[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE NEXT FARM BILL
=======================================================================
APPENDIX
TO THE
THE NEXT FARM BILL HEARINGS
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
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JUUNE 24, 2017, GAINESVILLE, FL
JULY 31, 2017, SAN ANGELO, TX
AUGUST 3, 2017, MORGAN, MN
AUGUST 5, 2017, MODESTO, CA
AUGUST 30, 2017, DECATUR, IL
OCTOBER 9, 2017, COBLESKILL, NY
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Serial No. 115-3
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Part 2 (Final)
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[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas, Chairman
GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota,
Vice Chairman Ranking Minority Member
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia, DAVID SCOTT, Georgia
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma JIM COSTA, California
STEVE KING, Iowa TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
MIKE ROGERS, Alabama MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio
BOB GIBBS, Ohio JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts
AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia FILEMON VELA, Texas, Vice Ranking
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas Minority Member
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico
VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
JEFF DENHAM, California RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota
DOUG LaMALFA, California CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
TED S. YOHO, Florida STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina
MIKE BOST, Illinois DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina AL LAWSON, Jr., Florida
RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona
TRENT KELLY, Mississippi JIMMY PANETTA, California
JAMES COMER, Kentucky DARREN SOTO, Florida
ROGER W. MARSHALL, Kansas LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER, Delaware
DON BACON, Nebraska
JOHN J. FASO, New York
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida
JODEY C. ARRINGTON, Texas
______
Matthew S. Schertz, Staff Director
Anne Simmons, Minority Staff Director
______
Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma, Chairman
GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio, Ranking
JEFF DENHAM, California Minority Member
DOUG LaMALFA, California TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
MIKE BOST, Illinois RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota
RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona
TRENT KELLY, Mississippi FILEMON VELA, Texas
______
Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina, Chairman
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia JIM COSTA, California, Ranking
STEVE KING, Iowa Minority Member
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee FILEMON VELA, Texas
VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois
TED S. YOHO, Florida STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
TRENT KELLY, Mississippi DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
ROGER W. MARSHALL, Kansas ----
(ii)
Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit
AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia, Chairman
BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia DAVID SCOTT, Georgia, Ranking
MIKE ROGERS, Alabama Minority Member
DOUG LaMALFA, California SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire
JAMES COMER, Kentucky STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
ROGER W. MARSHALL, Kansas TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona
JOHN J. FASO, New York DARREN SOTO, Florida
______
Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois, Chairman
BOB GIBBS, Ohio MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New
JEFF DENHAM, California Mexico, Ranking Minority Member
TED S. YOHO, Florida AL LAWSON, Jr., Florida
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina JIMMY PANETTA, California
DON BACON, Nebraska JIM COSTA, California
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts
JODEY C. ARRINGTON, Texas LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER, Delaware
______
Subcommittee on Nutrition
GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania, Chairman
STEVE KING, Iowa JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts,
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas Ranking Minority Member
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee ALMA S. ADAMS, North Carolina
VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio
TED S. YOHO, Florida MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina AL LAWSON, Jr., Florida
JAMES COMER, Kentucky JIMMY PANETTA, California
ROGER W. MARSHALL, Kansas DARREN SOTO, Florida
JOHN J. FASO, New York SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
JODEY C. ARRINGTON, Texas
______
Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas, Chairman
FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota,
MIKE ROGERS, Alabama Ranking Minority Member
BOB GIBBS, Ohio TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota
AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER, Delaware
RICK W. ALLEN, Georgia DAVID SCOTT, Georgia
MIKE BOST, Illinois SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
DON BACON, Nebraska AL LAWSON, Jr., Florida
NEAL P. DUNN, Florida TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona
JODEY C. ARRINGTON, Texas
(iii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Saturday, June 24, 2017, Gainesville, FL
Allen, Hon. Rick W., a Representative in Congress from Georgia,
opening statement.............................................. 1442
Conaway, Hon. K. Michael, a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1439
Crawford, Hon. Eric A. ``Rick'', a Representative in Congress
from Arkansas, opening statement............................... 1442
Dunn, Hon. Neal P., a Representative in Congress from Florida,
opening statement.............................................. 1442
Marshall, Hon. Roger W., a Representative in Congress from
Kansas, opening statement...................................... 1442
Panetta, Hon. Jimmy, a Representative in Congress from
California, opening statement.................................. 1442
Plaskett, Hon. Stacey E., a Delegate in Congress from Virgin
Islands, opening statement..................................... 1442
Scott, Hon. Austin, a Representative in Congress from Georgia,
opening statement.............................................. 1442
Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from
Pennsylvania, opening statement................................ 1442
Yoho, Hon. Ted S., a Representative in Congress from Florida,
opening statement.............................................. 1441
Attending Member Not on the Committee
Bishop, Jr., Hon. Sanford D., a Representative in Congress from
Georgia, opening statement..................................... 1442
Speakers
Fuchs, Ph.D., W. Kent, President, University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL................................................ 1440
Hoblick, John L., President, Florida Farm Bureau Federation,
Gainesville, FL................................................ 1446
Long, Gerald, President, Georgia Farm Bureau Federation, Macon,
GA............................................................. 1448
Telg, Ph.D., Ricky, Professor of Agricultural Education and
Communication; Director, Center for Public Issues Education,
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of
Florida, Gainesville, FL....................................... 1450
Hodges, Ph.D., Greg, Assistant Director, Division of Plant
Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer
Services, Gainesville, FL...................................... 1451
Norton, Ph.D., David, Vice President for Research, University of
Florida, Gainesville, FL....................................... 1451
Davis, B.E. ``Sonny'', Florida State Chairman, National Cotton
Council, Cottondale, FL........................................ 1453
Safley, Robin, Executive Director, Feeding Florida, Tallahassee,
FL............................................................. 1453
Koehler, Don, Executive Director, Georgia Peanut Commission,
Tifton, GA..................................................... 1454
Taylor, Ph.D., Robert W., Dean and Director of Land-Grant
Programs, College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Florida A&M
University, Tallahassee, FL.................................... 1455
Evans, Ben, Vice President, Coffee County Gin, Douglas, GA....... 1455
Black, Larry, Operations Manager, Peace River Packing Company;
Member, District 6, Board of Directors, Florida Citrus Mutual,
Lakeland, FL................................................... 1457
Sanchez, Virginia, Owner, Sanchez Farms, LLC, Old Town, FL....... 1458
Walker, Jane T., Executive Director, Daystar Life Center, St.
Petersburg, FL................................................. 1459
Griner, Ken, Manager, Usher Land & Timber, Inc.; President,
Florida Cattlemen's Association, Chiefland, FL................. 1460
Handley, Jim, Executive Vice President, Florida Cattlemen's
Association, Kissimmee, FL..................................... 1460
Philman, Kelly J., Owner, 83 Farms, Bell, FL..................... 1461
Leong, Ph.D., Stephen, Associate Dean for Research and Research
Director, CAFS Research Programs, Florida A&M University,
Tallahassee, FL................................................ 1462
Wright, Joe, President, Southeast Milk, Inc., Avon Park, FL...... 1462
Gwinn, Donell, Gwinn Brothers Farm, LLC, McAlpin, FL............. 1463
Barben, John, Member, District 9, Board of Directors, Florida
Citrus Mutual, Lakeland, FL.................................... 1463
Bruorton, Mike, President, Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers
Association, Fargo, GA......................................... 1464
Zimmer, Karl, President and Chief Executive Officer, Premium
Peanut, LLC, Douglas, GA....................................... 1465
Mesh, Marty, Executive Director, Florida Organic Growers,
Gainesville, FL................................................ 1466
Parrish, Brooks, former President, Florida FFA Association,
Gainesville, FL................................................ 1467
Gibney, M.P.H., C.P.H., Victoria Hunter, Regional Public Health
Coordinator, UF/IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL......................... 1469
Johns, Danny, Owner, Blue Sky Farms; Florida Director, National
Potato Council, Hastings, FL; on behalf of Florida Fruit and
Vegetable Association.......................................... 1470
Stone, Amy, Board Member, National Aquaculture Association,
Umatilla, FL................................................... 1471
Thomas, Derick, Director of Member and Public Relations, Clay
Electric Cooperative, Inc., Keystone Heights, FL............... 1472
Bohac, Chuck, Florida State Chairman, Ducks Unlimited, St.
Petersburg, FL................................................. 1473
Davidson, Jib, Certified Forester, Columbia Timber Company; 2017
Florida Division Chair, Chapter Chair, Florida Society of
American Foresters, Gainesville, FL; on behalf of Florida
Forestry Association........................................... 1474
Holley, Dusty, Field Services Director, Florida Cattlemen's
Association, Kissimme, FL...................................... 1475
Barton, Ken, Executive Director, Florida Peanut Producers
Association, Marianna, FL...................................... 1475
Thomas, Charles R., Member, Board of Directors, Farm Credit of
Florida, Live Oak, FL.......................................... 1476
Fountain, Kent, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Southeastern Gin and Peanut, Surrency, GA...................... 1477
Lytch, Adam, Operations Manager and Managing Partner, L&M Farms;
Member, Grower-Shipper Board, United Fresh Produce Association,
East Palatka, FL............................................... 1477
Browning, Ph.D., Harold W., Chief Operating Officer, Florida
Citrus Research and Development Foundation, Lake Alfred, FL.... 1478
Zielinski, Brian, Director of Conservation Operations, Eastern
Region, National Wild Turkey Federation, DeLand, FL............ 1479
Bristow, Caleb, Executive Director, Alabama Peanut Producers
Association, Headland, AL...................................... 1481
Shaw, Keith, Vice President, Mayo Fertilizer, Inc., Mayo, FL; on
behalf of The Fertilizer Institute, Florida Fertilizer &
Agrichemical Association....................................... 1482
Skidmore, John, President, Florida Tropical Fish Farms
Association, Ruskin, FL........................................ 1483
Boddiford, Jr., Joseph K., Owner, Joe Boddiford Farm; Vice
Chairman, Georgia Peanut Commission, Sylvania, GA.............. 1483
Villanueva, Caroline, South Florida External Affairs Manager,
Florida Crystals Corporation, West Palm Beach, FL.............. 1484
Canfield, Jr., Ph.D., Daniel E., Professor of Limnology, School
of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL................................................ 1485
Coley, Matt, Part Owner, Coley Gin & Fertilizer, Vienna, GA; on
behalf of National Cotton Council.............................. 1486
Dicks, Steven, President, Columbia County Farm Bureau, Lake City,
FL............................................................. 1487
Monday, July 31, 2017, San Angelo, TX
Arrington, Hon. Jodey C., a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1493
Conaway, Hon. K. Michael, a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1491
Davis, Hon. Rodney, a Representative in Congress from Illinois,
opening statement.............................................. 1494
Marshall, Hon. Roger W., a Representative in Congress from
Kansas, opening statement...................................... 1495
Peterson, Hon. Collin C., a Representative in Congress from
Minnesota, opening statement................................... 1494
Rouzer, Hon. David, a Representative in Congress from North
Carolina, opening statement.................................... 1493
Soto, Hon. Darren, a Representative in Congress from Florida,
opening statement.............................................. 1495
Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from
Pennsylvania, opening statement................................ 1494
Speakers
May, Dr. Brian J., President, Angelo State University, San
Angelo, TX..................................................... 1492
Duncan, J.D., Hon. Robert L., Chancellor, Texas Tech University,
Lubbock, TX.................................................... 1492
Boening, Russell, President, Texas Farm Bureau, Poth, TX......... 1498
Huie, Matthew, Huie & Huie Farm & Ranch/1349 Fiber & Fiber,
Beeville, TX................................................... 1499
Fraze, Ph.D., Steve, Interim Dean, College of Agricultural
Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University, Lubbock,
TX............................................................. 1501
Thorpe III, M.D., Richard, President, Texas Southwestern Cattle
Raisers Association, Winters, TX............................... 1501
Boyd, Rick C., Executive Vice President, First United Bank,
Lubbock, TX.................................................... 1503
Cox, Benny, Vice President, American Sheep Industry, San Angelo,
TX............................................................. 1503
Holladay, Julie Davis, cotton and peanuts producer, Lubbock, TX;
on behalf of Plains Cotton Growers, Inc........................ 1504
Bowers, Lindsey M., corn, grain sorghum, and catfish producer,
Inez, TX....................................................... 1505
Weaver, David, Chief Executive Officer, South Plains Food Bank,
Lubbock, TX.................................................... 1506
Bouma, Brad, President, Select Milk Producers, Inc., Ranson
Canyon, TX..................................................... 1507
Carson, Kody, Member, Board of Directors, National Sorghum
Producers, Olton, TX........................................... 1508
Gaona, Richard, President, Rolling Plains Cotton Growers, Roby,
TX............................................................. 1509
Dill, Tony, President, Western Peanut Growers, Brownfield, TX.... 1509
Richmond, Jule, Board Member and South Central Region Chair,
National Association of Conservation Districts; past President,
Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts,
Blanket, TX.................................................... 1510
Norman, Grace, Government Relations Manager, Texas Hunger
Initiative, Baylor University, Waco, TX........................ 1511
Fuchs, Allan, Board Member, St. Lawrence Cotton Growers
Association, Garden City, TX................................... 1512
Cleavinger, David, Member, Board of Directors, Texas Wheat
Producers Board, Wildorado, TX................................. 1513
Lovell, Jim, Chairman, Texas Cattle Feeders Association,
Amarillo, TX................................................... 1514
Wynn, J. Thomas, Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, U.S. Rice
Producers Association; Member, Texas Rice Council, Egypt, TX... 1515
Craven, Eric F., Senior Vice President of Government Relations
and Legal Affairs, Texas Electric Cooperatives, Austin, TX..... 1516
Pelzel, Richard, Board Member, Southern Rolling Plains Cotton
Growers Association, Miles, TX................................. 1516
Fitzsimons, Blair, Chief Executive Officer, Texas Agricultural
Land Trust, San Antonio, TX.................................... 1517
McDonald, Tim, Chief Executive Officer, AgTexas Farm Credit
Services; Member, Board of Directors, Southwest Council of
Agribusiness, Lubbock, TX...................................... 1518
Cowan, Wade, Owner, Cowan Farms and Harvesting; past President;
American Soybean Association, Brownfield, TX................... 1518
Campbell, Libby, Executive Director, West Texas Food Bank,
Odessa, TX..................................................... 1519
Snedeker, Coleton, State Vice President, Texas FFA Association,
Fredericksburg, TX............................................. 1520
Gertson, Timothy, Member, Board of Directors, Texas Rice
Producers Legislative Group, Lissie, TX........................ 1521
Whitener, Stacy, Chief Administrative Officer, Pecan Grove Farms,
Brownwood, TX.................................................. 1522
Ballou, Ph.D., Michael, Associate Dean for Research, College of
Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech
University, Lubbock, TX........................................ 1523
Artho, Dale, Board Member, Texas Grain Sorghum Association,
Wildorado, TX.................................................. 1524
Skaria, Ph.D., Mani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, U.S.
Citrus, LLC, Hargill, TX....................................... 1524
Brown, Kirby, Conservation Outreach Biologist, Ducks Unlimited,
Austin, TX..................................................... 1525
Schuchard, Chase, Member, Rolling Plains Cotton Growers, Roscoe,
TX............................................................. 1526
Sugarek, Jim S., Principal, Jim Sugarek Farms, Beeville, TX...... 1527
Rollins, Ph.D., Dale, Executive Director, Rolling Plains Quail
Research Ranch, Ruby, TX; on behalf of National Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative........................................ 1528
McBride, Eddie, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lubbock
Chamber of Commerce, Lubbock, TX............................... 1528
Mittelstedt, Ron, Chief Executive Officer, Sweet Springs Winery,
Weatherford, TX................................................ 1529
Scholz, Ben, President, Texas Wheat Producers Association, Lavon,
TX............................................................. 1530
Runyan, Ph.D., Chase A., Assistant Professor and Research
Scientist, Department of Agriculture, Angelo State University,
San Angelo, TX................................................. 1531
Smith, Hon. Dan B., cotton producer; State Director, Texas Farm
Bureau, Lockney, TX............................................ 1532
Henson, Michael, Owner, Mike Henson Farm; Committee Member, Texas
Grain Sorghum, Ropesville, TX.................................. 1532
Stephens, Val, State Director, District 6, Texas Farm Bureau,
Lamesa, TX..................................................... 1533
Dodier, Jose, Partner, Don Jose Land & Cattle Co., Zapata, TX.... 1533
Koke, Sonya, Owner, Blue Jay Dairy; Member, Dairy Farmers of
America, Dublin, TX............................................ 1534
Canepa, Alex, Research and Education Director, Farmers Market
Coalition, Austin, TX.......................................... 1535
Eilers, SGT Josh, Founder, Ranger Cattle, LLC, Austin, TX........ 1536
Brown, Don, Operations General Manager, Idalou Egg Ranch, Chino
Valley Ranchers, Idalou, TX.................................... 1537
Grissom, Jimbo, Seminole, TX; on behalf of Western Peanut Growers
Association.................................................... 1538
Kellison, Rick, Project Director, Texas Alliance for Water
Conservation, Texas Tech University, Lockney, TX............... 1538
Brown, Jeremy, President, Broadview Agriculture Inc.; Member,
District Three, Executive Committee, Plains Cotton Growers,
Inc., Lamesa, TX............................................... 1539
Thiel, Jr., Bernie J., President and Chief Executive Officer,
Sunburst Farms; Director At-Large, Texas International Produce
Association, Lubbock, TX....................................... 1540
Giesenschlag, John R., Owner/Operator, JRG Farms, Snook, TX...... 1541
Jones, John, Operations Manager, Lochow Ranch Lake Management;
President, Board of Directors; Texas Aquaculture Association,
Bryan, TX...................................................... 1541
Roper, Jeffrey, Owner, Jeffrey Roper Farms, Lubbock, TX.......... 1542
Wilde, Suzie, Crop Insurance Agent, Oasis Crop Insurance, San
Angelo, TX..................................................... 1544
Brints, Cal, Executive Director, Texas Certified Farmers Market
Association, Lubbock, TX....................................... 1544
Niehues, Kevin, Owner, Kevin Niehues Farm, Inc.; Member, Southern
Rolling Plains Cotton Growers Association, Eola, TX............ 1545
Anderson, Kristin P., AgriEdge Specialist, Syngenta; Vice
President, Texas AgriWomen, Bunda, TX.......................... 1546
Branham, Ph.D., Loree, Associate Professor and Research
Scientist, Department of Agriculture, Angelo State University,
San Angelo, TX................................................. 1547
Wedel, Jimmy, Member, Board of Directors, Corn Producers
Association of Texas, Lubbock, TX.............................. 1548
Paz, Michael, President, Texas Association of Olive Oil, Helotes,
TX; on behalf of American Olive Oil Producers Association...... 1549
Hill, Heath, corn, wheat, sorghum, cattle producer, Gruver, TX... 1550
Belew, Bill, Chief Executive Officer, B&M Belew Farms; Member,
Southern Rolling Plains Cotton Growers Association, Winters, TX 1550
Collier, Will, dairy producer, T&K Dairy; Member, Dairy Farmers
of America, Snyder, TX......................................... 1551
Cure, Dave, Member, Board of Directors, Southwest Council of
Agribusiness, Stratton, CO..................................... 1552
Schwertner, Donnie W., Owner, Kasberg Grain Company, Miles, TX;
on behalf of Texas Grain and Feed Association, National Grain
and Feed Council............................................... 1552
Cole, Celia, Chief Executive Officer, Feeding Texas, Austin, TX.. 1553
Hemphill, Sheila, Policy Director, Texas Hemp Industries
Association, Brady, TX......................................... 1554
Wilde, Douglas, Vice President, Southern Rolling Plains Cotton
Growers Association, San Angelo, TX............................ 1555
Thursday, August 3, 2017, Morgan, MN
Conaway, Hon. K. Michael, a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1559
Davis, Hon. Rodney, a Representative in Congress from Illinois,
opening statement.............................................. 1561
Evans, Hon. Dwight, a Representative in Congress from
Pennsylvania, opening statement................................ 1562
King, Hon. Steve, a Representative in Congress from Iowa, opening
statement...................................................... 1560
Marshall, Roger W., a Representative in Congress from Kansas,
opening statement.............................................. 1561
Nolan, Hon. Richard M., a Representative in Congress from
Minnesota, opening statement................................... 1562
Peterson, Hon. Collin C., a Representative in Congress from
Minnesota, opening statement................................... 1560
Walz, Hon. Timothy J., a Representative in Congress from
Minnesota, opening statement................................... 1561
Attending Members Not on the Committee
Cramer, Hon. Kevin, a Representative in Congress from North
Dakota, opening statement...................................... 1563
Emmer, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from Minnesota,
opening statement.............................................. 1562
Noem, Hon. Kristi L., a Representative in Congress from South
Dakota, opening statement...................................... 1561
Speakers
Duvall, Vincent ``Zippy'', President, American Farm Bureau
Federation, Macon, GA.......................................... 1564
Paap, Kevin, President, Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation, Garden
City, MN....................................................... 1565
Wertish, Gary, President, Minnesota Farmers Union, Renville, MN.. 1566
Wolle, Jr., Harold, President, Minnesota Corn Growers
Association, Madelia, MN....................................... 1567
Frericks, Sadie, Elected Leader, Land O'Lakes; dairy producer,
Blue Diamond Dairy, Melrose, MN................................ 1567
Bach, Darwyn, Farmer-Member, Land Stewardship Project, St. Leo,
MN............................................................. 1568
Keister, Travis, Crop Insurance Agent, Minnesota-Iowa Crop
Insurance Services; Member, Crop Insurance Professionals
Association, Blue Earth, MN.................................... 1569
Durgan, Ph.D., Beverly R., Dean, University of Minnesota
Extension; Professor, Department of Agronomy and Plant
Genetics, St. Paul, MN......................................... 1570
Matzner, Jerry, Part Owner, Century Farm Organics and Dairy,
Clarkfield, MN................................................. 1570
Cunningham, Ian, Member, Executive Board, National Association of
Conservation Districts, Piperstone, MN......................... 1571
Nuessmeier, Tom, organic corn, soybeans, alfalfa, winter grains,
oats, and clover producer, Le Sueur, MN........................ 1572
Wollum, Krist, President, Minnesota State Cattlemen's
Association, Porter, MN........................................ 1573
Benson, Katie, President, Minnesota FFA Association, Staples, MN. 1573
Krosch, Carol, landowner and Secretary, Board of Supervisors,
Blue Earth County Soil & Water Conservation District, Good
Thunder, MN.................................................... 1574
Piper, J.D., Emily, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Human
Services, St. Paul, MN......................................... 1575
Buck, David, President, Minnesota Milk Producers Association,
Goodhue, MN.................................................... 1575
Peterson, Bruce, Board Member, Minnesota Corn Growers
Association, Northfield, MN.................................... 1576
Sobolik, Melissa, Director, Ending Hunger 2.0, Great Plains Food
Bank, Fargo, ND................................................ 1577
Davison, Brent, Chairman, Board of Directors, Minn-Dak Farmers
Cooperative, Wahpeton, ND...................................... 1578
Mendenhall, Kate, Director, Organic Farmers Association, Okoboji,
IA............................................................. 1578
Pedersen, Gary, Executive Director, Minnesota Association of
Townships, St. Michael, MN..................................... 1579
Bilek, DeEtta, organic hay, oats, and rye producer, Aldrich, MN.. 1580
Lange, Robert A., Windom, MN..................................... 1580
Hultgren, Noah, Agronomy Manager, Hultgren Farms; past President,
Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Wilmar, MN................. 1581
Green, Robert, Chairman, American Crystal Sugar Company, St.
Thomas, ND..................................................... 1581
Kvistad, Paul, Owner/Operator, Paul Kvistad Poultry, Wood Lakes,
MN; on behalf of Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.......... 1582
Moriarty, Hon. Colleen, Executive Director, Hunger Solutions
Minnesota, St. Paul, MN........................................ 1583
Haag, Tom, Member, Corn Board, National Corn Growers Association,
Eden Valley, MN................................................ 1584
Scheevel, David, Chairman, Board of Directors, Foremost Farms
USA; Member, Board of Directors, National Milk Producers
Federation, Preston, MN........................................ 1584
Hoefs, Ruth, Minnesota State Chairwoman, Ducks Unlimited, Le
Center, MN..................................................... 1585
Anderson, Duane, President and Chief Executive Officer, Farmers
Union Industries, LLC, Redwood Falls, MN....................... 1585
VanDerPol, Terry, Coordinator, Chippewa 10% Project and Director,
Community Based Food Systems, Land Stewardship Project, Granite
Falls, MN...................................................... 1586
Borrud, Aleta, Owner, Borrud Family Farms, LLP, Williston, ND.... 1587
Olson, Mark, President, M. Olson Farms Inc., Willmar, MN......... 1587
Post, Bill, Owner, Middleroad Acres, Chandler, MN................ 1588
Schlangen, Steve, Chairman, Board of Directors, Associated Milk
Producers, Inc., Albany, MN.................................... 1588
Poier, Vicki, Member, Bread for the World, Montevideo, MN........ 1589
Petersen, Kyle, Chairman, Board of Directors, Southern Minnesota
Beet Sugar Cooperative, Murdock, MN............................ 1590
Olson, Howard, Senior Vice President, Insurance and
Communications, AgCountry Farm Credit Services, Fargo, ND; on
behalf of American Sugarbeet Growers Association............... 1590
DeBlieck, Eric, Crop Specialist, Grain Millers, Inc., Eden
Prairie, MN.................................................... 1591
Moore, Jay, President, Executive Board, Minnesota Pork Producers
Association, Jackson, MN....................................... 1592
Gervais, Robert, Director of Operations and Government Relations,
Tru Shrimp Company, Balaton, MN................................ 1592
Olson, Craig, President, North Dakota Soybean Growers
Association, Colfax, ND........................................ 1593
Griebel, Susan, Member, Land Stewardship Project, New Ulm, MN.... 1594
Paul, Gene, Legislative Coordinator, National Farmers
Organization, Delavan, MN...................................... 1594
Hoffman, Steven, Owner, Hoffman Dairy, New Ulm, MN............... 1595
Petefish, Michael, President, Minnesota Soybean Growers
Association, Claremont, MN..................................... 1595
Schneider, Michael, Operator, Schneider Farms, LLP, Sacred Heart,
MN............................................................. 1596
Schuermann, Jeff, New Ulm, MN.................................... 1596
Riddle, Jim, Co-Owner, Blue Fruit Farm, Winona, MN; Advisor,
National Organic Coalition; Chairman, Steering Committee,
Organic Farmers Association; Chairman, MN Organic Advisory Task
Force, MDA and UMN............................................. 1597
Sobocinski, Paul, farrow-to-finish livestock producer, Wabasso,
MN............................................................. 1597
Taylor, Ph.D., J. Scott, Coordinator, National Wild Pheasant
Conservation Plan, Midwest Association of Fish & Wildlife
Agencies, Brookings, SD........................................ 1598
Fitzgerald, Matthew, Operator, Fitzgerald Farm; Founder, Central
Minnesota Young Farmers Coalition, Glencoe, MN................. 1599
Hamlin, Jake, Director, State Government Affairs, CHS, Inc., St.
Paul, MN....................................................... 1599
Kanne, James, Member, Land Stewardship Project, Franklin, MN..... 1600
Busman, John, Vice President, Busman Farms, Inc., Chandler, MN... 1600
Saturday, August 5, 2017, Modesto, CA
Conaway, Hon. K. Michael, a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1603
Denham, Hon. Jeff, a Representative in Congress from California,
opening statement.............................................. 1604
Evans, Hon. Dwight, a Representative in Congress from
Pennsylvania, opening statement................................ 1605
LaMalfa, Hon. Doug, a Representative in Congress from California,
opening statement.............................................. 1604
Attending Member Not on the Committee
Valadao, Hon. David G., a Representative in Congress from
California, opening statement.................................. 1605
Speakers
Wenger, Paul J., President, California Farm Bureau Federation,
Modesto, CA.................................................... 1607
Toso, Anthony J. ``Tony'', Second Vice President, California Farm
Bureau Federation, Hornitos, CA................................ 1608
Mattos, Bill, President, California Poultry Federation, Modesto,
CA............................................................. 1609
Koligian, Vaughn, Director Corporate Sustainability, Sun Maid
Growers of California, Kingsburg, CA........................... 1610
Summers, Steven, Volunteer, Alameda County Community Food Bank,
Oakland, CA.................................................... 1611
Salinas, Larry, Executive Director of Governmental Relations,
California State University-Fresno, Fresno, CA................. 1611
Schuur, Anthonie M., President, California Aquaculture
Association, Pollock Pines, CA; on behalf of National
Aquaculture Association........................................ 1612
Coelho, Frank R., Partner, Nature's Clover Dairy, Modesto, CA.... 1613
Brandi, Gene, President, American Beekeeping Federation, Los
Banos, CA...................................................... 1614
Prasad, Shanti E., Senior Policy Advocate, Alameda County
Community Food Bank, Oakland, CA............................... 1615
Bedell, John, Senior Director of Ag Operations, J.S. West Milling
Company; past President, Association of California Egg Farmers,
Modesto, CA.................................................... 1616
DeBrum, Hon. Stephen ``Steve'', Mayor, City of Manteca, CA;
Northern California Manager, Dairy Farmers of America, Manteca,
CA............................................................. 1617
Lipson, Mark, Senior Analyst and Policy Program Director, Organic
Farming Research Foundation, Santa Cruz, CA.................... 1618
Livengood, Marla, Regulatory Affairs Manager, California
Strawberry Commission, Watsonville, CA......................... 1618
Hecht, J.D., Kenneth, Director of Policy, Nutrition Policy
Institute, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources,
University of California, Berkeley, CA......................... 1619
Kirby, Lilli, Volunteer, Humane Society of the United States,
Davis, CA...................................................... 1620
Stump, Jeff, Director of Conservation, Marin Agricultural Land
Trust, Point Reyes Station, CA................................. 1620
Rockwell, Alicia, Director of Corporate Communication and Public
Affairs, Blue Diamond Growers, Sacramento, CA.................. 1621
Hunt, Denise, Turlock, CA........................................ 1622
Unruh, Ph.D., John A., Dean, College of Agriculture, California
State University, Chico, Chico, CA............................. 1623
Cosyns, Ryan, Executive Board Member, American Honey Producers
Association, Madera, CA........................................ 1624
Brumley, Claire, Vice President--Lending, American AgCredit,
Oakdale, CA.................................................... 1625
O'Haire, Milton, Agricultural Commissioner and Sealer of Weights
and Measures, Stanislaus County, Modesto, CA................... 1626
Hunn, Lawrence H., Owner-Operator, Hunn & Merwin & Merwin, Inc.;
Board Member, California Association of Wheat Growers;
Alternate Vice Chair, California Wheat Commission, Clarksburg,
CA............................................................. 1627
Schultz, Tim, Vice President of Administration and Director,
Lundberg Family Farms, Richvale, CA............................ 1628
Phippen, David, Co-Owner, Travaille & Phippen; Board Member,
Almond Board of California, Ripon, CA.......................... 1628
Cannon, R.D., Melissa, Nutrition Policy Advocate, California Food
Policy Advocates, Oakland, CA.................................. 1629
Souza, Andrew, President and Chief Executive Officer, Community
Food Bank, Fresno, CA.......................................... 1630
Huyghe, Cathy, Co-Founder, Enolytics, Atlanta, GA................ 1631
Crussell, Piper, Senior District Leader, Volunteer Program,
Humane Society of the United States, Rocklin, CA............... 1632
Buhr, Karen, Executive Director, California Association of
Resource Conservation Districts, Sacramento, CA................ 1633
Duarte, John, President, Duarte Nursery, Inc., Modesto, CA....... 1633
Kautz, John, Owner and Chairman, Ironstone Vineyards and John
Kautz Farms, Lodi, CA.......................................... 1634
Schwartz, Steve, Coordinator, California Caucus, National
Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Sebastopol, CA.............. 1634
Elliott, Hon. Robert V. ``Bob'', District 5 Member, Board of
Supervisors, San Joaquin County, Tracy, CA..................... 1635
Alamo, Nelia, Director of Marketing and Communications,
Renaissance Food Group, Rancho Cordova, CA..................... 1636
Lopez, Lupe, Owner, Arteaga's Food Centers, Newark, CA........... 1636
Augusto, Joseph, President, California Dairy Campaign, Turlock,
CA............................................................. 1637
O'Leary, Luke, State President, California FFA Association, San
Luis Obispo, CA................................................ 1638
Han, Olyvia, District Leader Volunteer, Humane Society of the
United States, San Jose, CA.................................... 1639
Settevendemie, Martin, President, California Agricultural
Commissioners and Sealers Association; Agricultural
Commissioner and Sealer, County of San Luis Obispo, San Luis
Obispo, CA..................................................... 1640
Hurley, Ph.D., Sean, Agricultural Production Economist and
Professor, Agribusiness Department, College of Agriculture,
Food and Environmental Sciences, California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo, CA................................ 1641
Pandol, John, Director of Special Projects, Pandol Bros. Inc.,
Delano, CA..................................................... 1642
Patrick, Lester, Member, Hunger Task Force; Commissioner, Housing
Authority of San Joaquin County, Stockton, CA.................. 1642
Garcia, Dulce, Secretary, Region V, Student Senate for California
Community Colleges, Madera, CA................................. 1643
Kessler, Ph.D., Lisa A., Interim Dean, Don B. Huntley College of
Agriculture, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona,
Pomona, CA..................................................... 1644
Karlin, Joel, Economist and Feed Grain Merchandiser, Western
Milling; Adjunct Professor, Department of Agricultural
Business, Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and
Technology, California State University, Fresno, Goshen, CA.... 1644
Martin, Gary, Manager, Pikalok Farming, Firebaugh, CA............ 1645
Smith, Janet, Partner, Edwin H. Smith & Sons Dairy, Turlock, CA.. 1646
Villegas, Rudolph, Vice President of Communication, Student
Senate for California Community Colleges, San Diego, CA........ 1647
Van Elderen, Leonard, President and Chief Executive Officer,
Yosemite Farm Credit, Turlock, CA.............................. 1648
Ward, Dawn, Deputy District Volunteer, Humane Society of United
States, Modesto, CA............................................ 1648
Van Vleck, Nicole M., President and Chief Executive Officer,
Montna Farms; Chair, Producers Committee, California Rice
Commission; Vice Chair, USA Rice, Sacramento, CA............... 1649
Houlding, Kimberly, President and Chief Executive Officer,
American Olive Oil Producers Association, Clovis, CA........... 1650
Vandenheuvel, Rob, Vice President, Industry and Member Relations,
California Dairies, Inc., Visalia, CA.......................... 1651
Parsons, Jim, Partner, Parsons & Sons Farming, LLC, Ducor, CA; on
behalf of California Association of Wheat Growers.............. 1651
Sooby, Jane, Outreach and Senior Policy Specialist, California
Certified Organic Farmers, Santa Cruz, CA...................... 1652
Rivecca, Colleen, Advocacy Program Lead, St. Anthony's
Foundation, San Francisco, CA.................................. 1653
Moy, Allen, Executive Director, Pacific Coast Farmers' Market
Association, Concord, CA....................................... 1654
Absher, David S., President, Absher Land & Livestock, Inc.,
Hughson, CA; on behalf of California Cattlemen's Association... 1654
Feldman, Ben, Policy Specialist, Farmers Market Coalition,
Albany, CA..................................................... 1655
Heuer, Kevin, Chief Operations and Programs Officer, Second
Harvest Food Bank, Watsonville, CA............................. 1657
Ratto, Ronald A., President, Ratto Bros., Inc., Modesto, CA...... 1657
Zigas, Eli, Food and Agricultural Policy Director, SPUR, San
Francisco, CA.................................................. 1658
McKean, Mark, Owner, McKean Farms Inc., Riverdale, CA............ 1659
Crow, Linda, Member, Board of Directors, National Education
Association, Newman, CA........................................ 1660
Covello, Kelly, President, Almond Alliance of California,
Modesto, CA.................................................... 1660
Tucker, Rachel, Senior Policy Associate, California Association
of Food Banks, Oakland, CA..................................... 1661
Garbani, Peter, Director, State Government Affairs, Land O'Lakes,
Inc., Tulare, CA............................................... 1662
Lashbrook, Cindy, Co-Owner, Riverdance Farms; Member, California
Certified Organic Farmers, Livingston, CA...................... 1663
Smith, Catherine, Turlock, CA.................................... 1664
Raudabaugh, Anja, Chief Executive Officer, Western United
Dairymen, Modesto, CA.......................................... 1664
Hart, Abigail, Agriculture Project Director, The Nature
Conservancy, San Francisco, CA................................. 1664
Marsh, Vernette, Davis, CA....................................... 1665
McCarthy, Janet, District 7 Volunteer Leader, Humane Society of
the United States, Folsom, CA.................................. 1665
Winn, Chris, District Volunteer Leader, Humane Society of the
United States, Oakland, CA..................................... 1666
Wednesday, August 30, 2017, Decatur, IL
Bost, Hon. Mike, a Representative in Congress from Illinois,
opening statement.............................................. 1674
Bustos, Hon. Cheri, a Representative in Congress from Illinois,
opening statement.............................................. 1674
Conaway, Hon. K. Michael, a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1671
Davis, Hon. Rodney, a Representative in Congress from Illinois,
opening statement.............................................. 1673
Peterson, Hon. Collin C., a Representative in Congress from
Minnesota, opening statement................................... 1672
Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from
Pennsylvania, opening statement................................ 1673
Attending Member Not on the Committee
LaHood, Hon. Darrin, a Representative in Congress from Illinois,
opening statement.............................................. 1675
Speakers
Valdez, Ed.D., Cristobal ``Cris'', President, Richland Community
College, Decatur, IL........................................... 1672
Guebert, Jr., Richard, President, Illinois Farm Bureau, Ellis
Grove, IL...................................................... 1677
Carson, Phil, President of the Board, National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association, Oakdale, IL........................... 1678
Sandrock, Gary, Chair, National Crop Insurance Task Force,
Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, Inc.,
Tampico, IL.................................................... 1679
Maschhoff, Ken, President, National Pork Producers Council,
Carlyle, IL.................................................... 1679
Williams, John M., sorghum, soybeans, corn, and wheat producer;
Owner, Williams Insurance Services, Enfield, IL................ 1680
Uphoff, Troy, District 11 Director, Illinois Farm Bureau,
Findlay, IL.................................................... 1682
Moore, Ron, President, American Soybean Association, Roseville,
IL............................................................. 1682
Reeverts, Ryan, State Reporter, Illinois Association FFA, Byron,
IL............................................................. 1683
Lyons, Richard, Director, Illinois Association of Drainage
Districts, Harvel, IL.......................................... 1684
Janson, Dave, Owner and President, Strategic Farm Marketing,
Champaign, IL.................................................. 1685
Bowling, Jr., Charles ``Chip'', Chairman, National Corn Growers
Association, Newburg, MD....................................... 1685
Hires, Jim, President and Chief Executive Officer, Eastern
Illinois Food Bank, Urbana, IL................................. 1686
Coppess, J.D., Jonathan W., Director, Gardner Agriculture Policy
Program, and Bock Ag Law/Policy Program, Clinical Assistant
Professor, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental
Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL................... 1687
Hampton Knodle, Heather, Vice President, Knodle, Ltd.; First Vice
President, Vital Issues and Resolutions, American Agri-Women,
Fillmore, IL................................................... 1688
Appell, Jill, pork producer, Appell's Pork Farms, Inc.; past
President, National Pork Producers Council and Illinois Pork
Producers Association, Altona, IL.............................. 1689
Reifsteck, John, corn and soybean producer; Chairman of the Board
and President, GROWMARK, Inc., Champaign, IL................... 1690
Schutz, Chad, corn, beef, pork, and soybean producer, Schutz
Farms, Inc.; District 15 Director, Illinois Farm Bureau, White
Hall, IL....................................................... 1690
Carlton-Huber, Linda, Owner, CF&H Insurance Agency, Inc.; Member,
Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, Inc. and
Independent Farm Insurance Agents of Illinois, Sullivan, IL.... 1691
Schaufelberger, Boyd E., President, Holstein Association USA,
Greenville, IL................................................. 1692
Hooker, Jered, Assistant Treasurer-Secretary and District
Director, Illinois Soybean Association, Clinton, IL............ 1693
Coatar, Matthew, Executive Director, Feeding Illinois, Glenview,
IL............................................................. 1693
Kopsell, Ph.D., David, Professor of Horticulture, College of
Applied Science & Technology, llinois State University; Member;
Collegiate Activities Committee, American Society for
Horticultural Science, Normal, IL.............................. 1694
Linville, John, Partner, Linville Farms, Bement, IL.............. 1695
Donovan, Susan, Director of Government Relations, The Nature
Conservancy, Chicago, IL....................................... 1695
Corzine, Leon ``Len'', President, LPC Farms; past President,
Illinois Corn Growers Association and National Corn Growers
Association, Assumption, IL.................................... 1696
Shanan, Yoram, Proprietor, Sandbox Organics Farm; Director,
Northern Illinois Chapter, National Young Farmers Coalition,
Grayslake, IL.................................................. 1697
Scherer, Hon. Sue, Representative, 96th District, Illinois
General Assembly; Vice-Chairperson, Agriculture & Conservation
Committee, Decatur, IL......................................... 1698
Niemeyer, Garry, Member, Board of Directors, Waterways Council,
Inc., Auburn, IL............................................... 1699
Osland, Rebecca, Policy Associate, Illinois Stewardship Alliance,
Springfield, IL................................................ 1699
Pastrovich, Brad, Chairman, Chapter #197, Illinois Ducks
Unlimited, Litchfield, IL...................................... 1700
Ayers, Marc, Illinois State Director, Humane Society of the
United States, Springfield, IL................................. 1701
Williams, John, Post-Harvest Manager, PrairiErth Farm, McLean, IL 1701
Rube, Ashley, Outreach Coordinator, St. Louis Area Food Bank, St.
