Full Senate Voting on Farm Bill Soon:
Tell Your Senators to Support Organics and
the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limits Amendment!
The Senate Agriculture Committee marked up the Farm Bill on Wednesday and Thursday, October 25 and 26 and will be taken up by the full Senate next week (beginning November 5th). Our organic agenda is largely intact so far, thanks to your calls and letters. However, the bill makes only small cuts to commodity payment programs, which means that some key sustainable agriculture, organic, specialty crop, anti-hunger, and food security programs still remain underfunded. We need to continue to protect the organic provisions in the Farm Bill, and also ensure that these other important programs get the funding they need.
Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are introducing an amendment that will cap extravagant commodity payments and shift the savings to sustainable agriculture and food security programs. This amendment will help to ensure that all of these programs will get the funding they need, while also helping to protect the gains that have been made for organic agriculture (see background below for more info.)
Please call your Senators TODAY and urge them to support:
• The Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limitation Reform Amendment.
• Funding and programs that promote organic agriculture.
Read our Farm Bill goals below for more detailed talking points. The vote on Dorgan-Grassley amendment will be extremely close and every single vote will count – your call can make a difference.
Your Senators’ Contact Info
Visit the Senate website to find out who represents you. When you call, ask to speak to the legislative aide on agriculture.
Farm Bill Goals
• Passage of the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limitation Reform Amendment,
• $25 million/year in mandatory funding for the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI).
• $25 million over 5 years for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program.
• An Organic Conversion Program to help farmers switch to organic production with at least 50% of funding going to technical assistance.
• $2 billion in new funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), which includes support for organic production.
Background
The 2007 Farm Bill has many strong provisions for organic agriculture, but lacks in funding for critical programs that promote sustainable agriculture and help small farmers. These programs include the Value Added Producer Grant Program and two programs that assist Beginning Farmer and Ranchers. Meanwhile there are no meaningful limits for commodity payments, which currently receive a large portion of Farm Bill dollars. Negative consequences of these policies include farm consolidation and the disappearance of mid-sized family farms, land prices rising well beyond market levels, reduced farming opportunities for a new generation of farmers, and the growth of industrial farming practices.
How is Organic Farming Affected?
Cutting commodity payments, which primarily go to large scale industrial farms, will provide less incentive for this method of farming. The savings gained from capping commodity payments can be invested in programs that support more organic and sustainable production, as well as conservation and food security programs. Currently, the limited funding available makes it challenging for all of these programs to get the money they need, forcing them to compete with each other for federal dollars. Moreover, organic practices are far more suited to local food systems and sustainable agriculture than are industrial methods, thus supporting those programs will likely lead to more organic agriculture overall.
What does the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limitation Reform Amendment do?
The Dorgan-Grassley amendment would limit total annual per farm commodity subsidy payments to $250,000, close loopholes that allow payment recipients to evade limits, and ensure that payments flow to working farmers. The amendment would ensure that the savings it creates is re-invested in programs to support minority and beginning farmers, rural economic development, conservation, and nutrition and anti-hunger efforts.
For more information on the Dorgan-Grassley Payment Limitation Reform amendment, visit the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition website.
Organic Provisions in the Senate Farm Bill
Below is a quick summary of the Senate Farm Bill organic provisions so far. Thanks to your calls and letters, we were able to achieve most of the goals in our platform, but we must continue to keep the pressure on lawmakers as the bill heads to the Senate. Our Farm Bill update has more details, and the Senate Farm Bill draft is available on the Senate Agriculture Committee website. Read our Farm Bill News Roundup below for more Farm Bill info.
Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI)
OREI, USDA’s flagship organic agriculture research program, has $16 million per year in mandatory funding, totaling $80 million over the life of the Farm Bill. This comes a long way towards our goal of $25 million per year and far exceeds the $5 million per year that the House gave to OREI.
Organic Production and Market Data Initiative
This provision requires USDA to collect and publish data specific to the organic sector, which helps farmers plan their production, access markets, and apply for crop insurance. This initiative has $5 million in one-time funding in the Senate draft to help USDA catch up on collecting organic data – the last Farm Bill provided no funding for this program. This funding level matches our ask. The House funds this initiative at $3 million over five years.
Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
The Conservation Stewardship Program, formerly known as the Conservation Security Program and included as part of the Conservation Stewardship Incentive Program, has language that makes organic practices eligible criteria for the program and makes it easier for organic producers to apply for CSP. CSP funding was also increased by $2 billion over 5 years. This language matches our asks for this program. The House bill has similar language on organic practices for CSP, but cuts this program by $4 billion.
Organic Certification Cost Share Program
This program, which defrays 75% of the cost of organic certification up to $750, is funded at $22 million over the next five years, just $3 million short of our ask for $25 million. The House bill also funds this program at $22 million.
Risk Management (Crop Insurance Program)
Our ask for this program was to remove the 5% surcharge for organic growers and pay them out at the higher organic price should they face a disaster. The Senate draft removes the 5% surcharge for organic growers, unless it can be proven necessary on a crop by crop basis. It also requires development and implementation of procedures to allow for pay-outs to growers at organic prices The weaker House language directs USDA to conduct studies on the need for an organic surcharge.
Organic Conversion Program
The Senate Farm Bill includes assistance for organic conversion as part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), but without separate funding. Also the Senate draft does not require any funding for this program to be put towards technical assistance for transitioning growers. Our ask is for at least 50% of funding for organic conversion to go towards technical assistance for growers who are converting to organic and we continue to push for that. In the House bill, organic conversion assistance was a stand-alone program with no mandatory funding, and $10 million per year in discretionary authorization.
Other Organic Research Measures
The Senate draft included two other measures related to organic agriculture research. The first is inclusion of language prioritizing classical plant and animal breeding research within the National Research Initiative. This research is important for organic agriculture as it focuses on breeding varieties of seeds and animals uniquely suited to different ecosystems and utilizes classical breeding techniques as opposed to genetic engineering. The Senate draft includes language that prioritizes this research, which matches our ask. Also, the Specialty Crops Research Initiative includes “optimizing organic specialty crop production” as one of it’s purposes
Farm Bill News Roundup
“Farm Bill boosts specialty crops.”– Sacramento Bee, 10/24/07
“Rebel farm bill would help state, but puts Boxer, Feinstein in bind.” – SF Chronicle, 10/24/07
“Corporate Farming’s Best Friend.” – Washington Post, 10/22/07
“Last Chance for Farm Reform.” – NY Times, 10/20/07
“California could reap windfall from farm bill deal.” – SF Chronicle, 10/18/07
“US farm bill unlikely to aid good nutrition.” – Financial Times, 10/17/07
Technical Note
Events here at the OFRF office overwhelmed our ability to send out our last OFAN alert. If you would like to read it, it is available on our website.
Thanks again for speaking up for organic farmers! Please contact Tracy Lerman at tracy@ofrf.org or (831) 426-6606 if you have any questions.
Join OFRF's Organic Farmers Action Network by clicking on the link at: www.ofrf.org
|
