League of Rural Voters's Niel Ritchie on 2007 Farm Bill
by Sally Jo Sorensen, Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 07:12:44 PM EST
Sally Jo Sorensen is a writer, researcher and educator who lives in rural Minnesota. She blogs as Ollie Ox at A Bluestem Prairie.
Since its founding in 1985, the League of Rural Voters has worked with rural Americans to create change. One part of the League's mission is to challenge candidates to "take clear positions on farm and rural policy issues" and "to allow rural voters to support and elect representatives committed to increased investments in rural education, health care and sustainable economic development."
The LRV and other progressive rural advocacy groups have much at stake in the 2007 Farm Bill now being marked up in the House Agriculture Committee, with the Senate version to be considered late in the summer.
Executive Director Niel Ritchie took some time to talk about what a progressive Farm Bill might look like. "A progressive Farm Bill would reallocate the budget to more appropriately reflect the needs of rural communities and America as a whole," said Ritchie.
Unfortunately,"there's a finite amount of money," Ritchie observed, noting the House's adoption of paygo rules. "But that shouldn't stop Congress from moving in the right direction," he added, citing the recent addition of the Conservation Security Program (CSP) to federal farm programs. A project created by the 2002 Farm Bill, CSP had proven to be dramatically effective though it was limited in scope.
According to Ritchie, changes in the 2007 Farm Bill should serve three criteria: they should improve the economic lot of small and medium size farmers; offer consumers healthful food, and conserve soil and water. "The goal should be to champion natural systems of production over the industrial model of agriculture," he said.
What is the difference? Ritchie cited the example of CAFO livestock production, in which farmers had to produce grain to feed animals that that were raised indoors, rather than grazing in pastures. The CAFO system demands increased petroleum-based inputs to produce grain, the confined animals require antibiotics to stay healthy in cramped quarters, and the overuse of antibiotics reduces their effectiveness for treating illness in both humans and animals.
"The system creates longterm harm to the environment, to rural communities and to consumers, Ritchie said. "The model is extractive rather than sustainable." Naturally-based systems, supported by programs such as CSP that reward sound stewardship, conserve resources while serving rural economic development.
Another important piece of the 2007 Farm Bill for Ritchie is renewable biofuels, fraught as their development is with the tension between conservation and production. "The wars in the Middle East brought home the perils of dependence on oil, " Ritchie said. "Biofuels are a piece of the puzzle. While ethanol is not the best solution, it did allow farmers to develop technololgy and pave the way to using other feedstocks for biofuels, such as cellulostic and soy-based materials."
While the possibility of consolidation of ethanol plant ownership hangs over the industry, Ritchie pointed that, contrary to widespread belief, researchers Hendrickson and Heffernan found that ethanol was the only agricultural sector in which consolidation had declined in the past twenty years.
Rising corn prices have exposed a weakness of an industrial food production system predicated on cheap grain. "Ethanol may have raised the price of corn, but government policy had subsidized corn at low prices in order to provide cheap meat. Low grain prices underwrote industrial livestock production," Ritchie noted.
"The system needs rebalancing," Ritchie said. "It is possible to grow corn that isn't harmful, but the price should reflect the cost of production. Commodity companies have exploited or crafted policy is order to drive profit."
Ritchie noted other consequences of federal policies that subsidized corn at low prices: corn sweetener was killing the domestic sugar industry, while fueling an obesity epidemic as food processors added corn sweetener to food. "In a progressive Farm Bill, environmentally sound policy like CSP should be followed, not just the goal of cheap food," Ritchie said. "A new, progressive mark would continue the expansion of bio-based economies--the carbohydrate economy."
Food and nutrition programs such as food stamps and WIC could be improved through development a farm-to-table approach which stressed more fresh fruit and vegetables grown in local and regional food systems. Federal nutrition programs could also be improved by supporting local sources of food for school lunches. "We need to support local and regional food systems, not corporate fast food as is the trend in many schools, Ritchie said.
"A strongly progressive Farm Bill would make a link between food and public health," Ritchie said, "just as it would help farmers make a profit as local farmers help support strong rural economies and make incentives for environmental sound policy." "These policies and others that would aid rural development should be pursued," Ritchie said.
Nor can trade policy be ignored. "Countiries ought to be able to create policy to benefit their producers and consumers," Ritchie said. "There should be no dumping of cheap American commodities that weaken food production in other countries."
Finally, a progressive Farm Bill would pro-actively address the issue of beginning farmers. "We don't have any ideas how to replace farmers once they're gone, Ritchie said. "How do we get more people to farm?"
So far in the mark-up process in the House, few of these marks are making headway, and the new bill taking shape in the House Ag Committee looks to be essentially an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill. Language for the Senate version has yet to be made public, and one rival version, Farm21, has been proposed by Rep. Kind (D-WI) and Senator Lugar (R-IN). "The emergence of alternative proposals from members who are not on the Ag Committee reflects the growing concern about the cost and direction of current policy," Ritchie noted.
A general Food and Farm Bill of Rights has been proposed by Oregon's Earl Blumenauer. "[Blumenauer's] deal is a reflection of the growing sentiment that programs need to be more thoughtfully constructed with benefits being used as carrots to reward sustainable food production practices," Ritchie said.
Ritchie recommended reading the Ag Observatory web page, produced by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, is a treasure-trove of information about the 2007 Farm Bill.
Author's post script: For the latest Farm Bill politics, the Center for Rural Affairs' Blog for Rural America and Dan Morgan's "Analysis from Washington" at Farm Policy offer some of the best analysis online.
www.mydd.com/story/2007/6/24/191244/196