Louis, MO...................................................... 1702
Stierwalt, Steve, President, Association of Illinois Soil and
Water Conservation Districts, Sadorus, IL...................... 1703
Fogle, Ross, Northern Illinois Regional Representative, Pheasants
Forever and Quail Forever, Bloomington, IL..................... 1704
Burch, Timothy W., Secretary, National Society of Professional
Surveyors; Director of Surveying, SPACECO, Inc., Frederick, MD. 1705
Hays, Ph.D., Carol, Executive Director, Prairie Rivers Network,
Champaign, IL; on behalf of National Wildlife Federation....... 1706
Hanauer, Matthew, Watershed Specialist, Macon County Soil and
Water Conservation District, Decatur, IL....................... 1707
Wise, Stephanie, Member, Board of Directors, Compeer Financial,
Sun Prairie, WI................................................ 1708
Erickson, David C., Vice President, Illinois Farm Bureau, Altona,
IL............................................................. 1709
Baise, Michael, Senior Midwest Policy Advisor, American Farmland
Trust, Bloomington, IN......................................... 1709
Merchen, Ph.D., Neal R., Associate Dean for Research, College of
Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University
of Illinois; Director, Illinois Agricultural Experiment
Station, Urbana, IL............................................ 1710
Bucher, Joni, President, Illinois Beef Association; Owner, Bucher
Cattle Company, Good Hope, IL.................................. 1711
John, Steve, Executive Director, Agricultural Watershed
Institute, Decatur, IL......................................... 1712
Hanson, Doug, Chairman, Illinois Leadership Council for
Agricultural Education, Danforth, IL........................... 1713
Wilson, Douglas A., Principal, Douglas A. Wilson Farms, Gridley,
IL............................................................. 1714
Williams, Jr., Earl, District 2 Director, Illinois Farm Bureau,
Cherry Valley, IL.............................................. 1715
Simeziane, Sarah, Farmers' Market and Food Access Manager, The
Land Connection, Champaign, IL................................. 1715
McCaffrey, Ph.D., Jennifer, Assistant Dean, Family and Consumer
Sciences, Office of Extension and Outreach, University of
Illinois, Champaign, IL........................................ 1716
Wickham Hurst, Kelly, Founder, Executive Director, Being Black at
School, Springfield, IL; on behalf of Central Illinois Food
Bank........................................................... 1717
Moore, Sarah, Clinic Manager, Animal Protective League,
Springfield, IL................................................ 1718
Hartman, Jr., Kenneth, Owner, Glendell H. Farms, Ltd.; Chairman,
Market Access Action Team, National Corn Growers, Waterloo, IL. 1718
Propst, Jason, President, Illinois Pork Producers Association,
Neoga, IL...................................................... 1719
DeSutter, Randy, Partner, DeSutter Farms, Woodhull, IL........... 1720
Turner, Steve, President, Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau, Chandlerville,
IL............................................................. 1721
Wirth, Dennis, Partner, Wirth Brothers Farms, Gays, IL........... 1722
Krieger, Mallory, Farmer Training Program Manager, The Land
Connection; Owner/Operator, Lower Meadow Farm, LLC, Champaign,
IL............................................................. 1722
Kerwin, Jeff, District 3 Director, Illinois Farm Bureau, New
Windsor, IL.................................................... 1723
Monday, October 9, 2017, Cobleskill, NY
Conaway, Hon. K. Michael, a Representative in Congress from
Texas, opening statement....................................... 1727
Faso, Hon. John J., a Representative in Congress from New York,
opening statement.............................................. 1729
Peterson, Hon. Collin C., a Representative in Congress from
Minnesota, opening statement................................... 1729
Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from
Pennsylvania, opening statement................................ 1730
Attending Member Not on the Committee
Tenney, Hon. Claudia, a Representative in Congress from New York,
opening statement.............................................. 1730
Speakers
Terenzio, Ph.D., Marion, President, State University of New York,
Cobleskill, Cobleskill, NY..................................... 1728
Fisher, David, President, New York Farm Bureau, Madrid, NY....... 1732
Boor, Ph.D., Kathryn J., Ronald P. Lynch Dean, College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.. 1733
Rea, Neal, Chairman, Board of Directors, Agri-Mark, Inc.; Co-
Owner, Reafield Farm, Cambridge, NY............................ 1734
Ooms, Eric, Vice President, New York Farm Bureau, Old Chatham, NY 1735
Griffen, Laurie K., Co-Owner/Operator, Saratoga Sod Farm; Member,
Board of Directors, Farm Credit East, ACA, Schuylerville, NY... 1735
Hoodes, Liana, Policy Advisor, Northeast Organic Farming
Association, New York, Pine Bush, NY........................... 1736
Martin, Tracey, Associate Director, Regional Food Bank of
Northeastern New York, Latham, NY.............................. 1737
Tauzel, Christine, Program Director, New York State Agriculture
Mediation Program, Albany, NY.................................. 1738
Tomasky, Sherry, Director, Public Affairs, Hunger Solutions of
New York, Albany, NY........................................... 1739
Wilson, Stephen O., Chairman, Legislative Policy Committee,
Empire State Honey Producers Association, Altamont, NY......... 1740
Doyle, Kim, Reporter, New York State FFA Association, Neversink,
NY............................................................. 1740
Shapiro, Brian, New York State Director, Humane Society of the
United States, High Falls, NY.................................. 1741
Tewksbury, Arden, Manager, Progressive Agriculture Organization,
Meshoppen, PA.................................................. 1742
Davenport, Jim, Co-Owner, Tollgate Farm; President, Columbia
County Farm Bureau, Ancramdale, NY............................. 1744
Berg, Joel, Chief Executive Officer, Hunger Free America, New
York, NY....................................................... 1744
Grubb, Brian, Co-Owner, Bison Island; Member, Board of Directors,
Region 7, National Bison Association, Sharon Springs, NY....... 1745
Hardy, David, Co-Owner, Hardy Family Farm; Member, Organic Valley
Farms, Mohawk, NY.............................................. 1746
Moore, J.D., Ruth A., Executive Director, Cornell Cooperative
Extension, Dutchess County, Millbrook, NY...................... 1747
Graulich, Suzanne H., Attorney, Suzanne Hayner Graulich, Esq.,
Cobleskill, NY; on behalf of Schoharie Dairy Cooperative....... 1748
Rippon-Butler, Holly, Land Access Program Director, National
Young Farmers Coalition, Hudson, NY............................ 1748
Bentley, Trevor, Member, SUNY Cobleskill Chapter, Ducks
Unlimited, Cobleskill, NY...................................... 1749
Schneider, Mark, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager,
Delaware County Electric Cooperative, Delhi, NY................ 1750
Novak, Hon. Christopher C., Councilman, Town of Palatine;
Manager, Abundance Acres Farm, Fort Plain, NY.................. 1751
Fitzpatrick, James, Agent, Arthur Carroll Insurance Agency,
Thomaston, CT.................................................. 1752
Darling, M.S., C.L.C., Jeanne M., Executive Director, Cornell
Cooperative Extension, Delaware County, Hamden, NY............. 1752
Tebbens, Erika, veteran spouse and Owner, Erika Tebbens
Consulting, Ballston Spa, NY................................... 1753
Dugan, Andrew, President, Northeast Agribusiness and Feed
Alliance, Sangerfield, NY...................................... 1754
Lloyd, Denise, Partner, Maple Downs Farms II, LLC, Middleburgh,
NY............................................................. 1755
Hovel, Ph.D., Harold, Member, Board of Directors, New York State
Humane Association, Katonah, NY................................ 1755
Molesky, Jr., Paul, Vice President and Young Farmer and Rancher
Co-Chair, Rensselaer County Farm Bureau, Schaghticoke, NY; on
behalf of New York Farm Bureau................................. 1756
Ackoff, Sophie, National Field Director, National Young Farmers
Coalition, Hudson, NY.......................................... 1757
Gilchrist, Brian, Executive Director, Cornell Cooperative
Extension, Washington, Fulton, and Montgomery Counties, Fort
Edward, NY..................................................... 1758
Damin, Barbara, Co-Owner, Damin Farm, St. Johnsville, NY......... 1759
Haefner, Hon. Robert ``Bob'', Agricultural Policy Consultant,
Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference,
Hudson, NH..................................................... 1760
Lare, Rebecca, Advocacy Resource Manager, Food Bank of Central
New York, Syracuse, NY......................................... 1760
Maine, Gretchen, former dairy producer, Waterville, NY........... 1761
Kayne, Susan, Co-Founder, Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation,
Kinderhook, NY................................................. 1762
Sullivan, Carol, Secretary, Progressive Agriculture Organization,
Meshoppen, PA.................................................. 1763
Fitch, Robin, Co-Owner, Swiss Hill Farm, West Winfield, NY....... 1763
Arnold, Kathie, Chair, Policy Committee, Northeast Organic Dairy
Producers Association; Co-Owner and Operator, Twin Oaks Dairy
LLC, Truxton, NY............................................... 1764
Valusek, Patricia, President, New York State Humane Association;
Federal Government employee (Ret.), Port Ewen, NY.............. 1765
Pickard, Elizabeth, farmworker, Twin Oaks Dairy LLC; Member,
National Young Farmers Coalition, Truxton, NY.................. 1765
Paley, Anita, Executive Director, Food Bank Association of New
York State, Albany, NY......................................... 1766
Waro, MacKenzie, Livestock Processing & Marketing Specialist,
Harvest New York, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Cooperstown,
NY............................................................. 1767
Simon, Sarah, Farm Director, Common Ground Farm; Member, Hudson
Valley Young Farmers Coalition, Beacon, NY..................... 1767
Rogan, Ph.D., Anne C., Professor, Agriculture and Food Management
Department, State University of New York, Cobleskill,
Cobleskill, NY................................................. 1768
Smyers, Don, Executive Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension,
Schoharie and Otsego Counties, Cobleskill, NY.................. 1769
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
(EMERSON ALUMNI HALL, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE, FL)
----------
SATURDAY, JUNE 24, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Agriculture,
Gainesville, FL
The Committee met at 10:00 a.m., E.D.T., at 1938 West
University Avenue, Emerson Alumni Hall, University of Florida,
Gainesville, FL, Hon. K. Michael Conaway [Chairman of the
Committee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Conaway, Thompson, Austin
Scott of Georgia, Crawford, Yoho, Allen, Marshall, Dunn,
Arrington, Plaskett, and Panetta.
Staff present: Chris Heggem, Rachel Millard, Matthew S.
Schertz, Margaret Wetherald, Kellie Adesina, Stacy Revels,
Keith Jones, Trevor White.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
The Chairman. Good morning, everyone. Let's go ahead and
get started.
We have one more Member about to join us here. Where's Sam?
Oh, there's Sam.
It's my habit to start all of our meetings with a prayer,
so please join me for a prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we come to this session humble, with
the blessing you bestowed upon us as a people and our country,
none more important than the agricultural industries, and the
way that we go about the process feeding our ourselves, feeding
our families, and feeding the world. We ask your blessings on
the men and women in this audience today as they go about their
tasks, though we ask this morning that you also be in this room
with us, the words that we say and the way we say them, we will
be respectful, that we will listen to each other and glean from
these conversations the important issues that will help us
write a better farm bill than we might have otherwise written.
Forgive us our many sins we committed, we ask this in Jesus'
name. Amen.
The Chairman. Now I ask Brooks Parrish--where's Brooks?
Mr. Parrish. Right here.
The Chairman. Brooks is going to lead us in the Pledge of
Allegiance. Please stand.
Mr. Brooks. Please address the flag. Salute. Pledge.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Mr. Parrish. Thank you.
The Chairman. It's now my pleasure to introduce our host,
Dr. Fuchs, of the University of Florida. We could not have had
a better start to the listening sessions. This is our first
one, it is plowing new ground, so to speak, and we were a
little anxious about it. The University of Florida, his team,
have done an outstanding job. So, Dr. Fuchs, if you'd like to
say a few words to the audience, we'd be happy to hear from
you.
Dr. Fuchs. From here or----
The Chairman. Whatever you're comfortable with.
STATEMENT OF W. KENT FUCHS, Ph.D., PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF
FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE, FL
Dr. Fuchs. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Conaway.
Well, welcome to the University of Florida, y'all. Indeed,
I'm Kent Fuchs, President of UF, and as one of our nation's
land-grant universities, agriculture is an important part of
our history, our present, and, more importantly, our future. We
are so pleased, indeed, to host the House Committee on
Agriculture for this listening session, Farm Bill Listening
Sessions: Conversations in the Field.
I'm also so pleased that we have so many friends of
agriculture here, participating in this session, including our
own Congressman from the Third District, Representative Ted
Yoho.
Two days ago Professor Jackie Burns, the Dean for Research
at our university's Institute for Food and Agricultural
Sciences testified to the Committee in Washington, D.C., and it
was about the vital role of research in supporting our nation's
agriculture.
Agriculture is an incredibly important and powerful
economic force in our state. It's our nation's third largest
state. And indeed, Florida agriculture has a $148 billion
economic impact, second only to tourism in the State of
Florida. That supports about 1.5 million jobs.
Sunshine state agriculture is remarkably diverse. I have
personally worked at other great land-grant universities,
including Cornell in New York, Purdue in the State of Indiana,
and the University of Illinois, and in each of those states we
were justifiably proud of our agriculture and the impact on
those states, but Florida is unique. In this state, because of
the breadth of our crops and commodities, we have over 300
different crops and commodities, from citrus to peppers to snap
beans to sugarcane to avocados. This diversity of crops and
their commodities depends on sustained and diverse agriculture
research and education. As the discovery, innovation, and
education arm of Florida agriculture, the University of Florida
scientists tackle these challenges every day. They educate our
students and they are the future of agriculture.
Our faculty conducted about $140 million in agriculture
research this past year benefitting Florida's crops, livestock,
forestry, fisheries, and natural resource systems. About 70
percent of that research funding was conducted on behalf of the
Federal agencies, much of it in the form of competitive grants
that were provided through the farm bill. This federally-funded
research improves row crops, specialty crops, plant and animal
nutrition, rural development, energy crops, sustainable
farming, pest and disease management, and tackles the entire
spectrum of the issues facing our powerful ag industry.
Federal research dollars also help us tackle the vital
challenges that are unique to Florida's geography and climate,
including invasive pests and diseases that slip so easily
through our different ports.
Representatives and special guests, Florida
agriculturalists, I know we all agree that agriculture is a
central pillar of our state's economy and our nation's security
and its future. Our university is 110 percent committed to
further strengthening this pillar through our partnership with
the Federal Government and through education, research, and
agriculture extension. We're so thankful for your partnership
in defining this endeavor and we appreciate this opportunity to
host you at the University of Florida for this listening
session as you shape the 2018 Federal Government's farm bill.
Thank you. And as we say here in Florida: Go Gators.
The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Fuchs. I appreciate that.
This is our very first listening session for the 2018 Farm
Bill. We hope to hear from as many of you today as we possibly
can. We won't necessarily be able to get to everybody, but we
hope to hear as many as we can. Not all of the Agriculture
Committee is here this morning, but we do have a good cross-
section of Members and I will now ask each Member to briefly
introduce themselves and talk to you.
I'm Mike Conaway, Chairman of the Committee. I represent
the Eleventh Congressional District of Texas, dominated by
cotton, cattle, sheep, goats, in terms of production
agriculture, and hunting, because we count that in Texas as an
agricultural experience because you do it on the DL.
I am the Chairman and it will be my responsibility to help,
along with these folks, get the 2018 Farm Bill written and we
want to hear from you today about the 2014 Farm Bill, how it's
working. And if you've got specific improvements to the farm
bill that you would like to have considered, they will be.
We have a stenographer who's taking this down, so all of
the comments will be in the public record and it will be
available to the Committee for its consideration.
Now I'd like to turn to Mr. Ted Yoho, who actually
represents the dirt that we're on right now. So, Ted.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TED S. YOHO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM FLORIDA
Mr. Yoho. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, and I appreciate
everybody being here and I thank you and the Committee for
picking Gainesville, Florida, for the first listening session.
The farm bill is coming up, the 2018 Farm Bill, and our
goal, and I know the Chairman's goal, is to make it pass on the
first round. And everybody in this room is involved in
agriculture, you're either producing it, you're farming,
ranching, or you're consuming it, so we're all involved in
agriculture.
And I'd like to give a shout out to Dr. Fuchs, thank you.
And I thank everybody for being here. I look forward to a great
listening session.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICK W. ALLEN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM GEORGIA
Mr. Allen. I'm Congressman Rick Allen. I'm from the Twelfth
District of Georgia, which includes Augusta, which our main
products there in the Twelfth District are cotton, because you
can't have cotton without peanuts and peanuts without cotton.
We have the famous Vidalia onion. Of course Georgia is the
number one producer in the country in poultry. We have cattle.
And of course a big product we have now is blueberries. Along
with forestry, obviously, it is a big area of production for
us.
So, thank you. I am glad to be with you here today.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. STACEY E. PLASKETT, A DELEGATE IN
CONGRESS FROM VIRGIN ISLANDS
Ms. Plaskett. Good morning. My name is Stacy Plaskett. I
represent the Virgin Islands of the United States, America's
paradise. At one time the Virgin Islands was considered the
breadbasket of the Caribbean. We lost that title some time ago
but agriculture is alive and well. Most of our crops are
vegetables and especially fruits; mangos, guavas, bananas. We
also do some livestock. We have a heat-resistant Senepol bull
which is used primarily in South America, Venezuela, and other
places. It's like an amp'd-up Angus. And so, we're really
interested in the Virgin Islands in rural development,
broadband and telecommunications, to grow the rural communities
that support agriculture.
Thanks so much and I'm looking forward to having a little
gator later today also.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER W. MARSHALL, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM KANSAS
Mr. Marshall. I'm Roger Marshall. I represent the big First
District of Kansas. We're certainly famous for our wheat, but
actually are the largest producing district of sorghum in the
country. And when you put all of our cattle industry together,
we're the largest in the country, as well, very vertically
integrated from cow/calf operations to feedlots to the
packinghouses, as well, and have the fastest growing dairy herd
in the country, as well.
I am excited to be here. I am excited to work with
Congressman Yoho. He's been a great inspiration for me as a
veterinarian, understanding and reaching down the science.
Go Gators.
Mr. Hoblick. All right.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JIMMY PANETTA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM CALIFORNIA
Mr. Panetta. Good morning, everyone. My name is Jimmy
Panetta. I represent the Twentieth Congressional District in
California, the central coast of California. We have a number
of specialty crops in that area. You name it, we grow it, and
that's why, as my fellow Members of the Committee will tell
you, I come from the salad bowl of the world, is what it's
called. And so it's wonderful to be here, wonderful to be able
to hear from you and see how we can work together with our
specialty crops, as well as our livestock, as we move forward
for the 2018 Farm Bill.
Thank you. Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. NEAL P. DUNN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM FLORIDA
Mr. Dunn. Good morning. I'm Neal Dunn. I represent
Florida's Second Congressional District. It surrounds this
county, Alachua County, on the north, west, and south, and as I
look over the audience I see a great many friends here who are
farmers and ranchers, and Florida agriculture is very, very
well represented here.
As we look at this farm bill we know that farmers' net
income is down 50 percent, and that's the backdrop that we're
going to consider as we write the next farm bill. It's so
important that we hear from all of you and I'm so grateful that
you're here to share your insights and wisdom with us.
I want to thank President Fuchs and his faculty and his
staff, and Chairman Conaway for providing this very first
option for us to come out and actually listen in the field to
the farmers and ranchers who make it all work. I'm excited to
be here. Thank you so much.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. AUSTIN SCOTT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM GEORGIA
Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia. My name is Austin Scott. I'm a
graduate of the University of Georgia, so the next grant the
University of Florida will get will be for a statue for
Herschel Walker, put it in the middle of campus. I represent 24
counties, starting at the Florida line, pretty much running up
I-75, tremendous agricultural district, great people that I
have several of them here, good friends for a long time long
before I became a Member of Congress, but I chair the
Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, and
look forward to hearing from you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, Jr., A
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM GEORGIA
Mr. Bishop. Good morning. I'm Sanford Bishop. I represent
the Second Congressional District of Georgia, which is the
southwest quadrant of the state, 29 counties. Allen Boyd would
say it's north Florida. I'm glad to be here for this listening
session and I want to thank all of you for coming here today. I
am the only appropriator on this panel. I serve as the Ranking
Member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee,
along with Chairman Robert Aderholt of Alabama. We fund all of
the programs in USDA, the FDA, the CCC, and the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, so we are actually the ones that
write the checks that makes this inaugural session important to
all of us, but of course it's important to me because
agriculture touches every aspect of our lives, as you know very
well.
Georgia is an agricultural state. We have 42,000 farms and
we contribute $74 billion annually to the Georgia, and the
national, economy. We're number one in the nation in the
production of poultry, peanuts, pecans, blueberries, privately-
owned timberlands, and we're number two in cotton and we have
significant fruit and vegetables. Likewise, the district I
represent is very, very heavy in those products.
I want to really let you know that we're advocates for
American agriculture, not just for Georgia, and that it's
important that in this farm bill that we craft a bill that is
flexible enough to apply and to help all of the producers in
the entire United States. So, we are here to make sure and we
want you to help us to make American agriculture strong, which
includes sound integrated pest management practices,
environmentally-resistant tolerant seed lines, rural business
expanding broadband networks, and rural communities encouraging
our new, young, and veteran communities for the next generation
of farmers. And our nutrition programs are vitally important
and, of course, you play a very, very vital role in that, but
it's also important for financial security because they tell
us. I represent Fort Benning. The trainers are telling us that
the bone density in their trainees now is not what it used to
be and they have a lot of stress fractures because the
youngsters did not get the kind of nutrition they needed in the
school lunch program. So, that's extremely important to us and
I look forward to hearing you. We're very pleased that
Secretary Perdue, who grew up on a Georgia farm, who's trained
as a veterinarian, who's a grain dealer and who's a former
Governor of Georgia is leading our Agriculture Department and
he is at this point conducting a review of the activities in
rural America, and it's important for the next farm bill that
we continue to support the desperately-needed resources for our
rural communities: housing, economic development,
infrastructure, and farmland conservation. And with that, I
thank you for coming and I turn it over to my colleagues.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GLENN THOMPSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Thompson. Thank you, sir.
Good morning, everyone. My name is G.T. Thompson, I
represent the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District; small
piece of real estate in the Keystone State, about 24 percent of
the land mass of Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, our number one
industry is agriculture. One out of every seven Pennsylvanians
owe their job directly or indirectly to agriculture. Dairy's
our largest commodity, but we grow a lot of that row crop
called trees, and forestry is a very important part of our
economy, pretty diverse agricultural area, actually. I'm proud
to have served as past chair of the Forestry and Conservation
Subcommittee on this Committee, and currently serve as the full
Committee Vice Chair. And I chair the Nutrition Subcommittee
and I want to thank everybody that's here because, after all,
it's the farmers that feed, and your work, and your presence
here, is appreciated today.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, A
REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM ARKANSAS
Mr. Crawford. Thank you.
I'm Rick Crawford from Arkansas, it's the First
Congressional District, that's the eastern part of the state,
and my district produces about \1/2\ of the U.S. rice crop. And
a lot of folks don't know that we grow rice in the United
States and don't realize that we grow it in the abundance that
we do in Arkansas. Also the duck hunting capital of the world,
so keep that in mind if you want to travel to my district, I'd
love to have you.
Again, I just want to echo the comments of the panel here
and thank y'all for being here. You could be doing any other
work on your farm or spending time with your family and you've
taken time out of your day to come and share your story and
your comments and your concerns with us and we appreciate it
and that will help us to write a better farm bill to better
serve those who feed and clothe not only our country, but the
entire world, in fact.
The Chairman. All right. Well, we'll get started here. As
Dr. Fuchs mentioned, Jackie Burns testified in front of us last
week. She testified on behalf of IFAS. And I kept thinking
ISIS, what is----
Mr. Hoblick. No.
The Chairman.--because I had the acronym sidetracked. But
Jackie did a great job for the Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences, so thank her for doing that this past
week.
Dr. Rick Telg will be our moderator. Thank Rick for doing
that here in a few moments, and he'll set the stage for what
we're going to do in terms of setting those rules.
I'll dispense with my opening comments because much of it
has already been said by some of the panel members, I don't
need to repeat that.
Again, we're here to listen to you, to hear from you what's
working and what's not working and any specific improvements
that you have that you would like to be folded into the next
farm bill.
Quite frankly, we're going to have hard choices to make. We
will have less resources than they had in 2014. We won't have
direct payments to do away with and be able to harvest that
money back into the system, so they're going to have set
priorities and we're going to have to make hard choices.
I'm driven to get this thing reauthorized on time. It
expires on September 30, 2018. The decisions to be made in
September 2018 will not get any easier in October of 2018,
they're still going to be hard, and we'll have all the
information we have need, we're just going to have to go ahead
and make them. And so, part of what I hope to contribute to
this issue is to get it done on time; right, wrong, or
different, let the systems know what you're going to have to
live with for the following 5 years. The producers, bankers,
creditors, implement dealers, everybody should know what the
program is going to look like on time.
If you like the drama of short-term extensions,
expirations, and the threat of permanent law, I hope you have
to go to a different theater because let's just not do that.
Like I said, it's not going to get easy in October, it's
going to be hard, let's go ahead and get those done and make
that happen.
We have our first panel this morning, the only panel, then
everybody else will just be hopefully good citizens that want
to come and talk to us.
First off we have Mr. John Hoblick, who's a cut foliage
producer from Florida. He represents the Florida Farm Bureau
and he's from Volusia County, Florida, right? And then, of
course, Gerald Long, who's a diversified farmer: produces
cattle, peanuts, vegetables, corn, cotton, hay, small grains,
and timber, and he's the Georgia Farm Bureau President, to talk
to us for both Florida and Georgia.
Mr. Hoblick, why don't you begin our first panel this
morning. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF JOHN L. HOBLICK, PRESIDENT, FLORIDA FARM BUREAU
FEDERATION, GAINESVILLE, FL
Mr. Hoblick. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity to be here today and to present to you comments
from Florida Farm Bureau.
Florida Farm Bureau welcomes this distinguished Member
panel and the staff of the Agriculture Committee to the
Sunshine State, the home of the thriving $148 billion
diversified ag sector with over 300 commodities.
The State of Florida boasts 47,000 farms and covers over
9.4 million acres, as well as roughly 15 million acres in
working timberlands.
Furthermore, on behalf of the state's farmers and ranchers,
we are honored to host the first listening session for the 2018
Farm Bill discussions. And frankly, given the diversity and the
breadth of Florida agriculture, there's no better place to
start with this conversation.
When we think of the farm bill, the traditional crops that
come to mind are the corn, soybeans, wheat, peanuts, and
cotton, and perhaps a few others, but the traditional crops
aren't really what make Florida, they help Florida. We have a
significant production in the Panhandle of all those
traditional crops, but Florida's agricultural landscape
comprises a plethora of crops and commodities that are often
forgotten in the context of the farm bill. From avocados and
tomatoes in south Florida to satsuma production in Monticello,
from generational dairy farms in Okeechobee and experimenting
with new crops varieties such as olives, artichokes, citrus
alternatives, Florida agriculture cannot be matched in its
diversity and uniqueness.
Florida Farm Bureau farm bill priorities for 2018 supports
national farm policy that includes production price and yield
safety nets, Specialty Crop Block Grants, producer-friendly
conservation programs, permanent comprehensive disaster relief,
and long-term renewable energy benefits. Florida Farm Bureau
resolutely calls for a strong, reliable, diverse safety net for
agriculture. A solid comprehensive safety net offers certainty
for U.S. producers and mitigates risk responsibility.
From 2009 to 2015, $4.6 billion were invested in Florida by
way of a variety of farm bill programs and initiatives that
supported Florida agriculture in hard times. In 2016, $22
million in ag risk coverage and price loss coverage programs
and $94 million in commodity loans to eligible producers who
use their crops as collateral. Availability of crop yield and
revenue insurance for all producers of crops, along with
maintaining current levels of Federal funding, would provide
needed certainty to Florida producers in these uncertain times.
Second, a robust conservation funding must remain in the
farm bill. Florida's natural resources are a part of what makes
this state so unique. We all recognize that, but I hope we also
recognize that Florida's farmers and ranchers have been
indispensable partners in preserving and protecting those
resources for generations.
From 2009 to 2015, $926 million went to conserve and
protect Florida's land, water, and air resources through
programs such as EQIP, Conservation Steward Program, and
Conservation Reserve Program. These vital programs incentivize
and reward Florida farmers and ranchers in being responsible
stewards of our state's resources.
Funding for invasive species and pest diseases prevention
is paramount in protecting the integrity of our state and
national food production systems. Florida's ports and climate
make it particularly susceptible to unwanted pests and diseases
from around the world. Recent and current outbreaks of pests
and disease in Florida reinforce the need for proactive
measures to minimize these outbreaks, and also to properly
respond and fund in the event of epidemics in the future.
In Florida, the recent outbreaks of the oriental fruit fly
in 2015 and screwworm as late as last year posed real threats
to the various sectors of our agriculture industry and the
State of Florida remains immensely grateful today for the swift
response by Federal and state officials which led to those
eradications.
Citrus greening continues to be an existential problem for
Florida's oranges and grapefruits. Revenues have declined by
$4.64 billion across the citrus industry over 10 seasons.
Citrus greening has also cost the state $1.76 billion in labor
income, with more than 34,000 jobs lost. Simply put, we need to
continue to have Federal funding to support the eradication of
citrus greening through targeted research funding.
Florida Farm Bureau supports funding for Specialty Crop
Block Grant Programs. Florida is ranked second in specialty
crop production and first in production of value of multiple
specialty crop areas, such as watermelons, grapefruits,
tomatoes, oranges, cucumbers, and snap beans.
From 2008 to 2015 Florida received $31.2 million in these
funds for 208 projects to enhance competitiveness and
profitability in our specialty crop market sector. This
includes vital research in marketing promotion dollars. The
University of Florida, our gracious host today, has been and
continues to be leading the charge on cutting edge research
that helps our producers remain competitive. Cuts in Specialty
Crop Block Programs or complete elimination will disadvantage
Florida's specialty crop industry and put our growers in an
evermore consistent backdrop of current NAFTA failures.
Florida Farm Bureau, speaking of NAFTA, supports the
renegotiation of NAFTA, the Free Trade Agreement, the issues
that lie there is that we strengthen and enforce mechanisms to
effectively combat illegal dumping and reinforce U.S.
commitment to domestic producers. While other parts of the
United States have experienced greater market access with
increased foreign demand of our agriculture products through
this agreement, Florida has indisputably struggled. We have
seen dramatic reductions in market share in key Florida
specialty crop markets, including tomatoes, strawberries, and
bell peppers due to the prolific Mexican dumping into our
markets. Free but fair, this has become the hallmark of this
Administration's trade policy agenda and Florida agriculture is
looking forward to seeing that vision become a realty,
specifically for our specialty crop producers.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the H-2A visa
program. An insufficient farmlabor force, as you well know,
continues to plague many ag commodity groups ranging from dairy
to many of our specialty crops in Florida. Reforming our
guestworker programs are integral. Florida was number one in
certified H-2A labor use in 2016, with 13.8 percent of that
usage being here in Florida and we could use more.
In closing, because of its diversity, Florida agriculture
is a resilient group but it's also fragile. The House
Agriculture Committee must keep this in mind when they craft
the 2018 Farm Bill. Florida Farm Bureau is confident that the
knowledge and the abilities of this Committee to effectively
address all of these concerns in the 2018 Farm Bill, in spite
of the tight budgetary times in which we currently live.
Florida Farm Bureau is tremendously appreciative of your
willingness to travel to our great state and listen to the
concerns of these Florida growers today. It shows us that you
are committed to getting things done right in this 2018 Farm
Bill and we look forward to being partners in that effort
throughout this process.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Long.
STATEMENT OF GERALD LONG, PRESIDENT, GEORGIA FARM BUREAU
FEDERATION, MACON, GA
Mr. Long. Chairman Conaway and Members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony regarding
the current farm bill and the policy needs of Georgia farmers
in the next farm bill. As you said, my name is Gerald Long and
I am the President of Georgia Farm Bureau and it is the state's
largest farm organization with over 300,000 member families.
Our goal is to be the voice of agriculture in all aspects of
public policy.
My wife Janice, son Justin, and his wife Kelli, and I run a
diversified family farm in Decatur County, Georgia, which is
about 35 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida, and Congressman
Bishop is my Congressman. Thank you, Congressman, for what you
do.
I'm a third-generation farmer, my son Justin is a fourth,
and our grandson is the fifth. We're just celebrating our
centennial year this year in fact. On that farm we raise about
600+ head in a commercial cow/calf operation. We grow about 280
acres of peanuts. Normally we grow about 600 acres of cotton
but due to the price, now we can run cattle and see if we can
make a little better profit on cattle than we can on cotton; we
still grow some. But we're also sort of unique and we grow
about 50 different varieties of vegetables on 120 acres of what
we call a you-pick vegetable operation.
Agriculture is the largest industry in Georgia, it has an
over $74 billion economic impact, as Congressman Bishop stated
earlier. Agriculture provides one in seven jobs in our state
and we are the leading producer of peanuts, pecans, broilers,
blueberries, and pine trees. Mr. Chairman, we're also the
nation's number two in cotton, which is very important to us in
Georgia.
Georgia Farm Bureau is grateful for the work that was done
to complete the 2014 Farm Bill and we want to be a partner in
writing the next farm bill. It is critical that the next farm
bill continues to work for all segments of agriculture from all
regions of the country. A strong crop insurance program is
critical to protect producers from crop losses and weather-
related incidents. Just this past year Georgia suffered from
one of the worst droughts in our state's history, as over 75
percent of Georgia reached a severe drought status per the U.S.
Drought Monitor. March saw blueberry producers suffer from a
devastating freeze that wiped out nearly all the state's
blueberry crop. Unseasonably warm weather has caused our peach
production to suffer as farmers expect to lose upwards of 80
percent of their crop. Crop insurance will allow most of these
businesses to continue for another year, and we urge you to
maintain a sound crop insurance program and oppose any efforts
to undermine its effectiveness.
The next farm bill should maintain the Agricultural Risk
Coverage, known as ARC, and Price Loss Coverage, known as PLC
programs, as both have been a critical safety net during the
current period of low commodity prices. The PLC for peanuts has
been effective and should be maintained in its current form.
Without this program, many Georgia row crop farmers could not
have survived the downturn in the farm economy that we are
experiencing.
Also, the facts do not support the argument that the peanut
program has caused an unhealthy increase in acreage. The supply
and demand balance for peanuts is at healthy levels. Early 2017
contracts have been reported in the $475 to $550 per ton range.
Exports have also seen a strong growth with peanut exports
increasing by approximately 72 percent since the 2008 Farm
Bill. We support maintaining the PLC program for peanuts at the
current referenced price while also continuing the separate
payment limits.
As many of you know, the Stacked Income Protection Program,
known as STAX, for cotton has not worked as anticipated. While
we understand changes to the cotton program were needed because
of the World Trade Organization case with Brazil, it is
critical that cotton be established as a PLC program at an
adequate support level in the next farm bill. Both cotton and
peanuts rely heavily on a properly-functioning marketing loan
program that helps ensure orderly marketing and flow of these
commodities to the market. Maintaining the marketing loan
program is a priority to our members.
Georgia Farm Bureau is opposed to any further tightening of
payment limits and eligibility requirements, as these policies
are too restrictive to be competitive and viable in a global
market. Conservation programs are extremely popular across our
state. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the
Conservation Stewardship Program, and Conservation Reserve
Program are all necessary to give growers the incentives to
conserve our resources to ensure better crop productivity while
preventing further mandates and regulations.
As I mentioned earlier, Georgia suffered from significant
drought conditions in 2016. The assistance provided by the
Livestock Forage Program, known as LFP, was timely, as it
provided necessary feed assistance to counties in drought
zones.
Despite suffering from significant drought conditions, some
counties, including my home County of Decatur, were excluded
from LFP despite bordering counties that received LFP
assistance. These counties were in rural areas where few, if
any, weather stations are available to judge climate
conditions.
As the 2018 Farm Bill is written, we urge you to
reauthorize LFP with the necessary changes to address this
challenge. One suggestion is to allow counties contiguous to a
D3 county to be eligible for LFP like USDA Secretarial
Declarations. This would allow farmers in these counties to
receive much-needed assistance while also giving producers a
more reliable method of achieving eligibility.
Again, thank you for the honor to provide testimony here
today. I'll be glad to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
The Chairman. Well, thanks, Gentlemen, I appreciate that.
Does either of my Florida or Georgia colleagues want to
have a quick question of our presenters? Anyone?
Mr. Yoho. I do.
The Chairman. Okay, Ted.
Mr. Yoho. Just real quick. On the specialty crops, do you
see a need to bring them into the insurance program quicker or
is their a way to do that?
Mr. Hoblick. Yes, I believe that there are needs for
specialty crops. They're not titled in any of the programs and
listed in. The closest we can get is NAP, and NAP is not a
complete, whole policy for us, it does help us with the overall
cost, or you can minimize some of your losses with the NAP
program, but there are specifics in NAP that exclude certain
crops or exclude certain parts of production that need to be
adjusted. If you need me to expand further on that, I can.
Mr. Yoho. For time's sake, I'll talk to you when I get
back.
Mr. Hoblick. Okay.
The Chairman. Okay, Gentleman, thank you very much for
presenting this morning and representing both Georgia and
Florida Farm Bureaus.
We're now going to the part of the session that listens to
real producers. We've asked Dr. Ricky Telg, who's a Professor
of Agricultural Education and Communication and the Director of
Center for Public Issues Education here at the University of
Florida, to be our moderator. And with that, Dr. Telg, set the
ground rules.
STATEMENT OF RICKY TELG, Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF
AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION;
DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR PUBLIC ISSUES EDUCATION,
INSTITUTE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES,
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE, FL
Dr. Telg. All right. Thank you so much, Chairman Conaway.
As the Director for the Center for Public Issues Education
and Agriculture and Natural Resources, also called the PIE
Center, our mission is to work with our citizens here in the
State of Florida to inform and engage them about important
issues related to agriculture and natural resources. So, when
asked to moderate today, I was thrilled at this opportunity.
I may have the most coveted position here today because I'm
the one to keep us all on time. And knowing some of you in this
room, the way that I do from the Florida ag industry, I have my
work cut out for me, I'm sure.
You were given an information card as you came in. I have a
stack of cards here of those already completed. If you would
like to complete one, please kind of catch the eye of one of
the staff members along the aisle here and we will add this to
the list that we have.
Please limit your comments to 2 minutes. At 2 minutes I
will gently say, ``2 minutes,'' which means please conclude
your remarks. At 2:20 I will say a little more firmly, ``Please
conclude your remarks.'' If at necessary at 2:40 I will make a
head nod to the staff and you might find your personal space a
little bit invaded. Please do try to stay to 2 minutes. Really,
the bottom line is to be courteous of all those around us
today.
You can discuss as many farm bill related topics as you
would like within your 2 minutes. You're not limited to just to
one topic. If you have more comments that you would like to
make, please e-mail those to [email protected].
And so what I will do is I will call the first two
individuals up for comments. Please go to the microphone that
is closest to you. After the first person speaks I'll call two
more people up to keep the flow going. But please do not start
your comments until I call you by name. Okay. Does that make
sense for everybody?
Okay. So the first two individuals, Greg Hodges and David
Norton, if you could come up to one of the microphones and we
begin.
Greg Hodges, please.
Greg. Go ahead, Greg, if you would start, please.
STATEMENT OF GREG HODGES, Ph.D., ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, DIVISION
OF PLANT INDUSTRY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND
CONSUMER SERVICES, GAINESVILLE, FL
Mr. Hodges. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate this
opportunity to come up here today, and I represent the----
Dr. Telg. Greg, get real close there.
Mr. Hodges. Thank you so much.
I represent the Florida Department of Agriculture, Division
of Plant Industry, and I couldn't help but hear the comments
from our Farm Bureau and I hate to say it, I wasn't ready to
come talk to you just yet but I want to stress the importance
and the need for continued research for exotic pests. So,
that's the big thing for Florida. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. David Norton.
STATEMENT OF DAVID NORTON, Ph.D., VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH,
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE, FL
Dr. Norton. First of all, Congressmen, let me just echo the
comments of our President and welcome each of you here to
Gainesville.
Congressman Yoho, hello again.
I represent the University of Florida in our research
mission and we're quite proud to have the privilege of
supporting industries like agriculture and livestock here in
the State of Florida and across the country. Like many of our
institutions, we take a great deal of pride in that and like
that mission.
What I was just wanting to touch base on is a particular
policy change that's being proposed out of Office of Management
and Budget that, quite frankly, will completely cripple the
abilities of universities to carry out research.
Congressman Dunn, you mentioned this during the testimony
on Thursday and this is the proposed 10 percent cap that's
being pushed forward by OMB. Currently being considered for
HHS, this 10 percent cap is on the overhead or F&A charges that
the universities can use.
To just reach the bottom line, it will completely cripple
universities in Florida and every single state to do the
research and the reason is very simple, and I spoke to
Congressman Yoho on Thursday about this, research at
universities costs a certain amount of money. There are two
pots. One is the pot for direct charges of things in the
laboratory, and then there are other things around the
laboratory that we have to have in place. At University of
Florida, I know that for every $2 that I spend in the lab, I
spend $1 for activities outside the lab; for air conditioning,
for accountants to track the money, for fiscal oversight, for
all those things. I know this number because the Federal
Government comes in and evaluates that number every 3 years, it
is a very intense process.
I know how much my research costs and that's what I charge
the government. For me, it's a rate of 52 percent, 52.5.
The current proposal from OMB would take that 52.5 for the
University of Florida and cap it artificially at 10, which
means that the University of Florida would be forced to sell $3
worth of research to the Federal Government and only get back
$2.20. Now, you don't have to have an MBA from Harvard to know
that that business model is not going to work, and that will be
detrimental to all universities and the research they would do
for any Federal agency.
Our real concern is that apparently this can be done
without your consent; OMB can simply decide, and is currently
considering to seriously do. It will cripple universities like
University of Florida's support for communities like the ag
industry and I really ask and implore you to take a look at
this. I'm happy to answer any questions now or offline. It's a
really serious issue for every single university, whether it's
in California, Arkansas, Georgia. It's a serious issue. Thank
you.
Dr. Telg. Thank you very much.
The next two individuals, Sonny Davis and Robin Safley. As
you're coming forward, please, make your comments, please speak
into the microphones.
The Chairman. Yes. Get real close to the microphone, that
way everybody can hear, because you can hear me pretty well but
we can hardly hear you, so get real close.
Dr. Telg. Sonny Davis.
STATEMENT OF B.E. ``SONNY'' DAVIS, Jr., FLORIDA STATE CHAIRMAN,
NATIONAL COTTON COUNCIL, COTTONDALE, FL
Mr. Sonny Davis. Good morning.
A little bit about our farm over in the Panhandle, Florida,
in Congressman Dunn's district from way over, and our primary
crops are cotton, peanuts, cattle, some soybeans. So we're kind
of diversified. My mother was really blessed, she had five
boys, no girls. I see all four of my brothers practically every
day. I have a nephew, they have a son back on the farm, I'm
grateful that your first stop of these listening sessions is in
Florida and giving us the opportunity to comment.
Over the last 5 years market returns, and I'm speaking on
cotton primarily, but, the returns on cotton and cottonseed
have fallen, fallen real short of what it cost to produce it.
When accounting for the minimal Federal farm policy support
provided for cotton during the last 5 years, it's dropped below
cost of production, so it's tough on the farm. So it's
imperative that we have a comprehensive cotton support that is
on par with other commodities in title I of the next farm bill.
As I mentioned, our family farm, like many others across
the Cotton Belt, cannot withstand any further tightening of
policies that are already too burdensome and restrictive in
light of the scale of production of agriculture to be
competitive in today's market, which is worldwide.
And some perspective on that, this will be my 46th crop
and, like I say, we do peanuts. I sold peanuts at a higher
price, in my first crop, than I'm receiving today. Cotton was
on par, but corn and grains, we're still dealing with the same
market. The only way agriculture has been sustainable is by
virtue of size and efficiency, and to do that it takes a lot of
money to do it. Agriculture has contributed a lot to the
economy of this country by virtue of the commodity prices still
being in line back then.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Sonny Davis. Two minutes? I'm done?
Dr. Telg. That would be it, yes.
Mr. Sonny Davis. I want to thank y'all for allowing me to
come make comments. I appreciate it.
Dr. Telg. Thank you very much.
The next individuals will be Don Koehler and Roger Davis.
Robin.
STATEMENT OF ROBIN SAFLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FEEDING FLORIDA,
TALLAHASSEE, FL
Ms. Safley. Mr. Chairman and Committee Members, thank you
so much for this opportunity.
I'm the Executive Director of Feeding Florida, which is
affiliated with Feeding America, and we represent 14 member
food banks throughout the state, work with about 2,500 partner
agencies, first I want to talk about the clients we serve.
There was an ALICE Report done by the United Way of Florida
which identified that 29 percent of Floridians work and make
above the poverty level but don't make enough to really
survive. Those are really the clients that we're seeing on a
day-in and day-out basis, and we know that hunger is a health
issue, so nutrition is imperative.
One of the programs I want to talk to you about is the
Specialty Crop Block Grant. We work closely with the Florida
Fruit and Vegetable Association and with some seed money from
that grant. We work with growers helping to get product out of
the field that otherwise would not make it into the supply
chain. We help defray the pick-and-pack costs for that grower
and then they can make a donation. It's working really, really
well. We've grown the program. There's still more to be done. I
think there's a lot of that. I think that's the future of what
we can do. We will have, by the end of June, will have this
past year sourced 20 million pounds of produce that goes
through our network to those people in need.
The other program that's very, very important to us is the
TEFAP program. It's a stabilizer. It represents probably 10 to
15 percent of the shelf-stable product that we work with, but
the most important part of that is distribution and making sure
that it's fully funded. In the last farm bill we got about $59
million throughout the nation to help subsidize the
distribution transportation costs and that really only
represents about 24 percent of the cost, so I would encourage
you to fully fund that.
Obviously, as it relates to SNAP, we would encourage no
cuts to SNAP. Any cuts to SNAP would really put a pressure on
the charitable response, and so we would encourage that. Thank
you.
Dr. Telg. Don Koehler.
STATEMENT OF DON KOEHLER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGIA PEANUT
COMMISSION, TIFTON, GA
Mr. Koehler. Mr. Chairman, Congressmen Bishop, Scott, and
Allen, hey, great to have you Georgia guys here. These guys
represent almost \1/2\ of the U.S. peanut crop, so we
appreciate what you do.
Congressman Yoho, I'm glad your weather is better than I
had it when I had you in my district because we got really wet
that day.
I'm Don Koehler. I'm the Executive Director of the Georgia
Peanut Commission; I've been there for 31 years. Today, you
might hear from others that the peanut program is not working,
you may hear concerns that some farmers have better advantage,
but the peanut program works for everybody. We've got
stability. We've had growth. We're selling more peanuts. We
don't have an oversupply. Last year we forfeited 62 tons of
peanuts in the loan program, so that tells you there's not an
oversupply problem.
We have farmers that have land that they've cleared in
every one of our Georgia districts. I wish we could have more
base, but I understand the fiscal responsibility that we're
looking at, but I also know that I hear from farmers right now
that they're not paying back all their operating notes and
we've got a 50 percent reduction in net farm income. You've got
a tough task writing a farm bill with baseline spending and
trying to find a way to fix the problems of American
agriculture and I understand that. But the thing that I would
ask is that you remember that we have farmers all across this
country growing peanuts that depend on the program the way it
is. You hit a home run. You wrote the right program in the last
farm bill.
Twice since 2002 there's been an opportunity for farmers to
either buy base or to shift base from one commodity to another
and those are grand opportunities. But the thing that we
certainly would hope is that as you go through the process of
this you remember that the program we have is working and don't
take the attitude that some folks have a goat and others don't
and decide to kill the goat. Keep the goat. Let's get more
goats. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
Roger Davis and Robert Taylor.
Mr. Roger Davis. I'll pass.
Dr. Telg. So, is it Roger?
Dr. Taylor. Robert.
Dr. Telg. Robert. Okay.
Mr. Yoho. Roger, that's not like you.
Dr. Telg. And then Ben Evans. Ben Evans, if you can come to
the microphone, as well, next.
Go ahead, Robert.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT W. TAYLOR, Ph.D., DEAN AND DIRECTOR OF
LAND-GRANT PROGRAMS, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SCIENCES,
FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY, TALLAHASSEE, FL
Dr. Taylor. Yes. I'm Robert Taylor, Dean of the College of
Agriculture and Food Sciences at Florida A&M University. And
I'm a Tuskegee graduate and Master's and Ph.D. from Michigan
State, soil microbiology and soil chemistry, and I'm hear to
talk about crumbling infrastructure in terms of our
laboratories, et cetera. Sonny Ramaswamy said that if you
wanted to do the most updated genomics work with the latest
equipment you have to go to Beijing because we don't have those
kind of facilities in our laboratories in our colleges,
especially.
I was invited by the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, I just came back from there. We're studying
invasive weevils throughout the world and it's true, they have
so much more equipment. I mean, under Chinese Academy of
Sciences I saw buildings, seven-, eight-story buildings. When
you go into buildings, they're full of equipment, people
working. When I think of Florida A&M, when I worked for 30
years at Alabama A&M University and I think of the equipment
and I visit the 1862 schools, I see the same problem. We need,
just like our highways and infrastructure, we need better
laboratories, more money spent on our facilities if we are to
make the breakthroughs that are needed for 2050 as we feed the
world. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. Ben Evans.
STATEMENT OF BEN EVANS, VICE PRESIDENT, COFFEE COUNTY GIN,
DOUGLAS, GA
Mr. Evans. My name is Ben Evans. I'm a cotton ginner from
Douglas, Georgia. I'm Vice President of Coffee County Gin
Company, I'm part of a fourth generation business, and also a
cotton farmer as well.
