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.