Important message from the Rural Coalition

URGENT: USDA Sign-On Letter

The Farm and Food Policy Diversity Initiative and the Sustainable Ag Coalition are circulating the following sign-on letter to Agriculture Secretary Schafer regarding the new Office of Advocacy and Outreach created in Section 14013 of the 2008 Farm Bill. The Office of Advocacy and Outreach will be responsible for ensuring that small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers have access to USDA programs. In general, it will also ensure coordination between, monitoring of, and goal-setting for all USDA programs that address small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged producers. USDA has yet to establish the new office and there is concern that they may not place it within executive operations under the Secretary or transfer programs from the Office of Civil Rights, despite the clear statutory directive to do so.

What to do:

The deadline for sign-on is COB this Thursday, September 4. Please email your organization name, city and state and a contact person to Lpicciano@ruralco.org if your organization would like to sign on.

For further information contact: Ferd Hoefner, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at fhoefner@sustainableagriculturecoalition.org, Traci Bruckner, Center for Rural Affairs, at tracib@cfra.org, or Lorette Picciano, Farm and Food Policy Diversity Initiative atlpicciano@ruralco.org.

The Honorable Ed Schafer
Secretary of Agriculture
200-A Jamie L Whitten Building
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Schafer,

As you move forward with the implementation of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, we the undersigned believe it is critical that the newly created Office of Advocacy and Outreach (section 14013) be implemented in a manner that allows it to best achieve its important mission. In creating this office, Congress identified the clear need to place direct emphasis on small farms and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. In order to achieve the mission of assuring access for these emerging sectors of US agriculture to USDA programs, coordination and accountability across all USDA mission areas is critical. It is therefore essential that this office be placed at the Departmental level, as Congress provided, directly reporting to you, the Secretary of Agriculture. In this and other sections of the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress also recognized the need to make special provisions for the often similar needs small, beginning and socially disadvantaged producers face in achieving viability and profitability. As such, two separate but very much related groups were established within the Office, each adding new functions while continuing and expanding previous work of significant but previously unrelated entities:

1. The Socially Disadvantaged Farmers group includes the new Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers established under Section 14009, and the Farmworker Coordinator established in Section 14013. The existing functions of the current Office of Outreach and Diversity which serves socially disadvantaged producers and minority serving institutions are also transferred to the Office of Advocacy and Outreach from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, thereby allowing the ASCR to focus solely on the critical tasks of assuring USDA compliance with civil rights laws and addressing the many unresolved civil rights cases and issues. This transfer allows the functions of the current Office of Outreach and Diversity to be separated from the issues of program and service discrimination and folded into a special group that focuses on building a better present and future in agriculture for socially disadvantaged producers.

2. The Small and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers group is given responsibility for continuing and building upon the functions for the existing Office of Small Farms Coordination, the Small Farms and Beginning Farmer and Rancher Council, and the Advisory Committee for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, plus a consultative role on the administration of the Beginning Farmer and Ranchers Development Program administered by CSREES.

No less important than providing a new home and enhanced responsibilities for these ongoing programs and functions is the new law's wider vision of the duties of the new office, including establishing departmental goals and objectives, measuring outcomes, and providing input into programmatic and policy decisions. These new functions require office location outside of any agency or mission area. In the 2008 Farm Bill, Congress also adopted a wide variety of special provisions to address the needs of both socially disadvantaged and beginning farmers. Implementation of these provisions also underscores the urgent need for a separate office at the Departmental level that coordinates and monitors outreach and services across all mission areas to assure access to new programs and to measure and report results.

For these reasons, the legislation purposely includes specific language that ensures this office would be created at the Department level. Section 14013 states, "Secretary shall establish within the executive operations of the Department an office to be known as the 'Office of Advocacy and Outreach.'" There can be no other meaning to this language than as to create this office as a separate office directly under and reporting to the Secretary, rather than under or through any other office, mission area, Assistant Secretary, or Under Secretary. We urge you to move forward with this office as a clearly separate office, equal to other Executive Operations offices in a timely manner.