Cotton farmers have been struggling, and not only the
effects of the farmers, but also all the cotton infrastructure.
As gins and warehouses are closed due to depressed prices, less
acres, there's been a tremendous burden on those communities
that were often rural communities where they're located. Loss
of jobs equates to loss of tax revenue for those local
communities. I implore the Committee to do whatever is
necessary to include an adequate safety net for all
commodities, especially cotton, to help our rural communities
thrive and survive.
Given the tremendous reliance of our industry on exports of
raw cotton and fiber and yarn, it's essential the U.S.
agriculture industry have a strong, well-funded, public-private
partnership to help leverage private resources to expand export
markets in great demand for U.S. agricultural products.
A central part of this effort is USDA's Market Access
Program and Foreign Market Development Program. Even though the
U.S. continues to be heavily outspent by our other major
agricultural-producing exporting countries, funding for MAP and
FMD has not increased in more than a decade. Map and FMD have
resulted in a $2.1 billion increase per year in cash farm
income since 2002. Agricultural exports in 2014 accounted for
$340 billion in economic output and supported 1.1 million jobs.
This reason I believe has justified the new farm bill to invest
additional funds in these programs.
Today, U.S. cotton and fiber exports exceeds $5 billion
annually, along with an additional $3 billion in exports of
value-added cotton textile products. Independent studies have
found that for each dollar spent by organizations that partner
with USDA, like Cotton Council International, to promote and
expand exports, there's a $35 return on investment. In direct
monetary and in-kind contributions, the U.S. cotton industry
invests over $2 for every $1 of MAP funds utilized for export
promotion activities.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Evans. Thank you for all you do for the cotton industry
and American agriculture.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
The next two speakers will be Larry Black and Virginia
Sanchez.
Mr. Allen. Ben, before you step down. One thing that's come
up is obviously we're writing the farm bill this fall. Well,
then it's not implemented, Chairman, until when?
The Chairman. October of 2018.
Mr. Allen. October of 2018.
How do we get from here to there? One of the problems we
got in the industry is if we lose our gins we're basically out
of business.
Mr. Evans. Yes. Just talk to your colleagues in the mid-
South, and what's happening there is those people have
transitioned out of cotton into corn and soybeans. They've lost
their infrastructure. We can't just flip a switch and get it
all back. So there's people that want to grow those crops and
they're severely limited by the capacity to handle that.
Mr. Allen. Well, that's what I want my colleagues to hear,
is that we've got to do something to get us, we have to do
something in the next farm bill, but we have to do something.
How about the gin cost-sharing program, is that----
Mr. Evans. That worked fantastic for our growers, yes,
absolutely.
Mr. Allen. Okay. Good to see you.
Mr. Evans. We'll take any help you can send our way. Thank
you.
Mr. Allen. All right. Thanks, Ben. Good to see you.
Dr. Telg. Larry Black.
STATEMENT OF LARRY BLACK, OPERATIONS MANAGER, PEACE RIVER
PACKING COMPANY; MEMBER, DISTRICT 6, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
FLORIDA CITRUS MUTUAL,
LAKELAND, FL
Mr. Black. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Congressmen.
Thank you for seeking input from the field to ensure the 2018
Farm Bill addresses the needs of today's agriculture producers.
My family settled in central Florida in the 1850s and soon
started growing citrus. I'm proud to be a member of the fifth
generation of our family to produce Florida's signature crop.
Our company employs over 170 Floridians to grow, harvest, and
pack our crops. Our industry has suffered due to an invasive
pest and bacterial disease. Huanglongbing, HLB, or citrus
greening is a bacterial disease spread by a vector of the Asian
citrus psyllid. HLB has seriously impacted citrus industries
throughout the world. It attacks the vascular system of the
tree severely reducing yields and eventually rendering the tree
unproductive. HLB was first found in Florida in 2005 and spread
of the disease was exponential, devastating our growth and
production. The vector and the disease are also found in Texas
and California. Those industries are threatened as well. We
have a national citrus crisis.
Florida citrus plantings exceeded 850,000 acres and we
produced over 300 billion boxes of oranges, grapefruit, and
tangerines at our 1998 peak. We are now down to about 80
million boxes and \1/2\ million acres. The decrease is
primarily due to HLB. We have lost packing houses, juice
plants, and other businesses in the supply chain. The
processing plants that remain are running below capacity.
University of Florida economists have estimated since 2011
HLB has cost our industry $1 billion in lost economic activity
and over 30,000 jobs. The future of the Florida citrus and
California citrus industry is in the hands of the research
scientists. Early HLB detection, psyllid management, and plant
improvement for both conventional breeding and engineered
resistance are important areas of focus of research.
What can Congress do? First, it is imperative the next farm
bill include an extension of the Citrus Disease Research and
Development Trust Fund which was created by the 2014 Farm Bill.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Black. The trust fund has funded critical research that
offer long-term solutions to citrus greening and hope for our
industry. More time and funding is needed for scientists to
develop sustainable solutions to address the HLB crisis. Thank
you.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
Virginia Sanchez.
STATEMENT OF VIRGINIA SANCHEZ, OWNER, SANCHEZ FARMS, LLC, OLD
TOWN, FL
Ms. Sanchez. Chairman Conaway and other Members of
Congress, thank you for visiting our home here in Florida. My
name is Virginia Sanchez and my family and I operate a row crop
farm here in north central Florida, as well as peanut buying
point.
I would like to tell you a short story about three farmers
created out of the 2014 Farm Bill. These three farmers are
neighbors; they go to church together, they hunt together, and
their kids play ball together. It's the first day of peanut
planting. The farmer to the west tells his wife, ``Well, I'm
going to start planting today even though peanut prices are
very low. We have base and qualify for a PLC payment. We will
be okay. The government is providing us a safety net.''
The farmer in the middle tells his wife, ``I'm starting to
plant today and I'm worried sick because of low prices. We
don't have any base and don't qualify for the PLC payment. All
we can hope for is that somewhere, somehow there's a shortage
of peanuts this year and prices will go up.'' He says, ``I'm
really worried. We've got peanut equipment and land payments.
Our employees and their families are depending on us.'' He
prays his situation turns around soon.
Now, the farmer to the east, he's sitting on his front
porch and he tells his wife, ``Well, I don't think I'll plant
peanuts this year. We've got base and we qualify for a $250,000
PLC payment regardless if I plant or not. We don't have any
land payments. I paid our land off when the government bought
out my peanut quota in 2002. I just won't hire any employees,
buy any equipment, fuel, fertilizer, or supplies, we'll just
pocket the $250,000 this year.''
The farmer in the middle is also being attacked by his
neighbors because he's speaking out against a program that does
not work for him, his family, or his employees. The base
holders don't want their program touched. He knows they would
be doing the same thing if they were in his shoes. He's being
called a troublemaker and a rebel by his neighbors. Their long-
term friendships have been deeply damaged.
Notice I didn't say what state these three farmers live in
because these three farmers live in every peanut-producing
state in the U.S.
The 2014 Farm Bill has created the haves, the have-nots,
and the ones that don't have to do anything.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Ms. Sanchez. As a Member of Congress, I want each of you to
know that my family and I thank you for your commitment,
sacrifice, and courage to serve this country. As you begin
writing the new 2018 Farm Bill, I pray that God gives you the
wisdom and the guidance to develop a peanut farm policy that
treats every hardworking peanut producer the same. I humbly ask
you to remember the farmer in the middle. Thank you and God
bless each one of you.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
The next speakers are Jane Walker and Jim Handley.
STATEMENT OF JANE T. WALKER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DAYSTAR LIFE
CENTER, ST. PETERSBURG, FL
Ms. Walker. Good morning. Thank you for being here in our
beautiful state. My name is Jane Walker. I run Daystar Life
Center. I've been feeding and taking care of people in poverty
in Pinellas County for 38 years, since I graduated from Florida
State. I had to get that one in there.
Dr. Telg. Okay.
Ms. Walker. I've seen a lot over the years as far as things
that work and things that don't work, but I'm going to read you
a story. First, I'm going to tell you what this man who wrote
this looks like. He's 63", 50 years old, well built, not
overweight, not flabby, and looks like he could still run the
football field. This is his letter.
``To Whom It May Concern: SNAP, what does it mean to me? I
am 50 years old and disabled on a fixed income of $735 a month,
living with only $35 a month left over to eat. In addition, I
get SNAP benefits. If I did not get these SNAP benefits I would
be hungry and in the hospital several times a month due to
being malnourished. I am a diabetic, take insulin three times a
day, and suffer from severe blood clots, ulcers, arthritis, and
other illnesses that require a high protein diet. The SNAP
benefits allow me to keep my health balanced and out of the
hospital. Along with the SNAP benefits I also have to
supplement going to food pantries monthly, and that includes
the food from the TEFAP program.''
These are folks coming in every day. I have a booklet that
we did an interview on some of our clients, it's called Putting
a Face to Hunger, that I will be happy to share with all of
you.
Congressman Bishop mentioned the school nutrition program
not being nourished. I don't know if you meant not having
enough nutrition. That school food program started during World
War II because the people going into the military were
malnourished, so it took basically an act of war to start
feeding people, but the school does not feed these kids on
weekends, it does not feed the elderly, it does not feed
everybody.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Ms. Walker. I just wanted you to know that what works, you
asked what works, SNAP works. It's the leading program for
reducing poverty and keeping people out of poverty, out of the
hospital, it benefits farmers and ranchers, grocers and
retailers, for the overall economy, but most importantly for
those who are hungry in our land of plenty.
Thank you. I know you have a lot of work ahead, but our
folks need to eat. Thanks.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
Mr. Thompson. Ms. Walker, if afterwards, if you could give
me a copy of whatever you have in terms of that book or
document, as chair of the Nutrition Subcommittee, that would be
greatly appreciated.
Ms. Walker. Okay.
Mr. Thompson. And we'll make sure that gets shared too.
Ms. Walker. Thank you very much. Thanks for caring.
Dr. Telg. Next speaker is Jim Handley.
STATEMENT OF KEN GRINER, MANAGER, USHER LAND &
TIMBER, INC.; PRESIDENT, FLORIDA CATTLEMEN'S
ASSOCIATION, CHIEFLAND, FL
Mr. Griner. Good morning, Chairman Conaway, Members of
Congress. Thank you for being here and coming to Florida and
supporting us in our great state.
I'm Ken Griner, Usher Land & Timber, Chiefland, Florida;
President of the Florida Cattlemen's Association, few hours now
anyway. So, Jim will bat cleanup here, but I'll make a few
remarks.
We're in the cattle and timber business, my son, if we can
keep a little fuel in the tractor and air in the tires, he'll
be the seventh generation.
I was sitting at a meeting here with Jim and some of the
people in this room this week and a friend of mine named Alex
Johns sent a note across to me because we were talking about
sustainability, and his definition of sustainability was ``What
is it that I can do for your benefit at my expense today?''
We need a strong title in this thing, our conservation and
our EQIP programs have to be strong and we appreciate that.
At the same time, I'd be remiss in the timber business not
to mention that don't let these things be so restrictive in
your definition of what species and number of stems per acre
that we have to plant that you rule out sustainability.
[Voice.] Right.
Mr. Griner. Somebody has to pay the bills, we need to have
strong research and ability. You have the university here, we
depend on IFAS for all the benefits that benefit all of
society. Without them, we can't make those improvements and the
efficiencies that we need to compete everywhere. And with that,
I'll turn it over to Jim.
Dr. Telg. You have about 45 seconds.
STATEMENT OF JIM HANDLEY, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FLORIDA
CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION, KISSIMMEE, FL
Mr. Handley. Thank you very much. Out of respect for your
time, I greatly appreciate it.
I'm Jim Handley, the Executive Vice President of the
Florida Cattlemen's Association. We really appreciate you all
coming to Florida. One particular item that I want to make sure
and mention is something we're asking for in the farm bill is
to create a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine bank. We're asking
our appropriators, Mr. Bishop and our other fellows from
Florida, and Congressman Diaz-Balart and Congressman Rooney to
work with you to create this.
You've seen the devastation of citrus greening and, and
seen that screwworm that came to Florida, our industry is very
susceptible to a huge, huge, huge devastating problem if we
don't think ahead and buy this insurance in advance and we're
hoping that you can support the creation of this foot-and-mouth
disease vaccine bank.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Handley. We appreciate your time. We know you're going
to hear a lot of comments. We'll come back with more if there's
time later in the session today. Thank you.
[Voice.] Thank you very much.
Dr. Telg. As I call the next two individuals, please
remember if you have other comments that you would like to put
your comments forward on the card or by e-mail, please do so.
Kelly J. Philman and Stephen Leong.
STATEMENT OF KELLY J. PHILMAN, OWNER, 83 FARMS, LLC, BELL, FL
Mr. Philman. I'd like to thank you guys for hearing me
today, and I'm Kelly Philman. I represent 83 Farms and 25
employees and partners. And again, I'm proud to be part of the
Florida peanut industry and I'm going to speak from the heart.
I'm going to tell you a few stories.
When I used to ride the school bus, some 25 years ago, I
would think about what I want to do and I have some vivid
images in my mind. I can remember one farmer I watched what
they were doing shelling corn and I wondered how they did it,
but it wasn't long that dad took a job at REA and the son went
to work with the state. I hate to use the word poor but some 25
years ago our area, we didn't have many choices. We could log,
work with the state, or farm. And many times after I made the
decision to farm 25 years ago, the next 10 years I questioned
that decision, I questioned it many times, but we were blessed.
And along came the farm bill, and under the 2002 Farm Bill
provisions we were afforded an opportunity in our area to grow
and harvest peanuts. So, in 2002 I grew and harvested 300 acres
of peanuts. And from there the business has grown and today we
tend to 10,000+ acres, not by choice. That's a lot of risk. But
under the provisions of the 2014 Farm Bill we've had to
increase acres to be sustainable.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Philman. You go 40 to 80 miles west of here, there's
millions of dollars of industry, peanut industry, and what's on
my mind is the 16 children that were from 2 years old to 7, 16
children, they're hanging out them truck windows on Saturday
afternoon, they're watching what we're doing. They're wanting
to rake a little hay. They're wanting to pull some weeds out of
them peanuts. But under the provisions that we are faced with
under the farm bill, we won't have a future if we stay under
these same provisions. And that's what I'm asking for you to
consider, the next generation, the next generation. Thank you.
Ms. Plaskett. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Yes, ma'am.
Mr. Philman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Plaskett. Excuse me. Sir, before you go back, you said
that's not your choice. What would be your choice if could have
your druthers?
Mr. Philman. Thank you for your question. I tell you, it's
hard to explain your livelihood in 2 minutes. I prayed about it
this morning. I had 5 or 6 minutes. But let me clarify that for
you.
Any good peanut farmer will tell you, that for us, 7,500
acres is a better manageable number in our budget, but when the
prices get low because of over-planting, which was a result of
a farm bill provision, which some won't agree with me, but
prior to that we had a market system in place from 2002 to 2013
where the markets took care of itself, it balanced. And so by
choice we're having to overwork just to be sustainable and make
our bills.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you so much.
Dr. Telg. Steve.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN LEONG, Ph.D., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR RESEARCH
AND RESEARCH DIRECTOR, CAFS RESEARCH PROGRAMS, FLORIDA A&M
UNIVERSITY, TALLAHASSEE, FL
Dr. Leong. Thank you, Chairman Conaway.
My name is Stephen Leong and I'm the Associate Dean for
Research at Florida Agriculture & Mechanical University. I've
been at that university for almost 30 years and I've seen a lot
of things that the university has been doing to really not only
help the country, but in fact helping the citizens of Florida.
Florida A&M University is actually one of the 19 land-grant
universities that we have in this nation and we specialize, I
would say, in helping those marginalized citizens, farmers, in
this state here, and over the years we have done a tremendous
amount of work helping not only farmers but as well as
residents in the rural areas and in urban areas.
I'm talking about the proposed so-called budget cut that
has been mentioned in several media outlets, I would say to the
USDA, in particular, about the 20 percent or 21 percent budget
cut. In particular, I would say $386 million cut in the
research budget. We feel that it will have a significant
impact, especially to not only the 1890 universities, but also
to all the 1862 universities, as well, because at Florida A&M
University, I would say about 90 percent of the research funds
that we get are from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and we
feel that if there are any significant cuts to that agency,
then it will trickle down and we will be affected; not only our
research, but also our extension and outreach activities.
I will say that a hundred percent of our extension and
outreach activities depend on the USDA funding or formula
funds, so I would like to suggest that when the 2018 Farm Bill
is put together, that the Committee recognizes the importance
of----
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Dr. Leong.--Florida A&M University and all the other 1890
institutions for the work that they are doing to help the
marginalized, I would say the under-resourced farmers and the
citizens of Florida.
Thank you.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
Next speakers will be Joe Wright and Donell Gwinn.
STATEMENT OF JOE WRIGHT, PRESIDENT, SOUTHEAST MILK, INC., AVON
PARK, FL
Mr. Wright. I'm Joe Wright. I'm a dairy farmer from Hardee
County. Tom Rooney is my Congressman and he's a good one.
Two issues: Margin Protection Program and farm labor.
Margin Protection Program in the era of the Renewable Fuel
Standard, it's the right program. But the haircut it was given
because of CBO scoring makes the program completely worthless.
It's that simple.
Labor: I've been President of our dairy cooperative
Southeast Milk for 20 years. I've been going to Washington,
D.C., for over 10 years begging for some kind of immigrant
worker program for dairy and we don't have one. My plea is to,
on an emergency basis, make us eligible for H-2A. It wasn't
originally designed for dairy; we'll make it work. There's a
sheep herders exception for H-2A, let us have it. Let us have
something, anything. Beg the Administration to do it
administratively, and whatever piece of legislation you can
find to tack H-2A on, make dairy eligible. Thank you.
Mr. Hoblick. Quite simple.
STATEMENT OF DONELL GWINN, GWINN BROTHERS FARM, LLC, McALPIN,
FL
Mr. Gwinn. Hello. My name is Donell Gwinn.
Dr. Telg. Speak up to the microphone.
Mr. Gwinn. My name is Donell Gwinn. I was raised on an 80
acre farm and I have grown that to 2,000 acres with the 2002
Farm Bill. After the government passed the Freedom to Farm Act
and the peanut quota was bought out, the Freedom to Farm Act of
2002 gave farmers like me the opportunity and ability to grow
peanuts and compete in the world's market. After much thought,
I, along with many farmers in this room, have invested in
growing peanuts, this industry, especially here in north
central Florida.
Since the 2014 Farm Bill and the generic base provision
went into effect, the price of peanuts has fallen, increase in
peanut production. I ask this Committee to help me and other
farmers like me to give me as my non-base neighbors the same
opportunity as other successful farmers and my neighbors. Thank
you for this opportunity. I'm a little bit nervous.
[Voice.] Thank you.
[Voice.] Thank you very much.
Mr. Gwinn. I'm a farmer, not a speaker.
Dr. Telg. The next two speakers, John Barben and then Mike,
I apologize if I get this wrong, Bruorton, the President of the
Georgia Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association. I apologize if I
couldn't quite read the last name, so John Barben and then
Mike.
STATEMENT OF JOHN BARBEN, MEMBER, DISTRICT 9, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, FLORIDA CITRUS MUTUAL
Mr. Barben. Good morning, Congressmen, and thank y'all for
coming to the wonderful University of Florida and traveling
here.
My name is John Barben and I'm a fifth generation citrus
grower. We've been in business since the 1920s and we've just
recently expanded into blueberries.
HLB and the Asian citrus psyllid are not native to the
United States. Though we are not sure how HLB and the Asian
citrus psyllid got here, we do know that it was first
discovered in the Miami-Dade area in 2005, which means it
probably came through our ports. Other nonnative diseases are
no further away than a nonstop flight.
Of the 67 counties in the state, citrus has grown in 27,
and a study just released by the University of Florida
entitled, Economic Contributions of the Florida Citrus Industry
in 2015-2016, it estimated the total contributions of our
industry at $8.6 billion supports 45,000 full and part-time
jobs and total Federal, state, and local tax contributions of
$818 million. While the citrus acreage and crop size has
decreased significantly since HLB infection, we still have over
435,000 acres of bearing citrus in the state. We may be down
but we're far from out.
Florida's unique climate allows us to grow the best quality
citrus products in the world but our industry is at a
crossroads and the future depends on research. It is a matter
of national security that the United States of America has a
safe, sufficient, and reliable agricultural food supply and we
do not lose our farms to foreign pests, disease, or
competition.
What can you do for the Florida citrus industry and its
survivability? First, it is imperative that the next farm bill
include an extension of the Citrus Disease Research and
Development Trust Fund which was created in the 2014 Farm Bill.
While a long-term solution is being developed through
research, the citrus industry needs incentives for growers that
will mitigate some risk and prompt them to invest and replant
their groves.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Barber. The USDA Tree Assistance Program helps in doing
this, so please reauthorize the program under the next farm
bill. Thank you for being here and your service.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF MIKE BRUORTON, PRESIDENT, GEORGIA FRUIT AND
VEGETABLE GROWERS ASSOCIATION, FARGO, GA
Mr. Bruorton. Chairman Conaway, Members of the Committee,
and distinguished guests, I'm Mike Bruorton, Director of the
agricultural operations for Superior Berries Company in Fargo,
Georgia.
At Superior Berries, we manage several operations,
including 500 acres of blueberries and over 1,800 hives of
pollinators. I come to you today as President of the Georgia
Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association representing over 500
fruit and vegetable growers in Georgia and throughout the
Southeast. I want to thank you, Chairman Conaway, for holding
one of your listening sessions in the Southeast. Our
southeastern agriculture is much different from our farming
brothers and sisters in the Midwest and on the Pacific coast.
We appreciate you being here to hear our comments.
There are a number of areas and programs in the farm bill
that provide tremendous support for our southeastern growers,
but of particular interest to our members and specialty crop
growers is research. The Specialty Crop Research Initiative, or
SCRI, is a very important component of the farm bill funding.
Research for specialty crops is growing in importance. This
growth will likely accelerate over the life of the next farm
bill based on needs from our growers and our industry.
Reports from USDA show nearly 25 percent of the Specialty
Crop Block Grants awards have been directed to research
projects over the past 5 years.
During this farm bill cycle, the effective funds available
for specialty crop projects in SCRI has peaked at $55 million
per year when the citrus greening research commitment is
excluded.
We are most appreciative for these funds and their support
of research; however, the specialty crop industry has been
historically under-served by the various general research
governmental programs. Over the next 5 years we know there will
be a need for more funds to provide needed research into
automation, mechanization, and also related harvest efficiency
technologies to ease our lack of labor.
We know food safety research will be a high priority area
of the new FSMA. Regulations can be based on sound science. We
ask that you increase the level of funding for the Specialty
Crop Research Initiative.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Bruorton. It is needed to keep our industry competitive
and consumers supplied with fresh fruits and vegetables.
In closing, I want to thank this Committee for following
our industries' recommendations for the 2014 Farm Bill and
establishing a formal relevancy review panel as required
criteria in awarding the research grant. This process worked
extremely well and has ensured that projects funded are
critical to the industry.
On behalf of the southeastern fruit and vegetable growers
and the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, I want
to thank you for holding this listening session. Thank you so
much.
Mr. Panetta. Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Yes.
Mr. Panetta. Briefly. Sir, those are the same issues we
have on the West Coast, so we're with you.
Mr. Bruorton. Yes. Thank you, sir.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
The next two individuals will be Karl Zimmer and Marty
Mesh.
STATEMENT OF KARL ZIMMER, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, PREMIUM PEANUT, LLC, DOUGLAS, GA
Mr. Zimmer. Good morning, I'm Karl Zimmer from Douglas,
Georgia, and I'm also President and CEO of Premium Peanut. And
what is Premium Peanut? It's important to hear about this
story. It's a peanut sheller. We've been in operation for a
year and were formed by a group of investors who came together
about 2 years ago and said, ``We need to create more value out
of our peanut crop, let's take the matter into our own hands,''
and they did that. And so over the past 2 years we spent $50
million and built the largest peanut shelling facility in the
world, and that's in Douglas, Georgia. And now we just
announced another $14 million investment. We're going to go
into the peanut oil business because of all the peanuts we grow
in this country, we're still a net importer of oil. So we see
an opportunity and we're making the investment and we're
creating jobs and we're going to expand.
What's important about this, in my view, as I said, a group
of investors came together. Those investors are 237 peanut
farmers. I work for growers. I didn't grow up on a farm, I'm
not a farmer; my wife is, which we joke about that. I'm the
city boy and she's the country girl and we sort of swapped
roles here. But it's a group of peanut farmers who came
together and put up their money to create value and they're
doing it and we're doing it. And part of why we can do that is
because of the stability that this farm bill has offered. They
know they have that safety net if you're a peanut grower and
you're a peanut farmer. It has worked. It is working. I believe
it will continue to work; because, when I came into the
industry, somebody told me there's no such thing as too many
peanuts. I said, ``Wait a second, there could be.'' Well, you
know what, I've come around to his way of thinking. I don't
think there is such a thing as too many peanuts. We can create
markets. We can take action. We're selling peanuts into 15
countries around the world and, as part of our expansion, I
want more. So we've opened up the company again. We said, if
you're interested in buying stock in Premium Peanut and getting
a good fair price every year for your product----
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Zimmer.--and getting more value for it, come on in,
because we believe there's opportunity out there. We believe
there's market for U.S. peanuts. We can use more. Let's do it.
Let's continue to create those markets, create that value. And
I believe it's because of the stability that the current farm
bill has provided in the peanut program. Let's continue it.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
Mr. Allen. And that's the Twelfth District of Georgia,
folks.
Mr. Zimmer. Yes, sir.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Karl.
STATEMENT OF MARTY MESH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA ORGANIC
GROWERS, GAINESVILLE, FL
Mr. Mesh. I'm Marty Mesh, the Executive Director of Florida
Organic Growers, a nonprofit we established in 1987. I
personally started growing organically in 1973. FOG provides
education and outreach to farmers and consumers, as well as
operates an accredited certification program. We collaborate in
organic research and other types of education projects. As the
largest certifier on the eastern seaboard, we certify
operations nationally and internationally in all scopes. FOG
also operates a statewide FINI-funded project potentially
benefitting all Florida direct market growers and SNAP users,
and has a long been a leader in widely-recognized food system
improvement projects.
You all have heard the numbers, that organic is a $75
billion global market, the fastest growing sector of
agriculture since 1990. The organic industry has provided a
viable economic opportunity for many farmers who otherwise may
have gone out of business amongst declining commodity prices
and farm consolidations.
Organic has provided an entryway for many young and
beginning farmers. For the State of Florida it's resulted in
over 450 organic businesses. And with real investment, with
adequate investment, that number would be a lot higher and the
return on investment would be quite impressive, as you know.
The Organic Certification Cost-Share Program is a vital
program especially for many of these beginning and family-scale
farmers.
Organic is a voluntary program, a program that provides
uniform and consistent standards in order to meet consumer
expectations. We need adequate authority, accountability, and
resources for the NOP. This is necessary to keep pace with the
growing demand and develop standards and to carry out
compliance and enforcement actions in the U.S. and abroad.
Increased funding for research on production methods is
critical. Support for OREI will ensure that organic farmers can
continue to meet the unique challenges they face and farmers
interested to have good research to base decisions on as they
explore possibility of doing organic production.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Mesh. UF has received over $4 million in funding to
conduct organic research, including several grants funded
through OREI that have been critical to the success of Florida
organic farming.
This is at a university that told me years ago that growing
organic blueberries in Florida was just not possible. Now, a
few miles from here there are over 200 acres of organic
blueberries. UF offers a degree program originating from a
small initial SARE Grant that FOG received and wrote and
implemented.
We also have the opportunity in this farm bill to
facilitate transition to organic by improving access to land
and capital and investment in infrastructure and targeted
technical assistance.
Dr. Telg. Please wrap up your comments.
Mr. Mesh. Existing USDA conservation, rural development,
and other potential programs such as transitional certification
can encourage it. It's way past time to adequately invest
resources in the fastest growing segment of agriculture
providing multiple benefits.
Thanks for your opportunity. I'll e-mail more substantive
comments to the Committee and which will deal with specialty
crop, SCRI, nutrition titles, conservation titles, rural
development, et cetera. Thank you for being here.
The Chairman. Thanks, Marty.
Dr. Telg. The next speakers will be Brooks Parrish and
Victoria Hunter Gibney.
STATEMENT OF BROOKS PARRISH, FORMER PRESIDENT, FLORIDA FFA
ASSOCIATION, GAINESVILLE, FL
Mr. Parrish. I'm going to hold it if it's okay. First off,
I'd just like to thank you, the Committee, for coming to
Florida. It's an honor to have you in our home state and it's
just a blessing to have you right close to home.
Congressman Yoho, it seems just the other day you were
coming to my house to do health certificates, take care of my
show steers, and it's just great to see you here again.
I'm Brooks Parrish and from the Town of Trenton, just
across the way, and I am currently at Santa Fe College here in
Gainesville where I plan to transfer to University of Florida
to study plant genetics.
In 2015-2016 I served as the Florida FFA State President
and I'm here today to give some remarks on behalf of the
Florida FFA and the National FFA organization.
Founded in 1928, the National FFA organization is an
integral part of the agricultural education by helping make
classroom instruction come to life through realistic hands-on
application. FFA members embrace concepts taught in agriculture
education classrooms and build valuable skills through
experiential learning. FFA has responded to expanded
opportunities available in agriculture and it's time to hire
skilled and competent employees.
According to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture
information at the United States Department of Agriculture, an
estimated 57,900 high-skilled jobs in the United States
agriculture sector will be open annually in the next 5 years,
but there will only be 35,400 new United States graduates to
fill these positions, resulting in an annual shortfall in
22,500 agriculture professions. That's where we all come in.
Our nation's investment in American agriculture and youth who
will pursue that enterprise and crucial to feeding the world,
building a sound economy, maintaining a healthy labor market,
and protecting our homeland. Now more than ever we need sound
legislation that considers the future of agriculturalists as
much as it considers our current needs for strong safety nets
and nutrition programs. We need policy that encourages students
to return to the farm or pursue agriculture careers that
support them in doing so and legislation that equips youth
serving organizations to prepare the next generation of
agriculturalists regardless of their race, color, religion,
gender, or disability.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Parrish. As the 115th Congress works to advance
agriculture priorities and as your bodies work to reauthorize
the farm bill, we hope that you consider the next generation of
agriculturalists in your decisions.
On behalf of the Florida FFA Association and the National
FFA organization, I thank you for your time here today and wish
you best of luck in creating the farm bill.
Mr. Yoho. Thanks, Brooks.
Ms. Plaskett. Excuse me.
Ms. Gibney. Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Plaskett. Young man, I feel like as the only woman up
here I have to talk more than all these others men.
But, young man, thank you for being here. Since you've
taken up agriculture as a future career, can you tell us or
speak personally about what you believe would drive young
people into the field of agriculture and agribusiness and from
your personal experience so we can take that into our mind?
The Chairman. Briefly.
Mr. Parrish. Yes, ma'am, most definitely.
As I've grown up, I've grown up on a family farm growing
watermelons, customer to pick. I've been engulfed in
agriculture, but traveling the state in my year as a state
officer I've come to realize that many students coming through
the education system see agriculture as it was seen in the
past. It's just cattle sales and (inaudible). Farmers, all they
do is go ride a tractor all day, they don't make any money. Why
do I want to do that? They're engulfed by the health field,
they see dollar signs, and that's where they want to go.
I feel that to get more students involved in agriculture
and to choose an agriculture career, it starts as us promoting
it as not just this one simple part of American jobs, it's
everything around us. It's from promoting seed, creating the
seed that's going to be planted in the ground, to actually
being the farmer creating the crop, harvesting that crop, and
then the sales of that crop. There are so many different parts
of the agriculture community and most of the students in the
American education system aren't seeing these entire parts. I
feel it's our job to promote the agriculture industry as a
whole rather than just a farmer sitting on the farm growing the
crops. While they are a vital process, there are other pieces
to the puzzle that these students could be engaged in.
Really, it is promoting the entire experience of
agriculture to each student in the education system, as well as
promoting agriculture education for students to be engaged and
learn about the agriculture education.
Ms. Plaskett. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF VICTORIA HUNTER GIBNEY, M.P.H., C.P.H.,
REGIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH COORDINATOR, UF/IFAS
EXTENSION FAMILY NUTRITION PROGRAM, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA,
GAINESVILLE, FL
Ms. Gibney. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, and the Committee
for making the trip down to Gainesville. And welcome
Congressman Yoho back----
Mr. Yoho. Thank you.
Ms. Gibney.--to Gainesville and the University of Florida.
My name is Victoria Hunter Gibney. I'm here on behalf of the
UF/IFAS, not ISIS, Family Nutrition Program which implements
SNAP-Ed for the State of Florida.
As others have shared, Florida's agriculture is a fantastic
industry. We have a breadth and depth of products that we put
out, but despite this, a 2015 study found that about 17 percent
of Floridians, including over a million children, still
struggle with hunger. And protecting and strengthening our
nation's nutrition safety net services, including SNAP, is
really key to making that connection between what our growers
are offering and what our citizens can afford and be able to
purchase for their families.
SNAP-Education, or SNAP-Ed, is the nutrition promotion,
obesity prevention component, as you all know. And as in many
states, SNAP-Ed in Florida benefits from being integrated into
our cooperative extension network, as well as our impact is
magnified by a number of partnerships we have at the local,
state, and national level, including Feeding Florida, including
Florida Organic Growers, the Florida Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services, and really we benefit from all of those
partnerships, as well as being part of extension.
At the Family Nutrition Program, we really work to empower
Florida families to lead healthier, more productive lives
through getting the skills and education they need to make
healthy choices for their families.
We work with youth and adults. One thing that I want to
echo, what Mr. Parrish mentioned about exciting young people
about agriculture, we support community and school gardens
across the state and I've personally seen young students who
never knew what the food that they ate, what the end product
looked like, growing out of the ground and it really excited
something in them to understand more about where their food
comes from and who it's coming from and get connected to our
growers and we've seen a lot of the interest grow in our
schools from that aspect.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Ms. Gibney. Thank you.
Last, I just want to say that SNAP-Ed, particularly in our
rural communities, is very, very important. We don't have a lot
of nutrition programs like FNP, Family Nutrition Program, in
our rural areas, and that's usually where the need to address
food insecurity and chronic diseases is greatest.
Thank you all for your consideration, I really appreciate
it.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
The next two speakers will be Danny Johns and Amy Stone.
STATEMENT OF DANNY JOHNS, OWNER, BLUE SKY FARMS; FLORIDA
DIRECTOR, NATIONAL POTATO COUNCIL,
HASTINGS, FL; ON BEHALF OF FLORIDA FRUIT AND
VEGETABLE ASSOCIATION
Mr. Johns. Good morning. My name is Danny Johns of Blue Sky
Farms in Hastings. I'm speaking to you this morning as a fourth
generation potato farmer in Florida as representative of
Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, and I also serve on
the National Potato Council.
We would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to
speak on the importance of the upcoming farm bill for American
agriculture.
The farm bill includes important provisions that address
top concerns of the specialty crop sector, including threats
from diseases and pests, providing for vital research
capabilities, marketing assistance, expanding nutrition
opportunities, conservation, and other horticultural
priorities. As growers we are constantly challenged to do more
with less to feed an ever-growing world population.
The specific programs of the current farm bill that have
proved vital in helping growers to meet this challenge, and the
many others we face on a daily basis, are the Specialty Crop
Block Grants, Specialty Crop Research Initiative, the Plant and
Disease Management and Disaster Prevention Program, MAP,
Marketing Assistance Program, Technical Assistance for
Specialty Crops, and others.
Research is crucial to continue to allow growers to provide
our country with the safest, cheapest food supply in the world.
One thing I've learned in my 4 decades of farming is the one
constant I face is change.
The Specialty Crop Block Grants and Specialty Crop Research
Initiative have been instrumental on pressing needs such as
research, marketing, nutrition, extension, food safety.
The pest and disease challenge are a constant threat to
producers nationally, but particularly in Florida where our
vast system of ports and climate makes us vulnerable.
Florida citrus industry has suffered incredible losses in
acreage from the HLB citrus greening, that's why the farm
bill's pest and disease programs are vital in protecting our
industry from this constant threat. These are some of the
examples of the farm bill programs that are working to meet the
diversity/challenge of Florida fruit and vegetable producers.
To that end, FFVA President Mike Stuart and National Potato
Council CEO John Keeling, who both co-chair the Specialty Crop
Farm Bill Alliance, are collaborating with industry colleagues
from around the country to review and assess these vital
programs to ensure they are tailored to most effectively
strengthen and sustain fruit and vegetable production in this
nation.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Johns. I had the pleasure to sit down with Congressman
Yoho for breakfast a few months ago and while the issue du jour
was crop insurance, when Ted asked me what was the biggest
problem on my farm today, and my answer to him was labor.
There's a critical shortage of legally-authorized and
experienced workers available. When we don't have the workers
we need to produce and harvest our crops, it hurts our
competitiveness, our local economies, and jobs. It is essential
to have a workable guestworker program in place before
implementing E-Verify or similar enforcement-only approaches.
The negative impact on Florida agriculture and our country's
consumers would run into the billions of dollars.
Dr. Telg. Please wrap it up.
Mr. Johns. Although our nation grows the highest quality
produce in the world and competes in a fair global marketplace,
the current unfair trade environment with Mexico has
drastically harmed many specialty crop producers, including the
potato industry. Is it estimated that the current NAFTA
agreement costs Florida agriculture industry $1-$3 billion
annually.
Fresh potato exports to Mexico are limited to 13 kilometers
along our borders. With one in every five rows of potatoes
planted in the United States going to export, this barrier
needs to be addressed as the process of renegotiating NAFTA
begins.
Dr. Telg. Okay. Please wrap up your comments.
Mr. Johns. Our industry understands change well. My great
grandfather was the first farmer in Florida to trade his mule
in for a tractor finding increased efficiencies.
It's important we continue advances in innovation and
competitiveness. Those values are at the core of the specialty
crop provisions of the farm bill. We appreciate the opportunity
to speak to y'all and it's great to be in the country you are.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Danny.
STATEMENT OF AMY STONE, BOARD MEMBER, NATIONAL AQUACULTURE
ASSOCIATION, UMATILLA, FL
Ms. Stone. I'm sorry, I'm short. I'm just going to hold it.
I'm Amy Stone. I'm a board member with the National
Aquaculture Association. A little bit of my background. I grew
up on a row crop farm in Indiana. I graduated from Purdue
University, worked as a fish farmer for many years in the 1990s
and then went over to sales, mostly because the farms were not
well supported.
I'm now the owner and operator of Aquatic Equipment and
Design, which is a small business selling into this industry
hoping to make it better.
I have four main points that I want to go over with you.
First, is that the U.S. aquaculture be designated as a
specialty crop. I'll go back and reach this in a minute. The
other is that we support continued funding for the Agricultural
Research Service and NIFA. We also want to continue the Food
Safety Inspection Service, and then also modify and update the
National Aquaculture Act of 1980. Those are my four talking
points. These will also be e-mailed in greater detail.
It's very important to us that we, as aquaculture producers
in the United States, be considered a specialty crop because it
allows us to get Specialty Crop Block Grants and to be equally
included in the Farm Service Agency for disaster assistance
programs. As well as the Agricultural Research Service, I know
you've heard many, many things about research and how important
it is in the industry, but it is extremely important in
aquaculture, which is an emerging market in the United States.
As you know, we import more seafood than we can grow in the
United States. However, there is an uptick in large farms
coming into the United States; three in the State of Florida,
two in the State of Wisconsin, and several around the United
States, which can change that and change the tides.
We have five regional aquaculture centers and the Harry K.
Dupree Stuttgard Aquaculture Research Center which are at risk
of losing their funding if we don't continue to fund the
Agricultural Research Service.
An independent study analysis published within the last 30
days supported a 37-fold return for each aquaculture research
dollar spent since 2000. That's huge. We're able to make big
strides with this research money that is given to us.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Ms. Stone. It's also been very important for us to continue
this inspection of foreign products coming into the United
States. As you know, our market went down when basa catfish was
allowed to come from Vietnam. It's important that we continue
to do that inspection and require these importers to follow our
rules and regulations.
And again, we need to update the National Aquaculture Act
of 1980 to create an economic development initiative similar to
the other countries that are doing this well.
Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.
Dr. Telg. The next individuals to speak will be Derrick
Thomas and Chuck Bohac. Derrick Thomas and Chuck Bohac.
STATEMENT OF DERICK THOMAS, DIRECTOR OF MEMBER AND PUBLIC
RELATIONS, CLAY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC., KEYSTONE HEIGHTS,
FL
Mr. Derick Thomas. Mr. Chairman, Committee, thank you for
the opportunity. Welcome to Gainesville. My name is Derrick
Thomas, I'm the Director of Member and Public Relations with
Clay Electric Cooperative. We're a not-for-profit electric
utility. We serve over 175,000 members in 14 northeast Florida
counties to include Congressional Districts 2, 3, 5, 6, and 10.
Florida electric cooperatives serve nearly two million
members and 53 of Florida's 67 counties. Electric cooperatives
remain committed to delivering electricity to our members, and
to improving the quality of life in the communities that we
serve.
For over 75 years electric cooperatives like Clay Electric
have been actively involved in our communities and in economic
development. The farm bill is very important to our members and
our mission because it contains tools electric cooperatives use
to strengthen and modernize our grid and also improve our
communities. The RUS program is a great example of a private-
public partnership. The RUS program is a loan and underwriting
program which makes it possible for electric cooperatives to
provide safe, reliable, and affordable electricity to
approximately 42 million Americans.
Additionally, the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant
Program is another tool that aids rural economic and community
development activities. Our neighboring electric co-op just to
the west in Suwannee County in 2016 used this program to build
a public library. That's just one example locally.
We humbly request that you continue supporting these
programs and other important programs that support electric
cooperatives and the members we serve. Thank you for the
opportunity to share this information with you today.
STATEMENT OF CHUCK BOHAC, FLORIDA STATE CHAIRMAN, DUCKS
UNLIMITED, ST. PETERSBURG, FL
Mr. Bohac. Hello. My name Chuck Bohac. I'm from St.
Petersburg. I'm the State Chairman for Ducks Unlimited. In
Florida, DU is the largest waterfowl conservation organization
in the world with over a million supporters. I represent
approximately 15,000 dedicated members across our great state.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of DU.
The Federal farm bill is a signal of support of rural
communities from America. Our country depends on privately-
owned farms, ranches, and forests for its wood, for its food,
fiber, water, and wildlife. We thank you for standing up for
the rural America and the core values of agriculture and
conservation. The two are undoubtedly connected because we
strongly believe that America's farmers, ranchers, forest
landowners, and sportsmen and women are our greatest
conservationists.
The farm bill is the key mechanism to maintain this
agriculture/conservation connection and we hope this farm bill
continues this strong tradition. The passage of the last farm
bill required coalition building, compromise, and consensus,
among a broad diversity of groups and regions. Since then we
have worked harder than ever to strengthen these partnerships
with farmers, ranchers, and other conservation partners.
DU looks forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman,
Representative Yoho, Representative Dunn, and the other Members
of the Committee to sustain Florida's natural resources. Thank
you for coming to Florida.
Mr. Yoho. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. The next individuals to speak, Jib Davidson and
Dusty Holley. Jib Davidson and Dusty Holley.
STATEMENT OF JIB DAVIDSON, CERTIFIED FORESTER,
COLUMBIA TIMBER COMPANY; 2017 FLORIDA DIVISION CHAIR, CHAPTER
CHAIR, FLORIDA SOCIETY OF AMERICAN
FORESTERS, GAINESVILLE, FL; ON BEHALF OF FLORIDA FORESTRY
ASSOCIATION
Mr. Davidson. Get close to the microphone, she said.
Man, two hours. We're into this thing, aren't we?
My name is Jib Davidson. I'm a certified forester, land
manager, and a timber producer here in north Florida and south
Georgia. I represent the Florida Society of American Foresters,
as well as the Florida Forestry Association. Florida Forestry
Association represents foresters, as well as landowners, timber
producers, and the mills.
Did y'all hear about Palatka and what happened to Georgia-
Pacific yesterday? Congressman Yoho, how much money was that
they announced?
Mr. Yoho. It was $400 million.
Mr. Davidson. That $400 million investment in one little
old mill that's going to generate 80 jobs. I mention the mills
because it all starts with planting a tree. We don't plant the
tree, we don't produce the timber for the mills that generate
so many jobs. And y'all have a farm bill that in that farm bill
is all about some planting tree programs and I would like to
just address the EQIP program for a moment because y'all know
it can take up to 18 months just to get approved on that jewel?
And that 18 months you do not necessarily follow the forestry
cycles. All agriculture, there's a time to plant, there's a
time to fertilize, there's a time to weed, and what happens
when you're out of sync on the EQIP program? Well, it gets
approved but you're not in that little old window.
Last fall, because we were required to do something, we had
to do something, we went to a farm that we had that qualified
for EQIP to plow fire lines because we didn't need them, we
didn't want them, no one had to have them, but the farm bill
says you got to do something in 2016, so we plowed fire lines
to make sure we qualified.
My suggestion is, if we can work on that farm bill where we
can select the correct species, not just longleaf, we love
longleaf, but there are other pine species that work for
different landowner objectives, and if we can adjust the
stocking rates. A lot of these programs you're limited to how
many trees you plant, which is not necessarily in the
landowner's best interest, or anyone else's along that whole
chain up there through the mills.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Davidson. And then you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, that
you have limited resources coming up and we got some financial
issues. I don't know if there's a possibility we can work into
a public-private partnership, get more of these
responsibilities put into the private-sector, there might be
some good ways of saving some money getting the public-private
partnerships going in forestry because the opportunity is
there.
Finally, Mr. Ryan has said that he's going to create a tax
policy, he wants to do something with that. I realize y'all
don't have anything to do with taxes, I realize the House Ways
and Means Committee does, but pay attention to the Federal tax
implications because that's a real important part of our whole
ag program. Thank you now.
