Food and Nutrition celebration: An opportunity lost?

USDA officials held an important event recently, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the department’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). As I scanned the 100-plus people assembled for the event in the Whitten Building’s central patio, I found several dignitaries, but kept looking for “aggies” in the room. Unfortunately, I spotted only a handful.

Why were so few representatives of the nation’s primary farm and commodity groups at the invitation-only event? The folks at FNS say it was an abbreviated invite list and focused only on those groups they work with most often. But the fact that many agricultural groups weren’t on the “A” list, underscores a continuing gap between those who most need the food and those who produce most of the food.

In case you are not familiar, FNS administers the nation’s domestic nutrition assistance programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly the Food Stamp Program); the National School Lunch Program, and 13 others. Their efforts touch one in five people across the U.S. with some type of feeding program.

Since 1969, when FNS was officially established the SNAP/Food Stamp Program has issued over $554 billion in program benefits; NSLP has served over 169 billion meals; and $27 billion in USDA commodities have been issued in food benefits for schools and another $23 billion in food benefits for household and emergency feeding programs.

Farmers and FNS “customers” are linked in a variety of ways. Spending on these programs makes up about two-thirds of USDA’s budget and utilizes billions of dollars in farm commodities. Congressional supporters of FNS are a crucial part of the political coalition that enables passage of major farm bills.

The hour-long ceremony, led by USDA’s Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, was everything you might expect from an anniversary celebration: a historical timeline, a progress report, and video to highlight the agency’s accomplishments. Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and Congressman James P. McGovern (D-MA) presented Merrigan with a resolution honoring FNS for 40 years of fighting hunger and improving nutrition. It was heartening to learn about the millions who have benefited and USDA’s plans to reach out to even more individuals who still go to bed hungry every night.

However, there was little recognition of the important connection between food production and food consumption in the FNS programs. The anniversary video started with one slide of a farm field, but the rest focused on how each of the programs worked and the types of consumers served. There was no discussion about how farm productivity has helped keep costs low so that millions of Americans can eat a safe, affordable food supply. And there was no mention of how plant breeding and biotechnology have played an important role in creating healthier foods.

In recorded remarks, Secretary Vilsack pointed out that President Obama is committed to reducing childhood hunger by 2015. To do that, the Secretary will need plenty of additional funds and lots of good thinkers on this subject. The folks at the FNS will certainly play a key role, but let’s hope they reach out to those who represent farmers and ranchers as part of the process.

At the same time, traditional agriculture groups also need to look for innovative new ways to be engaged with the food and nutrition community. Groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation have already done so by working with Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest) to donate millions of pounds of food. Working through their Young Farmers and Ranchers organization, Farm Bureau provided the equivalent of 6.4 million meals through Feeding America-affiliated food banks across the country last year

There’s an old bumper sticker that says: “If your child ate today, hug a farmer.” More farm and commodity organizations need to figure out how that embrace can go both ways.

Agriculture News, Farm Policy, and Rural Policy

ACRE participants trickle in....at least for now

Remember all of those predictions about how the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program would attract hundreds of thousands of farmers and potentially be a budget-buster? During the 2008 Farm Bill debate, one USDA analysis suggested that the program would be so attractive that the department would pay out around $16 billion just to corn, wheat and soybean farmers in 2009 alone. But thus far, only 1,426 producers have signed on the dotted line, ranging from a "whopping" 372 in Nebraska to one in Texas. (See state by state numbers, below.) Little wonder that advocates are looking for new ways to promote this innovative new program and also find ways to avoid what may be a last minute rush prior to the August 14th signup deadline.

“I think (ACRE) will grow,” Ron Litterer, National Corn Growers Association Chairman recently told a House Agriculture Subcommittee. “But let me remind the subcommittee that ACRE enrollment didn’t begin until April 27, right in the middle of planting season. A lot of farmers haven’t had the opportunity” to study ACRE. Originally the sign-up deadline was back in June, but because of the time needed to implement the program, the deadline was pushed back to Aug. 14.

Holding off on the decision to participate may be a good thing for producers because it provides more time to assess the latest market prices and how the specific crops in their state and farm are doing. But if all of those folks wait until the last week, local FSA offices could be overwhelmed and unable to process all of the paperwork.

In anticipation of possible work load issues in county offices, Litterer proposed a modification in sign up procedures that makes a lot of sense. He suggested enabling producers and landowners interested in ACRE to file an “Intention” to Elect and Enroll into ACRE now and pull the trigger later.

“This declaration of an intention would encourage producers and landowners to visit their local FSA Offices now and complete all the required paperwork well in advance of the August 14th deadline. If producers and landowners do not notify the FSA Office that they want to continue with ACRE, their ACRE election and enrollment would revert to DCP (Direct and counter-cyclical program). By allowing producers to make a final decision on ACRE after submitting the initial enrollment documents, the signup process would have already been completed thereby alleviating long waiting lines at the FSA county office,” he explained.

Farmers tell me they still have a boatload of questions when it comes to ACRE and they don’t always feel confident that local Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices have all of the answers. But I expect USDA to push out a lot more information in the next few weeks. In the meantime, there are plenty of resources available from USDA, NCGA and many university Extension offices. Here are just a few resources:

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/Internet/FSA_File/acrebkgrd.pdf
http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=dccp&topic=landing
http://ncga.com/acre-resource-center
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/polk/farmmanagement.htm
http://www.agmanager.info/
http://aede.osu.edu/people/publications.php?user=zulauf.1


State Number of ACRE Participants (as of July 7, 2009)

Alabama 2
Colorado 3
Delaware 5
Idaho 11
Illinois 225
Indiana 129
Iowa 184
Kansas 45
Kentucky 25
Michigan 3
Minnesota 16
Mississippi 2
Missouri 20
Montana 3
Nebraska 372
New York 1
North Dakota 30
Ohio 148
Oklahoma 10
Oregon 6
Pennsylvania 21
South Dakota 116
Tennessee 5
Texas 1
Utah 1
Virginia 1
Washington 14
Wisconsin 25
Wyoming 2
Total 1,426

Agriculture News, Farm Policy, and Rural Policy


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