Senate Set to Deliberate Farm Bill This Week

As you know, both the Senate and House Agriculture Committees held their respective committee “markup” sessions this past week. Thanks to everyone who wrote, called, tweeted and watched the sessions live. There are so many important pieces to this Farm Bill, that is does take some extra effort to stay up to date, so we thank you and the great policy minds in our “good food community” for staying sharp.

Our friends at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition have been keeping a close eye on each amendment that has been voted on. You can see their Amendment Tracker here and read their latest analysis.

We will be following the ongoing deliberations of the farm bill on the Senate floor, where it will be considered all week, so stay tuned for the final determinations and discussions on how these amendments will affect sustainable agriculture.

Farm Bill In Discussion

You can watch the House discussion live HERE.

Details on the 2013 Farm Bill - watch live!

Watch the hearings live HERE:  

http://www.capitolhearings.org/Hearing/SSAF00201305141000/russell328A.aspx  and tweet your thoughts  https://twitter.com/liverealninja/senate-ag-committee

Stay tuned for details - follow the news here or join us on Face Book.

Your Outreach Efforts Count!

Thank you all for signing on to the Rural Coalition’s letter to Congress asking for a fair and fully funded Farm Bill.  As you all know this bill has a powerful effect on our (sustainable agriculture’s) ability to do our work.  Over the past year you’ve heard us talk about the Farm Bill on conference calls, at our conference. We’ve asked you to sign letters, call your member of Congress and send out alerts. We are truly thankful for your efforts. While it may not seem like it based on Congress’s actions, your outreach is extremely important. 

Over the next week, we will need your help more than ever.  Tuesday May 14^th the Senate and Wednesday May 15^th the House will be discussing the Farm Bill.  We need to make sure that the Farm Bill is on the radar of EVERY member of Congress from the south.  They need to understand how this bill affects everything from our agricultural businesses to our dinner plates.  If you have benefitted from funding from the Farm Bill let us know, most important, let your member of Congress know.  So far NO Southern Senator has co-sponsored the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act or the Local Farm Food and Jobs Act.  They need to hear from you.  Take this week to reach out and talk to them and their staff.  Please stay tuned to the Ag Policy page for updates on the Farm Bill.  Don’t forget to share your story with us on Facebook.  Until Monday have a great weekend!

Full and Fair Farm Bill Sign On Letter

This Letter is sent on Behalf of the Undersigned Groups. For more information contact Lorette Picciano, Rural Coalition at lpicciano@ruralco.org or 202-628-7160; Katherine Ozer, National Family Farm Coalition at kozer@nffc.net or 202-543-5675 and Ferd Hoefner, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition at fhoefner@sustainableagriculture.net, 202-547-5754.  YOU CAN SIGN ON HERE

The Honorable Debbie Stabenow Chairwoman Senate Agriculture Committee The Honorable Thad Cochran Ranking Member Senate Agriculture Committee The Honorable Frank Lucas Chairman House Agriculture Committee The Honorable Collin Peterson Ranking Member House Agriculture Committee Dear Chairs and Ranking Members, As Congress continues its work on a new farm bill, we write to express our support for the Agriculture Committee efforts to complete a full and fair 2013 Farm Bill that will increase economic opportunity for the nation’s diverse family farmers, farmworkers, rural and urban communities and Indian Tribes; protect the environment; and ensure proper nutrition for all families and communities. We, the undersigned organizations, all have recommendations for the farm bill that extend well beyond the specific issues in this letter, but we focus here on specific equity considerations. We support a full and fair package that balances any reductions across all areas of the Farm Bill, mitigates disasters especially for the most vulnerable producers, protects natural resources, enhances equity and inclusion, constructs a new and economically viable future for agriculture and rural communities, and assures healthy food for all consumers. For years we have struggled to achieve a fair share of federal farm spending for all the communities we serve. Working with you in the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills, we have made significant strides forward to allocate a small but growing portion of overall US farm and food policy to enhance equity for our nation’s diverse producers and farmworkers, secure a future in agriculture for new entry farmers and rural, urban and tribal communities, and provide fresh, local food for all consumers. Unfortunately, the farm bill extension we are currently operating under has shut down many of these very programs, setting back the modest progress achieved earlier. We urge you to provide long-term protection and continued funding to this critical subset of small programs and offices charged with serving the most chronically underserved segments of agriculture. These represent a fraction of the full agriculture budget but are the lifeblood of a sustainable agriculture, rural development and food policy, including Indian Tribes, socially disadvantaged, beginning, and veteran producers, and farmworkers. As you continue to shape your policy and budget proposals, we urge you to assure strong farm bill mandatory funding support at no less than $20 million a year each for the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program, Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, and Value-Added Producer Grants, as well as at least $4 million a year for Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program. A fairer farm bill would also provide appropriate waiver, premium reduction, targeting, and advanced payment provisions for beginning, limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers within the farm bill conservation, credit, crop insurance, NAP, specialty crop, and rural development programs. In this light, we urge you to include all of the provisions of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act and the 2013 Farm Bill Equity and Access Priorities Package in the new five-year farm bill (summaries attached; noting that a number of priorities are included in both packages). As you proceed with your farm policy deliberations, we urge you to make all funding and policy recommendations relative to farm bill programs with an eye toward the future, a concern for the next generations of our nation’s farmers and ranchers and healthy and nutritious for food for all, and great care to being inclusive of women, minority, tribal and limited resource farmers, farmworkers and rural and urban communities who are oftentimes in most need of these important programs. Sign On Here:

For more information: https://www.ruralco.org/FarmBillEquityPackage

We Need You!

The Farm Bill is alive and we need your help!  On May 14^th and May 15^th the Senate and House are meeting to markup the Farm Bill. What does this mean? It means that on Tuesday, May 14^th the Senate Agriculture Committee will meet to discuss the Farm Bill and determine which programs (marker bills) should be included in the final draft.  The House will do the same on Wednesday, May 15^th.

Two Bills we would like to see fully funded and included in the final Farm Bill draft:

• Local Food Farm and Jobs Act—Introduced in the senate by  Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) There are no Southern Senator co-sponsors of this bill. There are 17 cosponsors. This bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Chellie Pinegree (D-ME-1).  Out of 53 co-sponsors for this bill only six are from Southern Representatives. Click here for more information.
• Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act—Introduced by Rep. Timothy Walz (D-MN-1) there are only two co-sponsors from all the southern states on this bill.  There are a total of 11 co-sponsors.  In the senate, the bill was introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and there are NO Southern Senate co-sponsors. Click here for more information.

As you can see we desperately need your help.  Over the next week we will update our AgPolicy page daily.  It is our goal to keep you abreast on the latest news from Washington, DC; and to keep you informed on our next steps and what you can do to support our efforts. 

If you are on Facebook and Twitter please like us.  We will push out a lot of information via social media.  Members of Congress and their staff who are on the agriculture committees will be busy over the next week and away from their desks. Phone calls, while helpful, will be one of several tools we will ask you to employ.  Staffers are glued to their smarts phones, so in addition to calling congressional offices, we are asking that you send e-mails and hit the share button on Twitter and Facebook.  Again, please like us on Facebook and Twitter, hit the share button and leave a comment.  

Thank you for your participation in this important grassroots effort. Our hope is that this version of the Farm Bill is more supportive of sustainable agriculture.  We know through your support and we can definitely raise some dust!  Keep in touch and stay tuned on the AgPolicy page!

Congrats on a Job Well Done!

Join us in sending kudos and heartfelt congratulations to Stephan Walker for receiving the prestigious 2013 John Gammon Jr. Award for his outstanding service to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency. The award was presented at the recent U.S.D.A. Black History Month Observance, at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Stephan is a fourth generation African-American farmer and serves as the multi-county Extension agent for Jefferson, Desha, Lincoln, Lonoke and Pulaski counties for the Small Farm Program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. But more importantly- to us- Stephan is currently serving as president of our SSAWG Board of Directors!

Read the full story here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/uapb-school-of-agriculture-fisheries-and-human-sciences/uapb-multi-county-extension-agent-receives-john-gammon-award/10151324121255770

Growing Under Cover

Have you experimented with season extending growing practices yet? We are hearing great things throughout the region about the economic and practical successes of the growers who are “Growing Under Cover” -- utilizing hoop houses or high tunnels. Through a series of trainings in Alabama- organized by Southern SAWG and funded by USDA's Risk Management Agency, several Deep South farmers who are new to high tunnel production, are learning how to increase their farm profits using high tunnels.  Training participants are receiving a mix of classroom and on-farm field trainings at farms around the state. 

One recent training was held at a farm that is growing collards to sell wholesale. Collards are not exactly what you’d expect as a value-added or specialty crop, nor for a high tunnel crop, since they are not very high dollar and grow perfectly well outdoors. But, in their area there is a ready market for collards and those buyers chop and package collards for retail sales to markets and local schools. With the help of Tuskegee researcher, Victor Kahn (pictured above), the farmers have learned how to plant the collards intensely and harvest them repeatedly, in order to maximize their profits.