STATEMENT OF DUSTY HOLLEY, FIELD SERVICES DIRECTOR, FLORIDA
CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION, KISSIMMEE, FL
Mr. Holley. It's good to see everybody. I left D.C.
February 12th and dang it if y'all didn't find me finally, but
it's good to have y'all in the great State of Florida.
And Mr. Marshall, at Florida Cattlemen we are glad to have
you here as our friends at the Kansas Livestock Association
are, so we appreciate you getting on this Committee and doing
good work because a whole lot of our cattle end up in your
district out there, so they just start here.
Mr. Marshall. We try to take good care of you.
Mr. Holley. So I'll be brief real quick, but welcome to
Gainesville. Thanks for coming. I'm Dusty Holley, Florida
Cattlemen's Association. Jim and our President Ken Griner hit
some points earlier but we wanted to add in a couple of things
real quick.
First, we were looking for that foot-and-mouth disease
bank, we really do need that. We're pushing to move forward.
Programs like EQIP and LFP have been very beneficial to the
cattle industry, but outside that we don't need too much out of
the farm bill, but we ask that you tell some of your other
colleagues and those in Administration just to watch out for
any burdensome regulations that might come down on us. We in
the cattle industry generally do pretty well if folks just get
out of our way, and so we always like it when that's the case.
Sometimes we need a little bit help; but, generally, we can
move on pretty good. Just let those folks know that we're here
to do what we can and continue to bring a safe and wholesome
food supply, and that's really all we want to do and protect
the environment while we're doing it. So, thank y'all very much
and hope y'all have a good short trip to Florida. Thank you.
Mr. Yoho. Thanks, Dusty.
Mr. Holley. Yes, sir.
Dr. Telg. Charles Thomas and Ken Barton.
STATEMENT OF KEN BARTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FLORIDA PEANUT
PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION, MARIANNA, FL
Mr. Barton. Chairman Conaway, Members of the Committee,
thank you for your presence here today and for the opportunity
to share these comments with you. My name is Ken Barton, I'm
the Executive Director of the Florida Peanut Producers
Association, the largest and oldest peanut grower organization
in the state, and also I'm a farmer in Holmes County, Florida.
I grow peanuts, cotton, and corn in a 50/50 partnership with my
son and we support the peanut provisions in the 2014 Farm Bill.
I planted my first crop in 1980 and peanuts have always
been a mainstay on my farm. I don't plant peanuts just for the
peanut program. My planting decisions are based on market
prices and crop rotational needs on my farm, not just the
peanut program. Peanut acreage has been going up in the U.S.
and around the world because of increased demand. In fact, the
demand for peanuts in the U.S. and the world actually exceeds
the supply right now. Peanuts have a seen a continued per
capita consumer growth for years, jumping from 6.4 pounds to
7.4 pounds per capita use over the past 4 years according to
USDA. The current market price being offered for the 2017
peanut crop also confirms that the reference price in the
peanut program does not dictate planting decisions. With
increased demand and consumption worldwide, economists predict
there will be no forfeitures for the 2017 crop, which means
there will be no PLC payment and no cost to the government.
Since the reference price is set for a 5 year period by the
farm bill, the system promotes stability during both times of
prosperity and of the economic downturn, it gives me confidence
that I will be able to pass my farm down to my children and
grandchildren one day.
Chairman Conaway and Committee, thank you again for
bringing the listening session to Florida.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES R. THOMAS, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
FARM CREDIT OF FLORIDA, LIVE OAK, FL
Mr. Charles Thomas. I'm Charles Thomas and I grew up just
west of here. I'm a timber farmer and I serve on the board of
the Farm Credit of Florida where we finance farmers.
The gentleman from the Timber Association kind of took care
of one of my points, was from the standpoint of in Florida, and
it could be a Florida requirement, Florida seems to like the
longleaf pine over slash pine if you're going to get any
assistance.
Now, I would say that timber farmers, the assistance that
we get is pretty small in regard to what we spend overall, so
it's not like they're financing all of the crop. But anyhow,
they do a good job with what they do.
But from the Farm Credit of Florida's standpoint, you can
see that it's a challenge to finance all of these folks' issues
here. It's a great group of people and it provides some good
challenges, but we stand up and meet those challenges. But I
would say that to be able to provide that financing, the crop
insurance is a good part of financing an operation. It does
help assist in getting the initial investment back for the
farmer and would put them to another year.
Also, the crop loans, in regard to the corn and different
things that they need, it also provides an important part of
allowing them to be able to manage their operation.
Of course someone mentioned the regulations, as far as Farm
Credit finances farmers only, so regulations and things that
come in to inhibit what we do, and our money source is called
the GSE, which we don't need to get into all of that, but a
protection of our government service entity status to guarantee
a source of funds for Farm Credit so that we can support all
the farmers.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Charles Thomas. And Mr. Gwinn might have said he was a
little nervous, we do have up here, but Mr. Gwinn is a great
farmer from Suwannee County. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. Next speakers will be Kent Fountain and Adam
Lytch.
STATEMENT OF KENT FOUNTAIN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SOUTHEASTERN GIN AND PEANUT, SURRENCY, GA
Mr. Fountain. Thank you for being here today. I'm Kent
Fountain and I'm a producer of cotton and peanuts and represent
Southeastern Gin and Peanut in Surrency, Georgia, and the
Chairman of Premium Peanut in Douglas, Georgia. We appreciate
y'all being here and we really appreciate our Georgia
Congressional Members. And Mr. Allen is right that Premium
Peanut is in his district. And Mr. Scott, we have several of
our owners that are in your district and we appreciate it.
I'm going to speak on cotton today because as someone said
before, cotton and peanuts are very much tied in our area. With
cotton we have several issues, the biggest issue is losing
title I. When we lost title I we eroded our equity and
increased dramatically our debt. We need to get back into title
I and we need to have a safety net for cotton that we can get
back to where we were. The prices have come up, but now we see
that they've, we looked at it last week, we've lost 11 . So
we've got to have a safety net. We had STAX. STAX has not
worked, as you well know, like we thought it would with the
lower prices. It was not advantageous for people to take it
out. We've only had 25 percent participation in STAX for cotton
acres, so that program didn't work so we need a safety net like
we had before with either lint and cottonseed.
Also, on a positive note, though, the crop insurance we
have really does work. We got 96 percent of our cotton acres
are either in catastrophic or multi-peril. So, that works. We
need to continue that program and continue the crop insurance
that we have now. And I appreciate you listening to me and
anything we can do, we appreciate it.
The Chairman. Thanks.
STATEMENT OF ADAM LYTCH, OPERATIONS MANAGER AND MANAGING
PARTNER, L&M FARMS; MEMBER, GROWER-
SHIPPER BOARD, UNITED FRESH PRODUCE ASSOCIATION, EAST PALATKA,
FL
Mr. Lytch. Pull this out of here maybe.
Good afternoon, that it officially is now. Chairman
Conaway, Members of the Committee and other distinguished
guests, we appreciate you guys coming here to Florida to visit
with us today. My name is Adam Lytch. I'm the operations
manager and managing partner of L&M Farms. I've been 2 hours
without a sip of water here, too, so I apologize.
We farm over 9,000 acres of specialty crop fruits and
vegetables in Florida and throughout Georgia. We're a member of
the United Fresh Produce Association. I serve on the United
Fresh Grower-Shipper Board, so I'm here today to represent
them.
The specialty crop industry is united to advocate for a
common set of priorities for the 2018 Farm Bill, a broad
coalition of specialty crop organizations, known as the
Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, representing U.S. growers
and shippers have been working to develop common objectives
across regions, commodities, and other interests.
I'd like to elaborate on two in particular of the
alliance's top priorities; one being nutrition. A key nutrition
program is the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Snack Program which
will feed more than four million low-income elementary school
children nationwide this coming year. This highly-effective
program should be continued.
Invasive pests and disease: The specialty crop industry
continues to support actions by the Federal Government to
eradicate and protect our domestic market from increasing
threat of exotic pests and diseases from entering the country.
The plea for this protection could not be any stronger than
from here in the State of Florida, as we are under constant,
relentless pressure from invasive pests through our vast port
system. We believe Congress should continue these important
programs and build on the success of the last 10 years.
While the specialty crop industry is very appreciative of
all the support Congress has given initiatives important to our
sector, the value of these programs will be severely undermined
if we cannot secure a dedicated skilled workforce. Simply put,
Americans will not do our jobs, which means we must rely on
foreign labor.
The only Federal program for agricultural guestworkers, H-
2A, barely functions now. We currently use the H-2A program to
secure workers in both Georgia and Florida, so I know firsthand
how burdensome and painstaking of a process it is, but right
now it's our only option.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Lytch. I know immigration policy is not at this
Committee's purview, but we need industry leaders in
agriculture policy pressing Congress to take action on
immigration needs immediately for our critical labor needs.
Thank you for coming to visit us here in the Southeast and
for the opportunity to highlight some of the top priorities for
the specialty crop industry in the upcoming farm bill
reauthorization. Thank you.
Mr. Allen. Speaking to the immigration policy. I have
introduced a bill in the United States Congress, H.R. 641,
Better Agriculture Resources Now Act (BARN Act) to move the H-
2A program from under the Department of Labor to the Department
of Agriculture and we're in meetings now with Chairman
Goodlatte of the Judiciary Committee, we are going to see some
enforcement immigration legislation coming to the floor. We're
in discussions right now about how to make this thing work and
how to get it done. I just thought I'd give you that update.
Mr. Lytch. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Mr. Hoblick. Thank you.
Mr. Lytch. Thank you.
Mr. Hoblick. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. The next individuals to speak, Harold Browning
and then Brian Zielinski.
STATEMENT OF HAROLD W. BROWNING, Ph.D., CHIEF
OPERATING OFFICER, FLORIDA CITRUS RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION, LAKE ALFRED, FL
Dr. Browning. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Committee
Members. My name is Harold Browning and I'm the Chief Operating
Officer for Florida Citrus Research and Development Foundation.
In this role I also assist with coordination between the
Florida citrus research programs and the Farm Bill Citrus
Disease Research and Education Program. I've been involved in
citrus research for 36 years.
HLB, as you've heard, is a devastating disease and there
are no effective management programs for this disease. Since
its introduction into Florida in 2005, more research effort has
been focused on this disease in Florida than anywhere else in
the world. Great strides have been made in understanding the
elements of this disease, and together with deployment of all
the latest biological and genetic tools, many solutions are
being constructed and field tested.
Research conducted in Florida, most notably by University
of Florida-IFAS scientists, has focused on a number of key
targets for intervention. Improved management of the vector
insect, creation of HLB-resistance citrus plants, bactericides
and other therapies, and modified systems to foster earlier
citrus production.
Florida growers and our partners have invested heavily to
bring us to this point. Importantly, the Congressional
commitment to HLB research has provided much-needed resources
and direction, and in bringing national priority to this
problem has attracted a new body of talented scientists from
across the country. For these reasons, the CRDF and the Florida
citrus industry communicate to Congress how important it is
that the next farm bill include an extension of the Citrus
Disease Research and Development Program. This continuation
will lead to a sustainable solution.
Thank you for time and commitment and for allowing me to
testify on behalf of the industry today.
The Chairman. Thanks.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN ZIELINSKI, DIRECTOR OF
CONSERVATION OPERATIONS, EASTERN REGION, NATIONAL WILD TURKEY
FEDERATION, DeLand, FL
Mr. Zielinski. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway and Members
of the Committee. Thanks for the opportunity to be here today.
I'm Brian Zielinski, Director of Conservation Operations for
the eastern region for the National Wild Turkey Federation.
NWTF is a national nonprofit wildlife conservation
organization dedicated to the conservation of the wild turkey
and the preservation of our hunting heritage. We are currently
nearly 8,000 members strong in Florida, inclusive of
approximately 60 local chapters and our state chapter that
serve to deliver on our initiative to save the habitat, save
the hunt. Due to our many great partnerships throughout the
state we are able to conserve or enhance 60,000 acres of
habitat each year while also opening thousands of acres to
hunting access.
NWTF is grateful for this Committee's focus on conservation
and forestry. We have worked with the Committee for years to
make the working lands conservation programs better and we have
many successes to share. One of the biggest is the increase of
enrolled forestry acres in the EQIP Program, thanks to the
Committee for changing the criteria two farm bills ago. Another
is the inclusion in the last farm bill of permanent and result-
based stewardship contracting authorities.
For those who may not be familiar, stewardship contracting
is essentially where stakeholders collaborate towards a
consensus plan to harvest timber from either National Forests
or Bureau of Land Management properties that adhere to existing
forest management plans. Revenue generated from these harvests,
along with matching partner funds, is then put back on the
ground to do forest restoration and wildlife management work.
And for NWTF it's been very successful, so much so that we're
currently the 18th largest purchaser of Federal lumber.
Finally, I'd be remiss if we did not mention our support
for the flexibility provided to NRCS to implement their Working
Lands for Wildlife Program, especially for longleaf pine
initiative.
This program has created significant habitat for many game,
non-game, and threatened and endangered species. None would
have happened without this Committee's efforts.
For the 2018 Farm Bill, NWTF is again a steering committee
member of the Forests in the Farm Bill Coalition. NWTF
priorities for the 2018 Farm Bill include continued landscape-
scale wildlife and habitat management, continue to improve mid-
contract management on forested CRP acres to require proper
thinning, prescribed fire, and other management. Funding
incentives for this management have $10 million annually.
Explore and implement further incentives for forest plan design
by collaboratives, including enhanced use of categorical
exclusions as allowed by NEPA----
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Zielinski.--and administered under CEQ rule and policy.
Update payment limits on forestry and conservation programs so
larger tracts could be enrolled in programs that meet priority
landscape-scale conservation objectives, and reauthorize the
following programs: Environmental Quality Incentives Program,
with a continued emphasis on the Wildlife Habitat Incentive
Program practices, Healthy Forest Reserve Program, and Regional
Conservation Partnership Program.
NWTF enjoys a successful partnership with the U.S. Forest
Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well
as state forestry and fish and wildlife agencies. Farm bill
authorities and programs are critical to these partnerships and
our collective conservation efforts to save the habitat, save
the hunt.
Dr. Telg. Please be wrapping up your comments.
Mr. Zielinski. The benefits provided through the farm bill
to numerous wildlife species, their habitats and forest health
are matched with economic benefits from the use of forest
timber resource and recreational opportunities that support
vibrant local economies. We request that the next farm bill
continue this emphasis. Thanks for your time today.
Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia. Brian, when did you say you
were going to be hosting the committee to the hearings with the
NWTF?
Mr. Zielinski. Give me some dates.
Thank you.
Dr. Telg. The next individuals are Caleb Bristow and Keith
Shaw. Caleb Bristow and Keith Shaw.
STATEMENT OF CALEB BRISTOW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALABAMA PEANUT
PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION, HEADLAND, AL
Mr. Bristow. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Committee
Members. My name is Caleb Bristow and I grew up on a family
farm in Columbia, Alabama, which is in southeast Alabama. After
graduating from Auburn University where I received two degrees
in agriculture, I am now serving as the Executive Director of
the Alabama Peanut Producers Association, representing all the
peanut producers in the State of Alabama.
As I have had the opportunity to visit with the peanut
growers across Alabama over the past few years I find that many
farmers are in a position much like I see on my father's farm.
They are predominantly dryland and thus, they rely primarily on
a peanut and cotton rotation. That leaves these growers in a
vulnerable position year in and year out. As I've talked with
these growers I hear a common message from all of them. That
message is: The peanut program is what has kept me in business.
One of the main points I would like to make today is that
we do not have an oversupply of peanuts in the pipeline.
There's actually talk within the industry that there may not be
enough peanuts to satisfy the demand of some shellers until the
2017 peanut crop is harvested this fall.
With this short supply we also continue to see the demand
for our crop grow rapidly. Based on USDA data, as mentioned
earlier, per capita peanut consumption has grown from 6.4
pounds in 2012 to 7.4 pounds in 2016.
In addition to the increase in consumption, we also
continue to see an increase in exports of both peanuts as well
as peanut butter. So, demand is up both domestically and
globally. We've been able to meet this increased demand because
of the certainty we get from the peanut program. This again
reinforces the value of the peanut program. This increase is
also one reason that this program, while providing stability to
farmers, is not projected to cost taxpayers as we go into the
2017 crop.
As demand grows, remember, pressure on peanut farmers to
expand grows as well. We can only meet the long-term need with
the planning and loans that our farmers are able to secure, in
part because of the peanut program.
I'm certain you all understand how the program works to
support farmers during economic downturns and I'm fairly
certain you understand how the program sets a price floor and
does not cost the government when demand is high.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Bristow. Hopefully my comments today help you
understand the value the program delivers to meet the growing
demand while continuing to keep our farmers in business. Thank
you.
Mr. Allen. War Eagle.
Mr. Bristow. War Eagle. That's right.
Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia. Oh, my God.
STATEMENT OF KEITH SHAW, VICE PRESIDENT, MAYO
FERTILIZER, INC., MAYO, FL; ON BEHALF OF THE
FERTILIZER INSTITUTE, FLORIDA FERTILIZER & AGRICHEMICAL
ASSOCIATION
Mr. Shaw. Chairman Conaway, Members of the Committee, good
morning, or good afternoon now.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide my comments about
priorities for the next farm bill. My name is Keith Shaw and
I'm the Vice President of Mayo Fertilizer, a third-generation,
family-owned, full-service ag supply business based in north
Florida. I'm also here this afternoon to represent the TFI, The
Fertilizer Institute, and the Florida Fertilizer AgChem
Association, which I sit on the board.
Today I'm going to talk about fertilizer and nutrient
management as it relates to the farm bill. Fertilizer is a key
ingredient in feeding a growing global population which is
expected to surpass 9.7 billion people by the year 2050. In
fact, \1/2\ of all food grown around the world today is made
possible through the use of fertilizer.
Here in the great State of Florida the fertilizer industry
supports nearly 54,000 jobs and contributes nearly $18 billion
to the economy. The fertilizer industry is leading the way in
the development and implementation of new technologies and
science-based nutrient management programs for sustainable
agricultural cropping systems to better meet social,
environmental, and economic goals. The interest and commitment
of our industry to researching, designing, and implementing
these systems is demonstrating through 4R Nutrient Stewardship,
which means choosing the right fertilizer source to apply at
the right rate at the right time, and the right place.
Additionally, the creation of the 4R Research Fund, a 5
year $7 million commitment from industry, has provided much-
needed resources to measure and document the positive economic,
social, and environmental impacts of 4R Nutrient Stewardship.
As you begin to craft the next farm bill I would urge the
Members of this Committee to ensure that farmers are provided
with adequate funding under the conservation title to implement
4R Nutrient Management Practices. The 4R's are currently
incorporated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
in their 590 Nutrient Management Practice Standard, as well the
Conservation Stewardship Program.
EQIP is also a source of funding for these practices. While
we recognize that budgets are tight and new money is hard to
come by, placing a priority on funding for incentives for
farmers to implement nutrient management practices should be
something the Committee considers in the next farm bill.
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Shaw. Additionally, in order to make sure we can
measure and document the positive impacts of 4R Nutrient
Stewardship, I would urge the Committee to provide funding for
nutrient management research within the research title of the
next farm bill.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments
about our priorities in the next farm bill. I look forward to
working with you and the Members of the Committee to ensure a
successful reauthorization of the farm bill.
Dr. Telg. The next individual is John Skidmore, and I
apologize if I mispronounce the last name here, Joe Boddiford
from Sylvania, Georgia. So, John Skidmore and Joe Boddiford
from Georgia.
STATEMENT OF JOHN SKIDMORE, PRESIDENT, FLORIDA TROPICAL FISH
FARMS ASSOCIATION, RUSKIN, FL
Mr. Skidmore. Chairman Conaway, Committee Members and
staff, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for
allowing me to speak briefly on behalf of Florida Tropical Fish
Farmers. My name is John Skidmore, I'm the President of Florida
Tropical Fish Farms Association, as well as the owner of Golden
Pond Tropicals. I'd also like to mention 30 years ago, Chairman
Conaway, that I worked on a shrimp farm just north of Midland,
Texas, but my point there is there are aquacultural operations
across the U.S. We don't get mentioned much, but I'm here today
to discuss that.
Our association supports the continued funding of USDA's
IFAS Aquatic Animal Health Program and we would like to request
that staffing to the program be increased by one full-time
employee. This increase is needed in order to fully implement
the Commercial Aquaculture Health Program Standards, respond to
emerging and pathogen threats, as well as to reduce the
nationwide shortage of private practice veterinarians to assist
fish and shellfish farmers.
Although the Aquatic Animal Health Program is relatively
new to USDA, it has been essential in assisting farmers to
solve a variety of problems, including the management and
treatment of some very complex diseases. But as of right now we
only have one veterinarian providing services to the entire
United States.
Our association also supports the continued funding of
USDA's Wildlife Damage Management Program which works directly
with farmers to prevent bird predation on fish. Apparently the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects a variety of birds which
feed on catfish, hybrid-striped bass, and ornamental fish.
Because all of these fish are raised by our farmers, a
funding reduction to the USDA Wildlife Services places at risk
the very successful Federal program which responds to and
effectively assists U.S. aquaculture to prevent damage caused
to their crops by these federally-protected birds.
Once again, I'd like to thank you for allowing me to speak
and I will provide more information by e-mail. Thanks.
The Chairman. Thanks.
Dr. Telg. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH K. BODDIFORD, Jr., OWNER, JOE BODDIFORD
FARM; VICE CHAIRMAN, GEORGIA PEANUT COMMISSION, SYLVANIA, GA
Mr. Boddiford. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway and other
Members of the Committee. I am Joe Boddiford from Sylvania,
Georgia, which is 1 hour south of Augusta, so I get the
opportunity to vote for Representative Allen, he's doing us a
great job, but I consider all of you to be my representatives
in Congress because you have chosen to serve on the Agriculture
Committee, and always remember there is no more important
Committee than the Committee of Agriculture. Thank you.
I'm a third-generation farmer. My son's going to be the
fourth generation. This is my 44th crop year. I started share
cropping 400 acres with my father in 1974 and I had 14 acres of
peanut quota. Now my son and I farm approximately 2,400 acres
of cotton, corn, and peanuts. Growing peanuts is a tough
business but the Price Loss Coverage Program in the 2014 Farm
Bill, what we call the Peanut Program, gives farmers across the
entire Peanut Belt from Virginia to New Mexico the security we
need to make investments and stay afloat.
Peanuts aren't publicly traded. The price is determined
long after investments are made, and a few shellers who are
responsible for processing the peanuts really hold all the
cards regarding what they'll pay for our crop. So the Peanut
Program gives us some negotiating leverage with the shellers.
It's a vital program that truly works. It is also because of
the Peanut Program that the price of peanuts and peanut butter
has been stable and affordable for years, even as global demand
has skyrocketed.
In the supply chain for peanuts, what's good for farmers is
good for consumers. Changing the Peanut Program would have
detrimental consequences for not only family-run farms like my
own, but also rural communities across the Southeast. It will
also threaten the availability of a healthy and nutritious
energy source for billions of peanut lovers around the world.
Currently, Georgia agriculture is really struggling because
of low commodity prices and high input costs----
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Mr. Boddiford.--but the current Peanut Program is helping
most farmers, and without it, many farmers would already be
insolvent.
On behalf of American peanut farmers, please protect the
Peanut Program in the 2018 Farm Bill. Thank you for your time
and your consideration. I look forward to working with you.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Joe.
Mr. Boddiford. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. Caroline Villanueva and Dan Canfield.
STATEMENT OF CAROLINE VILLANUEVA, SOUTH FLORIDA
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MANAGER, FLORIDA CRYSTALS
CORPORATION, WEST PALM BEACH, FL
Ms. Villanueva. My next life, five two. Thank you, Chairman
Conaway. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, and your staff for
defending the U.S. sugar industry during the negotiation of new
suspension agreements with Mexico. There are 12,500 jobs in
Florida that are dependent on the sugar industry. The Chairman,
Ranking Member, and Florida Members attending today were
effective to make the outcome of the negotiations more fair.
We request that Members of Congress: first, remain vigilant
to help the U.S. Government enforce the new sugar agreements;
and, second, pass a new farm bill that leaves sugar policy
intact. Many opponents of sugar policy plan to offer amendments
to reform sugar policy when the farm bill is debated. Their
ideas of reform could lead us to lose thousands of U.S. sugar
industry jobs. I remind you that the new agreements with Mexico
are intended to work in tandem with the farm bill.
This is not a time to toy with the sugar policy on the
heels of a serious attempt to stop Mexico sugar trade
violations.
The Hawaii sugar farmers went out of business in December
of last year after more than 140 years of production. Sugar
policy doesn't guarantee us a profit and it won't keep us in
business when foreign governments are willing to spend money
propping up their sugar industries. Farmers need farm bill
programs and policies that work for their crops and in Florida
we grow many different types of crops. We hope that all farmers
can come together to help you pass a farm bill next year.
Please let us know what we can do to help you be successful and
thank you for coming to visit us today.
STATEMENT OF DANIEL E. CANFIELD, Jr., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF
LIMNOLOGY, SCHOOL OF FOREST RESOURCES AND
CONSERVATION, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE, FL
Dr. Canfield. Three issues; the American nutrient criteria,
fish, and money. I'm a professor at the University of Florida.
I work on management nutrients and aquatic systems. I came here
in 1979 to work on that issue because the story was emerging in
this country that agriculture was the worst polluter of
American lakes after we got our sewage plants.
In spite of evidence which I gave to my political leaders
that agriculture was not the problem, they've had a fear factor
that they could not take the risk and they had to control
nutrients. Since 1979 we in Florida have spent billions of
dollars under nutrient control, we have put farmers out of
business, we have made the expense of farming go up, we have
done a lot of different things, it's all failed. Not one lake
has been restored in all this time. U.S. EPA came in and said
the problem is we haven't done enough. Now we have numeric
nutrient criteria which are going to be passed along to the
whole country. The American nutrient criteria are designed by
EPA to give us nice, clear mountain lakes. They're going to
fail because they fail to take into account geology and soils.
And by that, you're going to have a problem; because, as
farmers know, you don't farm on rock, you farm in rich soils.
So, we're going to violate that. We now have plenty of evidence
developing that our lakes have not been changing by intensive
agriculture that much and so it is a misnomer.
Now, what can the Agriculture Committee do? Go to your one
system that has worked over the years, the Soil Conservation
Service, or whatever they call them now. We built ponds to trap
sediments. Those ponds have now filled up, they can't hold the
water. Help our farmers take those ponds back to their original
configurations, deepen them. Our oil, gas, and coal industries
have now given us very simple mechanical devices that the
farmer can put on his property, use his pumps, his tractors,
and move his soil that's eroded back up on to his land----
Dr. Telg. Two minutes.
Dr. Canfield.--and it will make a tremendous difference.
Fish, I got to change that. Fish, that was our number one
agricultural crop traditionally. We have to get it into a
process of domestication of our fish, native fish and the
exotic. Sturgeon, the rules and regs are killing us.
Aquaculture can make it big time here, we just need a little
help on things.
Money, I'm going to get Mack and my university mad at me.
Overhead is way too high. Paperwork is too burdensome. Sending
money to the state ag commissions. Our ag commission has a 25
percent overhead rate, which is all these administrators need.
Get the money back to the people on the ground, the
researchers, put an additional 12 percent, we're around 47
percent, let's say right now----
Dr. Telg. Be wrapping up your comment points.
Dr. Canfield.--put 12 percent back into the researchers and
then put 10 percent into paying off our national debt, which is
going to kill us all eventually. Thank you.
Mr. Dunn. Sir, before you leave the microphone, I wonder if
you could make a promise to share with us your research on the
erosion and geographic data, the soil data. Can you send that
to our Committee?
Dr. Canfield. I can send EPA data that we've analyzed for
you looking at paleontological data.
Mr. Dunn. That would be great.
Dr. Telg. In keeping with time, these next two individuals,
I believe, unless there's another group, will be our last two.
We still have several cards that I apologize not to be able to
get to everybody today, but Steven Dicks and Matt Coley.
STATEMENT OF MATT COLEY, PART OWNER, COLEY GIN & FERTILIZER,
VIENNA, GA; ON BEHALF OF NATIONAL
COTTON COUNCIL
Mr. Coley. I'm Matt Coley. I'm a fourth generation cotton
and peanut farmer from Vienna, Georgia, and since 1945 my
family has also owned and operated a cotton gin and peanut
buying point.
I appreciate the Committee and the Members coming down
here. It shows us how important agriculture is to you because
you know how important it is to us. In the cotton industry
we've been facing some difficult times and you all have been
supporting us and helping us in trying to find a solution
before we get to this next farm bill and we can't thank you
enough for that help.
What I want to talk about today is a conservation program.
As commodity prices have dipped, conservation programs have
become a bigger part of my operation. That cost-share money we
get through EQIP and CSP Program, it's allowed us to make ends
meet some years and I'd just encourage y'all to continue those
programs in this next farm bill because not only does it
improve the environment and the productivity on our farm, but
it leaves the farm in a better place for the next generation.
There is one issue with CSP that I hope that y'all will be
able to address and that revolves around the System Award
Management Number and the DUNS Number that you have to have to
be able to participate in the program. Several farmers in my
area this past year in particular, their cost-share payments
were delayed over 6 months because of issues with the DUNS
Number and the SAM Number, from what I understand, it wasn't
ever the intention of the these NRCS cost-share programs having
to go through the same requirements and hopefully y'all will be
able to address that issue in this next farm bill, so, I mean,
it's just a burdensome requirement that you have to redo it
every year and I get about 800 spam e-mails a day wanting to
help me with my government contracts and I'm far from a
government contractor, but thank you again for your time down
here and all you do for agriculture.
STATEMENT OF STEVEN DICKS, PRESIDENT, COLUMBIA COUNTY FARM
BUREAU, LAKE CITY, FL
Mr. Dicks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Steven
Dicks. I'm a fifth-generation Floridian from Lake City, which
is just slightly north of here. My concern today is with the
adequate funding of USDA Rural Development. Rural Development
plays an important role in all of your districts, not just in
north Florida/south Georgia.
As I travel around the countryside I see a lot of rural
communities that are dying. Those communities need the
infrastructure, they need the facilities that can be produced
with the money from the USDA Rural Development and yet I read
in the proposed budget that's coming out that there's a big
cut, especially in the water and sewer program. The water and
sewer program is one of the best programs the USDA Rural
Development has ever had. The Rural Utilities Service, my
friend Derrick Thomas spoke about earlier, that's under the
USDA Rural Development. We do not need to cut USDA Rural
Development, we need to increase it. There are certain programs
perhaps that maybe could be merged or modified, but the bulk of
the programs, over 40+ programs, need to be funded and
adequately funded in the new farm bill. Thank you.
Dr. Telg. Thank you very much.
Mr. Yoho. Thanks, Steven.
Dr. Telg. Wrapping up, I know that not everyone got a
chance to speak this morning, there's probably another 30 cards
here. This is a topic of course very near and dear to your
hearts. I would definitely recommend that those who did not get
a chance to speak to go to [email protected].
Chairman Conaway.
The Chairman. Well, thanks, Dr. Telg. I appreciate that.
I thank each and every one of you for being here this
morning and sitting here and listening to each other and
helping us understand exactly your perspective on what we
should do.
Apparently, we have a little audio/visual thing or
something.
The 2018 Farm Bill is a work in progress and the work we
did this morning will fold into that, the work you did helping
to present to us will fold into that farm bill to make sure
that we get it as right as we can.
You touched on just about every single aspect of the farm
bill was mentioned in some form or fashion today, support for
some things, support for other things, and wanting necessary
changes, all of us on the Committee do certainly appreciate
that very much.
The problem we've got, of course, is that you're preaching
to the choir. My guess is I've got every one of the votes at
this table will vote for the farm bill. I've got to have a few
more votes than that to get that done.
There are 70+ Members of Congress that represent rural
America, which means there are 360 that don't, and that's where
all the votes are. I'm pretty sure I got the votes of most
production agriculture folks and I'm pretty sure I got the
votes of most SNAP folks, but I need that bigger group that
benefits from the farm bill, and that's every single person out
there who eats every day, they should be in favor of a strong
farm bill. And the reason is, is that you and your colleagues
across this country provide us, the eaters, with the most
abundant and safest and affordable food and fiber supply of any
developed nation in the world. This is a pocketbook issue back
home. Every time somebody goes to the grocery store, every time
they go to a restaurant, they get a deal, they get a bargain.
They don't know it and they certainly don't know why. Well, I'm
deputizing every single one of you in the room today to be a
part of that communication system that helps the American
eater, the American consumer understand the really good deal
they get every time they take advantage of the food and fiber
that you produce. We have to tell your story, you got a great
story to tell, you have to tell it over and over and over till
you're sick of telling it and then you got to tell it four or
five more times and you'll break through.
Here's a family that I'm going to be most concerned about
when we do the farm bill and here's the statistic. The top 20
percent of the income earners in this country; in other words,
if you broke the income earners into five brackets, the top 20
percent spend more on food than the bottom percent makes. So,
let that soak in. That's who I'm worried about. The folks in
the bottom half of the economic food chain, that's who we need
to be concerned with. The tie-in folks that don't really care
what the food costs are, God bless them, great for them,
terrific, but I'm worried about that mom who's making her ends
meet paycheck to paycheck, and her ability to feed her family.
Her food bill is where she flexes each week, each month. The
car payment doesn't change, the house payment doesn't change,
the rent doesn't change. If something comes up in the middle of
the month, it comes out of her food budget. And why on Earth
would we effect farm policy at the national level that would
drive her food costs higher?
The example is GMO labeling. If we hadn't fixed that, then
estimates were it would cost every family in America about
$1,000 a year to fix it. Well, most of you folks could put $80
a month onto your food bill and you probably wouldn't even know
it, but that mom working paycheck to paycheck knows it.
Let's talk about that food stamp family. They're getting
about $520 a month for food stamps. You add another $80 a month
to their cost of their food just because of a label; not new
food, not better food, just a label. Well, as we go about this
work, that's who we got to keep in mind every time we make a
decision. And that is, what does it do to the cost of food for
American consumers? Because right now it's not only a national
security issue, but it's a monster pocketbook issue that we've
got to make sure we protect.
In closing, let me switch gears a little bit. We'll
celebrate the 230th anniversary of our Constitution this year.
That document which we live under and proudly serve under. Most
of us who served in the Army or in these offices have taken an
oath to protect that Constitution. Our framers were in
Philadelphia this month, 230 years ago, in the heat, the
windows were nailed shut from the outside because they were
trying to do something pretty radical and they created that
Constitution.
When Benjamin Franklin emerged from that, a woman asked
him, ``What have you given us, Good Doctor; a monarchy or
republic?'' And he said, ``Madam, a republic, if you can keep
it.''
For 230 years good Americans just like everybody in this
room have kept this republic. Only a self-governing people can
protect a republic. And John Adams said, ``Only a moral and
religious people can self-govern.''
As I look around our country today I'm worried that we're
losing the moral high ground, we're losing the moral authority
to in fact self-govern.
We all ask God to bless this country and we mean it. Next
time you hear somebody sing God Bless America or hear that
invoked, ask yourself what is it we're asking God to bless.
Look at it from God's perspective. What's going on in this
country that's blessable day in and day out?
There are lots of things going out there. We've killed 57
million babies in 43 years. We've coarsened up our society.
We've accepted language into the normal course of events, it's
vulgar and no longer appropriate. Stuff comes out of Hollywood
that should embarrass all of us and we deify the folks who put
that on. The nuclear family is breaking up and the impact that
has on the moral compasses of children. God can't bless a
nation that's on that path. So, the bigger question is, ``What
do I do to fix it?'' This isn't a group effort. This is my
effort, your effort. We can't legislate it. It's got to be done
one person at a time making it up.
You got to live a code. I live the Judeo-Christian model.
Jesus Christ is my personal savior. I try to live his tenets
every single day and some days I'm better at it than others,
but you have to live a code as well. You and your family, your
neighborhood, your community's sake, all of us have those
concentric rings of influence for every day we have to be about
the hard arduous task of reclaiming the moral high ground of
defending those principles that this country was built on,
protecting those values that have allowed us to sustain this
republic for 230 years.
It's a republic, madam, if you can keep it.
Every one of you are keepers. Let's be worthy of that task.
God bless each one of you. God bless Texas. And God bless
the United States of America.
(Thereupon, the listening session was adjourned at 12:39
p.m., E.D.T.)
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
(C.J. DAVIDSON CONFERENCE CENTER, ANGELO STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN ANGELO,
TX)
----------
MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Agriculture,
San Angelo, TX
The Committee met at 2:00 p.m., C.D.T., at C.J. Davidson
Conference Center, Angelo State University, Hon. K. Michael
Conaway [Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Conaway, Thompson, Davis,
Rouzer, Marshall, Arrington, Peterson, Soto.
Staff present: Chris Heggem, Matthew S. Schertz, Bart
Fischer, Jackie Barber, Rachel Millard, Paul Balzano, Caleb
Crosswhite, Trevor White, Anne Simmons, Mike Stranz, Margaret
Wetherald.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
The Chairman. I thank you for being here this afternoon to
join us at this listening session for the House Agriculture
Committee in preparation for the 2018 Farm Bill.
I've asked Senator Charles Perry to open us with a prayer.
Senator?
Mr. Perry. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we welcome you into this place. You are
someone we seek and someone we need. We thank you for the
blessings you've given us. Thank you for your unconditional
mercy that you extend upon us so undeserving.
We thank you for the gift of stewardship and the natural
resources you've laid in this area, this country, this nation.
We pray that we take that responsibility seriously.
We thank you for those who've chosen the life of
agriculture and the values that comes with that and our
communities.
We thank you for a God that cares about for us, each and
every breath, first and last.
We pray for those who are called upon for service, that
they always do the right thing, and the right things are
grounded in you and you alone.
We thank you for the clarity of the path to salvation, for
it's very clear that we come back to you through your son,
Jesus Christ. And all of the people said, Amen.
The Chairman. I'll now ask Matthew Salisbury from Grape
Creek FFA to lead us in the Pledge.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
And now I'll ask Dr. Brian May to greet us, as well as
Chancellor Duncan.
STATEMENT OF DR. BRIAN J. MAY, PRESIDENT, ANGELO STATE
UNIVERSITY, SAN ANGELO, TX
Dr. May. I would also like to say that for the folks that
are standing up back there, we've got some seats way down here
in the front if you would like to come. A lot of my students
are afraid to do that. Maybe y'all will show them how.
But welcome. My name is Brian May. I'm the President of
Angelo State University and we are exceedingly happy to be able
to host something of such importance as the listening session
for the upcoming farm bill.
Before I welcome you, I want to bring forward the
Chancellor of the Texas Tech University system, of which we are
a part of, a stalwart for the boll weevil program here in the
State of Texas, our own Robert Duncan.
(Applause)
STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT L. DUNCAN, J.D., CHANCELLOR, TEXAS
TECH UNIVERSITY, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Duncan. Thank you, Dr. May.
And I want to thank Chairman Conaway and the Committee
Members for traveling to this part of the world. We call it
God's country here in the heart of the ag world.
And I also want to comment on each of the Members today. I
know we were out on a field tour, and the interest these
Members have in agriculture and its importance to our country
is sincere and significant, and I know they look forward to
hearing from you today on the issues concerning agriculture and
the development of the farm bill.
The Texas Tech University system is certainly ingrained in
agriculture, both Texas Tech University and Angelo State, and
how we work together. This is a very important time for us to
see the farm bill develop. And so we want to congratulate each
of you for being here today to be heard and congratulate the
Committee for coming to west Texas.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Thank you, Chancellor.
I think they've gone to get some cards and we'll start
calling up our people who want to speak.
On behalf of Angelo State University, again, I too want to
thank the Chairman and the Committee for coming to ASU.
I have some jealous friends from other universities around
this state, I won't mention them, but we're glad to be a part
of this and we certainly know it's important, not only to west
Texas, but to the entire country.
The Chairman. Brian, thank you.
Brian, will be our moderator here in a few minutes when we
get to that part of the program.
I'm going to start down here to my left with my colleague
from Lubbock, Texas and ask him and each of our colleagues to
introduce themselves to you so that you will know who you're
talking to here in a few minutes when we start listening.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JODEY C. ARRINGTON, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
Mr. Arrington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And it's great to be back home in west Texas and I'm so
excited to see my friends and neighbors and introduce some of
you guys to my new colleagues.
I am very proud to serve alongside my neighbor and
Chairman, Mike Conaway, and thank him for allowing me to serve
on this Committee.
I'm particularly excited to be on the campus of Angelo
State. As a former Vice Chancellor at Texas Tech I was there
with Hance when we did the merger, and it was a marriage made
in heaven. It just couldn't have been better for the Tech
system. Kudos to the fearless leader of Angelo State, Brian
May, and Bob Duncan.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys. And what a
great group. I know a lot of the producers and producer groups
here are from my district, which is just separated by a row of
counties. This is a great turnout, and I look forward to
promoting and defending strong ag policies so you guys can feed
and clothe the American people.
I'm on the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and
Risk Management, the Subcommittee on Nutrition, and also the
Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research.
It's great to be here with you, and I'll pass the
microphone.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID ROUZER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM NORTH CAROLINA
Mr. Rouzer. I'm David Rouzer. I represent southeastern
North Carolina. Those of you that know the State of North
Carolina, or at least have seen it on a map, if you know where
Raleigh is, go about a half a thumb down from Raleigh and
that's the beginning of my district, straight down I-40 to
Wilmington. If you want a vacation, I have all of the beautiful
beaches in North Carolina, and also a lot of agriculture. We've
got a lot of hogs, turkeys, chickens, tobacco, sweet potatoes,
blueberries, and strawberries. You name it, I've got it.
It's a great honor to serve on the House Agriculture
Committee. I chair the Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign
Agriculture. I'm also on the Subcommittee on Biotechnology,
Horticulture, and Research and the Subcommittee on Nutrition.
And it's always great to be back here in San Angelo. The
Chairman and I were here about a year ago, so we're making this
an annual appearance.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GLENN THOMPSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Thompson. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Congressman
G.T. Thompson, representative for the Fifth Congressional
District. I'm privileged to be able to represent about \1/4\ of
the land mass in Pennsylvania, a large rural area.
Agriculture is our number one industry in Pennsylvania. One
out of seven jobs come directly or indirectly because of
agriculture. And quite frankly, if you like to eat, the
Agriculture Committee is the place to be.
I have the privilege and the honor of serving under
Chairman Conaway's leadership as Vice Chair of the full
Committee. I chair the Subcommittee on Nutrition, and continue
to serve on a Subcommittee I chaired for 6 years, the
Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, which covers
conservation of forestry, watersheds, and soils.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. COLLIN C. PETERSON, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Peterson. I'm Collin Peterson from western Minnesota. I
represent the whole western half of the state from Canada to
(inaudible) County, Iowa. We've got about every kind of
agriculture there is, but we do not grow cotton, rice or
peanuts. We're for them, so----
(Laughter and applause)
Mr. Peterson. I told the peanut guys that if they don't
behave themselves, we might start growing peanuts in Minnesota.
(Laughter)
Mr. Peterson. Anyway, I'm glad to be here in Texas with my
friend Mike Conaway, the Chairman.
We've got a big job ahead of us but we're going to get it
done, and we'll do it on a bipartisan basis. With all of your
help, we'll make it happen.
Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RODNEY DAVIS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM ILLINOIS
Mr. Davis. Thank you.
I'm Rodney Davis from central Illinois. We actually do not
have many speciality crops in the 14 counties that I serve.
However, we have our two special crops; corn and soybeans, so
we have a great perspective.
And it's really great to be here. We come down here to west
Texas with Chairman Conaway because what he constantly reminds
us of, from his perch in his chair, is that agriculture is
different everywhere you are. And the reason why we're here
today is to actually find out what it is that you need. What
policies that we're not familiar with in central Illinois do
you care about the most. So that we can also have our farmers
do a listening session like this later in the month and tell
this same group of bipartisan legislators what it is that means
most to them back home.
This is what helps us get a good farm bill. It's what
helped us the last time. It's what's going to help us in 2018.
I'm blessed to begin my second term chairing the
Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research. And
with the research title, it's very important to me because I
represent a land-grant institution in Illinois at some small
place called the University of Illinois.
But ag research is something that is crucial for us being
able to grow the food and fiber we need to feed the world in
the future.
Thanks for having us. Chairman and Jodey, you should be
proud of those two Texans on this House Agriculture Committee;
they do a great job.
You can clap for them.
(Applause)
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DARREN SOTO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM FLORIDA
Mr. Soto. My name is Darren Soto.
And thank you, Chairman Conaway. And thank you to the great
folks of west Texas for a wonderful tour this morning.
Go Rams, by the way.
(Applause)
Mr. Soto. In central Florida we have a large cattle and
citrus industry as you may be familiar with. I have the top
cattle producing county in the state in Osceola County and the
St. Cloud area. Also have a huge citrus county, second in the
state, in Polk County. And we also have some blueberries and
strawberries.
You may have heard of our famous ambassador from Orlando,
Mr. Mickey Mouse.
(Laughter)
Mr. Soto. Hopefully y'all are familiar with him.
But I really appreciate the tours this morning.
I sit on the Subcommittee on Nutrition, which we will mark
up the farm bill under Chairman Thompson, and also the
Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit.
As opposed to what you're used to from folks from
Washington, we are here to listen, so thank you everybody.
(Applause)
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER W. MARSHALL, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM KANSAS
Mr. Marshall. And, last, I'm Roger Marshall. I am a
physician from Kansas that decided to run for Congress. I'm
very proud to represent The Big First district, one of the
larger ag districts in the country.
Thirty-seven years ago I hopped on a bus and drove 18 hours
to Angelo State University to compete at a national track meet
and ran the decathlon. So it's good to be back here.
I'm going to brag on your Congressman for a second. People
often ask me: What is the biggest surprise when I went to D.C.?
And the biggest surprise I had was the many men and women,
Godly men and women of faith. And you won't believe this, but
the first thing that we did when I met Vice President Pence, he
asked for us to stop and pray for him, and we sure did as a
group. And every Agriculture Committee hearing I'm on we start
with a prayer.