As regulations to establish the Office of Advocacy and Outreach are created, it is essential this office and its two branches be rooted in and enhance relationships to the many agencies of the Department through the existing networks of Outreach and Small Farm Coordinators. The implementation team and the new directors and staff of the office must include Coordinators and others with significant experience working with small farms and with beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers and deep understanding of the current and emerging programs of the Department.

The Department's focus on small farms and beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers as a key sector of agriculture has been sporadic and fractured to the detriment of the producers. The USDA should make full use of this new authority to devote the full front-and-center attention that will allow this sector to flourish to the benefit of rural communities and our food system.

Sincerely,

Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural, Washington, DC
Intertribal Agriculture Council, Billings, MT
And more.

Cc: Sen. Tom Harkin
Rep. Collin Peterson
Sen. Russ Feingold

A Gnat on an Elephant?

The Farm Bill looks to be closer to getting passed. After getting log jammed around a variety of economic and political issues, it looks to be headed out of committee next week. While President Bush is apparently still threatening to veto it, and while the Congressman in our area, Randy Neugebauer, has threatened to lead an over-ride of the veto, we'll just have to wait and see.

According to Senator Grassley of Iowa, the bill addresses the major issues pushed by the president, but is apparently still very far short of reform. Among other things, still the wealthiest of farmers continue to get subsidies while President Bush wanted limits on subsidies. According to Grassley and his list of top ten reforms in the farm bill, it is a "good faith" effort on behalf of Congress to get it done.

At the bottom of Grassley's top ten list is the one that jumps out as relative to these pages, "provides for right of action for Pigford Claims Act." Late claimants number approximately 75,000 black farmers who were denied access to the Pigford Consent Decree. What is right about this provision is that it acknowledges the problem; what it doesn't provide is a clear vision for righting the wrongs. It just opens up the possibility for wrongs to be righted. Let's all hope, and pray, and lobby for this provision to stand out loud and clear.

Other provisions of the bill allow for special consideration for socially disadvantaged farmers and first time farmers. Those are good things, but are they enough?

Here's the link to Grassley's page which will list in more detail his top ten reforms of the bill.

Here's what our area congressman wrote in his post to constituents yesterday:

NEUGEBAUER HAILS COMPLETION OF THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REPORT ON THE 2008 FARM BILL; CALLS FOR FARM BILL HARVEST

“The seeds have been planted; now we must prepare to harvest. It is time to roll up our sleeves and take this to the finish line”

WASHINGTON, DC – As the conference committee wrapped up an agreement on the 2008 Farm Bill Conference Committee Report, Congressman Randy Neugebauer (TX-19) released the following statement:

“I am pleased the conference committee was able to reach agreement on the 2008 Farm Bill. This is a substantial step towards this legislation becoming law. Seed has been planted across America, and it is time to set a farm policy that gives producers certainty for this crop season and beyond. As final language and budget numbers are completed, it is my expectation that the House and Senate will vote on this final Farm Bill package next week.

“While this legislation will make some changes I do not support, farm policy overall will remain very similar to policy under the 2002 Farm Bill, which producers across the district tell me has suited them well. Because of the delay in completing this legislation, no major changes will be implemented for the 2008 crop year.

“I call on the House and Senate leadership to bring this long overdue legislation to the respective chambers for consideration as soon as possible. Additionally, I spoke directly to the Secretary of Agriculture and the White House yesterday to stress the importance of signing this bill into law.

“While only 16 percent of this bill deals directly with agriculture production, it is that 16 percent that serves as the vehicle for the various other provisions in the bill. Without food production, nutrition and food assistance programs become irrelevant.

“In the 19th Congressional District, producers have crops in the ground and throughout the nation the planting season is well underway. We cannot afford to move forward without a sound farm policy for our producers. Without it, we face the risk of losing agriculture infrastructure and becoming dependent on other nations for food and fiber as we already are for energy.

“Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and finally take this long overdue legislation across the finish line. Again, I urge both the Senate and House leadership to bring this to a vote as soon as possible and ask that my colleagues support this critical legislation. Most importantly, I call on President Bush to sign this bill as soon as it reaches his desk. Should the President decide to veto this legislation, I will vote to override his veto and will encourage my colleagues to do so as well.”
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Be it resolved

This resolution passed unanimously in a democratic party precinct caucus recently. The vote on it at the county caucus is unknown at the present time. An Iowa Democrat requested to use it there. It's for use anywhere and in whatever way furthers the case of Black farmers and others who are in the class of "socially disadvantaged farmers."

Resolution on Behalf of Socially Disadvantaged Farmers

Whereas the CRAT report of USDA secretary in 1997 admits to discrimination of African American farmers; whereas Pigford V. Glickman and Keepseagle v. Veneman have failed in attempts to address grievances against African American and American Indian farmers; whereas the 2007 Farm Bill contains an insufficient sum of dollars to address grievances of Black farmers who were denied admission to the Pigford Consent Decree; and whereas current USDA policy contains too few economic incentives for first time farmers or farmers who wish to re-enter farming who classify as socially disadvantaged farmers (African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian American, women farmers, and others);

Be it resolved: )1) That the Democratic Party of Texas encourage Congress to more sufficiently fund efforts to address injustices done to socially disadvantaged farmers beyond the scope of the 2007 Farm Bill; (2) That the Democratic Party of Texas encourage a greater degree of disclosure within the Office of Civil Rights relative to the successful adjudication of civil rights complaints against socially disadvantaged farmers; (3) That the Democratic Party of Texas encourage the USDA to add significantly to the economic packages that encourage first time farmers or farmers who wish to re-enter farming; and (4) That the Democratic Party of Texas demand that current policies and procedures within the USDA/FSA relative to all programs related to farming be equally applied to all farmers without regard to minority status.

And Let the Debate Begin

Thanks to a case of the stomach bug that's passing through Abilene the last few days, my wife and I are finding the Senate debate about H.R. 2419 more than interesting. It began yesterday with summaries of the bill, better known as the 2007 Farm Bill, kudos to all who participated, and words of appreciation and respect to all on both sides of the isle who have made this a bipartisan bill. Beyond the technicalities of the titles and the billions of dollars in each area, and implications of the bill and its massive scope, eventually, eventually, one senator spoke with passion about the impact of the bill on family farms and farming.

Naturally, for an educator, the posters, graphs, and charts were interesting. Too bad they couldn't use power point. On the other hand, as a listener-and-gatherer-of-stories kind of a professional, the segment on daily life on the farm by the senator from North Dakota was compelling. To those of us who live in cities, large or small, removed from the country-side, we need to be reminded of life in the country, and the display of labor and love by the 2% of our population who feed the 98% of us.

On the other hand, given the purposes of this blog, and the interests that fuel the flames of those of us who write on these cyber-pages, there was a glaring omission. Yes, I get it that the funding for the socially disadvantaged farmers is minuscule by comparison to funding in other titles, but my hope in our people is that eventually there will be meaningful debate and deliberative action on behalf of the disadvantaged farmers of our land, the African American farmer, the American Indian farmer, the women farmers, and others. And, I hope and pray that those who once farmed, who are still holding on to their land, will be able to farm again, and, I pray for those in rural areas who have never farmed will be provided that opportunity.

There was a shout out for the struggles of those who have lost their land to foreclosures due to inadequate responses to disaster, thus, the need for a more expeditious process with regard to disaster relief and funding. On the other hand, some of us have heard story after story, agonizing story after agonizing story, painful story after painful story, of Black farmers and their spouses and children watching as local officials come to repossess property and to place signs of foreclosure on family land. It is indeed a family farm issue; it is also a Black farmer issue. It is especially a Black farmer issue.

So, by the time the debate comes to and end, and hopefully the debate on procedural matters will end today, I am hoping and praying for more than just a small shout out to the struggles of African American farmers. They deserve more. In my opinion, we are obligated to make way for more than our history has provided.