The article first appeared in May 3rd at www.meatingplace.com, a meat industry website and reprinted at May 4th at www.ciclt.net/sn/new/n_detail.aspx?ClientCode=ncagbc&N_Id=21266, a website for North Carolina ag-business. Snopes as no mention of the article.
Alan
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 07:16:50 -0400
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw: Senators accuse USDA of favoring "hobbyist" farmers
To: [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott MacKenzie
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 6:52 AM
Subject: Fw: Senators accuse USDA of favoring "hobbyist"
farmers
I am not sure if this liget and if it is it sounds
bad Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: scott
macKenzie
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 3:02 PM
Subject: Fw: Senators accuse USDA of favoring "hobbyist"
farmers
FYI
----- Original Message -----
From:
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 2:11 PM
Subject: [NODPA-ODAIRY] Senators accuse USDA of favoring "hobbyist"
farmers
Senators accuse USDA of favoring “hobbyist” farmers By
Rita Jane Gabbett on 5/3/2010
Three Republican senators asked Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack to justify USDA's Know Your Farmers, Know Your
Food (KYF2) initiative, which they said subsidizes the "locavore
niche market" and "hobbyist" producers instead of rural communities
and the farmers who produce the vast majority of the nation's food
supply.
In a letter to Vilsack dated April 27, Senators John
McCain (R-Ariz.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
asked for an itemized breakdown of all awards made under the KYF2
initiative detailing amounts, receiving organizations and the USDA
programs under which the awards were made.
"In the name of
promoting local food systems, the Department appears to be
prioritizing Rural Development grant and loan programs for locavore
projects in urban areas, apparently at the expense of rural
communities with documented rural development needs," the letter
charged. "Given our nation's crippling budgetary crisis, we also
believe the federal government cannot afford to spend precious Rural
Development funds on feel-good measures which are completely
detached from the realities of production agriculture."
Specifically, the senators pointed to an Aug. 26, 2009 memo
from USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan which they said
encouraged agency chiefs to take programs — such as the USDA
Community Facilities Program originally intended for essential
community facilities related to healthcare and public safety in
rural areas — and re-imagine them as grant money for community
cooking classes or refrigeration units in urban areas.
They
said the Merrigan memo also expressed her intent to use $31 million
in stimulus grants and another $930 million in stimulus loans for
the KYF2 initiative.
"American families and rural farmers
are hurting in today's economy, and it's unclear to us how propping
up the urban locavore markets addresses their needs," the senators
wrote.
Vilsack responds
In an April 30 return
letter to the Senators made available to Meatingplace,
Vilsack defended KYF2 and Merrigan's memo.
"I believe
cultivating these new markets — not replacing old ones — is critical
to revitalizing rural America," he wrote. He added that local and
regional food systems can expand markets for producers of all sizes.
"Further, I can assure you that when reviewing applications
none of these programs are providing preference to local and
regional food system projects, except as provided for in their
existing regulatory rules or legislative authority, such as the 5
percent set-aside established in the 2008 farm bill for business and
industry," he added.
Vilsack called Merrigan's Aug. 26 memo,
"an example of our efforts to enhance awareness of our programs and
utilize them more effectively."
He went on to say, "For
example, while the Community Facilities program will continue to
support critical public safety needs, it serves as a reminder that
communities can also utilize the program to finance other essential
community facilities, which in turn create new economic
opportunities for local and regional producers."
In response
to the Senators' request, Vilsack included a 90-page accounting of
funding awards associated with its KYF2 concept.
For
example, $78,051 was granted to People's Grocery in Oakland, Calif.
to purchase infrastructure to improve fresh food access in the West
Oakland community. The grant was to establish a mid-sized,
accessible food retail outlet to provide residents with adequate
access to fresh and affordable foods, and strengthen and expand a
sustainable supply chain of local farmers, producers and People's
Grocery agricultural products.
A grant of $29,700 went to
the National Bison Association to develop curriculum, conduct
workshops, develop educational resources, establish an on-line
e-commerce site, develop point of sale informational material, and
conduct an assessment of these actions for farmers and vendors
selling at a new farmers market in Colorado.
Ed
Maltby
Northeast Organic
Dairy Producers Alliance
Executive
Director
30 Keets
Rd
Deerfield, MA
01342
Tel:
413-772-0444
Cell:
413-427-7323
Fax:
866-554-9483
Website: www.nodpa.com or www.organicmilk.org
NODPA
Pasture Page
Join NODPA Facebook page
Sustainable base
pay-price; level playing field; organic integrity
Thinking of transitioning to organic
dairy?
Got questions on Organic
Dairy?
Contact NODPA first and get the
independent, unbiased facts.
The purpose of
the NODPA is to enable organic dairy family farms, situated across an extensive
area, to maintain the sustainability of organic dairy
farming.
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