It's so great to serve with a person who talks the talk and
walks the walk.
I get asked about Russia, and once I found out that
Chairman Conaway is going to be taking care of that Committee,
I guarantee you that at the end of the day you're going to have
a correct, ethical answer, and there's no more need to worry
about it.
And let's get on to the Agriculture Committee. I'm so
looking forward to hearing from people today.
Mr. Chairman, I'm very proud to be here and to serve with
you.
And my fellow freshman, Jodey Arrington, we represent the
two biggest sorghum districts in the country. And our sorghum
people are here as well. We're trying to learn how to grow a
little cotton in Kansas as well. I'm looking forward to seeing
what we have in common. What bipartisan solutions we can have
to help this country move in a positive direction.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Well, thank you.
(Applause)
The Chairman. The next time I have you guys on a panel I'll
make sure my mom is here so she'll actually believe all of the
things you said.
Thank you very much.
Oh. The crowd is here to hear and see Sonny Perdue, and
I've got to confess to you that Sonny is not going to be here.
Those of you that came just to see the Secretary of
Agriculture, he called Friday night and his boss, President
Trump, had called an all-hands Cabinet meeting for today. And
so Sonny was coming to west Texas and was going to spend the
night with Suzanne and I Saturday night and go to church with
us on Sunday and come down here last night to be a part of the
festivities. I know it was advertised that Sonny would be here,
but he couldn't have been more disappointed. But those of you
that have bosses and/or wives, that's redundant. Understand
that when the boss calls you, you've got to go do what the boss
says you've got to go do. We'll get him back out here at some
point in time to join us. But I appreciate his wanting to come
be a part of this event if he could.
We're going to be listening. As Roger just said, typical
hearings in D.C., the Members spend a lot more time yapping
than they have witnesses, and so we're not going to do that.
We're going to listen. If you've got a clear-mind question we
need about something you've said, we'll do that and try to get
that on the record. But this is your opportunity to tell us
what's working in the farm bill, what's not working in the farm
bill. If you've got policy solutions that you want to put
forward, now is the time to get those on the table. Don't save
them up for a better time because there's not going to be a
better time.
We're going to start the farm bill process in a fulsome way
with staff and others over the next 8 weeks or so, and so
getting your ideas now before we get things scored and begin to
create artificial and various changes that might be there, that
will be better.
The silver lining in this otherwise dark cloud that
represents production agriculture right now is that when we
start this process with our fellow Members who don't know why
it's so important that we have a farm bill and they ask why,
unlike in 2014, when times were pretty good in production
agriculture, and folks were asking why do you need that when
times are never going to be hard in agriculture again, prices
are never going down again, they're going to continue to go up,
you don't need the safety net. Unlike that, this 50 percent
drop in net farm income over the last 4 years, the worst since
the depression, will set a backdrop as to why we need these
programs, why it's important that we have a strong safety net
for production agriculture, why we need a strong nutrition
title, why a rural development title, energy title, the other
titles that will be a part of what we're going to get done is
important to the American consumer to make it happen. It all
starts with the folks in this room.
I'm overwhelmed by the turnout. Quite frankly, we had not
planned for this many folks to be here. We only have 3 hours or
so to get at it. We'll get started here in a couple of minutes.
Obviously, we're not going to get to everybody who wants to
talk. We've got your cards and we're streaming through them to
try to make sure we pick off all the various issues that are
there. But this is important.
We've got a lady transcribing. This will be transcribed.
We'll wear her out. This will be a part of the permanent record
and these comments will be folded into the farm bill process as
we move forward. This is just like a hearing in D.C.; it will
be in the permanent record to help us understand what we need
to do and how we need to adjust the farm bill within the
resources that we'll have to make this happen.
So, again, thanks everybody for being here.
One last housekeeping matter. Let's be polite to each
other. I don't necessarily need to say that, but there are
other times when folks get their blood up, and we don't need
that to be today. We're going to listen with thoughtful
understanding to what is going on. No decisions are to be made
today. We just need your input. So be respectful of each
other's comments as we move forward.
With that, Brian, we will have our folks start coming up,
I'm sorry. Time out.
My Ranking Member, Collin Peterson, has some opening
remarks and some folks to introduce.
Mr. Peterson. I'm going to forgo those. You've heard me say
these things before.
But I had some special people come all the way up from
Wabasso, Minnesota. The FFA kids from this little town of
Wabasso, which is in southern Minnesota, the southern part of
my district. So where are they?
The Chairman. Stand up.
Mr. Peterson. You guys stand up.
(Applause)
Mr. Peterson. Leaders in our agriculture community in
Minnesota grabbed a van, brought them down here, and they're
going over to Beeville. Yes, they're going to----
Unidentified Audience Member. Matt Huie.
Mr. Peterson.--L.G. Ron's place.
Unidentified Audience Member. Matt Huie.
Mr. Peterson. Right.
Anyway, they're going to go see how rice is harvested and
cotton is harvested.
We've got some really good young up-and-coming ag people
and we're glad that they've got this kind of interest. They
spent 18 hours in a van to get down here. Anyway, thanks for
coming.
(Applause)
The Chairman. I went out and introduced myself and I
thought they were kids from Texas. And the first young lady
introduced herself and it's, like, No, ma'am, you're not from
Texas.
(Laughter)
The Chairman. I'm not familiar with that accent.
But we're glad to have you with us, and the future of
agriculture is in good hands with Marshall and other FFA kids
like this.
Brian, kick us off. Let's get going.
Dr. May. We might be remiss, too, and the Congressman will
certainly join with me, that we want to thank the Congressional
staff. They have been incredible. Especially for the
Agriculture Committee staff, Chris Heggem and her folks. And
our staff that really helped me was Christina Butts.
We also want you to know that this is being live streamed.
All of these are our student videographers. And this is going
through the House Agriculture website. Be sure to look at that
if you want to. It will be archived. You can look this up. We
have several cameras in here, so it will go all across the
nation.
First, we have Russell Boening, Texas Farm Bureau
President, and Matthew Huie of Huie Farms in Beeville, Texas.
We have a microphone on this side.
Russell, you will begin on this side.
Be sure and step up to the microphone closely, and only 2
minutes.
STATEMENT OF RUSSELL BOENING, PRESIDENT, TEXAS FARM BUREAU,
POTH, TX
Mr. Boening. Thank you. I am Russell Boening and I am
President of Texas Farm Bureau.
First off, I'd like to thank Chairman Conaway, Ranking
Member Peterson, and the entire Committee for this opportunity
just to talk a little bit about Texas Farm Bureau's policy
positions on the upcoming farm bill.
Since the 2014 Farm Bill, we all know net farm income has
dropped dramatically. Almost 50 percent. At that time
agriculture contributed $23 billion in deficit reduction in the
2014 Farm Bill. Due to the fact that the economy and the farm
sector has dropped dramatically, we believe we need a strong
safety net to keep, going forward, to have a strong
agriculture.
We support the continuation of PLC and ARC programs. We
know the ARC program has some issues between counties. We think
the ARC county program should be looked at.
We stress the importance of cotton. Being out here, I know
everybody saw a lot of cotton this morning, and it's very
important to this part of the state and to all of this state.
We think cotton needs to go back in title I of the farm
program.
The dairy margin protection program hasn't worked. It
hasn't worked for our dairy producers. It definitely needs to
be looked at. We need a stronger program there.
Crop insurance: Crop insurance is so vital to this state.
It is vital to every crop in this state, whether it be corn,
wheat, cotton. All of the crops come very much into play when
it comes to crop insurance.
I want to talk a little bit about livestock. The livestock
disaster program needs to be improved, and possibly some new
programs need to be looked at for the livestock industry.
Something that's happening in south Texas, and many of
y'all have heard about it, we're talking about the fever tick.
We have a task force within Farm Bureau actually working on
some issues, working on some solutions we hope. We hope to make
that maybe part of the farm bill discussion so that we can work
on that devastating pest.
Conservation: We support the EQIP program, Conservation
Stewardship Program. We think those programs are good. Rural
Development and maintaining current funding levels there are
very important.
That's kind of the facts and figures. I want to say just a
little bit about what I call, ``the big picture.'' When we
start talking about net farm income down 50 percent, we're
talking about it affecting real farmers and ranchers. A lot of
times young farmers and ranchers. Affecting rural communities
as y'all well know.
Driving in yesterday I drove through a lot of rural
communities. I live out south of San Antonio. And coming in to
Wall, Texas, that community is very dependent on agriculture.
When we talk about supporting agriculture, we're not
talking about just farmers. We're talking about the rural
communities. We're talking about the national economy. Farm
receipts contributed about $1 billion when you talk about the
whole food industry to our GDP.
With all that in mind, we believe that a strong farm
economy is vital to not only rural communities, but the entire
national economy.
I want to thank the Committee for your time and I
appreciate the opportunity to be here.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW HUIE, HUIE & HUIE FARM & RANCH/1349 FIBER
& FIBER, BEEVILLE, TX
Mr. Huie. Chairman Conaway, Mr. Peterson, Members, thank
you for coming to west Texas today. We appreciate your time.
I've been known to represent a few various organizations.
I'm not going to speak from those today. I really expected to
speak a little later, so I'm going to talk about some stuff
that's near and dear to my heart from Huie Farms and from our
family partnership, 1349 Food & Fiber.
First, is timing of payments. From south Texas we're
harvesting. We're about to finish cotton harvest. Corn and
grain is out. Wheat is long gone. We've marketed a big chunk of
our sorghum. The payments that would potentially be generated
by this year will not be available until next October. We will
refinance the 2017 crop to plant the 2018 crop before we get
the payments from 2016. So that's a challenge for us.
Second, is the issue of choice in title I. We've always
advocated policies for choice. I think that choice has made
winners and losers. And no one remembers the winners. All they
remember is the losers.
Farmers make tough decisions every day. We deal with
commodities, prices. We deal with livestock prices. We deal
with crop insurance choices. We're better served by a system
that would combine policies of ARC and PLC for commodities and
figure out how to deal with all of those without a choice. My
personal opinion.
Third, is financial exposure. As commodity prices drop and
costs increase, our financial exposure has seemed to have grown
every year. The gap in our farm between my cost of production
and my ability to insure is about $600,000.
I'm 40 years old. I've been doing this 20 years. I'm about
to have a daughter going to college. I can afford that loss
once and only once.
I don't know how many young folks we're going to have come
up here and speak, but those are losses that we've got to have
a policy where we can close that gap. Because one time when
your production has to be 133 percent of your 10 year average
to break even, you don't have to be an accountant to know
that's not sustainable.
We're in a position now where we've got to figure out how
to close that gap between what our cost of production is, and
where we are.
A big part of that, and everybody is going to talk about
today, is cotton policy. I'm not going to go into talking about
that. I'll let my friends around me do that. What I will say is
that I'm sorry the Secretary is not here because the price of
cottonseed has been announced in the Rio Grande Valley. It's
$120 a ton. Last year it was $180 a ton. The year before it was
$240 a ton. In simple terms that equates to about $20 a bale,
about 5 a pound. Rather than getting a check back for the sale
of cottonseed like we did 2 years ago, or break even at the gin
like we did last year, we're going to have a $20 ginning bill.
It doesn't matter if the price goes up a little on cotton if
it's all eaten up by the loss of revenue from the seed.
Dr. May. We have to finish up.
Mr. Huie. Thank you. I appreciate your time.
Dr. May. Again, we're going to try to limit it to 2
minutes. We have a lot of folks here today.
Now we have Steve Fraze, the Interim Dean of the Texas Tech
College of Agriculture, and Richard Thorpe, the Texas and
Southwestern Cattle Ranchers President.
The Chairman. Why don't we, when Steve finishes, announce
the next one; that way we don't have to wait for the folks to
walk up to the microphone and go back and forth.
Dr. May. I can do that.
Steve?
STATEMENT OF STEVE FRAZE, Ph.D., INTERIM DEAN,
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND NATURAL
RESOURCES, TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, LUBBOCK, TX
Dr. Fraze. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway and Members of
the House Agriculture Committee. I'm Steve Fraze serving as the
Interim Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and
Natural Resources, also known as CASNR, at Texas Tech
University.
Since Tech's beginning in 1923 the college has provided
programs of excellence in teaching, research and public service
to prepare students for employment in the modern agriculture
industry. In the original charter for Texas Tech, the charge to
the college was to conduct research in agriculture beneficial
for our producers with the focus on natural fibers and animal
production. CASNR's research program received, nationally,
global recognition for excellence in the discovery and delivery
of knowledge on current and emerging aspects of the food and
fiber industry.
Other major research for us are biotechnology; precision
agriculture; sustainable land and water use; food and safety
security and quality; animal health, nutrition and welfare;
processing and value-added products; natural resource
management; planning agriculture marketing trade and policy
analysis; human and social capital; and international
agriculture development.
CASNR promotes and supports multidisciplinary,
interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research programs.
CASNR is the leading non-land-grant agricultural university in
the United States with programs awarding 11 baccalaureate, 11
masters and six doctorate degrees in agriculture sciences and
natural resources. We are the number one non-land-grant
university in terms of agricultural research and second in
student numbers. Being a non-land-grant we understand the
importance of funding, such as the non-land-grant capacity
building grants in the farm bill, as well as other competitive
grants, for the purpose of keeping the infrastructure for
research state-of-the-art and viable in our research
laboratories and farms.
We look at issues faced by processors and consumers of
food, fiber and other natural resources. CASNR research
supports programs contributing to the local and regional
workforce, sustainable economic and social development and
growth.
We are positive for the future of agriculture through
research and working with this Committee in our endeavors.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Richard?
Mr. Thorpe. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for being here and----
Dr. May. Rick Boyd from the First United Bank, if you would
come up now.
Let's talk to Richard.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD THORPE III, M.D., PRESIDENT, TEXAS
SOUTHWESTERN CATTLE RAISERS ASSOCIATION, WINTERS, TX
Dr. Thorpe. You bet.
Thank you guys for being here. I'm Richard Thorpe. I am the
President of the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.
Many ranchers and cattlemen have farmland; likewise, a lot
of farmers own cattle. We're all linked in many ways to the
land and each other.
Being one of the same, today I'm speaking on behalf of the
cattle industry. And there are several important things in the
farm bill that are very important to the cattle industry.
First, we need a really strong research title. We've seen over
the past couple of farm bills, research has been pulled back in
money. And we need this to be competitive. We have emerging
diseases. We need production research and a lot of different
things.
Second, we need a strong conservation title, and the one
that brings to most minds is the EQIP program where the rancher
or farmer leverages their money, usually 50 percent, with the
Federal Government on some improvement.
I want to talk about just my personal experience with the
EQIP program. And it works on a point system. And the point
system is the more points you get, the better chance you have
of getting awarded a Federal EQIP contract. If you build a
stock tank or pond, that's a point. If you build a terrace for
water diversion or soil erosion, that's a point. If you do
brush control, a point. If you do seeding, a point. Do rainfall
gathering, a point. The list goes on and on and on.
Basically, in a nutshell, the more money you're willing to
spend or put out, the more points, the better chance you have
of getting the EQIP program.
But what if you just want to build a stock tank or pond on
your place? That's all you need.
Or, that's the only money you've got budgeted for. Your
chances of getting the EQIP program are pretty nil.
I live in Runnels County just north of here. There was
$264,000 awarded to the county for EQIP this year. They awarded
eight contracts and more than 90 people got nothing.
We need to look at changes where more people are allowed to
use it that have limited needs or limited financial resources.
Third, we need a strong animal health program. We've got a
foot-and-mouth disease problem in South America. Our vaccine
bank, the vaccine is expired. We've got to build that back up.
We all know that the foot-and-mouth disease virus can travel on
fresh and frozen beef. And we do receive a lot of beef from
South America to supply the hamburger needs of our nation, so
it puts us at risk.
As Russell Boening talked about earlier, we also want to
talk about fever ticks.
Fourth, we've got to maintain the strong export market. The
NAFTA deal alone is almost a $1 billion market each for Canada
and Mexico. It's huge. Right now Japan is a $1.6 billion
market, and yet they've turned around and just recently
announced they're going to up their tariff from 39 percent to
50 percent on our frozen beef coming in. That's going to hit
our producers in the pocketbook because, right now the export
market is about 13 percent of the animal. That accounts to
about $150 a calf, over $300 for the finished animal.
Dr. May. Finish up.
Dr. Thorpe. You bet.
Last, I don't want to forget the disaster assistance
programs. We had the wildfires in the Panhandle of Texas,
Oklahoma and Kansas. A lot of cattle died.
The Livestock Indemnity Program is very important to those
people to help get them back on their feet, as well as
livestock forging program and the NAP programs.
Sorry. Thank y'all very much for being here.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Thorpe.
Benny Cox, if you would come up.
Rick Boyd.
STATEMENT OF RICK C. BOYD, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FIRST
UNITED BANK, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Boyd. Good afternoon. Thank y'all for being here. My
name is Rick Boyd with First United Bank out of Lubbock, Texas.
We're about a $1.2 billion bank and carry about $800 million in
loans at all times, and about \1/2\ of that is related to
agriculture. We're knee-deep in it and have been for quite a
few years.
I'm also associated with the Southwest Council of
Agribusiness and have been associated with them since the
inception, as one of two members that represent the financial
institutions on that board.
Today I would like to talk a little bit about the current
status of the banking world. I'm not going to spend much time
on the insurance product. That's a given that we have to have
that now. There was a time when we could loan against hard
collateral in the ag world, but as time has moved on we've had
to start lending against growing crops and that just definitely
means we have to have a good, sound insurance program.
As far as the current status of loans today, I don't think
it's in a critical state right now, but we are seeing more
carryover loans in the last few years than we have in probably
the last 10 years. When I mean carryover, that means the guy
didn't pay out from last year. When he doesn't pay out from
last year, we have to go in and rework his land notes and
rework his equipment notes. And we're about at the point that
we've about done all that we can do. It's really necessary this
year for farmers to perform, and they need a strong farm bill
to do that. Especially in cotton, that needs to get back in a
title I status where the banks can count on some regular,
steady income from the production.
That's really about all I had today is to give you an
update. I would be glad to answer any questions if you had any.
Dr. May. Thank you, Rick. Julie Davis Holladay with Plains
Cotton Growers can come up.
Benny.
STATEMENT OF BENNY COX, VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN SHEEP
INDUSTRY, SAN ANGELO, TX
Mr. Cox. Chairman Conaway and Members of the Committee, my
name is Benny Cox. I am a local sheep rancher. Actually past
President of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers and now Vice
President of the American Sheep Industry, and I also am the
manager of the largest sheep and goat auction in the nation.
I'm here to talk about the priorities of the sheep industry in
the farm bill.
We strongly are in support of the Food and Drug
Administration in the minor use of animal drug program and its
historic collaboration with the USDA's National Institute of
Food and Agriculture. We urge the creation of a mechanism for
funding in minor use animal drug research.
Wool marketing assistance loan and loan deficiency payment
program has been a loan risk management tool for sheep
producers in the farm bill. In the 2014 Farm Bill it authorized
non-recourse marketing assistance loans and loan deficiency
payments for wool to eligible producers. The program currently
relies on production and expenses in markets of 2 decades ago.
We encourage an update in reference to price and
reauthorization.
The foot-and-mouth disease and vaccine bank: While we must
do everything we can to eliminate the risk of the
reintroduction of foot-and-mouth disease, we also need to be a
prepared for an outbreak.
National Sheep Industry Improvement Center and Sheep
Production and Marketing Grant Program: The National Sheep
Industry Improvement Center was originally established in the
Farm Bill of 2008 and we support inclusion in this farm bill
with mandatory funding.
Continued strength and international marketing of lamb and
wool requires a commitment of the promotion to export markets
through strong USDA Foreign Agricultural Service and program
funding. Mandatory price reporting for lamb industry under USDA
is in real need of new guidance to address confidentiality. We
hope that USDA can solve this administratively, but if not,
this Committee may look for a review and new language for this
farm bill.
We appreciate the support of this Committee. And I would
add one final note. USDA will be considering analysis on the M-
44 coyote control in September. I encourage an active role by
this Committee in any resulting decision. We estimate that 40
percent of the coyote control in Texas uses this tool, and USDA
Wildlife Services admits that 60 percent of all kills of sheep,
lambs, and goats are because of the coyote.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Benny.
If Lindsey Bowers will come up.
Julie Holladay.
STATEMENT OF JULIE DAVIS HOLLADAY, COTTON AND
PEANUTS PRODUCER, LUBBOCK, TX; ON BEHALF OF PLAINS COTTON
GROWERS, INC.
Ms. Holladay. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway and Ranking
Member Peterson, and Members of the Committee. I am Julie Davis
Holladay, a fourth generation farmer. My husband, daughter and
I produce cotton and peanuts on 10,000 acres the family owns
and rented land in Dawson and Martin counties on the south
plains of Texas. We irrigate approximately 30 percent of those
acres, leaving the remaining cropland dependent upon rainfall
for production.
In the past 3 years the U.S. farm economy has experienced
the steepest decline since the Great Depression. Effectively, a
50 percent decline in net farm income. Like most U.S.
producers, our operation reflects this downturn.
We farm to support our family, the families of five
employees, and the many landowners whose land we bring value to
every day.
As a family business we continue to manage through the
challenges presented by climate, adverse market conditions, and
rising input costs, while shouldering the environmental
responsibility of our operation and many others globally. Like
many cotton producers we meet all of these demands while our
cash position is rapidly diminishing and our equity continues
to erode as long as we are excluded from a place in title I
policy.
Our direct farm input supports the local, national and
multinational companies which have a profitable impact for many
far beyond those of us in the fields of west Texas. With the
minimal Federal support, producers and rural communities
multiple the impact of Federal dollars to develop thriving
local economies and community support systems.
After 30 years of steady investment in and expansion of our
operation, the safety net for cotton has been completely
dismantled by negotiations beyond our control. Prices have
declined, while other countries have increased their subsidies
at multiple levels.
It is imperative that cotton be afforded the same safety
net provided other commodities by inclusion in title I of the
farm bill. The level of support which we seek is not a windfall
nor a guarantee of profit. It merely provides stability in the
farm economy to help most operations obtain financing and
manage through periods of economic stress.
Congressman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, Members of
the Committee, thank you for traveling here today and affording
all of us the opportunity to share our perspective.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Holladay.
David Weaver of South Plains Food Bank, come up.
Ms. Bowers.
STATEMENT OF LINDSEY M. BOWERS, CORN, GRAIN SORGHUM, AND
CATFISH PRODUCER, INEZ, TX
Ms. Bowers. Howdy. I'm Lindsey Bowers from Inez, Texas, a
little town near Victoria on the Texas Gulf Coast. My husband
and I farm corn, grain sorghum, and catfish. Agriculture is our
family's way of life, as well as my personal profession. I'm
currently chairing for the largest cooperative on the Gulf
Coast.
From being a farmer myself, and working with them every day
on marketing decisions, our primary concern is ensuring revenue
above cost of production. Last year, of the corn handled at the
co-op, the average net dollars that producers took home were
$2.70 per bushel of corn. Producers averaged about 120 bushels
per acre on corn, making net returns $324 per acre.
Assuming an average cost of production on corn to be about
$4.75, an average producer lost more than $150 per acre.
Yields were average and crop insurance didn't assist the
majority of the producers, and for certain I know it didn't
assist our personal operation.
With math like this it's getting increasingly harder to get
financing, and for that financing to be an affordable interest
rate.
Right now it's challenging simply for our current farmers
to keep making it, but much less for young farmers to get
started. The initial capital investment to get started in
farming is significant. Coupled with the inability to pick up
lands, and it's impossible for a young person to start farming
without having an operation transitioned to them.
Going forward, in the next farm bill I believe it's
critical that we provide adequate price protection for farmers
by way of addressing more realistic cost of production and
updating yields and base. Also, we need to maintain affordable
crop insurance and oppose any limitations of crop insurance
that would discourage participation.
Especially in our area where we face extreme weather
conditions, a yield exclusion provision is necessary to allow
producers to exclude low yields when the county experiences a
significant weather event.
The farm bill should be a living document that provides
adequate and stable support for our farmers who are faced with
a changing farming environment depending on the marketing
conditions, where you farm, what the weather is doing,
technological advancements, and increasing costs.
I appreciate each of your time today and look forward to
continuing to feed our family and yours.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Bowers.
Could Brad Bouma, the Select Milk Producers President, come
forward?
David.
STATEMENT OF DAVID WEAVER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SOUTH
PLAINS FOOD BANK, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Weaver. Thank you for hosting this listening session
today. My name is David Weaver. I'm the CEO of the South Plains
Food Bank in Lubbock, Texas, a position I've held for the past
20 years.
The South Plains Food Bank is a part of Feeding America and
Feeding Texas. We partner with churches and social service
agencies in Lubbock and the 19 surrounding counties to feed
food-insecure families. Last year we assisted 57,000
unduplicated adults.
We also work here in San Angelo with the Concho Valley
Regional Food Bank to cover an additional 15 counties, serving
an additional 20,000 food-insecure individuals.
We mainly serve rural counties seeing first-hand rural
poverty and food insecurity. Rural communities have fewer
opportunities for people to make a living, so young people move
away. Businesses close because they lack customers. Seniors,
who were teachers or business leaders in their communities,
have retired and may now live on low, fixed incomes. Churches
struggle as their membership declines.
Many who remain in these communities work low wages at
farms. They get by until there's a crop failure or their jobs
are dissolved as farms become more mechanized. When that
happens they turn to our local food pantries where we
distribute TEFAP commodities and other donated foods.
Many of our rural partners are no longer able to host
pantries, so we've established 28 mobile pantry sites. Clients
are prescreened before food distribution to ensure they meet
qualifications for means-based Federal programs like TEFAP.
School groups, service organizations and church volunteers show
up to help us load food boxes into client's cars.
But what really breaks my heart is when we have a hundred
families that we screen to provide food for and 110 families
show up.
USDA programs such as TEFAP commodities, CACFP, the summer
food service, the commodities supplemental food service program
and SNAP and nutrition are vital. The quantity and the quality
of food directly impacts our ability to serve food to food-
insecure families.
More people in our area would suffer from food insecurity
without these programs. Our mobile pantry lines would grow even
longer.
I urge you to examine how we can collectively address the
challenges of food insecurity, particularly in rural areas, in
the next farm bill.
Thank you for listening.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Weaver.
Mr. Bouma.
Kody Carson with National Sorghum Producers.
STATEMENT OF BRAD BOUMA, PRESIDENT, SELECT MILK PRODUCERS,
INC., RANSON CANYON, TX
Mr. Bouma. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Peterson, thank you for all
being here. I represent the dairy industry and I'm a second
generation dairy farmer. I have two places in the Panhandle of
Texas, and my son is in Jodey's district, and in Darien,
Indiana and Ohio as well.
We currently, with DFA, our partner, are investing in $\3/
4\ billion in infrastructure from southwest Kansas all the way
down to Littlefield, Texas. Construction is underway as we
speak. This is the fastest growing region in the United States
as far as the dairy industry is concerned. It's a vital,
vibrant growing prospect in our part of the world.
The biggest issue we face today in the dairy industry is
labor. We cannot find enough people in Plainview, Texas,
Vermont, Indiana, or anywhere else to go and milk cows.
The H-2A system that we currently operate under does not
work for the dairy industry, it doesn't work for cattle
feeders, our colleagues. It doesn't work in a lot of places.
And an overhaul of that is absolutely necessary for us to be
able to continue to expand and grow our businesses as we would
like to in the future.
Chairman Goodlatte's H-2C program that he rolled out in the
draft form addresses a lot of things. It's the best thing we've
seen in a long, long time. We would certainly ask that you all
would get behind that and help us to work with the Judiciary
Committee and get this thing pushed through because it's just a
critical piece of our industry.
MPP works in some ways and doesn't in others. We're
clearing our markets with 86 powder a day instead of
stockpiling it with the CCC, and that's a good thing. We're
developing new markets around the world that the U.S. wouldn't
have access to if we didn't have the MPP program today.
But the formulas don't work. As my colleague said, there's
not a dairyman in the country virtually collecting on what they
have paid into the MPP, and we need to take a look at the
programs and the formulas to get there.
Large producers like myself, and who I represent at Select,
have access to tremendous amounts of different hedging
platforms, different ways of spreading our risk. The smaller
producers in this country don't have the same access we do. And
we appreciate that and understand that there's probably
something that's going to have to be done to conquer in order
to get this bill to where it needs to be in order to make that
happen. We respect that.
The environmental side of our business, we believe we can
do with a market-based solution. We need some tax credits to
get that done. And we think there's a ton of potential to be
able to work. We've already met with EPA and Mr. Pruitt. We've
met with Mr. Perdue. We think there are numerous ways to work
together on market-based solutions on environmental things, but
the tax credits are imperative for that to happen.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Bouma.
Mr. Bouma. And last, and it's critical, we got hosed by
Canada in the first round and Mexico is our largest customer.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you.
Richard Gaona with the Rolling Plains Cotton Growers will
be next.
Mr. Carson.
STATEMENT OF KODY CARSON, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, NATIONAL
SORGHUM PRODUCERS, OLTON, TX
Mr. Carson. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, and
the other Members of Congress, thank you all. On behalf of west
Texas farmers, thank you for taking the time out of your busy
schedules to come down here today and listen to us. I know if
you're from Minnesota or North Carolina it looks just like
you're at home, but there are a few differences.
(Laughter)
Mr. Carson. My name is Kody Carson and I farm near Olton,
Texas, about 3 miles north of here. I grow sorghum, corn,
cotton, wheat, edible beans, sunflowers and cattle. I currently
serve on the National Sorghum Producers Board of Directors.
One of the focal points that I think we have to look at in
the next farm bill is the need to continue the strong commodity
title. I, personally, use PLC and ARC both on different crops.
And the PLC program is working as it should. In years of high
crop prices, very little expenditure; and on years like last
year, it was a fantastic safety net for commodities.
As you evaluate the options for title I, I would ask you to
remember cotton, and also I would like to see a strong PLC
program continued. It would work well to have the ARC program
provide a little better continuity from county to county.
Especially up through the Texas panhandle, there's some great
disparity just right across the county lines in the way that
ARC is working.
Crop insurance is a critical component of my farming
operation. However, sorghum does have some unique challenges
from an insurance standpoint. A full 19 percent of U.S. sorghum
production in the U.S. is not insured because the cost to buy
is just too prohibitive. I would like to see an equitable
insurance program for the sorghum industry and I would like to
see our title I programs and the insurance work well together.
It would put my banker's mind more at ease to have that safety.
Hey, Tim.
We, as farmers, have to continue to be good stewards of the
land, whether it's wind erosion or better wildlife habitat.
Sorghum is a great crop for this on so many levels and I would
ask that language in the conservation title fully recognize
these benefits.
Finally, in the interest of time, I know it doesn't hold
the same focus today as what it did, but I believe a
streamlined energy title could continue to be extremely helpful
for corn and sorghum producers and for our biofuel customers.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Carson.
Tony Dill with Western Peanut Growers.
Mr. Gaona.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD GAONA, PRESIDENT, ROLLING PLAINS COTTON
GROWERS, ROBY, TX
Mr. Gaona. I'm Richard Gaona, husband of Judy Gaona. We
farm together in Fisher County where we raise cotton, wheat and
Sudan hay, grass hay, and have a cattle and farming operation.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on issues that are
important to us.
As President of Rolling Plains Cotton Growers I would like
to give you a quick overview of the crop and financial
situation on the Rolling Plains. I compare it to the Clint
Eastwood movie, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. We've had
drought, hail, low commodity prices and a sand blasting, which
has created a lot of debt. This is where we are with the
current farm bill.
To get west Texas cotton farmers through until the next
farm bill is approved, cotton farmers and ag lenders would
appreciate a cotton ginning assistance payment and the
designation of cottonseed for the 2018 crop to help offset the
carryover debt. Because of the drought and national disasters
in west Texas, there is a need for immediate correction to crop
insurance, APH or YE is being used, there is no cup or floor.
We ask for a timely and strong farm bill that includes
cotton in title I programs. Affordable crop insurance is also
very important.
Farmers, ag lenders, equipment dealers, everyone involved
in agriculture, agrees that crop insurance should remain a
viable and affordable tool for managing risk.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Gaona.
Jule Richmond will be up next.
Mr. Dill.
STATEMENT OF TONY DILL, PRESIDENT, WESTERN PEANUT GROWERS,
BROWNFIELD, TX
Mr. Dill. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member
Peterson, and the rest of the House Agriculture Committee.
Thank you for being here today and listening to what us growers
have to say.
My name is Tony Dill. I represent Western Peanut Growers. I
represent all of the western peanut growers in west Texas. We
are very thankful for the 2014 peanut provisions that were
included in the farm bill. They offer our farmers a price floor
and stability. Almost all of our peanut growers are also cotton
growers. Most of our growers grow 75 percent cotton and 25
percent peanuts. As has already been heard today about the
cotton program, it was out of title I in the last farm bill;
we're asking that it would be included in the next farm bill.
That will also help our growers.
In my home town of Brownfield, Texas I have five young
growers that went out of business in the last 3 years because
of mainly being cotton growers and they financially cannot get
loans. They don't cash flow. And it's a very severe issue in
our county and in west Texas and in the whole country.
I'm also a third generation farmer. I farm 600 acres of
peanuts and 2,800 acres of cotton. My son is also farming along
with me. I see no future in our country if we don't do
something to help our young farmers get established. A lot of
us are living off of equity, a lot of us older growers, and
these young farmers have no equity to get started on. The only
way they have to get in is through their family, and it's hard
to keep them going.
Finally, I ask that the peanut provisions in the 2014 Farm
Bill be continued in the new farm bill. And I also ask that
cotton be included in the new farm bill.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Dill.
Grace Norman with the Texas Hunger Initiative.
Mr. Richmond.
STATEMENT OF JULE RICHMOND, BOARD MEMBER AND SOUTH CENTRAL
REGION CHAIR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION DISTRICTS;
PAST PRESIDENT,
ASSOCIATION OF TEXAS SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS,
BLANKET, TX
Mr. Richmond. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson,
and the other Committee Members, we appreciate the opportunity
to be here today.
And today I'm representing the National Association of
Conservation Districts, serving as the Chairman of the South
Central Region representing Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and
Arkansas. And I also served as the past President of
Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts here
in Texas.
Today I would like to address the title II portion of the
farm bill addressing conservation of our natural resources. The
last farm bill significantly reduced the conservation title and
conservation programs that are often reduced during the
appropriation cycle. With this in mind, our state's Soil and
Water Conservation District and our National Association of
Conservation Districts believe at a minimum no further cuts
should occur in the conservation title to the farm bill. Every
dollar reduced costs more in the long run due to increased
resource concerns.
Popular programs, like EQIP, are many producers first
introduction to conservation and must have robust funding.
Additionally, the small watershed rehab program is vital to
provide safety to the public from the flood prevention science
across our nation.
I want to stress that locally led, voluntary incentive-
based conservation serves agriculture best. It provides
flexibility to direct funds for local priorities. One size
doesn't fit all across this diverse country that we live in.
Conservation districts convene local working groups and
they determine the areas of the most precious resources and
concerns. This local aspect is key to having buy-in from local
producers. This is the reason for local districts and they were
created almost 80 years ago. Not only have farm bill
conservation programs been very successful using local input,
but it provided wise use of taxpayer funds.
The next farm bill must include a fix for the SAM-DUNS
issue. This is a regulation that's incredibly burdensome to the
farmers and ranchers that does nothing to increase
transparency. NRCS conservation participants should never have
been a target of this requirement. Its purpose being for an
entity providing goods and services to the government and not
for carrying out the conservation program. NRCS--
Dr. May. Fifteen seconds.
Mr. Richmond. Thank you very much.
Dr. May. Thank you.
Allan Fuchs with St. Lawrence Cotton Growers.
Grace.
STATEMENT OF GRACE NORMAN, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS MANAGER, TEXAS
HUNGER INITIATIVE, BAYLOR
UNIVERSITY, WACO, TX
Ms. Norman. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chairman Conaway,
Ranking Member Peterson, and Committee Members for traveling to
Texas and for allowing us the opportunity to provide input.
I'm Grace Norman and I am speaking on behalf of Baylor
University's Texas Hunger Initiative. We operate eight regional
offices across the state and are consulting on a project in
Oklahoma. We build coalitions, bringing people together to help
communities think strategically, organizations work
collaboratively, and programs function efficiently.
I'm joined by Mary Herbert and Betty Teston of our San
Angelo office and constituents of the 11th District.
Forty-eight million people in the U.S. are food-insecure,
as are 4.3 million Texans, including nearly one out of every
four children in this state. Programs, including those
authorized in the farm bill, impact food insecurity and
ultimately poverty.
SNAP serves as a work support supplementing wages to
provide for steady household food budgets and have lifted ten
percent of SNAP households out of poverty nationally.
Protecting SNAP is crucial to its continued success.
Increasing access to SNAP is also important. In Texas we
built a network of community-based organizations, including
faith-based organizations, libraries, hospitals, schools and
domestic violence shelters to help eligible Texans access an
online benefits application. More access points to apply for
SNAP have contributed to the 77 percent take-up rate in this
state. Providing such support has increased SNAP access and is
a contributing factor to a decrease in food insecurity in
Texas.
Coalitions see the importance of SNAP as a key resource in
local economies and are working to build infrastructure to
maximize impact. In Lubbock, a community coalition collaborated
to bring Double Up Food Bucks to seven markets and farm stands
across the region.
Through a combination of Federal and private funding,
communities are able to stretch SNAP dollars, offer incentives
for SNAP recipients to purchase nutritious foods and expand the
customer base of local farmers.
In conclusion, finding creative ways to leverage SNAP
funding can better serve families and decrease administrative
burden. Protecting SNAP will decrease food insecurity, increase
individual self sufficiency, and afford more Texans a better
quality of life. I'm grateful for your attention to and
prioritization of the 2018 Farm Bill.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Norman.
And, David Cleavinger, if you would come forward with Texas
Wheat.
Also, to let everyone know, that I'm going to give you a 15
seconds you have left. We've ran over on every single speaker,
so I'm going to have to coach you in. So 15 seconds when you're
through. But we'll----
Mr. FUCHS. How about I start early?
Dr. May. Okay, Allan. Go ahead.
(Laughter)
STATEMENT OF ALLAN FUCHS, BOARD MEMBER, ST.
LAWRENCE COTTON GROWERS ASSOCIATION, GARDEN CITY, TX
Mr. Fuchs. Congressman Conaway, thank you so much.
I don't really have anything prepared. I'm here as a
representative of the St. Lawrence Cotton Growers Association
and I'm going to maybe speak more from the heart of what we've
got going on now.
When I got out of college, I came home and started farming
250 acres. And here, 19 years later, my dad was farming around
2,500, we farm harder and harder, need to be smarter and
smarter, adopt technology, doing whatever we can to stay
afloat.
We're running about 11,000 acres right now, getting up
early and coming home late. And I have a boy that's 11 years
old, and I would love nothing more as a fourth generation
farmer myself, than to have him step into my shoes. And in the
last 2 years I've told my wife several times, I've said, ``As
hard as we work, I want that for him so bad, and at the same
time I don't,'' just depending on days.
What I'm saying is that the NCC has a lot of good points,
has a lot of strong language they're lobbying for. I'm not
going to go into that. It's all about on local level from our
grower organization. It's something that's maybe more
localized.
What I would really like to see is some language in the
farm bill on some base reallocation.
In our area we have a lot of land, raw land, pasture land
that we're dozing, that we're excavating, that we're putting
into production. And as we see urban sprawl grow and towns grow
and eat up these farms and land disappear, I would like to see
a transfer of some of those base acres, or a reallocation if
you would like to call it that, go on to some of this new land
where we're not asking for----
Dr. May. Fifteen seconds.
Mr. Fuchs.--more base acres to put in the farm program, but
just some of those base acres be transferred.
That would be it.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Jim Lovell, Chairman of the Texas Cattle Feeders
Association.
Mr. Cleavinger.
STATEMENT OF DAVID CLEAVINGER, MEMBER, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, TEXAS WHEAT PRODUCERS BOARD, WILDORADO, TX
Mr. Cleavinger. Thank you.
Good afternoon. I'm David Cleavinger. I serve on the Texas
Wheat Board, and also I am an officer of the Southwest Council
of Agribusiness, and I'll let our members and staff continue to
work with your Members and staff on policy issues.
Today I'd like to talk about the very first farm bill I was
involved with was in 1978. My father was in leadership in the
Texas Sugar Beet Growers Association when I was in college and
I went to a farm bill hearing back then.
You will notice today in all of your farm bill hearings
you're not going to hear from the Texas Sugar Beet Growers
Association because they're here no longer. We were told that
we could buy sugar cheaper from other countries and the
consumer will benefit. We were paying 25 for a Coke, 10 cents
for a candy bar. I went to the airport last week, $2.49 for a
candy bar. My question to you is: Who benefited?
And through all of those discussions, while I'm not here to
represent sugar policy in any way, I want to point out the
analogy of what's taking place here. You're going to have
people come into your offices, they're going to be testifying
before these hearings saying we don't need foreign policy.
The decision that you make as a Committee will impact the
people in this room, and 40 years from now there may not be
commodity groups in this room if we don't have sound foreign
policy right now.
I would just encourage you each that--it's important that
our farm income is down 50 percent. These are real stories
you're hearing today and it's tough out there right now.
I would ask that each of you take this seriously, and I
know you are; but go back, and when you get the ``naysayers''
in the room saying we don't need sound foreign policy, remember
the Texas Sugar Beet Growers is no more.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Cleavinger.
J. Thomas Wynn with the U.S. Rice Producers Association, if
you will come up.
Mr. Lovell.
STATEMENT OF JIM LOVELL, CHAIRMAN, TEXAS CATTLE FEEDERS
ASSOCIATION, AMARILLO, TX
Mr. Lovell. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee,
thank you for coming to Texas to hear our thoughts on the 2018
Farm Bill. My name is Jim Lovell and I've been a cattle feeder
for the past 32 years.
I'm also testifying as Chairman of the Texas Cattle Feeders
Association where we represent cattle feeders and feedyards in
Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. TCFA members feed and market
six million head of cattle a year.
First and foremost, we do not want see COOL, the GIPSA rule
authorization language or packer ban in the farm bill. The
inclusion of COOL and GIPSA in the previous farm bill has cost
our industry billions of dollars with no underlying benefit.
Second, TCFA asks that you do not share funds for the
research title paid for other programs. As you have heard, our
industry is threatened by foot-and-mouth disease. We have
current vaccine that's obsolete and we need a vaccine bank
that's prepared for 32 strains of foot-and-mouth disease. If we
have an outbreak of FMD, some models estimate that the economic
impact would be in excess of $50 billion. That's with a ``b''.
We must act now and cannot wait until the disease is here.
TCFA also supports maintaining a strong conservation title.
However, the AGI limit is a concern. We need to get more large
land owners to participate in EQIP as they're often
disqualified because of business structure or other revenue.
While not directly on the farm bill, TCFA appreciates the
Committee's efforts to ensure that NAFTA negotiations, first,
do no harm to agriculture. TCFA supports the modernization of
the agreement without eroding market access to the scientific
standards that NAFTA has provided to U.S. beef. Today Mexico
and Canada are two of our best export markets for U.S. beef.
In addition, TCFA supports a continuation of the Market
Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program.
These programs help fund the U.S. Meat Export Federation, which
is our lead entity in marketing U.S. beef to our global trading
partners.
We'd sincerely appreciate any help you can give ag
producers with the significant labor shortage that we're
dealing with. A workable guest worker program is truly needed.
Dr. May. Fifteen seconds.
Mr. Lovell. Thank you again for being here and listening to
our thoughts on the 2018 Farm Bill and we will submit further
comments to you later.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Lovell.
Eric Craven from Texas Electric Cooperatives.
Mr. Wynn.
STATEMENT OF J. THOMAS WYNN, VICE CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
U.S. RICE PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION;
MEMBER, TEXAS RICE COUNCIL, EGYPT, TX
Mr. Wynn. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, thank you
for the opportunity to address you today. My name is Thomas
Wynn. I'm a sixth generation farmer. I grow rice and my family
has a diversified farm in Egypt, Texas.
Although I'm currently in the middle of harvesting corn,
this opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of rice farmers
and in my capacity as Vice Chairman of the Board of the U.S.
Rice Producers Association, and a sitting member of the Texas
Rice Council, was too important to forgo.
The USRPA is an national organization representing rice
farmers in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Missouri, and Texas. It's the only national rice producer
organization comprised of producers, elected only by producers,
and representing only producers. We strongly represent
reauthorization of the farm bill. Producers need the ability to
rely on long-term certainty of foreign policy in order to
obtain financing and make investment decisions and maintain
long-term profitability.
U.S. rice producers are facing historic downturns in price,
averaging 10 year lows in the industry, with a forecast price
of $10.50 per hundredweight for the current year. Exacerbating
this difficulty is the rising level of input cost to historic
highs, which has cut the net farm income dramatically. The
safety net of price protection provided through the farm bill
is critical to farmers in these times. The PLC program has
proven to be an effective tool to protect farmers during multi-
year price declines. Long grain producers, like myself, saw
drops in prices below the reference price after the 2014 and
2015 crop years.
USRPA strongly supports maintaining the current farm bill
PLC commodity programs. The PLC program has generally worked as
intended, but there are two issues we feel should be examined.
The first is the timing of the PLC program. Program payments
need to be improved in order to assist growers in securing
financing.
USRPA supports authorizing a partial advance of PLC program
payment to help cover input cost and secure financing for the
crop ahead.
In addition, my fellow rice producers in California would
like to discuss the need to examine and update the reference
price for their specialized Japonica rice.
Crop insurance has not been as an effective risk management
tool for rice as it has been for other crops----
Dr. May. Fifteen seconds.
Mr. Wynn.--due to its irrigation nature. However, we do
support either efforts to improve crop insurance and hope we
combine them with other coverage options.
We support continuing to look at international trade
agreements, especially as they are beneficial to the United
States with the focus that they do no harm.
I look forward to working with the Committee to help find a
more effective farm policy in the future.
Thank you.
