By Matt L. Barron 

I participated in a conference call this week hoping to hear some good news for farm and rural folks.  And it turns out that President Obama’s FY 2010 budget contains some much needed help for many things we rural advocates care about. It also goes after a few sacred cows.

A big investment in organics, to the tune of $50 million, is allocated for conservation plans for organic farmers under the Environmental Quality Incentives Program run by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The National Organic Program is slated to receive $6.7 million, a $2.9 million increase over FY 2009 to monitor program compliance and enhance program integrity.

The spending plan also contains $16 billion for loan guarantees for single family homes under the rural housing program and provides increases for farm ownership and farm operating loans. Outlays for renewable energy projects and broadband Internet access would top more than $20 billion in loans and grants in the rural development portfolio.

When the word nutrition was mentioned, my ears perked up. The president is asking for $10 billion over the next decade as part of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization to address food insecurity with kids. Hunger and issues around food and nutrition remains a cornerstone of the RuralVotes mission to build rural-urban partnerships. And the president is committed to end childhood hunger by 2015. What better way is there to secure progress in America than linking good nutrition to expanding markets for producers through initiatives that bring fresh local and healthy foods to our nation’s children?

Some oxen could get gored if the White House has its way. The administration is again proposing to cap commodity program payments at $250,000 which is already drawing fire from farm state lawmakers.  Congressman Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said he would oppose “any cuts” in agriculture subsidies because “farmers and farm families depend on this federal assistance.” 

Crop insurance subsidies would be chopped $5.2 billion over 10 years and the Market Access Program (MAP) is also marked for reductions. MAP uses tax dollars to promote U.S. food and farm products in overseas markets but the program has come under fire over the years as corporate welfare because many of the recipients are large agribusinesses. The administration feels that cooperators are well capitalized to promote products abroad and that some $200 million is already spent on overlapping programs involving export promotions.

 Not directly related to the budget but certainly a subject on the mind of those of us who pay attention, something may be brewing regarding a rural tour and rural summit that was an early campaign promise made in the Iowa cornfields in 2007 and talked about by rural advocates in a 2008 report by Howard Berkes of National Public Radio. The state of the economy put the summit on the back burner for a little while, but top USDA officials are hinting that an announcement could come soon.  And that sounds like a bit of good news to me.

 

Posted on May 9th, 2009 by DebbySKoz
Filed under: Uncategorized