Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - [Livingontheland] New Secretary of Agriculture Reveals New Attitude

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] New Secretary of Agriculture Reveals New Attitude
  • Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:20:28 -0700


any questions?


New Secretary of Agriculture Reveals New Attitude Towards Small Family Farm
Sustainability, Civil Rights, and Rural Development with Address to the
Federation of Southern Cooperatives
http://www.ssawg.org/Newsletters/SSAWGnewsMarch2009.html

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund hosted U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on February 21, 2009, as he addressed
more than 300 farmers and agriculture professionals at the Federation's
conference, held annually in Albany, Georgia. "When our first
African-American president raised his hand and took the oath of office, we
made a huge step in this country. It's now our job at the USDA to take the
next step," Vilsack stated. He said that if President Abraham Lincoln, who
established the USDA in 1862, came back and wondered how the department is
doing in supporting farmers, he would learn that "some folks refer to USDA
as the last plantation, and it has a pretty poor history of taking care of
people of color," adding that he chose the conference as the place to make
his first speech outside of Washington because he wants to send the message
that they are serious about civil rights.

Vilsack took the opportunity to acknowledge the fact that the conference
program began with sustainable agriculture topics, saying that it is a very
important topic, and it's going to be increasingly important. After
acknowledging other topics that he considers key, such as food assistance
programs that are included in President Obama's stimulus package, he spoke
about the trends in agriculture that they see at the USDA.

"The first thing that popped out to me was the dramatic growth in the
number of small farms--small income farms," he said, referring to the
recently released results from the Census of Agriculture. "In the last five
years there have been 108,000 new farms started with sales of less than
$1,000. These are very, very, very small operations. But that is a
significant start for people in agriculture and a significant connection to
the land--108,000." He described the other end of the spectrum where the
trend is the very large income farms that generate $500,000 or more, which
grew by about 41,000 farms. The third trend, which he identified as the
challenge, is that the farms in the middle, making more than $10,000 but
less than $500,000, have decreased by 80,000. He pointed out two more
trends: Sixty percent of all farms have less than $10,000 in sales, with
900,000 of 2,200,000 farmers having to work off-farm over 200 days per year
to make it. The last trend that he brought into the picture is the fact
that the average age of farmers has increased over the last five years from
55 to 57.

"Small farming increases; large farm increases; farms in the middle
decreasing; aging farmers; farmers having to work off the farm," he
summarized. "So what does the USDA do about this? What should it be doing
in the next four years?"

The Secretary said that the President has been very specific with him about
renewing and replenishing rural areas across the country. Vilsack noted a
number of things that need to be done to make that happen, including the
development of strategies to make the small income farms into mid-income
farms and become more profitable, as well as to maintain the existing
mid-sized farms.

One of the ways he sees this happening is through a major push to focus on
nutrition, including "fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, things that are
good for you. And it can start this year with the reauthorization of the
school lunch and school breakfast programs." Vilsack sees this as creating
real opportunities to produce fresh vegetables and fruit and get them into
schools and institutions locally. He also stressed that we need to develop
regional distribution systems to encourage the growth.

In addition to strengthening the infrastructure for local and regional
mid-scale production, he talked about other rural development issues,
including new crops for biofuels, resources for bio-refineries, and
conservation stewardship.

Vilsack's closing remarks focused on his commitment to seeing that the
civil rights issues of the USDA will be addressed and put in the past, and
to making sure that all of the offices are "fair to black farmers, and fair
to women farmers, and fair to Hispanic farmers, and fair to people from all
walks of life who want to get into farming. We have 108,000 new farmers
with less than $1,000 in sales. That's a lot of people who want the
opportunity to work the land and we want to give them that opportunity."






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page