Ms. Jackson. Thank you, Mr. Wynn.
Richard Pelzel with the Southern Rolling Plains Cotton
Growers.
Mr. Craven.
STATEMENT OF ERIC F. CRAVEN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS, TEXAS ELECTRIC
COOPERATIVES, AUSTIN, TX
Mr. Craven. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway, Ranking
Member Peterson, Members of the Committee. I'm Eric Craven with
Texas Electric Cooperatives. I'm here today on behalf of the 75
generation transmission distribution electric co-ops serving
Texas. We serve approximately three million consumers in the
state and we serve in 241 of the 254 counties in Texas.
The farm bill is very important to electric co-ops and our
member consumers. Two things in particular: first, the RUS loan
program that enables us to continue to maintain and modernize
the important electric infrastructure necessary for the
development in rural Texas and rural America. And second of
all, the REDLG loan program, which helps fund rural hospitals
and other community development initiatives.
This Committee has consistently been strong supporters of
rural America, and our folks appreciate that very much.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Craven.
Blair Fitzsimons from Texas Agricultural Land Trust.
Mr. Pelzel.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD PELZEL, BOARD MEMBER,
SOUTHERN ROLLING PLAINS COTTON GROWERS
ASSOCIATION, MILES, TX
Mr. Pelzel. My name is Richard Pelzel. I'm a fourth
generation farmer here in the Concho Valley. I grew up on the
family farm and my operation consists of cotton and wheat, and
I've been in farming for 40 years.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for having this
listening session. I would like to thank you and the other
Committee Members who have been so supportive of the cotton
industry.
As we look forward to the next farm bill we have to be
focusing on trying to get cotton and/or cottonseed into title
I. We so desperately need to keep the crop insurance as we have
it so it's subsidized at the current levels that we have.
I also would like to address the conservation programs a
little bit. I've always had a love for the land and these
programs have allowed me to not only control any erosion, but
to also increase productivity and to make the land better for
future generations. I use the EQIP program to carry out many
conservation practices on my farm.
I've also participated in the ESP program. While the
financial incentive helps us to help defray the expense of
implementing this program, I do think there are some areas that
could use some changes. One area that could be improved is to
exempt the NRCS from requiring producers who participate in
these voluntary programs to obtain and keep and update a SAM's
number. Also the DUNS' and Bradstreet number. But the SAM's
number is particularly difficult because we have to renew that
number every year.
Also, when you participate in the ESP program you have to
choose enhancements that you are able, as you agree to
implement on your farm. And as I review these I find that a lot
of these are geared more to the higher rainfall areas and don't
really pertain to the environmental conditions where I live.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Pelzel. An added benefit would be to have enhancements
that are more compatible with what we do here.
These conservation programs have become an integral part of
my operation, and many others as well, and we need to keep them
around.
Thank you for allowing me to speak to you today.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Pelzel.
Tim McDonald from AgTexas.
Ms. Fitzsimons.
STATEMENT OF BLAIR FITZSIMONS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, TEXAS AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST, SAN
ANTONIO, TX
Ms. Fitzsimons. Welcome, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
Peterson, and Members of the Committee.
My name is Blair Fitzsimons, CEO of the Texas Agricultural
Land Trust, founded by leaders from two organizations that
you've heard from today; Texas and Southwestern Cattle
Ranchers, Texas Farm Bureau, and several others, who are
concerned that Texas is losing her agriculture lands at a
faster rate than any other state in the country.
Today the Texas Ag Land trust holds conservation easements
on 226,000 acres of productive farm and ranch lands from around
the state.
I'm here today to ask for your support for the Agriculture
Conservation Easement Program found in the conservation title,
also known as ACEP. As you know, a conservation easement is a
voluntary tool, voluntary financial incentive that programs and
protects agricultural productivity. The ACEP program is vitally
important for states like Texas where agriculture has a $100
billion annual economic impact. I ask that you consider
maintaining funding at the current funding level of $500
million a year. Demand for ACEP continues to outstrip available
funding as ag lands around the country are threatened by
development.
Second, I ask that you consider removing the cash-match
requirement, the biggest impediment to using the program here
in Texas. Currently ACEP requires a match of 50 percent of the
easement value. If the land owner were able to donate that
value, it would greatly accelerate the protection of ag lands
and greatly leverage the Federal Government's investment.
As you consider these and other requests that we will
submit in writing, please keep in mind that the benefits of
protecting ag lands go far beyond the fence line. Water, for
example. A recent Texas A&M study showed that the state's own
one-time investment of $2 million in conservation easements
protected approximately $11\1/2\ million of water values, and
these are watersheds, rivers, streams----
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Ms. Fitzsimons.--on an annual basis. This is a significant
benefit for a state that is faced with significant population
growth and demands for water.
Thank you for your attention and consideration.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Fitzsimons.
Wade Cowan of American Soybean Association.
Mr. McDonald.
STATEMENT OF TIM McDONALD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AgTexas
FARM CREDIT SERVICES; MEMBER, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, SOUTHWEST COUNCIL OF AGRIBUSINESS,
LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. McDonald. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson,
and----
Dr. May. If you will step all the way up to the microphone.
Mr. McDonald.--and all of the other Members, thank you for
being here today and thank you for the opportunity.
My name is Tim McDonald. I'm CEO of AgTexas Farm Credit
Services. I'm also here representing the Southwest Council of
Agribusiness. At AgTexas we finance, directly originate and
service, about $2.3 billion in loans throughout the Panhandle,
South Plains and central Texas.
From the other testimony that you've heard today, it's no
surprise that our farmers are struggling. We need to find ways
as agricultural lenders to stay with existing customers and
overcome barriers of entry for new farmers getting into the
business.
One of the tools that we have at our disposal is the FSA
guaranteed loan program. That program has been utilized very
effectively by Farm Credit and other commercial lenders.
However, it has a cap today of approximately $1.4 million. That
is not enough to cover even an averaged-sized farm and ranch
operation. We need to see that cap increased. And when it's
increased, we need to see it indexed to the funding for the
programs so that we have a large enough budget to cover the
needs that are out there. This will give us another tool that
we can utilize to help keep farmers and ranchers in business,
and yet overcome barriers of entry for new farmers getting into
the business.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. McDonald.
Libby Campbell with West Texas Food Bank.
Mr. Cowan.
STATEMENT OF WADE COWAN, OWNER, COWAN FARMS AND HARVESTING;
PAST PRESIDENT, AMERICAN SOYBEAN
ASSOCIATION, BROWNFIELD, TX
Mr. Cowan. Thank you.
I'm Wade Cowan. I'm an eighth generation Texas farmer,
fourth generation in west Texas.
Thank you, Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, and
Members of the Committee. I know I've spoken to many of you,
and you hear from our D.C. office all the time about how we
support the PLC. We support a lot of parts of the farm bill.
But I'm here today to tell you about two things.
One is that crop insurance for a lot of the people in west
Texas that are highly diversified, such as myself, just doesn't
work. I would be far better off with the subsidies that I get
every year from my crop insurance to use it for irrigation
technology, to use it for crop technology and other things. And
it would be very helpful, then, that I could pay the insurance
level that I needed and I wouldn't have to worry about a
government subsidy.
The other thing that I think that we need to bring up,
since we've got such a large gathering here, is that I'm an
eighth generation farmer and it breaks my heart to tell you
that I don't think there will be a ninth. Things are so tough,
and as I speak to people across this country, they closed our
Wal-Mart in Brownfield, Texas, not to open a super Wal-Mart,
not to open something else, they closed it because they
couldn't make any money.
Things are very tough on the farm. You hear this a lot of
time compared to the 1980s. I started farming in the 1980s. In
the 1980s, in my small town where I graduated from, there were
16 of us. There are three left in the county. There are two
left in agriculture, and that's because my wife and I live in
the same house.
(Laughter)
Mr. Cowan. We're facing that kind of devastation, and
that's, really, a word that I've thought about, devastation, as
we move forward with these young farmers.
I watch every day young farmers, and you heard Tony Dill
talk about, Tony went to the same high school I did, about
young farmers that are going out every day. Not farmers that
came into farming and spent money on new equipment, very
conservative young men that work hard, 16, 18, sometimes 24
hours, to get their crop in and out.
I ask you as you look at this next farm bill to not treat
it as a zero-sum game as the Congressional Budget Office will.
If you make a good farm bill that helps all of agriculture, it
will improve rural America, it will improve our little
communities, and it will be a net positive to rebuild America
again.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Coleton Snedeker with Texas FFA.
Ms. Campbell.
STATEMENT OF LIBBY CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WEST TEXAS
FOOD BANK, ODESSA, TX
Ms. Campbell. Hi. My name is Libby Campbell and I'm
actually the Executive Director for the West Texas Food Bank.
We serve 19 counties in west Texas, which is the equivalent to
34,000\2\ miles, which is about the same size as the State of
Maine. Thank you so much for coming to west Texas and visiting
us out here.
The West Texas Food Bank, we are a little isolated. We have
a very, kind of, small metro area compared to other large urban
centers such as Midland/Odessa and we drive a lot. We spend a
lot of time on the road. We've had to be very creative on ways
that we get food to our clients who need them. We serve over
44,000 unduplicated clients. We do a lot of time on the road.
We go all the way where there is no cell service and you have
to stand on rocks. We've had to do a lot of mobile pantries.
We've had to think of ways for education. The way that we end
the cycle of poverty is through education.
There are lots of different programs that are inside the
farm bill that actually help us be able to do what we do every
day. We also couldn't do what we do every day without all of
these people who are sitting in the room and we all work
together to battle poverty in our country. There are so many
things in there that affect us in west Texas, and we've been
able to bring together private partnerships to make us be able
to bring more food to our counties that we serve. SNAP is
important; it helps bridge gaps. We also have SNAP-Education
where we're teaching classes every day to kiddos. We also
depend heavily on our commodity program, which is TFAB to us.
It's a huge resource.
We also depend heavily on our growers to give us older,
ugly fruits and vegetables that we're able to give out to our
clients to eat them.
And also we depend on a lot of help of everyone working
together. We've brought together many different charitable
foundations to help support what we do, but we couldn't also
bridge those gaps without the help of you guys on the
Committee.
I just want say thank you so much for coming out here and
listening to us. But also think about all of the transportation
dollars, all of the jobs that you provide, all of the economic
impact that you're actually creating by helping out people who
have trouble finding ways to feed themselves. But listening to
all of our farmers and growers and hearing what's going on out
there in the ag community really hurts my heart because we see
so much of rural America in what we serve every day in the food
banking industry. To think about the struggles that they're
facing directly affects more clients that we're going to have
to serve.
Cuts that you guys may make will directly affect where the
food banks are going to have to figure out another way to
bridge that gap and we depend on it to help already bridge
that.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
Timothy Gertson, Texas Rice Producers.
Mr. Snedeker.
STATEMENT OF COLETON SNEDEKER, STATE VICE PRESIDENT, TEXAS FFA
ASSOCIATION, FREDERICKSBURG, TX
Mr. Snedeker. Mr. Conaway, you asked at a hearing not long
ago for FFA members to share their ag story, and so here I am.
My name is Coleton Snedeker from the Fredericksburg FFA
Chapter. I represent the Area VII Association for the State of
Texas as Texas FFA Vice President. However, my journey didn't
really start there.
I remember walking into the halls of the ag building my
freshman year and I was introduced and encouraged to get
involved and to sink my teeth into the opportunity the program
harvested, and so I did. I was asked to run for Chapter office,
and my nervous self put myself out there, and I was elected as
my FFA Chapter's Treasurer. And with that opportunity came a
different one to go on a full-ride scholarship to Washington,
D.C. as a Washington leadership scholar. And while I was there
I got to the see the Smithsonian and the White House and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it was really awesome to
see my two different passions of FFA and political legislation
collide. And so while I'm here to share my FFA story, I'm also
here to tell you and ask you to continue to invest in the
future of agriculture.
As FFA members, and in the State of Texas there's over
120,000 of us and nationwide 635,000, and we are future voters
and we want to be civically engaged.
However, with those jobs that you're creating, we are the
ones that are going to be taking over those jobs and to be
making the future of agriculture to continue to feed, fuel,
clothe, shelter, and keep America competitive.
I ask you to consider opening up a position in the
Secretary's Office for a youth coordinator position so we can
continue to feed, fuel, clothe, and compete as Americans.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Stacy Whitener with Pecan Grove Farms in
Brownwood.
Mr. Gertson.
STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY GERTSON, MEMBER, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, TEXAS RICE PRODUCERS LEGISLATIVE GROUP, LISSIE, TX
Mr. Gertson. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Peterson, and
Congressmen, thank you for lending your ears to the concerns
and suggestions of the producers and agribusinesses here today.
My name is Timothy Gertson. I'm 32 years old. I'm a fifth
generation rice farmer from Lissie, Texas.
I'm here to tell you that for rice farmers, the 2014 Farm
Bill worked well. I started farming on my own 9 years ago and
benefited from a rice market that had me operating in the black
from the get-go. Prices ranged from $16 to $18.
But as anyone in agriculture knows, the good times don't
last. Over the last couple of years I've sold most of my rice
between $10 to $12, well below the $14 reference price. But I'm
here to tell you that the PLC safety net worked.
Did we have to tighten our belts for a few years?
Yes.
But this young farmer is still in business and I'm still
actively growing my operation. And, thankfully, the rice market
is now in the upswing and my farm survived.
I want to transition now to conservation programs. The rice
industry strongly supports working land programs like EQIP and
ESP. These programs help conserve our natural resources, while
also equipping rice farmers to operate their farms more
efficiently. The land stays in production and the money paid
out isn't piling up in a farmer's bank account. The money is
immediately injected back into the local economy to pay
contractors and laborers, to implement the new practices.
I wanted to give a quick anecdote, which describes how
important everything I just said is. Back home we are right in
the middle of rice harvest. My family never works on Sundays. I
can remember three times in my whole life that we've ever
worked a Sunday, and two of them were because of hurricanes.
My family worked yesterday. It's all-hands-on-deck on the
farm. With my dad and my cousins, we all know how important
this farm bill is, and they covered for me and I drove 5 hours
to represent our industry.
Thank you again for your time.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Gertson.
Michael Ballou with the Texas Tech University.
Ms. Whitener.
STATEMENT OF STACY WHITENER, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER,
PECAN GROVE FARMS, BROWNWOOD, TX
Ms. Whitener. Good afternoon, everybody.
My name is Stacy Whitener. I am the Chief Administrative
Officer from Pecan Grove Farms. We are one of the top ten
largest growers of pecans in the state.
My journey in agriculture actually started in California.
I'm a born and raised Californian and just moved to Texas in
2011. When you guys go to California, please listen to them,
because all of the bad stuff that happens and comes to the East
starts in the West. Please listen to them.
(Laughter)
Ms. Whitener. I have several friends that are very active
over there. I'm also an active member of American AgriWomen;
who a lot of you guys know, we travel to D.C. frequently and we
advocate for agriculture all over the country.
The two things that I would like to talk to you about,
three things I should say, I also worked for Farm Credit for a
long time before I came over to Pecan Grove Farms. I was
financing dairies in 2009, so I can appreciate how vital Farm
Credit is to the industries that we all serve, and I hope that
we continue to support Farm Credit and we continue to support
credit going into agriculture.
The second thing that I would like to tell you is that I
would also encourage you guys to make sure that we at least
stay where we're at in crop insurance. My farm's actually lost
over 2 million pounds to hail last year. It saved us. And it is
the reason why we were able to bring an additional 15 jobs to
Brownwood, Texas and the purchase of our last farm last year. I
would encourage you guys to continue to see not only what the
great people of west Texas have to deal with in crop insurance,
but also our specialized crops like I deal with in pecans.
The last thing that I would like to talk to you about is
rain, the water infrastructure and electrical infrastructure in
rural areas. We have a farm in west Texas over near El Paso,
and quite literally, cannot get a phone to work, a landline to
work, in one of our areas over there that we have about 2,500
acres. And to get any electrical provider to come help us has
been very difficult.
We are in a unique situation. My company, we're an
investor-backed company, and we have the ability to help and to
provide some funds on the other side, to put some skin in the
game, and we still can't get them to help us, nor with a solar
project. Any help on the Federal side, and even the listening
side, I appreciate that.
Our farms are always open to you guys if you want to see
what we deal with.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Stacy.
Dale Artho with Texas Grain Sorghum Association.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL BALLOU, Ph.D., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR
RESEARCH, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE SCIENCES AND NATURAL
RESOURCES, TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY, LUBBOCK, TX
Dr. Ballou. Chairman Conaway and Members of the House
Agriculture Committee, my name is Michael Ballou and I'm one of
the Associate Deans for Research in the College of Agriculture
Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech University.
I would like to talk to you today a little bit about Texas
Tech University, and specifically how Texas Tech University is
a non-land-grant college of agriculture, of which the USDA
identifies about 70 institutions as having a research and
outreach component to their institute.
In states with one of these non-land-grant colleges of
agriculture, these institutions educate approximately 50
percent of the future workforce. A recent report from Purdue
indicated from 2015 to 2020 there's going to be a deficiency in
the number of graduates needed to fill new agriculture-related
jobs, a shortage of 39 percent.
Another important characteristic to the large number of
these institutions is the economy. Many under-represented
student groups, including first generation students, minorities
and rural students. Further these public institutions provide
excellent trans-rational research and outreach programs through
their graduate studies and associated research efforts.
In the 2008 Farm Bill there was authorization for a
competitive capacity building program for the non-land-grant
colleges of agriculture, and that program has funded projects
since 2012 to purchase new research equipment, address relevant
and emerging research areas, and educate students that will be
the future research workforce.
The funding of this program had approximately $5 million
per year, which is small in comparison to other capacity and
competitive programs; but it's had significant impact on
improving research and education capacity to agricultural
science and the natural resource management programs.
Increasing capacity at the non-land-grant colleges of
agriculture will increase an output of training workforce and
support innovative research. Increasing the funding of the
competitive capacity building program for non-land-grant
colleges and creating new innovative funding programs to
incentivize the expansion of the institution will be an
important strategy to expand our agricultural education and
research.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Noe Villarreal of U.S. Citrus.
Mr. Artho.
STATEMENT OF DALE ARTHO, BOARD MEMBER, TEXAS GRAIN SORGHUM
ASSOCIATION, WILDORADO, TX
Mr. Artho. Gentlemen, Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member
Peterson: Do you guys know how important you are? You're our
advocates.
We live out here in the middle of the country and it's how
you set policy and how you sell what has to take place for
rural America to thrive.
And I just want you guys to know that you're in my prayers
every day, you're in our thoughts, each one of us producers out
here, because you're our hope. And without you guys, we really
don't get very far.
But I also serve as a county commissioner, and I grow
sorghum, corn and cotton, wheat and cattle. As a matter of
fact, I'll grow just about anything that will make a buck and
is legal. All right.
(Laughter)
Mr. Artho. Really, the way some of the things are going, I
know some guys that are moving more towards the illegal stuff
than the legal stuff just because they're wanting to survive.
But in terms of infrastructure, do you know how important
the farm program is to infrastructure of the small county that
I serve in? I mean, it's not only roads and bridges, but it's
monitor and policy of our country. Meaning the last 8 years
everything I've bought has doubled in price and some things
have tripled, yet I'm selling at the same steady price.
Infrastructure, in terms of what the farm bill is, it's
critical to the survival of those of us who live in rural
America. And those things, they benefit all Americans not just
rural America.
As a county commissioner I want to tell you, 76 percent of
our budget goes towards the Sheriff, the courts for juvenile
and adults, juvenile and adult probation, and the jail.
Seventy-six percent of our budget.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Artho. And a lot of that is driven by drugs.
Gentlemen, we need your help.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Artho.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Kirby Brown of Ducks Unlimited.
And we have a substitute. Dr. Mani Skaria with U.S. Citrus.
STATEMENT OF MANI SKARIA, Ph.D., FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, U.S. CITRUS, LLC, HARGILL, TX
Dr. Skaria. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member
Peterson, and other respective Members of the Committee.
My name is Mani Skaria. I come from the lower Rio Grande
Valley of Texas. That is the proud place where they grow the
best citrus in Texas.
I'm the founder and the President of the U.S. Citrus based
outside of Hargill, Texas. It is 877 population. After
returning from Texas A&M University 5 years ago, I bought 550
acres of land to start my company. We are now the premier
producer of the fastest growing citrus nursery trees and the
nation's largest fruit grower of Persian limes.
We have brought commercial Persian lime production in the
U.S. soil after a 15 year gap. It is all based on small micro-
grafted innovation that I developed several years ago.
As you assess the farm bill programs, I urge you to keep
three questions in mind. Number one, are producers encouraged
to expand domestic production of perishables. Imported products
travel a long path. They undergo substantial chemical
treatments to make them marketable, healthy foods to U.S.
consumers. That is what I have accomplished with the domestic
production of Persian limes, the most highly consumed citrus
product in the United States.
Second, can Federal programs do more to support innovation?
At U.S. Citrus we employ trade-secret micro-budding process
that I created to expand the production of high-density
planting, higher fruit yields, and faster harvesting times.
Smaller-scale growers like me are willing to help the USDA
in an aggressive capacity to create ways to support research
and development and innovation.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Dr. Skaria. Third, are the financial programs keeping up
with the times? I recently entered a supplier's agreement with
the Blue Apron for U.S. Citrus limes for their online orders.
E-commerce phenomena is changing business structures all around
us. I believe a review of how USDA programs adjust to changes
is necessary.
I invite all the respective Members to Hargill, Texas to
take a look at that to learn how we can bring a healthy citrus
industry in spite of citrus greening today in this country.
Thank you very much.
Dr. May. Thank you, Dr. Skaria. Chase Schuchard of the
Rolling Plains Cotton Growers.
Mr. Brown.
STATEMENT OF KIRBY BROWN, CONSERVATION OUTREACH BIOLOGIST,
DUCKS UNLIMITED, AUSTIN, TX
Mr. Kirby Brown. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, Members, thank you for coming to San Angelo,
a wonderful community here. I've got a sister-in-law and
brother-in-law here. My name is Kirby Brown. I'm from Austin,
Texas speaking on behalf of 50,000 members in Texas of Ducks
Unlimited. I work with many of the ag groups in the room at the
Texas Ag Council, some 60+ ag groups in Texas, and I am honored
to also be a past Chairman of that group at one point.
Our country depends on privately owned farms, ranches, and
forests, and we thank you for standing up for America and our
core values, which include agriculture and conservation.
The passage of the last farm bill required trust, coalition
building, compromise and consensus among a broad diversity of
groups and regions. And conservation programs in the farm bill
are a key component of the safety net used by farmers and
ranchers to maximize on-farm efficiency and productivity, and
to maintain soil health, water quality and quantity, and
wildlife habitat on their lands.
The conservation is in high demand. High demand here in
Texas and across the country, and we, and our partners,
respectfully ask that you and your colleagues help to
strengthen support for the most efficient and important
conservation programs in the farm bill.
We support strong wetland and grassland protections. We
support strong funding for working lands programs, that
Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
In Texas and our other rice states where wintering
waterfowl basically are all in and around those rice
components. DU and our partners at USA Rice, like Tim Gertson,
and USA Rice has been a great partner, and here in Texas with
NRCS we've been able to target RCPP investment on on-farm water
efficiency and water quality for rice farmers while providing
wintering waterfowl habitat benefits.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Kirby Brown. We support the EQIP, the CSP, the ACEP,
and it's a very popular program, and the CRP programs with
managed grazing opportunities.
Thank you very much. We appreciate your help.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Brown.
Jim Sugarek a Texas corn grower out of Beeville.
Mr. Schuchard.
STATEMENT OF CHASE SCHUCHARD, MEMBER, ROLLING PLAINS COTTON
GROWERS, ROSCOE, TX
Mr. Schuchard. Good afternoon. My name is Chase Schuchard.
I'm a cotton farmer from Roscoe, Texas. I met my wife at Texas
A&M. Following graduation we moved to Memphis, Tennessee and
received jobs in our college degrees. Three-and-a-half years
ago we moved back to the farm in Roscoe. And we were fortunate,
like most beginning farmers, that we were afforded the ability
to farm through the generous sharing of knowledge and resources
of my in-laws.
In the beginning our goal was to simply just make enough to
get by. We had hopes of starting a family. Now we just had a
son who turned one. And we hope to be able to stay in Roscoe
and raise our son where my wife grew up. This goal has been
difficult because it's difficult to obtain financing needed to
operate and buy our equipment needed to grow our crops.
Now in our fourth year we are attempting to grow our
business as necessary to provide for our family. We have yet to
see the favorable markets needed to build enough equity to
sustain any future market downturns.
Now I, more than ever, acknowledge how critically important
for cotton farmers to have a long-term safety net in the form
of farm policy that provides price protection.
As many of you are aware, the average age of the American
farmer is increasing every year. At this juncture it's critical
to have young families in farming. Speaking as a young farmer,
it's absolutely necessary to include farming as a title I
commodity in our upcoming farm bill, as well as implementing an
assistance program immediately in order to provide assistance
and protection from any further worsening of market conditions.
These policy decisions will help ensure my family's future and
keep future generations on the farm.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Schuchard.
Jim, be sure to turn that microphone up or it's going to be
hard to hear.
Mr. Sugarek. How about there? Does that work?
Dr. May. Good.
STATEMENT OF JIM S. SUGAREK, PRINCIPAL, JIM SUGAREK FARMS,
BEEVILLE, TX
Mr. Sugarek. Gentlemen, thank you so much for taking the
time to come to San Angelo, Texas today. It means a lot.
I farm 5 hours from here down on the Coastal Bend about
halfway between San Antonio and Corpus on dryland.
When we talk today about crop insurance and about base
updates, I farm in an extremely variable environment. We're
just as likely to fail a crop as we are to make a home run on
any given year, and I don't think that's news to anybody in
this room. The whole state is probably in the same boat when it
comes to that.
We absolutely need a chance to update our bases, update our
fields when the next one comes around in my local area. We've
been through a couple of years of drought before the last one,
and when you throw in new zeros into that 3 year period, it
doesn't work for you. It makes ARC not work. It makes PLC not
work.
It's been said several times today that my crop insurance
is probably \1/2\ of my cost of production. All it would take
is 1 year of stumping my toe on 4,000 acres to end that.
We've talked a lot about title I. Title II has been brought
up several times today. I think that's extremely important. I
think that's something we, as farmers, can sell to our end
consumers; to the Wal-Marts, to the Kroger's of the world.
Sustainable agriculture is something that no matter what crop
you're growing, that we can sell to those end-users.
EQIP, CSP are big-time important in my world. I don't know
that they're geared towards a dryland row-crop farm. There
seems to be a lot of silliness, to be honest, that has
infiltrated that system. If you look at the current list of CSP
practices, there's probably 40 of them, and maybe two would
apply to a row-crop farm on dryland.
I can think of so many things that we're doing, variable
rate restrictions.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Sugarek. We need to look hard at that. I think there
are some gaps that need to be filled there.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Jim.
Dale Rollins with the Rolling Plains Research Foundation.
And also Eddie McBride with the Lubbock Chamber of
Commerce.
STATEMENT OF DALE ROLLINS, Ph.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROLLING
PLAINS QUAIL RESEARCH RANCH, RUBY, TX; ON BEHALF OF NATIONAL
BOBWHITE CONSERVATION
INITIATIVE
Dr. Rollins. Thank you, Congressman Conaway for this
opportunity to speak, and respective Members. In the short run,
we appreciate the cool weather and the showers that you bring
that are forecast for the next days. We hope you'll consider it
a success.
I'm speaking today on behalf of the National Bobwhite
Conservation Initiative, NBCI, the Rolling Plains Quail
Research Foundation, in which I serve as Executive Director,
and the iconic (making a bobwhite quail sound) bobwhite quail,
which I represent to you is as much a part of the American
landscape as are windmills, spurs, and combines, yet at times
is on the National Audubon Society's list of grassland birds in
jeopardy.
I refer to the bobwhite as the canary of the prairie. It
serves nicely as a surrogate for other species of national
conservation concern like butterflies and bumblebees and other
pollinators.
The conservation title in the farm bill is a powerful tool
in our effort to restore the bobwhites, but too often it works
against us rather than for us, especially in the relative use
of invasive and chronic grasses; for example, Bermuda grass.
Exotic plants generally provide poor habitat for the many
declining species of grassland wildlife, whereas native plants
not only provide equal or superior benefits for soil
conservation, water quality and carbon sequestration and
forage, but also provides excellent habitat for the many of the
declining species of birds and pollinators.
I seek your support for modifications of the CRP and the
EQIP program to increase the utility for bobwhites in the farm
bill supported working lands. For CRP, the promotion of the
native vegetation, or what we call ``natives first'', over
invasive exotic grasses whenever feasible. Recognize the
longitudinal differences in plant succession, or what several
of the other people have said today, what works in Kentucky
doesn't necessarily work in an 18" rainfall zone relative to
mid-contract management CRP limits. (Unintelligible) without
penalty as regionally appropriate, provide incentives for
beginning, existing or continuing the CRP practices to include
the addition of wheat plants and wildlife friendly plants.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Dr. Rollins. Designate NRCS as the technical agency for the
CRP instead of their just saying they're typically better
trained for the wildlife needs. And continue with the EQIP
program and expanding quail focus areas here in Texas.
I appreciate your support.
Dr. May. Thank you, Dr. Rollins.
Ron Mittelstedt of Sweet Springs Winery.
Mr. McBride.
STATEMENT OF EDDIE McBRIDE, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LUBBOCK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. McBride. Chairman Conaway, Mr. Peterson, Members of the
Committee, and our good friend Congressman Arrington. Thank you
for the opportunity to come make the business case for
agriculture today.
My name is Eddie McBride. I'm the President and CEO of the
Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and I represent over 2,000 job
creators and the 79,000 workers they employ in west Texas. The
ag committee in the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce has been around
since 1913, and since we began with that, obviously,
agriculture has been a huge part of our overall operations of
the Chamber of Commerce for over 100 years. Chamber business
leaders and members have been heavily involved with the
agribusiness community and directly affected by their successes
and struggles, and your successes and struggles as well.
We come before you today out of the increasing concern for
our cotton industry. Agriculture compromises 33 percent of our
total economy in the Lubbock region, and about 80 percent of ag
economic activity within 80 miles of Lubbock is directly tied
to cotton production and processing. The producers in Texas and
across the Cotton Belt are struggling with the effects of the
low prices, high input costs, weak demand and growing
competition from foreign producers who are heavily subsiding,
including India and China.
Increasing cost of production, combined with not only
having a safety net for cotton during the these low prices for
both lint and seed is seriously jeopardizing their ability to
stay in business. The thousands of family farmers who grow
cotton in our area are in jeopardy without the safety net
provided by title I programs and the short-term assistance from
ginning cost-share until cotton can be added back to title I.
We respectfully urge you to take action before the entire
industry is lost along with the infrastructure and even the
communities in the rural areas.
Agriculture, truly, is a huge business in Lubbock and is a
vital part of our economy. When times are tough for cotton, we
all feel the effects, and that's why Lubbock business supports
agriculture.
Thank you very much for the privilege to have a chance to
address y'all today, and thank you very much for coming here.
We also, again, want to thank Angelo State for the
opportunity, Dr. May, to be here as well.
Thank you, guys.
Dr. May. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. McBride.
Ben Scholz, Texas Wheat Producers Association President.
Mr. Mittelstedt.
STATEMENT OF RON MITTELSTEDT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SWEET
SPRINGS WINERY, WEATHERFORD, TX
Mr. Mittelstedt. Good afternoon. My name is Ron
Mittelstedt. I'm a farmer, and my family came in from Germany
in 1846. And I ended up in the grape industry and growing
grapes for the wine industry.
And recently I've come across a new product that is
somewhat controversial and I would like to bring it to your
attention. I'm talking about hemp in the sense that how many
things that hemp can be used for. And I want to bring to your
attention so you would consider that as a product that brings
attention, not only for the construction things for hemp, but
also for the nutrition parts that hemp oil brings to the
country.
I would like to see that the people of the United States
see that there is another commodity, another plant that could
be grown throughout the United States that can bring dollars to
the agriculture community.
There are a lot of things to do in this country as far as
growing things, but the hemp is outside the box, and I would
like for you to consider that as one of the commodities.
Thank you, sir.
Dr. May. Thank you, sir.
Ben Scholz.
STATEMENT OF BEN SCHOLZ, PRESIDENT, TEXAS WHEAT PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION, LAVON, TX
Mr. Scholz. Good afternoon. My name is Ben Scholz. I live
in northeast Texas and I had the privilege of going to the same
school as Chairman Conaway went to. Anyway, I grow crops of
wheat and corn, grain sorghum, and have served in leadership
positions with the Texas Wheat Producers and also as the
Treasurer of the National Association of Wheat Growers.
But today I'm going to tell you my story as a farmer. With
the drastic drop in prices today, the question stays in my mind
as an industry leader is how can I and my fellow farmers stay
in business? And I want to quickly run through three scenarios
for things and issues that I think are important to this.
First, is crop insurance and today I know you will probably
hear it a thousand times that crop insurance is indispensable.
And all I'm going to say here is it's absolutely true.
The second issue is price protection. We've heard a lot
about PLC today, but I would like to lend this thought. Last
year wheat farmers across the country faced prices so low that
the loan deficiency payments were tripled. We simply must
continue to have adequate price protection for our wheat acres.
I try to accomplish this through PLC and purchasing a revenue
based crop insurance policy. I will tell you now that the
reference price of PLC will not always keep me in business. But
equally important in my mind are efforts to market at least 50
percent of our wheat production overseas annually. We need to
drastically increase funding for NAFTA and FMD funding so we
can continue to reach and develop markets for our product.
And third, and most important, and that's the financing
aspect of our business. And the previous two items I just
mentioned simply won't get us financed for another year without
supporting those areas.
In the world I farm in, in the urban environment, it's been
in my farming and I won't be replaced by another farmer. Most
of it will most likely go to a new shopping center or housing
development. In saying that I feel like we need to do one
thing, and that is make sure we get the details right in crop
protection insurance, strengthen title I, and most importantly,
invest in the ability to market our products.
I want to thank you, Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member
Peterson, and all of you Committee Members for coming here to
Texas and listening to our needs in fighting for agriculture.
One other additional comment. In my trips to Washington,
one of the things I try to always leave another Congressman
with a thought. No matter what environment they come from, they
all need agriculture three times a day and we need their vote.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Chase Runyan, Angelo State University.
Also Dan Smith, cotton farmer from Lockney, Texas.
STATEMENT OF CHASE A. RUNYAN, Ph.D., ASSISTANT
PROFESSOR AND RESEARCH SCIENTIST, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
ANGELO STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN ANGELO, TX
Dr. Runyan. Thank you, Dr. May. Committee Chairman, Members
of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to be here and
have your audience here this afternoon.
My name is Chase Runyan. I'm an Assistant Professor and
Research Scientist at Angelo State University and direct the
beef cattle operation at the management and the instructional
research center that, unfortunately, you guys didn't get to see
today, but hopefully if you come back this way you will have a
chance to visit that.
I'm mostly going to speak to you from the perspective of a
fifth generation rancher on my family's operation in eastern
New Mexico.
I would like to address just a couple of comments regarding
my professional appointment here at Angelo State. As an
Assistant Professor I've had an opportunity to come into
contact, firsthand, with the students that we influence and
serve here in west Texas. As a non-land-grant Hispanic serving
institute, we have the opportunity to serve a little corner of
our society; mostly first generation students, oftentimes going
to be students such as myself from rural production agriculture
backgrounds. There is a really strong need to continue the
grant programs and keep funding those for these types of
institutions that serve these graduate and undergraduate
students that come through our university.
From a family's operation as a production agriculturist, a
couple of comments I would like to make. Please continue to
improve and fund the EQIP programs. It's certainly really good
when it comes to using those funds in cooperation with farmers
and ranchers that are in the area. Also, I'd like to encourage
you to continue the disaster relief. I don't believe it's a
matter of if a disaster is going to happen, it's more so about
when is it going to happen and how bad is it going to be.
I appreciate you guys being here. Enjoy your stay at Angelo
State University and enjoy San Angelo, Texas.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Dr. Runyan.
Mike Henson, Texas Grain Sorghum.
Dan.
STATEMENT OF HON. DAN B. SMITH, COTTON PRODUCER; STATE
DIRECTOR, TEXAS FARM BUREAU, LOCKNEY, TX
Mr. Smith. Mr. Conaway, Mr. Peterson, Committee Members, I
want to first of all say how much I appreciate you being here
today to hear our stories.
My name is Dan Smith. I'm a cotton farmer and a member of
the Texas Farm Bureau Board of Directors from Lockney, Texas.
I've been farming for 43 years. This is my 43rd crop. Before
that, I was raised on a farm right there with my dad, so I've
been growing, except for 4 years at Texas Tech University, I've
been right there.
I want to relay a little story. Two years ago I got to
visit the John Deere cotton harvester works in Des Moines,
Iowa. And we went through the assembly line and there were
about 16 stations; everything from a bare frame to the finished
product. They were building picker/bailers. On each one is a
clipboard that shows the options and also shows the final
destination of that machine. Of those 16, one was going to the
dealer in Tennessee and all of the rest were going to Brazil.
And that really drove home a point to me. First of all, I don't
know how much Deere's production goes overseas and I don't
begrudge them for selling it because they're in business to
make money. But that's a machine that a lot of guys like me
would like to have, but you just can't. You're talking $700,000
machines.
And these countries are called developing countries under
the WTO rules; they can get subsidized. But me? Since we're a
developed country, cotton is not even a title I commodity. It's
a generic. And frankly, people, it's killing us.
You've been hearing this about young farmers, and we are
losing them at a rapid rate. And that's serious. This is going
to be my fourth year that I'm praying I can break even. What
I'm saying there is you better start worrying about guys like
me. Therefore, you better start worrying about the entire
industry.
I'm not kidding you, our backs are to the wall. This thing
is serious.
I've had to pay $440 for a sack of cottonseed this year.
And, gentlemen, with 60 cotton, that's just not going to work.
We have to have some help. Cotton has got to be a title I
commodity.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Val Stephens, Texas Farm Bureau State Director.
Mr. Henson.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL HENSON, OWNER, MIKE HENSON FARM; COMMITTEE
MEMBER, TEXAS GRAIN SORGHUM, ROPESVILLE, TX
Mr. Henson. Gentlemen, thank you for allowing me to come
and talk. I'll try to bend down so you can hear me.
Okay. That will be better anyway.
Chairman Conaway, thank you for this opportunity. Ranking
Member Peterson, thank you. Other Members, thank you. I
appreciate it very much.
My name is Mike Henson. I've been farming in Hockley
County, Terry County, and Lowell County for 38 years. I'm a
fifth generation farmer; cotton farmer mainly, but I do grow
cotton, corn, milo, wheat, and I raise cows. I farm about
10,000 acres of farmland and I have about 50,000 acres of
ranchland that I run cows on.
All of these things that everybody else has been talking
about, title I, the insurance, all of those things, y'all know
about all of those. We need that support.
You just heard the cost of equipment. The cost of inputs is
skyrocketing for us. In 2014 I lacked about 50 percent of my
loans paid out; therefore, I had to go back and refinance every
acre of land that I had. And it was all paid for, by the way.
Every acre of that had to be paid for.
I guess what I'm saying is when y'all are in that room and
y'all are considering and you're in these things, I want you to
remember something: This is my life. This is all of these other
people's lives out here. And this is what we do. We enjoy what
we do or we wouldn't be doing it. We realize the risks. We
understand the trials. We understand the tough. We understand
the things and we're willing to take that risk. I just want
y'all to remember that this is not just a business. It's a life
and a lifestyle.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to talk. I
appreciate it.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Henson.
Jose Dodier with Don Jose Cattle Company in Zapata, Texas.
Mr. Stephens.
STATEMENT OF VAL STEPHENS, STATE DIRECTOR, DISTRICT 6, TEXAS
FARM BUREAU, LAMESA, TX
Mr. Stephens. Good afternoon. Neighbor, good to see you
today.
I'm State Director and this is my home district, District
6.
Congressman Conaway, every time you look out your back door
or your back yard you see cropland all the way to the Texas
Panhandle. Every time you come through our county you see the
results of----
Dr. May. Talk a little closer, Mr. Stephens.
Mr. Stephens. You can see our croplands' erosion. You see
the drought.
Congressman, you've heard the comments of crop insurance,
low prices, and the list goes on and on. But when you look
around, and I'm not going to look behind me to see just now,
but most of the farmers in my county are 55, 60, 65 and older,
and we've lost one, if not two, generations behind us. I can't
tell you how much the need is in rural America. Education is
there, and you know that, you've been to my rural school.
Education is not the problem. We are educated and our young
people are going on to college.
Congressman, what you've heard before, if we lose another
generation, what happens to our farmland out your back door?
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you very much, Mr. Stephens.
Sonya Koke with the Dairy Farmers of America in Dublin,
Texas.
STATEMENT OF JOSE DODIER, PARTNER, DON JOSE LAND & CATTLE CO.,
ZAPATA, TX
Mr. Dodier. My name is Jose Dodier from Zapata, Texas and
I'm here to talk to you about the fever tick eradication
program, which is not working. Down in Zapata County, we're
right about in the middle of a 500 mile strip of land along the
Texas-Mexico border that is the seed source. There's been a
recent outbreak. Any time it leaves the permanent quarantine
zone down there, you guys hear about it. We live with it daily.
The eradication plan is destroying the livestock industry
along this strip. Beef producers cannot fully realize the
harvest value of their acres.
Zapata is close to the middle of the strip. When there's an
outbreak, that's when you're going to hear about it. This plan
is 111 years old. Soon there will be more outbreaks. It's just
not working.
The dipping of cattle is expensive; it affects their health
and quality. The hundred percent capture rule is devastating
and forces beef producers to change their pasture management.
Producers are forced to abandon their conservation plans worked
out through NRCS.
In Zapata County, our County Judge, who runs about a
thousand momma cows, has decided ``I'm done.'' He's out of the
business. Our bank president, he's done. He's out of the
business. They don't want to finance loans for ranchers anymore
because of this problem. Now, they've removed their cattle,
they're gone; the ticks are still there. Soon they will migrate
out of that zone. They're using the wildlife. According to the
agent and inspectors, they're convinced that it's deer that
move the tick.
NRCS has been our sole supporter down there. Therefore,
conservation should get a strong title. Down there we produce
natural gas, we produce cattle. We stuck money into the U.S.
Treasury. We've been crying for help, and every now and then we
get a Band-Aid to put on our gaping wound. We've cooperated
with APHIS. It's destroying some of the family businesses. And
the new outbreak is very discouraging.
It falls upon USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission
and you gentlemen, this Committee, to formulate a new
concentrated approach to eradicate this tick. There needs to be
more research. I am sure this University has produced some
brilliant minds that can help us today, but there's no funding.
I would love to see a research station formulated, of
course, in Zapata County. That's why I came here today. We've
been helping to control the fever tick.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Dodier. We're a defensive line that has no cornerbacks,
no linebackers, no coach, no nothing. Gentlemen, please take
this with you. It's going to devastate the State of Texas
eventually. I appreciate your service to our great nation.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Dodier.
Ms. Koke. Good afternoon.
Dr. May. Alex Canepa, Research Director with Farmers Market
Coalition.
Ms. Koke.
STATEMENT OF SONYA KOKE, OWNER, BLUE JAY DAIRY; MEMBER, DAIRY
FARMERS OF AMERICA, DUBLIN, TX
Ms. Koke. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway, Mr. Peterson,
gentlemen.
I'm Sonya Koke from Erath County and I dairy farm with my
husband and family, two dairies, in Erath County. We milk about
2,000 cows. It is a family operation. And through all that is
going on, it has been a challenge often for labor, but also it
is very important with our trade agreement of NAFTA at this
point. A large percentage of our milk goes to Mexico. Actually
it's 15 percent of our dairy products go that way, which makes
it very important for us to keep that open and negotiable with
Mexico, but also including Canada at this point where it came
into this last spring that are in negotiation in the NAFTA and
Canada wasn't quite where it needed to be.
This all comes from my awareness that NAFTA is now 21 years
old, and it is something that needs to be re-looked at and
renegotiated. It also comes to our notice that in this we are
not negotiating on the same level as our other competitors in
the NAFTA. Please re-look at that. And also remember that dairy
is very important and NAFTA is very important to dairy in
moving these products to Mexico and Canada.
Also in all of this, employment comes in. Labor is very
important for us dairy producers. Every day we try to find
people that will work for us or will help with this, and it is
a manual job. There are no machines that can come in and do
this. We actually have to hook up the machines to the cow. I
know there are robots to do this for us, but for a Texas-sized
dairy, we do not have that capability. It's not going to happen
any time soon. Labor is an important part.
I know you have the different visa programs, but a dairy
program, we don't have a harvest season. We have a total of 365
days, 24 hours a day labor needed in this industry. Please look
at your visa programs. There is some options out there that----
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Ms. Koke.--that we can use better and also look deeper into
it.
Thank you for coming down to Texas and visiting with us,
and we hope to hear and look at what your farm bill will bring
out.
Thank you very much.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Koke.
Josh Eilers, a rancher from Austin, Texas.
Alex.
STATEMENT OF ALEX CANEPA, RESEARCH AND EDUCATION DIRECTOR,
FARMERS MARKET COALITION, AUSTIN, TX
Mr. Canepa. Good afternoon, Members of the Committee.
My name is Alex Canepa. I'm the Research Director of the
Farmers Market Coalition here to represent farmers' markets
here in Texas and throughout the country.
There are two programs that are vitally important to
America's farmers' markets in the next farm bill, including the
Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive, FINI, the Farmers' Market
Promotion Program, FMPP.
Congress created the Farmers' Market Promotion Program back
in 2002 to create revenue opportunities for America's
producers, farmers and ranchers, and market directives.
America's farmers' markets have delivered on those promises.
When FMPP was created in 2002, there were 3,000 farmers'
markets in the U.S. and now that's up to 8,600. And the revenue
opportunities that come along with that have also been
incredible. Today there are 167,000 farmers and ranchers
marketing directly to American consumers, and that's creating
$3 billion in direct economic activity. FMPP has been crucial
in this effort. Markets that participated in the FMPP program
have seen their producer's revenues increase by an average of
27 percent and first-time Americans visiting farmers' markets
of 94 percent.
