Is rural America less relevant?

US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made a statement last week that rural America is becoming "less and less relevant". After reading the article in which his comments were published, I have to assume he was referring to rural America's diminishing political clout and not making a sweeping statement that we simply don't matter any more. But let's explore both possibilities.

US Sec. of Ag Tom Vilsack (photo:AP)

I first became aware of the Secretary's statements when Tim Lennox, a Montgomery television news anchor, asked me via Twitter Sunday morning to add a comment about it on his blog. I skimmed through the linked article and in my comment agreed that the failure (thus far) to get a new Farm Bill passed does show that agricultural and rural development programs aren't given the legislative priority they were once afforded. I also mentioned that we in agriculture need to continue building relationships with consumers to the point that hopefully they would advocate with us for workable farm policy. 

Fast forward to Monday. About halfway through the afternoon milking I received a call from a reporter in Washington, DC, asking if I would be willing to chat for 5-10 minutes about the Secretary's comments. I stepped outside, reiterated my thoughts about rural America's political influence, and shared a little bit of my own farming story. That reporter's article was published online today by...of all things...a Russian news agency. You can read it here if you so desire.

This evening, I went back and re-read the original article. There are a couple of things Vilsack said that I strongly disagree with. One is that we shouldn't be spending our time fighting to keep the EPA from regulating farm dust or the Department of Labor from telling us what our kids can and can't do on our farms. Maybe the Administration never intended for either of those things to happen, but I won't apologize for not trusting regulations that give wiggle-room to overzealous bureaucrats.

The other statement that I take issue with is that we rural Americans have to change our mindset in order to attract more young people into farming. What am I, chopped liver? I know plenty of folks my age and younger that are excited to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities American agriculture will offer over the next half-century. Could we stand to have more folks involved in food production? Absolutely! But don't discount the ability of those of us already and soon-to-be involved in farming to get the job done.

As I take a deep breath and wrap this post up, I'll go back to the question of whether or not Vilsack's comments were specific to rural America's political influence or relevancy in general. I think it was the former and not the latter, because to say rural America no longer matters would be completely absurd! Yeah, people continue to move out of the country and into the cities, and maybe we don't have the clout in DC that we once had. But rural Americans...farmers, community bankers, small business owners, truck drivers, etc...are still critical to the strength of our great country. In fact, I would say we are more relevant than ever.

Cutting the Safety Net?

President Obama's 3.6 trillion dollar budget proposal would call for the USDA to cut direct payments to farmers with annual sales over $500,000 (and steer nearly all of it into new spending on non-farm programs). The proposed limit has been set to cut off assistance to "wealthy farmers" but is based on gross sales without any consideration of on-farm expenses or profitability. It also doesn't take into consideration that family farms such as mine have to support more than one household. This measure would be considerably hard on the nation's dairy industry as we are all struggling mightily with profitability issues right now.

Thankfully, we have friends in high places. Rep. Collin Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat that leads the House Ag Committee, has called the proposed plan "a very stupid idea" and commented that it was "more than dead on arrival." Peterson also went on to add an example of how it would effect dairies in his home state:

"If you got a 100-cow dairy, you're probably going to have over a $500,000 gross [income]. So you'll probably surprise the Minnesota 100-cow dairyman that he's a millionaire."

for more, read this Washington Post article

Home from Washington, DC

I'm back home on the farm after a very good business trip up to Washington. I'll be getting back to the normal routine tomorrow morning.

Maybe I'll dream up something interesting to blog about tonight or conjure up something while putting the feed out in the morning. If nothing else, I'll probably have a short blurb about Obama & Villsack's plan to slash over 1 billion dollars out of the farm safety net.

Until you read again, I bid you farewell.

Support the Feingold/Kohl letter to Sec. Vilsack

If you're a dairy farmer, I don't have to tell you how far our price has dropped and how bad the outlook is for the next few months. If you're a dairy consumer, you may not realize how bad our on-the-farm price has gotten based upon what you're paying in the store (that's a can of worms for another day).

There will be a whole lot of us walking the tight rope over the next several months, and unfortunately I expect too many will fall off and not recover. While we're doing what we can "in-house" as an industry (such as the CWT program), there are steps the USDA could take to help stabilize our market.

Senators Feingold and Kohl are preparing a letter to Secretary Vilsack requesting that the USDA explore several options that would offer some relief to the economic challenges that are facing America's dairy farmers. Specifically, the letter asks the USDA to modify its Dairy Product Price Suport Program (DPPSP) to accept standards more in line with industry norms, allow for additional purchases for distribution through USDA nutrition programs, and find ways to fully utilize the Dairy Export Incentive Program (DEIP).

Each of these steps could help preserve our domestic dairy production and make sure that our consumers have high-quality, safe, nutritious, and affordable American milk and dairy products. Please take a few moments and encourage your state's senators to support these requests by co-signing the Feingold/Kohl letter. It's a win-win for both the dairy producer and the dairy consumer.

You can get in touch with your senators through Senate.gov