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  • From: Todd Lister <toddlister1 AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] A Farmer's Opinion on NRCS and why its a poor program...
  • Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 18:00:55 -0400

>From the responses we've seen today there is no doubt that different states and even different NRCS offices are administering this program differently, It does seem somewhat unfair in the big picture. I was very lucky.
In Spring of '10 I read on the NRCS website that 50 million dollars had been appropriated and that 42 states had signed on to participate. There has since been additional monies made available and there have been numerous rounds of awards made.
I was turned down at first and it was 3 months later that  I got the call saying I had gotten the house. They said they had gotten another batch of money.
This first listing shows how diverse the application of the program is:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Official+NRCS+EQUIP+website&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.beginningfarmers.org/new-hoophouse-initiative-from-usda-3-year-study-launched/http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/important-update-on-nrcs-high-tunnel-pilot-program/



On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 5:02 PM, Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com> wrote:
The "official" purpose I was told by my Ohio NRCS guys is that the program was supposed to compare soil quality before and after hoops with the purpose of controlling erosion.  Its NRCS that is controlling the money after all.  It should have been done through EQIP I think.

While I know this program has helped many to attain hoop houses I think its a perfect example of a crappy program.  We applied for it.  We did not get it.  We were already in the pipeline, paperwork-wise for FSA money so that hoop was simple.  We were asked for soil samples, and we gave them several and said we could do more testing if requested to get an instant snapshot (they simply asked for previous years).  We had sales figures and data showing our specialty crop and we knew the exact size we needed and were willing to use a third party contractor to supply and install the hoop house.

We never got it claiming that our county was too "urban" or simply that we had not acquire enough "points" to qualify.  Meanwhile several farms on the east side of Cincinnati did qualify.  

This means that the Feds are now favoring my competition over my farm.

As much as I loath commodity crop FSA money at least its fair: "You grow crop X, Y, and Z and you get money in return regardless of how many acres or what type of farm you are."

Either all farms get money to get hoop houses or now one does...or make it EXTREMELY common sense and transparent to qualify.

Meanwhile my fellow farmers in KY are not getting ANY of the money for hoop houses...or so I have been told.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855



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