Despite these successes, however, America's farmers'
markets have their work cut out for them. As you guys know,
it's the fourth straight year of falling farm revenue, and
farmers' markets can be a vital lifeline for struggling
producers who've lost wholesale contracts or who are just
trying to diversify their revenue.
Since Secretary Perdue is not here today to say it, the
Farmers Market Coalition, we completely agree with the new
motto at USDA, ``Do right and feed everybody.'' At farmers'
markets we believe that that includes SNAP recipients, which is
why the FINI program, Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive
program is so important. FINI allows recipients of food stamps,
SNAP, to double the value of those benefits at farmers' markets
and some grocery stores that are participating with fresh
fruits and vegetables.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Canepa. Ms. Norman, from Feeding Texas, mentioned that
this program, Double Up Food Bucks, is being offered in Waco,
next stop is Lubbock. And in its first year FINI has offered 27
states and 1,000 farmers' markets generated $14 million in
economic activity for rural communities.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Josh Eilers.
And Don Brown with Idalou Egg.
STATEMENT OF SGT JOSH EILERS, FOUNDER, RANGER CATTLE, LLC,
AUSTIN, TX
Mr. Eilers. Josh Eilers here, gentlemen. Welcome to Texas.
I couldn't think of a better person to follow up because
this follows right into my story line. Everyone has heard my
story of Ranger Cattle and you know I'm military and not really
knowing what I was going to do, so I bought some cattle and I
went to ranching because I lived in Texas. Had zero history in
it.
You talk about we need these young and beginning farmers
and we need to promote them and help them in any way we can,
almost they're like a mythical creature. But they exist, I
assure you. And I'm one of them. But without your continued
support, they won't for long. And the farmers' markets are a
perfect example of that.
At Ranger Cattle in Austin, Texas, I sell my beef every
Saturday at a farmers' market, and we're growing and we're able
to get a premium from that. We're not having to sell to big
wholesalers and get bottom dollar. We're able to create our own
market. And that is essential to an operation and being able to
grow it.
With that, I also want to touch base with veterans; because
everybody loves farmers, everybody loves ranchers, everybody
loves veterans. I can't think of a better way than to just pull
them all together. My dream is that in this new farm bill you
guys will have a preference for veterans, whether it's USDA
grants, because I don't think that we could screw up more as a
society than to let one of our war fighters come back, wants to
get into agriculture, and we don't do everything we possibly
can to do that. Now these are members, just like myself, that
have served in the military, wants to continue serving. Now
that we're transitioning out of war and where all of these guys
are coming home, and it's, like, what are they going to do?
They want to continue to serve, so let's make sure we give them
that opportunity.
Gentlemen, thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Jimbo Grissom with Western Peanut Growers.
Mr. Brown.
STATEMENT OF DON BROWN, OPERATIONS GENERAL
MANAGER, IDALOU EGG RANCH, CHINO VALLEY RANCHERS, IDALOU, TX
Mr. Don Brown. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member
Peterson, and Committee Members for taking the time to visit.
I'm here directly for the farmers in the great State of
Texas. My name is Don Brown. I'm the operations manager for the
Idalou Egg Ranch located near Lubbock, Texas. I've been with
this farm for a little more than a year but have spent my
entire career, almost 40 years, in egg production and laying
management.
Idalou Egg Ranch was originally built in the mid-1980s as
an egg production of commercial white eggs. It was forced to
sell out in 2005 due to poor market conditions.
Our owners bought the farm and their vision was to convert
the entire farm to an organic operation. Today we employ over
40 people on the farm and produce certified organic eggs.
Without USDA National Organic Program and the organic seal, our
farm of 200+ acres and 40 employees would have gone away.
Since 2005 when we became a certified organic operation, we
continue to grow the farm and have bought millions of dollars
of certified corn and soybeans from Texas farmers.
Organic is a voluntarily regulatory program that provides
uniform and consistent standards in order to meet the consumer
expectations. We need adequate authority, accountability and
resources from the USDA National Organic Program. This is
necessary to keep pace with the industry growth, to continue to
set standards and carry out compliance and enforcement actions
in the U.S. and abroad.
In addition, we ask that the USDA listen to the majority of
organic stakeholders that have written letters of support to
the organic livestock, poultry, and packing rule and allow the
rule to move forward as quickly as possible.
We have also had an opportunity in this farm bill to
facilitate transition to organic by improving access to land,
cattle, investment in infrastructure and----
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Don Brown.--targeted technical assistance.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide these words here
today and our industry looks forward to working with the
Committee in developing the next farm bill.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Brown.
Mr. Grissom.
Rick Kellison from Texas Alliance for Water Conservation.
STATEMENT OF JIMBO GRISSOM, SEMINOLE, TX; ON BEHALF OF WESTERN
PEANUT GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Grissom. First off, I want to thank you guys for coming
to west Texas. It's very nice to have you.
I'm a cotton producer and peanut producer and cattle
producer, and I live in Seminole, Texas, about 2\1/2\ hours
north of here.
Some of the things that I thought about talking about was:
you guys know on some of our policies what needs to be done and
what's working and what is not working. I just want to tell
you, like, on my particular farm, since 2008, all we've done is
burn equity, and burn equity, and burn equity.
I had a son that was 36 years old and he worked for me for
10 years and decided that he could go out on his own, and he
lasted 4 years. Now he has a job doing something else.
But there are two things that, really, we grow in our area
around Seminole, Brownfield and that area, and that's cotton
and peanuts. And we would like the continuation of the peanut
program and we would also like for the cotton to be put back in
title I.
Everything that you pick up nowadays talks about farming
kind of being 50 percent from what it was just a few years ago.
Well, that's pretty prevalent on my farm, too.
Thank you very much.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Grissom.
Jeremy Brown with Plains Cotton Growers.
Rick Kellison.
Mr. Kellison. (Inaudible.)
Dr. May. Mr. Kellison, you'll have to move way up.
STATEMENT OF RICK KELLISON, PROJECT DIRECTOR, TEXAS ALLIANCE
FOR WATER CONSERVATION, TEXAS TECH
UNIVERSITY, LOCKNEY, TX
Mr. Kellison. My name is Rick Kellison. I'm a producer from
Floyd County just north of Lubbock, Texas.
In the past 12 years I've also served as the Project
Director for the Texas Alliance of Water Conservation, TAWC. In
2004 TAWC was created as a user group of the project to
demonstrate different agriculture systems and take on systems
to allow producers to use less irrigation water and still
remain profitable.
Partners in this producer-led project include Texas Tech
University, AgriLife Research and Extension, FARM Assistance
Program, USDA-ARS, High Plains Underground Water District, and
is currently funded by the Texas Water Development Board.
Currently we have 18 producers and are comprised of 23 sites
and over 3,800 acres in the southern High Plains counties. Each
site is monitored for water applied and all other production
inputs that determine profit and loss and yield range for water
used. From this information total crop water used can be
determined and used for preparing different irrigation delivery
systems and crop (inaudible).
TAWC has also become a facilitator, transferring
information between producers, academia, industry, commodity
groups, and policy makers. We aid in the demonstration of new
technologies and gather economic impact of these technologies
to share with other users. We have worked with the field-to-
market program and the National Cotton Council to test the
field-to-market calculator. Recently we have entered into an
MOU with (inaudible) to tell the producer's story about
sustainability.
Information from this project is respected and accepted by
producers, crop consultants, and the industry. The information
is being used across state lines and (inaudible). The TAWC
project has demonstrated and communicated methods of increasing
water use efficiency to thousand of water users----
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Kellison.--at conferences, field walks, field days,
fact sheets, and online. This reinforces the need for continued
investments in sound science research directed to specific
needs of production agriculture. Our producers are the people
who continue to do more with less.
Thank you very much. Thank you for coming and thank you for
bringing the good rain. I appreciate it.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Kellison.
Bennie Thiel of the Texas International Producers out of
Lubbock.
Mr. Brown.
STATEMENT OF JEREMY BROWN, PRESIDENT, BROADVIEW AGRICULTURE
INC.; MEMBER, DISTRICT THREE, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, PLAINS
COTTON GROWERS, LAMESA, TX
Mr. Jeremy Brown. Thank y'all for allowing me the
opportunity to address y'all today.
As you noticed, there's not many of us guys that are below
40 here today, and I don't think it's because we don't like to
talk. It's a picture of the industry.
I love farming. There's nothing else I want to do. I've
tried other jobs. In fact, we had a farm bill hearing here many
years ago when I worked for Congressman (inaudible) at the time
as a staffer and I remember just sitting back here thinking, I
don't even know why I'm here. All I want to do is go get on the
tractor.
I'm thankful that I have the opportunity today and I know a
little about farmers; we're resilient. We do have challenges,
but we'll meet those challenges. I do believe that. But I do
think we're going to have to have a strong farm bill to meet
those challenges. I'm a cotton farmer, and as has already been
said, getting cotton back in title I is very crucial to what I
do.
I know you're on Facebook. I was on Facebook the other day
and I was at the Museum of Ag in Lubbock and I took a picture
of this tractor and I said, It's kind of weird, I'm 37 years
old, but there's a tractor in the museum that I grew up driving
and that tractor is so old that it's now in the museum.
(Laughter)
Mr. Jeremy Brown. And what's interesting is, and what I
love about social media is, it goes all over the world and then
all of sudden someone commented and said, ``I bought one of
those tractors brand new in 1979 and I paid $34,000 for that
tractor brand new, and I sold cotton in 1980 for 80 a pound.''
He said, ``The last year I farmed the tractor cost me $228,000
and I sold it for 60 a pound.''
Well, I'm a fourth generation farmer, but my story is a
little bit different. My dad had to get out of farming when I
was at Texas Tech and so I didn't have a family to go back to.
I basically had to start this all over. But I was fortunate
that I married a girl that her dad farmed and she thinks that I
only married her only because her dad farmed.
(Laughter)
Mr. Jeremy Brown. But, sometimes that might be the case.
(Laughter)
Mr. Jeremy Brown. Can you take that out of the public
comment?
(Laughter)
Mr. Jeremy Brown. But, in all seriousness, what Tim
McDonald said from AgTexas, having a strong guaranteed loan
program is crucial for my operation.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Jeremy Brown. I had no equity. The bank looked at me
and is, like, ``What do you have behind the loan?''
I said, ``I'm trying to grow this business.''
I have a neighbor that's 75 years old and he's always
saying, ``Hey, when are you going to buy out my operation?''
How do I go buy 5,000 acres?
But he doesn't have anybody to turn around and farm his
land. So that's the reality that it is. I'm hungry. I'll farm
that land. I'm ready to work and we'll do what we've got to do
to make it work, but we need a strong farm policy to help us.
Thank you for your time.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Brown.
Mr. Thiel.
STATEMENT OF BERNIE J. THIEL, Jr., PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SUNBURST FARMS; DIRECTOR AT-LARGE, TEXAS
INTERNATIONAL PRODUCE ASSOCIATION, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Thiel. Bernie Thiel representing the Texas
International Produce Association. Chairman Conaway, Members,
I'm here to talk to y'all for just a minute about something
that involves everybody in this room if you're involved in
production of agriculture, and that's labor. I understand that
labor will not be touched in the farm bill, which I understand,
but we have a Goodlatte bill that's in front of us right now,
H-2C.
And this is my 45th year in the produce industry, and I'm
going to tell you right now that we have to do something, we
are in a dire situation, and it needs to be done soon. And
that's really the topic I wanted to talk about was that effort.
And, hopefully, you guys will talk to the Members in Congress
that will get behind this because we definitely need it.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, sir.
John R. Giesenschlag with JRG Farms in Snook, Texas.
After him, John Jones with Texas Aquaculture Association.
STATEMENT OF JOHN R. GIESENSCHLAG, OWNER/OPERATOR, JRG FARMS,
SNOOK, TX
Mr. Giesenschlag. Gentlemen, I appreciate the chance to be
here. We've heard a lot of talk about how many generations who
farm. And I have the sixth one working with me now and the
seventh one riding a pedal tractor, so I'm in pretty good
shape.
It's going to be kind of hard to take 50 drops of farming
experience and condense it into less than 2 minutes. But I'm
going to try to address the crop insurance and the farm subsidy
programs in the same topic.
I feel very, very strongly that we have to maintain the
crop insurance program. I think that it is administered
efficiently because it's done through private companies. I
think that you can choose your level of coverage that you want.
I think the product is delivered timely. I think that revenues
are delivered back to the farmer timely, the producer, much
more efficiently than has been done in the other programs that
have been put out there.
From a banking standpoint, I serve as the Chairman of our
loan committee and I know that having crop insurance is
imperative for us to refinance farmers. I think this is how it
will address that.
I also want to touch on the conservation aspect. I fully
believe that we have to have conservation in our ag industry. I
think that conservation should be done through individuals. I
think that we should pay for our own conservation practices. I
think that we can implement a practice much more efficiently
than a government mandated way to do it. I think that we should
be compensated for these conservation practices with tax
incentives.
In my operation I have a lot of rented land. I have
absentee land owners that would like to participate in
improving their property. This would give them incentive
through tax incentives to do this.
Last, I want to tell you that you have to be in the shoes
that I wear each day and feel that it is a great, great
privilege to be able to farm. I thoroughly believe that I was
meant to farm. I plan on doing this all of my days. I have done
many other things in my life, but I have never quit that.
I respect each of you and your opinions, and I'm glad that
you respect ours.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Alan West with the Lubbock County FarmBureau.
Mr. John Jones.
STATEMENT OF JOHN JONES, OPERATIONS MANAGER, LOCHOW RANCH LAKE
MANAGEMENT; PRESIDENT, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, TEXAS AQUACULTURE
ASSOCIATION, BRYAN, TX
Mr. Jones. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson,
Committee Members and staff, my name is John Jones. I'm a lake
management professional, fish farmer, Aggie, and steadfast
supporter of goods produced in America, even more specifically,
produced right here in Texas.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak briefly on behalf of
the Texas Aquaculture Association. And for those among you that
enjoy the taste of fish and health benefits of American-farmed
fish, I thank you.
The Texas Aquaculture Association request U.S. aquaculture
be designated as a specialty crop. With this designation
aquaculture producers will be able to compete for Specialty
Crop Block Grants and to assist with our market analysis and
product promotion. They will also become equally included in
the Farm Service Agency disaster assistance program for
livestock.
We also request expanded authority from the USDA's wildlife
damage management program that works directly with farmers to
reduce bird degradation on farmed fish. Several of the non-
native species of birds that feed on catfish, bass, redfish,
tilapia and other farmed species are currently protected by the
Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Approximately 18 months ago Federal,
state and private aquaculturist's ability to procure a permit
to combat these avian predators was suspended. As of today, and
the foreseeable future, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has been
unable to meet the requirements for the National Environmental
Policy Act to restore our ability to protect our livelihood and
along with the livelihood of those we employ.
We request the USDA be provided with parallel authority to
write bird degradation permits. This authority will immensely
benefit fish farmers who, for the last 18 months, have had no
recourse as non-native predatory birds have decimated their
stocks and driven some producers toward insolvency.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Jones. Thank you again for the opportunity to comment.
Dr. May. Jeff Roper, you're next.
Unidentified Audience Member. Alan went to the restroom.
He'll be right back.
Dr. May. He lost his place in line.
(Laughter)
Dr. May. No, we'll----
Unidentified Audience Member. I was going to but I haven't
gone yet.
(Laughter)
Dr. May. There are a lot of you holding it.
Okay. Get up here, Jeff. We'll get it over quicker that
way.
STATEMENT OF JEFFREY ROPER, OWNER, JEFFREY ROPER FARMS,
LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Roper. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, other
Committee Members, as well as my Congressman and freshman on
the end over here, Mr. Arrington, thank you for coming to
Texas.
My name is Jeff Roper. I farm in Yoakum County, right on
the Texas-New Mexico state line.
Mr. Chairman, I've had the pleasure of hearing you speak on
several occasions this year. One thing that you've talked about
that I've been thinking about is the anniversary of the
Republic and what a great nation we have.
I researched back in my family history to find out that
farming has been in my family since the late 1800s. My dad, my
granddad, his dad, they all farmed. I will be the last one in
my family to farm. I do have a son, a senior in high school,
and he's not going into farming.
In today's climate, margins are too low, it's reached its
all-time high, since I started in 1993. That concerns me, as
well as it should y'all as well, as the number of farmers are
getting fewer and the age of the farmer is getting older.
Every input that we have to put into our crop increases
every year. Even non-crop inputs that we've had increased, as
well as, for example, the health insurance. Mine has doubled
since the implementation of the not-so-Affordable Health Care
Act. Auto and home insurance, property taxes, and the list goes
on and on.
Agriculture is one of the few professions that we have that
we do not get to set the price on the product that we produce.
If margins are not at the level that works, we can't just raise
the price to make up the difference.
It was John F. Kennedy that said that farmers are only the
only ones who buy everything at retail, sells everything at
wholesale, and pays freight both ways.
We also have to suffer and deal with trade deals made by
the government and other countries, for example, NAFTA and the
Trans-Pacific Partnership. Mr. Chairman, I've heard you state
that as far as the TPP, to let the current position serve as a
baseline and not get any worse.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Roper. I would hope that the farm bill will be the same
way.
We, as farmers, go through this every 4 to 5 years, hearing
talk that it's going to be a hard fight to keep what we have,
there will have to be giving and compromise. I believe as
producers we have given and compromised.
You want to know what works and doesn't work? What doesn't
work is the loss of cotton being in the program. Let's put
pressure on every other commodity.
What does work for me is the peanut program. I've been
growing peanuts since 1996. My decision to plant peanuts is not
dictated by the program. It's one of the few programs that has
a true safety net for producers that has a hard price that
gives us assurance that even when the market falls we can make
enough to at least cover our inputs. If it's not been for the
peanut program, I and a lot of other producers would not be in
business today.
And I don't know a farmer out here that wouldn't want to
just grow a crop, sell it for a fair price, and do it again
next year.
Dr. May. Thank you.
Mr. Roper. Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Has Alan West with the Lubbock County Farm Bureau
come back?
Suzie Wilde, a crop insurance agent here in San Angelo.
And then Cal Brints, Executive Director at Texas Certified
Farmers Market.
Ms. Wilde.
STATEMENT OF SUZIE WILDE, CROP INSURANCE AGENT, OASIS CROP
INSURANCE, SAN ANGELO, TX
Ms. Wilde. Good afternoon. It's good to see you again back
home.
I didn't prepare anything, but what I want to let you know
is I'm a crop insurance agent. And everyone in here, and I know
I'm a broken record at this point in time, but I see it day
after day. The crop insurance is vitally important for dryland
farmers, and that's the majority of what you're seeing here.
Just a second. I wasn't ready when he called me up here.
Every week I have to send to the bank the schedules of
insurance for farmers to get their loans. I did that this
morning before I came here. It was for a young farmer who was
just barely going to get his loan.
We have to take care of the crop insurance program. We
can't eliminate anyone. We can't fix these subsidies, cap them,
or we're going to eliminate larger farmers. We have to keep
them in the mix. If we don't, the crop insurance program could
collapse.
Without the crop insurance program I couldn't send that
schedule to the bank for that young farmer. It's vital. We have
to keep it intact. We have to keep the subsidies intact. We
have to keep everyone in the risk pool. That's the big thing on
the crop insurance.
I know that you know this, I know you've heard it, but me
seeing it with farmers all day, every day, believe me, it's
true. That is the bottom line.
If your house burns down, your insurance is going to pay to
get you a new house. When their crops don't come in, when we
don't get to harvest a crop, I don't get to pay them for a
crop. I pay them for a small portion of a crop to, hopefully,
get started on the next year.
It's not like your homeowners, it's not like your auto
insurance. It only pays for a portion. We have to keep that
intact. We have to keep it strong. And that is one of the big
things that's going to help the young farmers, which you've
heard a broken record all day, that will keep them going, too.
Thank you for your time. Thank you for coming to Texas.
(Applause)
Dr. May. Kevin Niehues, come up.
Mr. Brints.
STATEMENT OF CAL BRINTS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TEXAS CERTIFIED
FARMERS MARKET ASSOCIATION, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Brints. I'm Cal Brints, Executive Director of Texas
Certified Farmers Market Association. We have 100 farmers'
market locations across the state, representing about 1,000
farmers that are producing for those markets.
First, I would like to say thank you very much for your
staff. Because of the help your staff has been giving to us so
professionally and efficiently for many years. They work with
limited resources. Kudos to the folks that work with you. Thank
you.
I speak on behalf of our farmers' market association. I've
had 39 years in fruit and vegetable production that mainly goes
to farmers' markets and pick-your-own operations. The farmers'
markets are an important retail outlet for diversified produce
farmers and can make a crucial difference to farmer income.
The USDA programs that connect these low-income shoppers
with farmers' markets, including the Senior Farmers' Market
Nutrition program, the SNAP/FINI programs, and the Farmers'
Market Nutrition program, or sometimes called the WIC Farmers'
Market program, are critical, smart government spending
programs because they help our shoppers buy the healthy food
they need, increase farm income, and very importantly, they
keep that food donor in that local rural community. It is very
critical.
Several farmers' markets, as Alex Canepa said a few minutes
ago, are starting up with the Double Up Food Bucks program, and
this is being done with private funds. We need help to increase
that Double Up Food Bucks program to expand it into other
markets.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Brints. In our market it started last week.
Let me make one, just, glaring comment about what the
situation is in Texas. We have about 330,000 Texans than live
in poverty. We have four million American seniors that live in
poverty. The Senior Farmers' Market program, the bottom line is
that eight percent of American's low-income seniors live in
Texas, but we only get less than \1/2\ percent of the funding
that should come through to Texas for the Senior Farmers'
Market program. We would just like to have the increased
funding that would be just our fair share.
Thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. Brian, hang on just 1 second. Two of our
Members are going to have to go catch an airplane. We talked to
the American Airlines and they really want that plane to leave
on time. Don't be offended, but two of them will slip out here,
excuse me, three of the Members, but the rest of us will be
here.
So, thank y'all.
Dr. May. Kristin Anderson with Texas Agri-Women.
Kevin Niehues.
STATEMENT OF KEVIN NIEHUES, OWNER, KEVIN NIEHUES FARM, INC.;
MEMBER, SOUTHERN ROLLING PLAINS COTTON GROWERS ASSOCIATION,
EOLA, TX
Mr. Niehues. Once again, I want to thank the Committee for
holding this listening session.
My name is Kevin Niehues and I'm a third generation farmer
in the Concho Valley area. I have three brothers and a sister,
all who are in the farming industry also. I'm not sure how my
dad pulled that off. I would hate to do it at this time.
I farm with my brother Brent and we raise cotton, lima
beans, and cattle.
My wife Donna and I have three children; two daughters,
both who are teachers, and a son that graduated from Texas A&M
with a mechanical engineering degree. He went to work for
Peterbilt for 2 years and has recently returned home and is
actively engaged in our farming operation.
A strong crop insurance program is critical to the
environment. One thing is certain in agriculture, there will be
losses in some part of the United States. And you'll also hear
from farmers that clearly demonstrate the value of the crop
insurance protection. With our expanding and growing
expenditures, we are faced with the need for a strong and
viable and affordable tool for managing our risk. This is
imperative, which you've heard over and over, when trying to
acquire cash flow for cash flow from year to year.
Cotton is an essential crop in our farming operation. It is
imperative that comprehensive cotton support is on par and
cottonseed included with other commodities by including them in
the title I in the next year's farm bill.
For me, having a son coming back into the farming industry,
and I have three nephews with my brothers and sister who have
recently joined their family farms, a strong farm bill and crop
insurance program is key for them being successful in farming.
New farm incentives and programs to help these young farmers
will give these young men a chance to succeed.
Thank you for your time.
Dr. May. Thank you, Kevin.
Loree Branham.
Kristin Anderson.
STATEMENT OF KRISTIN P. ANDERSON, AgriEdge SPECIALIST,
SYNGENTA; VICE PRESIDENT, TEXAS Agri-Women, BUNDA, TX
Ms. Anderson. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway and
Committee Members. We're so excited to have you here in Texas.
My name is Kristin Anderson. I'm a cattlewoman originally
from the great Hoosier State of Indiana, but I got to Texas as
fast as I could.
I work here locally from San Angelo all the way to
Beaumont, and cover Waco all the way down to the Rio Grande
Valley, working with a 130 farmers who cover 72 different
commodities.
Just to show you a little bit about the diversity within
the State of Texas, there are three things that I would like to
capitalize on while I have the platform. One, obviously, being
my age. I am the Vice President of Texas AgriWomen; the
youngest executive member by about 30 years. It is imperative
that we have really strong legislative forces that help our
young farmers and ranchers, and excite young people about
getting into ag, whether it's in the farming sector or as a
scientist. As somebody like myself, I work for Syngenta; I work
on the input side, agrichemicals and the seed side of the
business. It is imperative, I won't go on because many other
young people in this room today have talked about the
importance of that issue.
The second thing that I see with a lot of my farmers all
across the state is the issue of labor. The H-2A Workforce
program is something that we really have to focus on. I've seen
fields and fields of things ranging from cabbage to watermelons
have to get chopped up because we didn't get a workforce in
time. And in some cases we only have 72 hours to harvest those
crops. It is extremely important, and I realize that's not part
of the farm bill, but given the platform, we have to educate
more about the importance of labor and getting those in a
timely manner, especially in a state that farms 365 days a
year.
The last thing that really hasn't been touched on today is
the marketing portion, especially within the specialty crop
sector of the farm bill. We have growers that are every single
day farming more from less, and I think that really needs to be
marketed. There are about 20 different crop organizations that
have promotion boards, but a lot of those, the customer and the
consumer who's buying that product at the grocery store is not
seeing the conservation efforts of the farmer, they're not
seeing the stewardship programs that these farmers are
enrolling in, and they're certainly not seeing all the
technology, the data and the metrics that are going on behind
what we're doing in order to produce more from less. And so I
would just really encourage you to look at those marketing
programs and to find a way that we can better increase that
transparency between the farmer and the consumer.
Dr. May. Thank you, Ms. Anderson.
Jimmy Wedel of Corn Producers Association of Texas.
Ms. Brown. Dr. Branham.
STATEMENT OF LOREE BRANHAM, Ph.D., ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR AND RESEARCH SCIENTIST, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
ANGELO STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN ANGELO, TX
Dr. Branham. Good afternoon. Loree Branham with the
Department of Agriculture here at ASU. As an Associate
Professor in the ASU Ag Department I would like to thank you
for your previous support of grant programs benefiting non-
land-grant research and ask for your continued support in the
future.
Our Ag Department believes that the true measure of our
success lies in the ability of our students to go out after
graduation and become productive members of the ag industry. In
other words, can they get a job?
Over the past several years I've been fortunate to be part
of both a capacity building grant, as well as a USDA Hispanic
Serving Institution Education grant; they are both helping to
produce these highly employable graduates.
Through the HSI grant our projects handle developing smart
meat and food scientists. We're able to go out to targeted
outreach efforts in K through 12 classrooms in community visits
and educate under-represented groups on the amazing and diverse
career opportunities available in the ag industry. This grant
has also funded mentor programs and research efforts aimed at
increasing retention of these under-represented students once
they're on our campus. That's where the capacity building grant
kicks in building opportunities for these future
agriculturists.
Partnering with other great non-land-grant institutions
like Texas Tech and California State, Fresno, our food safety
lab was outfitted with cutting edge and industry standard
technology giving our students research opportunities
previously more readily available at larger land-grant
institutions.
Our students are leaving ASU highly sought after by
industry groups for the education they received in the one-on-
one research and production environment available at our
management instruction and research center. This facility is
composed of a 6,000 acre working ranch with production animal
research capabilities, research labs, and federally inspected
meat harvest facility, gives our students a truly pasture-to-
pay education that's been taken to the next level because of
the research opportunities in these non-land-grant granting
programs.
Dr. May. Thank you.
Dr. Branham. So with that, we'd like to say thank you for
your support of the programs in the past and in the future as
you draft the next bill.
Dr. May. Thank you, Dr. Branham.
Michael Paz with the Texas Association of Olive Oil.
Jimmy Wedel.
STATEMENT OF JIMMY WEDEL, MEMBER, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, CORN PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION OF TEXAS, LUBBOCK, TX
Mr. Wedel. Greetings, Chairman Conaway, the Committee, and
my Congressman Jodey Arrington. Thank you for holding this
hearing today and allow those of us involved in Texas
agriculture an opportunity to offer you our input on the new
farm bill.
My farm is located 70 miles northwest of Lubbock in Bailey
County. I grow corn, cotton, wheat, soybeans, and grain
sorghum, all certified organic. I serve in leadership positions
on several organizations, including the Corn Producers
Association of Texas, the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Co-Op,
Organic Trade Association, and Capital Farm Credit. However, my
comments today are my own views.
We need a farm bill that continues to ensure the consumers
a safe and affordable food supply. As you're well aware, farm
income has declined almost 50 percent since 2013. Thus, it's
critical that we develop a farm program that is truly a safety
net. Not a shallow-loss program such as the previous ARC
program. We need a PLC program that works for farmers and
consumers that has a reference price point that's high enough
to be a true safety net, and also should be indexed to reduce
our inflation cost.
Farmers should be allowed to update basis deals for program
land of stock crop done by farming. Cotton should be put back
in the title I program. Crop insurance is a vital part of the
farm safety net and the farm bill should maintain affordable
crop insurance. I oppose any limitations to the crop insurance
that would limit or discourage participation. As was mentioned
before, it would be detrimental to the program.
Also, the nearly $50 billion a year organic industry is a
bright spot in our farm economy. Organic agriculture boosts
local economies, raises household income and reduces poverty
level, and creates long-lasting benefits for rural areas.
Organic provides a profitable option to conventional farmers
and a unique opportunity for aspiring farmers, and healthier
choices to consumers. Organic thrives and organic supports
rural areas and is recognized. The organic sector relies on
well-funded support for organic through USDA's National Organic
Program. What we need in the 2018 Farm Bill are policies and
protections that strengthen the integrity of the USDA organic
seal and boosts investment in research of organic acres.
Also, the Farm Credit System is very important to the
organic agriculture and conventional agriculture industry and a
broader role of----
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Wedel.--credit and finance efforts to rebuild rural
infrastructures should also be fostered.
The 2018 Farm Bill needs to ensure stability for farmers
both in times of prosperity and in times of regressed prices
and adverse weather.
Thank you for this opportunity to comment.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Wedel.
Heath Hill with the Texas Corn Producer.
Mr. Paz.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL PAZ, PRESIDENT, TEXAS
ASSOCIATION OF OLIVE OIL, HELOTES, TX; ON BEHALF OF AMERICAN
OLIVE OIL PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Paz. Chairman Conaway, Members of the Committee, thank
you for holding this listening session in the great State of
Texas.
My name is Michael Paz and I'm an olive grower in Cotulla,
Texas. I'm also the President of the Texas Association of Olive
Oil. We represent about 3,000 acres of olives here in Texas.
Olive oil production in Texas has been growing, including
an olive orchard planted and in place in your district, Mr.
Chairman. We're still a developing industry here in Texas and
the U.S. but one that is worth the government's investment.
To meet current U.S. demand of olive oil, 450,000 acres of
trees need to be planted. We currently have 44,000 in the U.S..
Today, the State of Texas has 270 growers managing over 4,000
acres of olives, which produced 21,000 gallons of olive oil
last year.
We still have a lot to learn, which is why the Specialty
Crop Block Grant and the Specialty Crop Research Initiative
programs are so important to our young industry. Since 2010
these programs have provided vital funding for research,
education and marketing efforts for our industry. Our
producers, along with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension are teaming
up on a SCRI grant with the American Olive Oil Producers
Association, as well as other producers and Texas universities.
This research will help grow the olive industry. The
government's investment in these programs will continue to
build specialty crop industries, create jobs, and help feed our
nation.
In Texas we currently do not have crop insurance for
olives. But the Tree Assistance Program and the NAP program
were made available to us for the first time last year. We ask
you to continue to fund these assistance programs as they
provide a vital safety net for our Texas growers.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Paz. Thank you for your time and all you do for
American agriculture.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Paz.
Bill Belew of Southern Rolling Plains Cotton Growers.
Mr. Hill.
STATEMENT OF HEATH HILL, CORN, WHEAT, SORGHUM, CATTLE PRODUCER,
GRUVER, TX
Mr. Hill. Yes. My name is Heath Hill. I'm a small farmer in
Sherman County in the far north Panhandle. We grow corn, wheat,
sorghum, kids, cattle. A little bit of everything we can.
I would like to thank y'all, first of all, for sticking it
out and hanging with us a little bit longer than the other
three did.
(Laughter)
Mr. Hill. I don't envy y'all's position this year on this
2018 Farm Bill. But something I would like for y'all to
consider for the farm bill is an increase in the reference
price in the ARC and PLC programs. To have a bankable and
adequate price protection program such as the PLC, the
reference price must be set at a level which would provide
protection when prices decline significantly. That's nothing
new.
But the 2014 Farm Bill price was at $3.70, which was so far
below the actual cost for production in the PLC program that
less than ten percent of the U.S. corn farmers and less than
ten percent of the corn base was enrolled in the PLC program.
The Corn Producers Association of Texas has contended since
2010 that the reference price for the ARC and PLC program
should be in the $4 a bushel range for an adequate price
protection. There's been recent work done by the Ag and Food
Policy Center at Texas A&M which indicates a reference price of
$4.04 for the ARC and the PLC program is justifiable based on
the current cost of production.
This is the biggest one for me being a young farmer and
trying not to be another statistic, is that ag lenders could
easily see that if the price of corn is below the reference
price, then the programs contained in title I will begin to
make payments, and with these payments coming in at a break-
even cost, or even a little bit closer to it, I have something
more to take to my banker and don't have to rely on somebody
else trying to pony up the money and then worrying about them
having to go broke supporting me.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Hill. We would strongly recommend including an
adjustment package for the ARC and PLC reference price based on
the cost of production increases. This adjustment factor would
keep the reference price relevant as the cost of the production
increases.
God bless y'all and thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Hill.
Will Collier with the Dairy Farmers of America from Snyder,
Texas.
Mr. Belew.
STATEMENT OF BILL BELEW, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, B&M BELEW
FARMS; MEMBER, SOUTHERN ROLLING PLAINS COTTON GROWERS
ASSOCIATION, WINTERS, TX
Mr. Belew. Good afternoon.
Is this thing on?
Mr. Chairman, thanks for being my Congressman, and the rest
of the Committee for being here. I graduated here in 1996 and
actually had Dr. May as a proctor back then before he got
famous.
(Laughter)
Mr. Belew. Anyway, I've been farming for 21 years, and when
I left here I never thought that I would be before an
Agriculture Committee hearing. I thought that we would just go
get on the tractor and make a living. But times are tough in
our area.
I have a 10 year old and he eats, breathes and sleeps
farming, and I hope that he can do it.
I encourage you to not make any cuts to crop insurance.
We're at the bare minimum as to what it is. If there's any way,
let's get cotton back in title I.
And I just appreciate your time. And if there's any way
that we can have a gin cost-sharing assistance program, that
would be a plus.
Dr. May. Thank you, Bill.
Dave Cure from the Southwest Council of Ag in Stratton,
Colorado.
Will Collier.
STATEMENT OF WILL COLLIER, DAIRY PRODUCER, T&K DAIRY; MEMBER,
DAIRY FARMERS OF AMERICA, SNYDER, TX
Mr. Collier. Congressman, thank you for your time today.
My name is Will Collier. I'm a fourth generation dairy
farmer from Snyder, Texas. My wife and my three children, we
take pride in producing milk for America. And we also farm
6,000 acres of feed for our cows, and also cotton. We run meat
cattle. And we look forward to being in agriculture for a long
time.
In doing so, in the dairy industry, 4 years ago, 5, in the
last farm bill we pushed hard for the Margin Protection
Program, the MPP. We thank you for putting that in the farm
program. But there are a few tweaks that we ask to be looked at
and it's a safety net for dairy producers, and it's at a point
where we can't afford to buy that protection for our farm
because it's not priced the right way for us to make it work.
When the price goes down and feed goes back up, we need a
protection program to help us stay in business. We ask y'all to
take a look at that when y'all come to it.
Also, labor. I know y'all have heard that a lot today. The
H-2A program is not for milking cows, and that's something that
we do 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. And it's hard to find
Americans that want to milk cows; we've tried it and they last
a couple of days.
I've also applied and we've done some J-1 visas for student
workers from Central America; those are short-term programs, 3
months. And we've had one that wanted to come back, and tried
to do an H-2B. Well, we spent a couple of thousand dollars 2
years in a row, and it's like a lottery. And I don't play the
Texas Lottery and I signed up for that lottery twice and I
didn't get picked, they only have a certain amount.
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Mr. Collier. If y'all could, just look at the labor issues
and help get documented workers here to help us get our cows
milked.
We thank you for your time and y'all have a great day.
Dr. May. Thank you, Will.
Donnie Schwertner, Kasberg Grain Company.
Mr. Cure.
STATEMENT OF DAVE CURE, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, SOUTHWEST
COUNCIL OF AGRIBUSINESS, STRATTON, CO
Mr. Cure. Chairman Conaway, and Committee Members, I
haven't been this nervous since I proposed to my wife 38 years
ago.
(Laughter)
Mr. Cure. I'm from Stratton, Colorado where my wife and I
have a farm and ranch combination. We're about 30 miles from
Congressman Marshall's district. And actually my son and
daughter-in-law just moved to Goodland, so they are in your
district.
But I'm here to talk to you about the term mandatory base
reallocation. And I don't have a problem with base
reallocation, it's the word mandatory. I'm a (inaudible) and I
don't think the word mandatory should be in the farm bill.
In eastern Colorado, serving under Congressman Marshall,
we're aware of and we have the open wildlife property. And
we're trying very hard to conserve water. In 2008, we shut down
13 irrigation wells and went completely dry now. We've been
working over the years, and in the last 5 years we've planted
eight different crops. Four of them are non-programmed crops.
And we're doing that, not only to put it into a rotation, and
some of them are for our livestock operation, but to cut back
on wheat resistance in the no-kill operation.
We're working very hard to save water, save our soil, and
to keep from creating a bigger problem with wheat resistance.
And to be punished, then, by saying that we have to have
mandatory, because then 45 percent of our base will be lost.
And so all of the work and investment we've done over the
years, in equipment, land, and research goes down the tubes
because we lose that and we can't come back and plant those
crops. I mean, we can come back and plant them, but we don't
have any safety net.
So for that, I thank you for your time.
Dr. May. Thank you, Mr. Cure.
Celia Cole, CEO Feeding Texas.
Donnie.
STATEMENT OF DONNIE W. SCHWERTNER, OWNER, KASBERG GRAIN
COMPANY, MILES, TX; ON BEHALF OF TEXAS GRAIN AND FEED
ASSOCIATION, NATIONAL GRAIN AND FEED COUNCIL
Mr. Schwertner. Mr. Conaway, thank you. I am a fourth
generation farmer that does not exist. My dad farmed and he
retired a few months ago. I do, however, own the Kasberg Grain
Company in Miles and I am in agriculture. And now I have my
back to all of my customers, and it's not my fault your income
is down 50 percent.
(Laughter)
Mr. Schwertner. That is what most believe.
I am here, actually, representing the Texas Grain and Feed
Association and the National Grain and Feed Council with a
short memo to y'all. Both councils strongly believe prime
farmland should not be enrolled in CRP. CRP enrollment should
be focused exclusively on marginal lands, which are more
erodible and less productive. Both councils recommend that CRP
enrollment should be limited to no more than 10 to 15 percent
of a county's cropland, and that waiver authority to enroll
more of this percentage be eliminated.
To defend beginning farmers, the National Grain and Feed
recommends capping CRP rental rates at 90 percent of the most
recent rates derived from National Agricultural Statistics
Service surveys of dryland cash rental rates for cropland.
They also believe that scarce Federal funding should be
targeted at working land conservation programs, such as CFP and
EQIP, which promote agriculture sustainability. Both the TGFA
and NGFA urges Congress to retain the current CRP acreage cap
of 24 million acres and avoid repeating the mistakes of the
past CRP, which was an ill-conceived supply/control program.
On behalf of the Texas Grain and Feed Association, Tara
Artho, and Bobby Frederick from the Legislative Affairs of the
National Grain and Feed Council, we thank you.
Dr. May. Thank you, Donnie.
Sheila Hemphill, Texas Hemp Industries Association Policy
Director.
Ms. Cole.
STATEMENT OF CELIA COLE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, FEEDING
TEXAS, AUSTIN, TX
Ms. Cole. Good afternoon, Chairman Conaway and Members.
Thank you for sharing your time with us here today.
I'm Celia Cole. I'm the CEO of Feeding Texas. We're the
state association that represents all 21 food banks in Texas
that are a part of the Feeding America network.
And I'm here today to share two recommendations with you
related to the SNAP program. First and foremost, we urge you to
maintain the current funding levels and preserve its
entitlement structure. This is the only way that SNAP will
continue to be able to reach all of those who need it and
remain responsive to changes in the economy.
Having a SNAP program is also critical to the very good
public-private partnerships that our food banks have developed
to help break the cycle of food insecurity and reduce the need
for SNAP in the long-term. The best example of that kind of
public-private partnership is one that our food banks have with
many of the people here today, with farmers and growers. We
work with them to rescue the produce they can't sell but that's
perfectly edible and nutritious and get that produce out to the
hungry Texans that we serve. We, then, pair that produce
distribution with education to help our clients lead healthier
and more productive lives, again reducing their need for SNAP
in the future. We have big and bold goals to distribute more
produce and take those programs statewide, but we can only do
that if we know that a strong SNAP program is there for our
clients when they need it.
The second recommendation, really, is strengthening the
SNAP employment and training program. Although SNAP is not a
jobs program, and we don't think it should be treated as such,
we do think there are some concrete steps that can be taken to
strengthen SNAP's role in connecting able-bodied adults to work
when they're struggling to find jobs.
Specifically, we urge a stronger up-front case management
approach. To look at SNAP employment and training programs in
Texas and across the country, we do very little up front to
figure out which clients actually need our help and what kind
of services they need, and then provide those kind of services
that really will get them into the workforce, and in the long-
term, off SNAP. We recommend a much stronger approach up front
that then leads to a tiered system of work departments where we
target services to those that most need it, and provide
services that will help people get back on their feet. But most
importantly, make sure that when a client needs something that
falls outside of the scope of SNAP, that they're not punished
for continuing to struggle to find work.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today and
thank you for your time.
Dr. May. Ms. Hemphill.
STATEMENT OF SHEILA HEMPHILL, POLICY DIRECTOR, TEXAS HEMP
INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION, BRADY, TX
Ms. Hemphill. Thank you so much.
I'm Sheila Hemphill, Policy Director for the Texas Hemp
Industries Association.
I'm so happy to have these few moments to share with you
what I see as a bright future for agriculture with a new
commodity that has been banned for the last 70 years for being
falsely accused of being a narcotic, which it is not.
Industrial hemp is from the Cannabis Sativa L. species,
from the variety Cannabis Sativa L. Depending on the gene
predisposition determines whether or not you have a hemp plant
or a marijuana plant.
We're as grateful for the 2014 Farm Bill that defined
industrial hemp under Section 7606 as containing 0.3 percent or
less of THC so you don't get high on hemp. But I'll tell you
what you do get with hemp. You get food, fiber, building
materials. You get a crop that takes half as much water as
cotton with little to no pesticides or herbicides that can
produce crops that grow anywhere from 12 to 15 for fiber.
Different varieties will have different heights of it.
Depending upon the gene predisposition depends on what kind of
plants you get.
Getting a marijuana plant from a hemp plant is like getting
a Great Dane from two Chihuahuas. It's not going to happen.
(Laughter)
Ms. Hemphill. Now, we all have packets for everyone, and I
guess we'll have to run out to the airport to get those other
three gentlemen their packets. I hope that you will look at
these packets. In here you will find that in Texas we are on
the Republican platform, the Democratic platform, and on the
Texas Farm Bureau policy manual.
I believe every Member of this Committee, except for the
two Texans, have industrial hemp policies in their state.
Thirty-three states now offer their farmers to grow it.
We are asking that the newly filed H.R. 3530 that was filed
Friday by Representative Comer, which is the Industrial Hemp
Act, that would federally take industrial hemp off of the
Controlled Substance Act making it eligible for banking and
crop insurance.
We have heard the demise of rural Texas and rural America.
There is no greater lifestyle that has been depicted this day.
It's no different from state to state. Farmers are the salt of
the Earth. They are our primary defense. They are our primary
health care providers. They are the roots of every urban area
starting out urban. And it's these policies of this government
that is going to determine the future of farming.
I plead with you to look through this farm bill, in fact,
you might go dig up where those wool and mohair incentives went
to back in the 1990s because that was responsible for
collapsing large industries in this area and I'm still mad
about it.
(Laughter)
Ms. Hemphill. I ask you----
Dr. May. So am I.
Ms. Hemphill. Thank you, Chairman Conaway. Since 2005 I've
been looking for ways to revitalize rural economies. This plant
has the potential. We have letters of intent to do research
from Texas Tech followed by (unintelligible).
Dr. May. Ten seconds.
Ms. Hemphill. We have letters of intent, and producer
contracts waiting. We have to free it up. So free the hemp.
Thank you for your time.
(Laughter and applause)
Dr. May. Mr. Chairman, we have one more for you. Doug Wilde
for the Southern Rolling Plains Cotton Growers.
STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS WILDE, VICE PRESIDENT,
SOUTHERN ROLLING PLAINS COTTON GROWERS
ASSOCIATION, SAN ANGELO, TX
Mr. Wilde. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and Committee
Members.
My name is Douglas Wilde. I'm a fifth generation cotton
farmer from Wall, Texas. My wife and I farm 3,000 acres of
cotton in three counties here in west Texas.
I'm going to kind of sound like broken record again. I'll
be quick. title I cotton, cottonseed; we don't care how to get
it there, just get it there.
