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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] New UCS report details barriers for "healthy-food farmers, " recommends Farm Bill solutions
  • Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:30:00 -0600

Today the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a new report, Ensuring
the Harvest: Crop Insurance and Credit for a Healthy Farm and Food
Future<http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/big_picture_solutions/ensuring-the-harvest.html>.



The report finds that, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is
urging Americans to eat substantially more fruits and vegetables, its crop
insurance and credit programs handicap produce growers and instead promote
commodity crops that are disproportionately used in heavily processed junk
food.



Ensuring the
Harvest<http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/big_picture_solutions/ensuring-the-harvest.html>
recommends a number of common-sense policies that would help American
farmers grow more healthy food for our communities.



"If Americans need to eat more fruits and vegetables, why do U.S. farm
policies make it harder for farmers who grow them to earn a living?" asked
report author Jeffrey O'Hara, an agricultural economist with UCS's Food and
Environment Program. "Even though those farmers pose a lower insurance risk,
the USDA won't give them the same protection it gives to large commodity
farming operations."



Weather makes farming a risky business, so the USDA offers crop insurance,
making it easier for farmers to obtain bank loans or credit early in the year
to cover the cost of seeds, fertilizer and equipment for spring planting. In
the event of extreme weather-from spring frosts to summer flooding-that
insurance gives farmers a safety net if their crops are destroyed or their
price declines. For many farmers, insurance and credit is the difference
between profiting and bankruptcy.



The USDA offers this crop insurance and credit to large farms growing corn,
soy and other commodity crops, and to some large fruit and vegetable farms,
such as tomatoes in California , but the agency shuts out "healthy-food"
farms-small- to medium-size farms growing fruits and vegetables or raising
livestock sustainably.



Many healthy-food farms, which sell their products locally at farmers
markets, restaurants and schools, have become a market force in recent years.
Currently, their local-food sales total $5 billion annually. But if fruit and
vegetable consumption increased to meet the USDA's MyPlate dietary
guidelines, driving demand for healthy, sustainable produce, local food sales
could increase to as much as $14.5 billion a year and generate as many as
189,000 new jobs, according to the UCS report.



Jack Hedin, owner of the 160-acre organic Featherstone Farm in Rushford,
Minnesota, is one of those healthy-food farmers who cannot get crop
insurance. In 2007, chronic rains brought crop disease and disrupted planting
cycles. Combined with acute flash flooding, 60 percent of his farm was wiped
out. Fortunately his farm rebounded and today it is thriving, but he still
lives in fear of what might happen due to an extreme weather event.



"Without crop insurance, I worry every day about the safety of the farm, my
family and our 30 employees," said Hedin. "The lack of access to crop
insurance is one of the greatest impediments that I, and other small local
farmers, face in keeping healthy-food farms safe and prosperous."



In Congress, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), a member of the House
Agriculture Committee, is the lead sponsor of the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs
Act, which would expand farmers markets and provide support for regional farm
and food systems.



"Instead of putting up roadblocks to farmers growing a diverse range of crops
and livestock, we need to encourage these farmers and make it easier for them
to provide the kind of healthy foods that are good for consumers and good for
local economies," said Pingree. "The Senate Agriculture Committee is marking
up its version of the Farm Bill tomorrow, providing a timely opportunity to
level the playing field for these farmers."





  • [Livingontheland] New UCS report details barriers for "healthy-food farmers, " recommends Farm Bill solutions, Tradingpost, 04/24/2012

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