysis that EWG compiled for Agri-Pulse, six of the top seven
counties under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program are in California’s
Central Valley.
EQIP has been widely used in the region for improving
irrigation systems and upgrading diesel engines to lower-polluting models.
Farmers in the two top EQIP counties, San Joaquin and Merced, have received
more than $54 million. The two counties have received more than $41 million
between them as cost-share payments for irrigation systems.
Sussex County in Delaware has received the most EQIP funding
outside California – $39 million. The totals represent EQIP spending from 1997
to 2015.
The database also includes spending on the Conservation
Stewardship Program from 2011 through 2014. Cavalier County in North Dakota is
the No. 1 recipient in CSP, with total payments of just under $20 million,
followed by counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Minnesota.
Pecans, cotton took hit in Georgia. Georgia Agriculture
Commissioner Gary Black says Hurricane Matthew caused more damage to farmers
than he expected. Pecan orchards were the hardest hit, he says, with some farms
losing as much as one-third of their trees, many of them more than 100 years old.
Some cotton crops also have been lost, because the high
winds drove the fiber to the ground or left it badly tangled.
Georgia Farm Bureau President Gerald Long joined Black in a
tour of farms in three counties hit by the storm. “This will not just be a one-year
hit, but a long-term effect that will take years for our growers to overcome,”
Long said.
EDF leader defends ‘Big Ag’ against Pollan. David
Festa, a senior vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, says author
Michael Pollan is missing the boat with his sweeping criticism of the U.S. food
system. In a blog
post for EDF, Festa says farmers and food companies are making
significant strides to reduce agriculture’s environmental impact.
“The uptick in consumer demand for local, organic products
is promising. So, too, are the contributions that Pollan’s so-called villains –
the companies, agribusinesses and commodity farmers who produce what’s on our plate
– are making to the environment. They deserve recognition,” Festa writes.
Festa is responding to a piece Pollan
wrote for The New York Times in which he accused the Obama administration of
giving into resistance from agribusiness and the food industry.
Food prize laureates honored. The 2016 World Food Prize
winners were announced in the nation’s capital this June, but last night the
four new laureates were surrounded by global dignitaries and applauded during a
glitzy celebration at the Iowa State Capitol where they shared a check for
$250,000.
The event is the centerpiece of a three-day international
symposium – the Borlaug Dialogue – which regularly draws over 1,200 people from
60 countries to discuss cutting-edge issues in global food security. This year
– the 30thanniversary of Dr. Norman Borlaug establishing the World Food Prize –
the conference is organized around the theme, “Let Food Be Thy Medicine.”
Biofortification is the buzz. It’s a fitting theme,
given that the four new laureates were selected for their work on
biofortification – the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops
is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern
biotechnology – as a way to address malnutrition and stunting.
He said it. “Let’s rename the thing. Don’t call it a farm
bill, because that’s too narrow.” - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, when
asked about a lesson he learned from development of the 2014 farm bill.
#30
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