And back to crop insurance. It is of vital importance to my
business. You can ask my banker, you can ask any of the bankers
in here; we wouldn't be farming without it. It is truly a
necessity.
Last, the U.S. cotton industry is heavily dependent on our
export markets. Seventy-five percent of the cotton that we
raise is exported, mostly to China for mills over there. By
creating and continuing stable markets, foreign markets, and
marketing loan programs that we have in place, it continues the
future of our agriculture. And this is in west Texas.
Jim Sugarek mentioned it earlier, the term sustainable and
sustainable ag. I have a little different definition as to
sustainable ag. It's to be in business next year and to leave
my farm to my 18 month old little boy, who, he doesn't want to
ride on the pedal tractor anymore. He wants to go out and ride
on the big tractor. At 18 months old he knows what he wants to
do the rest of his life and I sure hope I can provide that for
him.
Thank you very much. And thank y'all for coming on the farm
tour this morning. As soon as we left we got over 1" of rain,
so y'all come back any time you want.
(Laughter)
Mr. Wilde. Thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. May. I believe we're out of time, unless you want to
extend the time.
The Chairman. Well, I think we may have come to the limit
of our rear ends and our bladders.
(Laughter)
The Chairman. What I will do is this: If you will bear with
me, the five of us will run to do a quick press availability,
and then we'll come back in the room and talk individually with
those of you who maybe didn't have a chance to speak to the
broader group because we do want to hear from you.
Thanks to the school. You guys have done a terrific job.
Thanks to my staff for putting all of this together and
making this come off so flawlessly. It's a lot of great work
that went on.
I can't tell you how impressed I am with the comments we've
heard today. Some really heartfelt comments that obviously
touched the heartstrings of each and every one of us, some good
policy thoughts, and just a terrific 3 hours of listening to
producers across this great state tell us what is working and
what's not working.
This has actually exceeded my expectations of what I hoped
my Committee Members would hear from the folks that I get to
hear from most all of the time, and we're anxious to get about
the process of writing this new farm bill. It currently
expires, as you know, September 30, 2018. I am driven to get it
done and renewed before it expires. The last time that
happened, Larry Combest did it, and I'm trying to walk in those
big shoes to get that done as well.
The drama associated with expiration and short-term
extensions and permanent law threats and all of that drama, I
hope you need to go to a different theater to experience that
this time because we're going to get it done.
The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee,
Pat Roberts, said at a public hearing the other day, Mitch
McConnell, that he wants to do the Senate version in 2017, and
McConnell said, ``The quicker the better, the sooner the
better.''
I've talked to our leadership and I hope to have the House
version on the floor at the end of the fourth quarter of
calendar 2017, first quarter of calendar 2018, which will give
us time to make those hard, difficult decisions that we'll have
to make to get this thing done on time. We will collectively
need the wisdom of Solomon to make this happen. We are going
to, as I said earlier, we've got a better story to tell in
terms of why we need this farm bill and what's there.
President Trump has said he wants a good farm bill done,
and we've got trade negotiations going on, Bob Goodlatte has
the H-2C program moving forward. We're addressing these things.
They're not happening anywhere near as fast as you want them
to, nor as fast as I want them to. But with respect to the farm
bill, we intend to get that done and get that done on time.
This September we'll celebrate the 230th anniversary of our
Constitution. That document that the Framers put together that
we've been allowed to live under for some 232 years.
Benjamin Franklin was the oldest fellow there, and when he
finished up, he came out and he was asked, ``What have you
given us, good doctor, a monarchy or a republic?''
And he looked at the lady and said, ``A republic, madam, if
you can keep it.''
Think about that phrase. ``If you can keep it''.
For 230 years we've kept the republic, or somebody has on
our behalf, and we've enjoyed it for all of these years.
John Adams wrote that only a moral and religious people can
self govern, that amoral and immoral people have to have a
different scheme altogether.
Only self governing folks can keep the republic. That's
happened.
As I look at our country and as I see the things that go on
day in and day out, I'm genuinely concerned that we're losing
that moral high ground, that we're losing the authority in
which to self govern.
We've killed 57 million babies in 44 years. There are lots
of things going on in this country that God cannot and will not
bless. The breakup of the nuclear family and the impact that
has on the moral compasses of children.
You've all heard several folks talk about how important it
is to hand down these farming traditions to this next
generation of families. That's where the core, that's where the
heart of this country exists is in rural America, and that's
why most of us are so driven to try to protect rural America
and production agriculture to make that happen, because that's
where all of those values that sustain this republic are in
safe keeping, it occurs in rural America.
What do we do about that moral decline? What do we do about
that moral high ground that we're seeing slipping away from us?
Well, it's an individual fight. I can't legislate it, it's
a individual deal. It's not a collective. It's an individual
deal; me, my job, your job, to reclaim that moral high ground.
You do it by living a code. You live it by living the
Judeo-Christian Bible. Jesus Christ is my personal savior and I
try to live his tenets every single day, and some days I'm
better at it than others. But you've got to live the code as
well.
You and your family and neighborhoods, your cities and
states, all of us have those concentric rings of influence
where every day we have to go about the hard and arduous task
of reclaiming my moral high ground. Because if we don't, then
we can't self govern. And if we can't self govern, we can't
protect the republic, we can't defend the republic, we can't
keep the republic.
So think about it from time to time whenever you hear
somebody sing God Bless America or you hear somebody ask for
God's blessing. What am I asking God to bless?
And then ask that much more important question: What am I
to do to reclaim that moral high ground? What am I to do to
earn those blessings that God has blessed us with?
``It's a republic, madam, if you can keep it.''
God bless each one of you, God bless Texas, and God bless
the United States of America.
Thank y'all very much. We're adjourned.
(Applause)
(Thereupon, the listening session was adjourned at 4:00
p.m., C.D.T.)
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
(GILFILLAN ESTATES, MORGAN, MN)
----------
THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Agriculture,
Morgan, MN
The Committee met at 9:30 a.m., C.D.T., at Gilfillan
Estates, Morgan, MN, Hon. K. Michael Conaway [Chairman of the
Committee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Conaway, King, Marshall,
Davis, Peterson, Walz, Nolan, Evans.
Staff present: Chris Heggem, Josh Maxwell, Stacy Revels,
Callie McAdams, Rachel Millard, Margaret Wetherald, Troy
Phillips, Keith Jones.
Mr. Thiesse. We're ready for the U.S. House Agriculture
Committee listening session to begin. I want to welcome
everyone. Great to see a whole building full here, and we can
thank Congressman Peterson for this cool weather, he requested
it, so give him a hand.
(Applause)
Mr. Thiesse. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to
U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway and
he'll take over from here. Please welcome him.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
The Chairman. Thank you, Kent.
(Applause)
The Chairman. Thank you, everybody. Please join me in a
brief prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for the
multitude of blessings that you have bestowed upon this
country. Thank you for this land. Thank you for these hard
working men and women who work this land to provide Americans
with the safest, most abundant and affordable food and fiber
supply of any developed nation in the world. That does not come
by accident, Lord. Thank you for the role these people play.
Help us be good listeners today, this morning, as we go about
the business of trying to craft good farm policy. Please give
us wisdom and discernment to understand what's in the best
interest of each of the areas we try to represent. Be with us
this morning. Please bless us to your service, we ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.
I'll ask Spencer Flood, who is the state treasurer of the
FFA, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.
Mr. Flood. Please join me in a salute to our flag.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Mr. Flood. Thank you. You may be seated.
The Chairman. Thank you. Collin, would you give us some
wisdom here, lad.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. COLLIN C. PETERSON, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Collin C. Peterson of Minnesota. Well, thank you, Mr.
Chairman, and thank you for coming to Redwood Falls, and also
the other Members of the Committee. I'm pleased that we've got
eleven Members here today to listen to people. You are in
ground zero of some of the best agricultural land and
production in the United States here. We were in Mike's
district on Monday, and we heard a lot about cotton and peanuts
and those kinds of things, which are important. Today you'll
probably hear a little bit about corn and soybeans, dairy and
sugarbeets, and some of the issues that we have in our part of
the world.
We're proud of our production. We have as good of
production in this part of the world as there is anyplace, and
just for the folks that are not familiar, the crop doesn't look
too bad, but it's not as good as normal. We've had our
challenges this year. We've had weather challenges. The crop
looked really ragged at the beginning, but it's kind of come
back, but it's not as good as we've had some other years, so
you need to come back when we really have a bumper crop. We are
committed here, Mike and I and the Committee, to getting the
farm bill done. We'd like to get it done this year. It's going
to be depending on CBO scores and those kinds of issues, but
we're going to get started here shortly, and we're here today
to listen, so you're not going to hear a lot of speeches,
you're not going to hear a lot of questions out of us, we're
hear to listen to you, so thank you all for being here. Mike,
thank you for bringing the Committee and let's get on with it.
The Chairman. All right. Well, thank you, Collin.
(Applause)
The Chairman. What I'd like to do right now is turn to our
Members and ask each one of them to introduce themselves
briefly and tell you the committees they serve on, and if
they're on the Agriculture Committee and subcommittees so
you'll have a sense of who you're talking to this morning, so
why don't I start with Steve King. Steve.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE KING, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM IOWA
Mr. King. Yes. My name is Steve King. I represent Iowa's
Fourth Congressional District, and that's all of northwest
Iowa, most of northcentral Iowa. I go east as far as two
counties from Wisconsin. We're corn, beans, cattle, hogs and
eggs, and our roots go down about the same way yours do, so
it's great to see a full building here today. I've been on the
Agriculture Committee for 15 years and this will be probably
farm bill number three that we're getting ready to do, so I'm
anxious to hear what you're going to have to deliver. Thanks.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RODNEY DAVIS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM ILLINOIS
Mr. Davis. I am Rodney Davis from Illinois, central
Illinois. Not too many specialty crops outside of being the
horseradish capitol of the world, but we have our own specialty
crops, corn and soybeans. And I'm excited to be here. It's
great to be able to serve on the Agriculture Committee with
Chairman Conaway and Ranking Member Peterson and the rest of
the folks up here, and we're here to hear from you so we can
craft good policy for your future and for our future. Thanks
for having me.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER W. MARSHALL, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM KANSAS
Mr. Marshall. Good morning everybody. I'm Roger Marshall
from Kansas. I want to acknowledge Zippy Duvall out here in the
audience. Zippy, stand up here, from American Farm Bureau. A
great friend to all of my Farm Bureau folks back in Kansas.
Glad to have you here. I'm on the Nutrition Subcommittee and
the Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit Subcommittee as
well, and I look forward to listening.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KRISTI L. NOEM, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
Mrs. Noem. Good morning everyone. I'm Kristi Noem. I
represent the entire State of South Dakota in the U.S. House, I
was first elected in 2010. And my whole life and passion is
agriculture. I took over as general manager of our 10,000 acre
farm and cow/calf operation when my dad was killed in an
accident at the age of 49, so we got hit with death taxes at
that time and it got me passionate about making sure that we
had people who understood agriculture representing us in
Washington, D.C. Now, in the House there are 435 Members, but
there are less than 36 people who represent rural districts, so
we have to educate a lot of people in the House of
Representatives about agriculture and how important it is. And
I talk about it from a national security standpoint, that if
this country doesn't feed ourselves, then we're dependent on
another country, then they control us, so it's important we get
a good strong farm bill. I served on the Agriculture Committee
during the last farm bill. Now I serve on Ways and Means, which
has jurisdiction over taxes and trade, and so we're actively
making sure that we open up new markets as well, so thank you
for letting me be here today.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TIMOTHY J. WALZ, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Walz. Well, good morning everyone. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for coming here. I assure my southern friends, this
is not winter. But, winter is coming, so thank you all for
being here. My district is just south of here, the entire
southern tier of Minnesota, the heart of the heartland, and
some of the most productive land, and, in fact, my county of
Blue Earth County, we're very literal people. The earth is so
rich that it's literally blue is the way it looks. And one of
those constituents who told me he raises corn, soybeans and
boys is the Minnesota Farm Bureau President, Kevin Paap, who's
here today so, Kevin, thank you for what you do. We appreciate
that.
(Applause)
I'm proud to have served on this Committee, proud to have
been part of the past two farm bills with the leadership of Mr.
Peterson and Mr. Conaway and the folks that are on here. I also
serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee, the two places in the
House of Representatives where the people's will comes first,
where bipartisanship reigns, and where effectiveness in getting
things done is what counts, so I thank you all for being here
today and I look forward to you helping us write this farm
bill. Thank you.
(Applause)
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD M. NOLAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Nolan. I'm what's left of Rick Nolan. I represented
this area here back in the 1970's, that and north central
Minnesota, and today I represent northeastern Minnesota. I'd
like to point out that I was just a child at the time when I
was representing this area. We used to have some fun around the
Congress when I came back after a little 32 year hiatus and
they said, ``Yes, didn't your dad serve in the past?'' And I
got dubbed Rip Van Winkle; but, in any event, I'm Ranking
Member, I'm trying to project the future here. I'm Ranking
Minority Member on the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities
and Risk Management. And I learned over the years I could learn
a lot more about life and about good farm policy by listening
to the farmers of Minnesota, so I'm delighted to be here and
I'll shut up and start listening. Thank you.
(Applause)
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DWIGHT EVANS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. EVANS. My name is Dwight Evans and I'm from the great
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and I represent part of
Philadelphia in Montgomery County, but I always say to my good
friend, the Ranking Member, that there's a direct connection
between farmers and consumers. They need each other and it's
important. Pennsylvania is an agriculture state, a lot of
people don't realize that, when you get outside of Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh, and I'm on the Nutrition Committee, and it's
important that food is good foreign policy. I have not seen
where maybe domestically or internationally food is a policy
and it's a tool that can be used. Thank you. I enjoy this
opportunity.
(Applause)
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TOM EMMER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Emmer. I'm Tom Emmer. I represent Minnesota's Sixth
Congressional District, which most people would think of as
more of an urban district. It's about 30 to 35, 40 miles from
downtown Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, starting on the
Wisconsin border, and wrapping around the north side of the
Twin Cities, but the fact is, that more than 50 percent of the
ground in the district is still in agricultural production. And
more importantly, in this state, and more people have to
recognize it, which is why it's great that you talk about it's
about the food that we are producing, not only in this country,
but around the world. More people need to understand how
important this community that's in this building today is to
our state and to our country and, quite frankly, the world.
I've got my chops when I got into Congress working with
Chairman Conaway, and then having to deal with the humor of Mr.
Walz and Mr. Nolan, Grandpa Nolan, and I'm really looking
forward to hearing what you have to say today and hopefully
being able to go back with these wonderful people and put some
policies in place, or fix some policies that are already in
place, that will make your lives easier and make you more
productive for all the rest of us. Thank you.
(Applause)
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KEVIN CRAMER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM NORTH DAKOTA
Mr. CRAMER. And I'm Kevin Cramer. I represent the entire
State of North Dakota, and while in recent years North Dakota
has become more famous for what's under the ground than what we
sustain above it, we are first, foremost and always an agrarian
state obviously. And I serve on the Energy and Commerce
Committee, and the subcommittees I serve on are Communications
and Technology, where we deal an awful lot with the technology
for good precision agriculture, the Energy Subcommittee and the
Environment Subcommittee. I will just say this, as we kick it
off, sitting at this table are some of my very best friends in
Congress. I was elected in 2012 and came that year that one of
the first things that we did in Congress was kill a farm bill,
which I didn't know was possible. And it was perhaps my worst
day in the last 5 years, but we've had so many good ones since
as we recovered from that, passed one. And I would just echo
that these gentlemen and lady sitting at this table are first
and foremost advocates for eating and growing food and we work
on it together. Kristi made the very important point, and it's
hard to stress how important this is, not only are there fewer
of us by far who represent agrarian districts, there get to be
fewer of us with every Census, and so the importance of a
coalition cannot be overstressed, and so with that, I look
forward to hearing from the experts in the field.
(Applause)
The Chairman. Well, you've got a good array of Members up
here who have a heart for agriculture and this is the group
you're going to rely on to help convince the other 209 that
we'll need to actually get a farm bill passed with the national
representatives, so we want to thank you folks who put together
Farmfest and set this up today for us to let us horn in on your
otherwise terrific festival this year, and I do thank you for
letting us join this way. I appreciate the work that the staff
has done to make all this happen. Our moderator today will be
Kent Thiesse. Kent is currently the Vice President of MinnStar
Bank in Lake Crystal and he was formerly with the University of
Minnesota's Extension Service, extension educator, so in a
little bit, when he starts introducing you and he starts
calling the clock on you, get mad at him and not us, because
we're asking you to vote for us and you don't vote for Kent, so
we've asked Kent to be the bad guy this morning. As each of our
Members have said, we're here to listen. You won't hear much
more out of us from this point forward. We're really more
keenly interested in hearing from you what you have to say,
what's working, what's not working.
You get about 2 minutes. I know that's a very brief amount
of time, but by the time all the folks who get to speak today
will speak, hopefully we will have covered the waterfront of
what needs to be said this morning. If you haven't signed one
of our cards and you still want to sign up, please sign that
card so we can get you into the queue to make that happen. We
will get to as many of you as we can.
We're going to be here until about 12:30 to hear from you
and we'll go through as many folks as we can during that time
frame. And now there may be some differences of opinion, there
were in Texas on Monday, but let's be respectful of each other,
let's listen to each other. No decisions will be made this
morning, we just need to hear the ideas. We need to get your
thoughts and those kind of things. You don't have to make that
decision this morning, so be respectful of each other, and I
have great confidence that you will.
Our first person to speak this morning will be Zippy
Duvall, who's the President of the American Farm Bureau, and
we'd ask Zippy to come give us a couple words. Zippy.
STATEMENT OF VINCENT ``ZIPPY'' DUVALL, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FARM
BUREAU FEDERATION, MACON, GA
Mr. Duvall. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I really
appreciate the opportunity. My job today is to do the welcome,
because these gentlemen have already received our
recommendations from American Farm Bureau and it's important
for them to hear you. I have a couple thank yous. One, I want
all of you to know, I'm a farmer. I had dairy for 30 years.
I've got beef cattle now, about 400 cows, and I've been growing
poultry for 31 years, about 750,000 broilers a year, so I'm one
of you. I understand what you go through. I've still got to go
home and face the same problems as you do, and I carry that to
Washington with me every time I go to work, so thank you for
being here. We appreciate it. American Farm Bureau actually, 2
or 3 years ago, bought the organization that owns this
Farmfest, IdeaAg, and we did it because we wanted to help our
farmers stay on the cutting edge of our industry, so we thank
you for coming to the festival and we thank you for the
opportunity to serve you in that way, so thank you to you. And
then I want to say thank you to the vendors that are here with
us today, the exhibitors that are outside. They've put a lot of
time in here to be able to meet you face-to-face and talk to
you about that cutting edge technology, so we want to thank
them for being here at our show.
Of course the most important thing, certainly, are the
people we want to thank is the Chairman and Ranking Member for
bringing this listening session to this show and to this area
of the country. They're here to hear your voice and this is our
time. We have a lot of wonderful people in place here and in
the Department of Agriculture and in the cabinet that
understand and want to do the right thing for rural America and
for agriculture and it is our time to have our voice heard, so
thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, for being
here, and thank you for being an American farmer, because I'm
so proud to represent you each and every day. Welcome to this
great festival and welcome to this great exercise here that we
call being an American citizen.
The Chairman. All right. Thank you, Zippy. Two quick
points. What Kent will do is he will call up, we've got
microphones on both sides, he will call two names to begin
with, one of them will start. Once that person finishes, he'll
call the third name, and so while the second person is talking,
the third person needs to make their way to the microphone so
we keep this thing going as quickly as we can. And then
speaking on behalf of all eleven of us, we know you're thanking
us for being here. Actually, we're on your payroll so you don't
really need to thank us. When you start your remarks, you've
got 2 minutes. Don't waste time pandering to the crowd up here.
We're on your side, all right, so just jump right into your
comments. You don't need to thank us, we're here on your
payroll, and all that kind of good stuff, so jump right to your
comments and spend your 2 minutes talking to us about what's in
your heart this morning. With that, Kent, you've got the floor.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, Chairman Conaway. And as the
Chairman said, we do have a microphone on each side and I'll be
calling you up, kind of one ahead, one or two ahead, and so I
will call up Mr. Kevin Paap and Mr. Gary Wertish. While they're
coming up, just the ground rules. We will be timing you on the
2 minutes, and when you've got 20 seconds left you'll get this,
and when there's 10 seconds left you get this, and when you've
reached your time limit, you get this. And as Congressmen
Peterson, Walz, Nolan, and Emmer know, the next thing is you
get shut off, they've been here before so they know the rules
and how it works. We'll start out with Kevin Paap, President of
Minnesota Farm Bureau.
STATEMENT OF KEVIN PAAP, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA FARM BUREAU
FEDERATION, GARDEN CITY, MN
Mr. Paap. Well, per the Chairman's request, I won't thank
you for helping reconnect the disconnect with agriculture. It's
already been made. Certainly there are a lot of people that
don't understand, our connection with agriculture, farmers and
ranchers, is food, so let's keep the food still in the farm
bill. Make sure we make that connection. The other thing is the
weather. We appreciate the weather today, but we can't control
the weather. We've got to have risk management tools in the
farm bill, crop insurance, revenue insurance. Personally, I was
involved in a hail storm this year where we lost the corn and
the bean crop on one farm, and it's that crop insurance, I'm
not going to make any money at that this year, but I'm going to
be able to farm again next year because of those risk
management tools. Do what we can not to harm, save what we can,
but also help us make that connection. We've got a lot of
financial stress out there in agriculture right now. We've got
low prices. The way to raise low prices is to increase demand.
Trade is not the biggest part of the farm bill, but it's a big
part of agriculture, so continue to help us with trade. We're
fortunate we can grow more than we can use. We need that 96
percent of the world as our market. You can't do trade without
transportation. Not something maybe in this Committee, but
things you can do in Congress, help us to get it to those
markets. The last thing I would just ask is help us to
understand how important not only things like this today are,
but for those farmers and ranchers to share their story with
their Members of Congress, but also your other families, for
those that aren't in those 35 or 36 districts. Again, thank you
for that. We appreciate it. We know that we've got a lot of
commodities in this state, in this country. Time is the most
precious commodity. I won't say thank you for your time because
the Chairman asked me not to.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, Kevin. The next person we want to
call up is Harold Wolle, Jr. Our next speaker will be Gary
Wertish, President of Minnesota Farmers Union. Gary.
STATEMENT OF GARY WERTISH, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA FARMERS UNION,
RENVILLE, MN
Mr. Wertish. Thank you, Kent. I will waste a little bit of
my time to thank the Committee and thank the Chairman for being
here. It's very important to be here, and I liked your comment
earlier, and we visited earlier too about you're here to
listen. We want to thank you for coming out here to listen.
These are the real people, the people that you're affecting,
the people that everything you do there does affect. The farm
bill is probably the most important piece of legislation not
only for farmers, it's a safety net for farmers, but it's a
safety net for rural America, it's a safety net for America,
for food security, so thank you for coming out here. At
Minnesota Farmers Union, we've just completed about 16 rural
discussions, voice sessions around the state listening, and the
farm bill came out on top. We need the safety net, we need the
conservation programs, we need all that type of stuff, but a
few things I want to bring up.
Congressman Evans made a comment about consumers. The
nutrition title came up in every one of our meetings, the
importance of the nutrition title. I know in the last farm bill
there was an attempt to remove the nutrition title from the
farm bill. I would encourage all of you to hold tight. It's
very important to keep that in there. One of the administrators
of the nutrition program within the State of Minnesota, he said
the average length of stay of a person on food stamps, formerly
food stamps, now the SNAP program, is 9 months, and of that 9
months, the majority of those people got put in that situation
for either a health care issue or a loss of a job. And I saw
this morning on a news clip there was a recent study that shows
there was a higher percentage of rural people using the SNAP
program than there are urban, so it's very important to keep
that in the program. The other parts that came up, rural
development, how important rural development is needed to stay
in the program, in the farm bill.
You've got all the small towns and communities that are
able to access programs there. Broadband is a huge issue. We've
got an example of one of the meetings that we conducted in, I'd
better move on. Then the other issue I do want to talk about is
health care. That came up at every meeting. Everything we're
talking about today. If we don't get some prices on the farm,
we're going to lose farmers, we're going to have another
washout in agriculture. We are faced with a crisis. On top of
that, health care needs to get figured out. Everybody can't
work off the farm to get health care. It's just a huge cost and
people are tired of legislators playing politics with our
health care, and with the recent failure in the Senate, we're
hoping that the House, you guys go back, you sit down and work
together. It's an issue we can work on and we can fix it. There
are things that can be done. Take the politics out of it.
Everybody in this room is affected by health care, and I know
it's not part of the Agriculture Committee, but it's an issue
you all need to work on. And as I said, take the politics out
of it, let's get it figured out and sit down and do something.
Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, Gary. The next speaker to come up
to the microphone and the on deck area is Sadie Frericks. Next,
we'll hear from Harold Wolle, Jr., President of Minnesota Corn
Growers Association.
STATEMENT OF HAROLD WOLLE, Jr., PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA CORN
GROWERS ASSOCIATION, MADELIA, MN
Mr. Wolle. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, there
are two things I'd like to comment on today, world trade and
conservation. As you know, I don't have to sit here and quote
facts and figures. You know that world trade is very important
to us. I just got back from the U.S. Grains Council meeting at
midnight last night. It was held in Portland, and there we
discussed world trade. U.S. Grains Council helps exports happen
and you say, ``Well, what's world trade have to do with the
Agriculture Committee?'' Well, you fund the Foreign
Agricultural Service, which a part of that is the Foreign
Market Development and Market Access Programs. Those funds are
vitally critical to us in the Grains Council and to world
trade, so please consider that as we move forward on the 2018
Farm Bill. The other thing is conservation. Here again, some
acronyms, CRP, CSP and EQIP, all vitally important to us. We're
bumping up in most of our counties in Minnesota against that 24
million acre cap. I'd sure like to see that raised
substantially higher so that we can get the lands that need to
be in that program in the program. I think that there's some
room to lower the rental rates and increase the acres. Thank
you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, very much. The next person called
up to the on deck area will be Darwin Bach. Next, we'll hear
from Sadie Frericks, who's a dairy farmer and leader with Land
O' Lakes.
STATEMENT OF SADIE FRERICKS, ELECTED LEADER, LAND O'LAKES;
DAIRY PRODUCER, BLUE DIAMOND DAIRY, MELROSE, MN
Ms. Frericks. Thank you. Congressmen, Congresswoman, good
morning. As Kent said, I'm Sadie Frericks. I'm a dairy farmer
from Melrose, Minnesota, right on the edge of Ranking Member
Peterson's district. My husband and I, along with our three
children, Dan, Monica and Daphne, milk 75 cows on our first
generation dairy farm. On behalf of my cooperative, Land
O'Lakes, and our 2,400 dairy farmer members, I'm here today to
address the dairy title, specifically the Margin Protection
Program. Our farm was built from scratch. We don't have
generations of equity to fall back on in the event of another
market collapse, so safety nets are imperative for a farm like
ours. We already restructured our loans once in 2009, and I
don't like to think about doing that again. That's why we were
really excited when the Margin Protection Program was rolled
out. We strongly support a program that is based on both milk
revenue and feed prices. Unfortunately, the Margin Protection
Program isn't working.
In 2015 and 2016, after careful consideration with our
financial analyst, we enrolled at the $6.50 margin protection
level. We actually need an $8.00 margin to maintain fiscal
responsibility on our farm, but the premium difference between
$6.50 and $8.00 did not seem like the best way to spend our
hard-earned money, so we enrolled at the $6.50 level. In the
end, after a year of dismal prices, the indemnity that we
received barely equaled the premium that we paid, so in 2017,
knowing that the program wasn't providing the insurance that we
had hoped for, and because prices were forecasted as higher, we
enrolled at the $4.00 level. I encourage you to look for ways
to make the Margin Protection Program more affordable and to
provide better coverage. There are lots of ideas about how to
do this, and I'm not going to pretend to know which is the best
for both farmers and the budget, but I encourage you to find a
way to provide better security for dairy farmers and I look
forward to helping you do so.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, very much. I've been asked to
remind those of you speaking to get a little closer to the
microphone. They're having a little trouble hearing you out in
the back so please, the microphone is your friend. Get up nice
and close there. Our next person to the on deck speaking area
will be Travis Keister. Now we'll hear from Darwyn Bach with
the Land Stewardship Project.
STATEMENT OF DARWYN BACH, FARMER-MEMBER, LAND STEWARDSHIP
PROJECT, ST. LEO, MN
Mr. BACH. Good morning. My name is Darwyn Bach. I farm 650
acres of corn and soybeans about 80 miles west of here in
Yellow Medicine County. I'm here to speak today for the Land
Stewardship Project, which is a farm and rural organization
based here in Minnesota. Here is some of the key components
we'd like to see in the next farm bill. Beginning Farmer and
Rancher Development Program: This is a program we helped
establish. We continue to monitor it. It's well run and it has
a demonstrated need. We'd ask for $50 million of permanent
funding to be put into the next farm bill. CRP: Before we start
talking about how many acres should be in CRP, we need to
address some of the issues surrounding CRP rental rates and we
need to make sure that the acres that are put into CRP are
targeted towards marginal and sensitive land. CSP: We strongly
support a program that encourages farmers to do good
conservation work on their working lands. CSP can do that, but
it does need some work. The number one problem with CSP is that
the payment rate for existing practices is much too low.
Farmers need to be rewarded for the good conservation outcomes
that they're producing. EQIP: There's a livestock set aside
portion in EQIP. We want this money to be targeted for its
beginning and family-sized operations. We don't need to be
subsidizing 5,000 and 10,000 cow dairy operations. The
taxpayers don't need to be subsidizing contractors or large
corporate hog farm operations. Okay. Here's the elephant in the
room. Crop insurance: We want a $50,000 limit on the subsidy
per operator. Commodity groups are going to look up from their
subsidy drop and whine and squeal about this one, but the fact
is, it's the only program that doesn't have any limit
whatsoever. In my operation, for example, I can farm in a corn
and soybean rotation 3,000 acres before I'd hit that limit. If
you're farming 3,000 acres and can't afford that last quarter
of land without help from the taxpayer paying for the insurance
on that quarter, don't rent it. It looks like I'm out of time.
Sorry. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Our next person to come
up to the on deck area is Dr. Bev Durgan. Next we will hear
from Travis Keister, with Minnesota-Iowa Crop Insurance
Services.
STATEMENT OF TRAVIS KEISTER, CROP INSURANCE AGENT, MINNESOTA-
IOWA CROP INSURANCE SERVICES; MEMBER, CROP INSURANCE
PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION, BLUE EARTH, MN
Mr. Keister. Yes. My name is Travis Keister and I'm a crop
insurance agent out of Blue Earth, Minnesota, and I have just
three points to make to you all today. First of all, the crop
insurance system today is working. It's working. We have not
had an ad hoc disaster bill in over a decade. This program is
working right now. Another testament to that is in 2012, during
the massive drought, this program handled that situation
effectively and efficiently, so it's working. The second thing
is, Congressman Kind from Wisconsin has a number of amendments
on the table, subsidy caps, AGI means testing, and the
elimination of the harvest price option when it comes to
revenue protection. The bottom line is, these amendments will
kill the program. This program is based out of participation in
acres.
Dr. Art Barnaby from Kansas State University did a study.
If you put any caps or eliminate any of these programs, you
will see up to 40 percent of the acres disappear from this
program and the program will collapse upon itself. If you're a
small farmer out there right now and you look at a large
producer and you think they need a subsidy, you're going to cut
your nose off to spite your face. Your premiums will escalate
and increase because of fewer participation levels in the
program. The bottom line is, farming is going through a tough
time right now. We've seen the biggest decrease in hog farm
revenue since the Great Depression. We need a stable program.
We need a stable risk protection policy in place, and we thank
you for everything you're doing.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Our next person to the on deck area
is Jerry Matzner. Next we'll hear from Dr. Bev Durgan with the
University of Minnesota Extension.
STATEMENT OF BEVERLY R. DURGAN, Ph.D., DEAN,
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION; PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF AGRONOMY AND PLANT GENETICS, ST. PAUL, MN
Dr. Durgan. Good morning. Thank you for having us here
today. Today I'd like to talk about the importance of the farm
bill, not only to Minnesota farmers, but also to the University
of Minnesota, and I'd like to specifically talk about title VII
of the farm bill, which provides funding for research,
extension, and education to our nation's land-grant
universities, including the University of Minnesota. This money
from title VII allows the University of Minnesota to respond to
the needs of Minnesota agriculture, both in research and, as I
said, in extension. The Smith-Lever funding, specifically
extension funding, makes up 15 percent of the funding that we
have for extension here in Minnesota, and this funding allows
us to respond to the many issues that our rural communities are
facing. It also allows us to provide the high quality 4-H
programs that over a hundred thousand youth in this state are
involved with, so that Federal funding is very important for
us. It also allows us to work across states. Many of our issues
now are not just within Minnesota, but across states.
Minnesota and North Dakota State University have been
leaders in working across states and, in fact, right now we
have five joint faculty positions with North Dakota State that
work on issues of sugar production, potato production,
nutrition education around our nutrition title, and also a
recent position in sheep production, for working across state
lines, our Federal funding really allows us to be able to do
that. Also, it allows us to really respond to issues that were
talked about today, things around weather, our issues around
High-Path Avian Influenza that we had in the state and we hope
not to have again, and our Federal funding allows us to do
that. It also allows us to respond to some of the issues we're
seeing now with our financial stress. With that, I would like
to thank you for our capacity funds, but also for our
competitive things, our AFRI funding, and that funding also
allows us to respond to issues around communities, around
leadership, and also agriculture production. With that,
remember title VII in the farm bill, and that money really is
used to support agriculture in our rural communities. Thank
you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, Dr. Durgan. Our next person to the
on deck area will be Ian Cunningham. Next, we'll hear from
Jerry Matzner with Century Farm Organics.
STATEMENT OF JERRY MATZNER, PART OWNER, CENTURY FARM ORGANICS
AND DAIRY, CLARKFIELD, MN
Mr. Matzner. Hi. I'm part owner of Century Farm Organics
near Clarkfield, Minnesota, about 45 minutes from here. We have
approximately 1,500 organic acres that includes an organic
dairy milking 120 organic Jersey cows. Our organic farm has six
full-time employees and four part-time employees. We fully
support six families and partially support four families
through our 1,500 organic acres. Your support of the organic
industry is critical to keeping small family farms and helping
grow the rural economy. We are also mentoring three other farm
families within 15 miles of our farm as they transition their
land to organic. These families are all doing this transition
so they can either farm without an off farm job or they have
children they want to bring into the farm but they can't
support their kids' families with the acres they have. They are
making a voluntary business decision to go organic. Two
requests. First, the organic industry is a $47 billion industry
with at least eight percent growth year over year. And while
the industry grows, unfortunately, the National Organic Program
resources have not. While $9 million a year for program
oversight enforcement may have gotten us to $47 billion, it is
not keeping pace now. We ask for an increase in the next farm
bill for an authorization of $15 million per year with a ten
percent growth in funding every year for the National Organic
Program. Second, the organic industry is supported by customers
who are willing to pay a premium when they can trust that the
product they are buying has been produced or based on certain
strict standards.
This has created two issues, interests that want to weaken
the standards and fraudulent actors. We ask for your support in
maintaining the integrity of the organic seal. The farm bill
should not seek to change organic production standards or how
they are established. The process we have now works. What is
not working well enough is adequate enforcement on fraudulent
imported grain. The organic prices on corn and soybeans have
decreased by about 40 percent over the past 2 years, but this
was primarily driven by the large increases in imports, some of
which have been discovered to be fraudulent. This price
decrease has cost our farm $160,000 alone. Approximately 60
full tankers of corn have come from Turkey in the past year.
That is an 800 percent increase since 2014, and we know most of
that is fraudulent grain. What's needed? Upgrade the tracking
system for international grain, require all grain brokers and
traders to be certified, get more NOP investigators in place,
and more dollars for organic research. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Our next person to the on deck area
will be Tom Nuessmeier. Next we will hear from Ian Cunningham,
National Association of Conservation Districts.
STATEMENT OF IAN CUNNINGHAM, MEMBER, EXECUTIVE BOARD, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION
DISTRICTS, PIPERSTONE, MN
Mr. Cunningham. My name is Ian Cunningham. I'm currently a
senior member of a fifth generation family farm near
Piperstone, Minnesota. I'm also one of 445 publicly elected
soil and water conservation district board members in
Minnesota, and one of over 17,000 men and women who serve on
the governing boards of nearly 3,000 conservation districts
across the United States and its territories. Currently I'm a
member of the executive board of the National Association of
Conservation Districts representing the north central states.
I'm also past President of the Minnesota Association of Soil
and Water Conservation Districts. In Minnesota, as in other
parts of the country, the conservation delivery team consists
of the local soil and water conservation district, the state's
conservation agency and our Federal partners at NRCS. We have a
successful track record of working together on privately owned
cropland, grazing land, forests and in urban settings, to
deliver healthier soil, cleaner water and other benefits to
society.
The conservation delivery team works with landowners and
operators day in and day out to help them proactively manage
the natural resources that produce food, fiber, fuel and
shelter. I cannot think of anything that is more important to
the security of our country. In the upcoming farm bill, I ask
that you fight to maintain the USDA's ability to do their part.
The conservation title took a ten percent funding cut in the
2014 Farm Bill and continues to be cut annually during the
appropriations process. NACD believes that at a minimum, no
further cuts should occur in the next farm bill to the
conservation title. We hope to see Congress increase its
funding. Technical assistance and conservation planning are
critical tools in the first steps in evaluating a producer's
resource needs. Conservation technical assistance is different
from technical assistance that kicks in once a farm bill
program contract is established. Farmers don't take what we do
lightly. It takes some time to explore options and build a
trusting relationship with the conservation delivery team
members. Congress should include language in the next farm bill
that emphasizes the importance of technical assistance provided
through the conservation technical assistance program, and EQIP
is the work horse of the conservation title, and because of its
crucial role, EQIP baseline funding should be increased, or at
the very least, maintained in the next farm bill. We look
forward to working with you as the farm bill takes shape.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
I'd like to call Krist Wollum. And next we will hear from Tom
Nuessmeier, a Minnesota farmer.
STATEMENT OF TOM NUESSMEIER, ORGANIC CORN,
SOYBEANS, ALFALFA, WINTER GRAINS, OATS, AND CLOVER PRODUCER, LE
SUEUR, MN
Mr. Nuessmeier. Yes. I farm near Le Sueur, Minnesota, 200
acres, diversified crops with farrow to finish hogs. I use crop
insurance, receive commodity payments, have enrolled our farm
in the conservation stewardship program and have some acres in
CRP, and I'm a Land Stewardship Project member. I'm concerned
about water. Our well water is still pretty good, but I'm aware
of the increasing number of rural wells contaminated by
nitrates and of the lakes, rivers, and streams classified as
impaired. This is a slow, unfolding crisis not only in
Minnesota, but across the country, and we know that agriculture
is a primary contributor to the problem in our rural areas. We
also know that crop diversification on farms is the most
effective approach in addressing water resource concerns
because of the resulting improved soil health, decrease in soil
erosion and the reduction of off farm inputs that contribute to
contaminating our water, yet between the last two farm bills,
support for the CSP program that got me to diversify our farm
even more dried up. When I re-enrolled, the payment for
continuing these practices and adding even more was nearly
half. Yet, at the same time, when corn prices were going
through the roof, I could have accessed more support from the
commodity and crop insurance title to plow up my perennial
crops, plant the biggest money maker and reverse the water
protecting cropping system we had built into our farm. That
doesn't make sense. It's bad farm policy and ignores the water
quality issue that we'll be forced to address in one way or
another. Our public dollars from the farm bill should benefit
the public good. Water is a public good. Investing in robust
and effective conservation programs is an effective way to do
this and it's critical that we address where a majority of our
water quality problems start, and that's where the solutions
are going to be found, and that's on farms like mine. Thanks.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
we'll call Katie Benson. We will now hear from Krist Wollum,
President of the Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association.
STATEMENT OF KRIST WOLLUM, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA STATE
CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION, PORTER, MN
Mr. Wollum. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, and
Committee, I am Krist Wollum, a third generation cattleman from
Porter, Minnesota, and the current President of the Minnesota
State Cattlemen's Association. I would like to mention today
the need for a stronger and more adequate foot-and-mouth
disease vaccine bank. Please let me be very clear. An FMD
outbreak is of great concern to the beef industry. FMD is
highly contagious, and has the potential to spread wildly and
rapidly, debilitating our herd in our sector of the agriculture
industry. Analysts estimate that an FMD outbreak in the United
States could potentially cost our nation's livestock producers
billions of dollars in the first 12 months alone. An FMD
outbreak has the potential to cause enormous economic losses to
not only livestock producers, but also to auction markets,
processing plants, food processors, crop farmers, as well as
consumers. The Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association is
requesting support for the creation of a larger and more
sufficient FMD vaccine bank in the 2018 Farm Bill. This will
include a request for additional dedicated funds of $150
million a year for 5 years to develop a more robust bank.
Finally, I would ask that you help us protect the national beef
check-off. The check-off is a producer led and funded research
and promotion program which has helped our industry with food
safety, nutrition, recipe development and a successful
campaign, Beef. It's What's For Dinner. The success of the beef
check-off is why the majority of beef producers in this country
still support it and we will fight any attempts to attack,
change or kill the national beef check-off. On behalf of the
Minnesota cattle producers, we thank you for allowing me to
comment and we look forward to working with each of you in
developing the 2018 Farm Bill. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next up to the on deck area I'd
like to call Carol Krosch. And now we'll hear from Katie
Benson, Minnesota State FFA President.
STATEMENT OF KATIE BENSON, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA FFA
ASSOCIATION, STAPLES, MN
Ms. Benson. Good morning. My name is Katie Benson. I am
from Staples, Minnesota, which is in the central area. I will
be attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities this year,
and I'm serving as the state President of the FFA where I have
the honor to represent 11,000 FFA members from across the state
and about 650,000 FFA members across the country. And my FFA
background and my experience in agriculture is very
nontraditional. My family was never involved with farming or
agriculture and so I never even understood agriculture until a
close family friend gave me ten turkeys to raise and I began
raising poultry and I became involved with FFA and 4-H. From
there I learned about the career opportunities within
agriculture, and because of the opportunities there, I will be
pursuing a degree in agricultural education this fall. However,
there are lots of classmates that I have that were not made
aware of all of these career opportunities in agriculture.
There are about 23,000 career openings within the agricultural
industry that go unfilled each year and we have thousands of
students that are interested in science and technology areas
that can help us to fill that gap, and so what we really need
is policy that helps support youth in agriculture to bring them
back to the farm or to go back into the agricultural industry.
We would like to see in the 2018 Farm Bill legislation that
creates a position in the United States Department of
Agriculture for a youth in agriculture coordinator that helps
to bridge that gap between the students and all of these
agricultural careers. Thank you for continuing to support us in
the FFA and for supporting the next generation of agriculture.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. To the on deck area we'd like to
call Emily Piper. And next we'll hear from Carol Krosch, soil
and water conservation district supervisor and landowner.
STATEMENT OF CAROL KROSCH, LANDOWNER AND
SECRETARY, BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, BLUE EARTH
COUNTY SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT, GOOD THUNDER, MN
Ms. Krosch. Farming is in my blood, like most of you here
today. My sons are fifth generation farmers in southern
Minnesota. I'm currently a second term soil and water
supervisor in Blue Earth County. Formerly, I served as an
elected county committee member for the Farm Service Agency. I
am asking, as a supervisor, that you do whatever you can to
increase the funding for conservation in the new farm bill, or,
at the very least, do not make any cuts. At the local level, we
have very good, dedicated people to put programs in place. We
have the ability to work with the local landowners to assess
and figure out what farm programs work on their individual
farms, but we absolutely need all the funding that we can get
to do this. Everyone in the whole community will benefit from
the actions that we take to improve and sustain water quality
and soil health. On a more personal level, as an advocate for
ag and a small family farm, please continue to fund crop
insurance. We need that very important safety net, but I'm
asking you also to consider placing a cap on the amount that is
funded at the top end as it seems to give the huge farmers an
advantage over the small family farm. In all your legislation,
please keep in mind that the younger, beginning farmers will
need our help. We need to give them the ability to make a
decent living through their hard work to feed the world, bring
money into the local economy, and to take the best care
possible of our greatest resources of land and water. Last, I
want to say that I will continue to be an advocate for
agriculture. We appreciate all you have done and our prayers
are with you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area I'd like
to call David Buck. And our next presenter will be Emily Piper,
who is the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human
Services.
STATEMENT OF EMILY PIPER, J.D., COMMISSIONER,
MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES, ST. PAUL, MN
Ms. Piper. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Committee
Members. My name is Emily Piper. I'm Commissioner of DHS here
in Minnesota, and our mission is to help people meet their
basic needs so they can live in dignity and reach their highest
potential. One of our most significant programs to combat
hunger to help support people all across the State of Minnesota
is SNAP. In Minnesota, 645,000 people, almost 12 percent of our
state's population, receive SNAP every month, and 70 percent of
those people are people with disabilities, children, and
seniors all across our state. The average per meal benefit that
folks receive on SNAP is about $1.17. Our farmers in Minnesota
work hard every day to feed a hungry world, Minnesotans
included. In this Congressional district alone, over 85 percent
of people who receive SNAP have been employed in the last 12
months and these are our neighbors serving in restaurants, the
working poor, sometimes in temporary seasonal employment, and
oftentimes on farms themselves. We know that food security for
the hungry, at the expense of economic security for the men and
women who grow the food in the first place, is a false choice.
We know that taking SNAP out of the farm bill, as has been
considered in the past, would separate the farmer from the
hungry, and the grower from our growing children and do a
disservice to all. Maybe we know this because we're the state
that educated Norman Borlaug at the University of Minnesota,
who began the green revolution that saved a billion lives
across the world from starvation. Maybe it's because we're home
to so many companies who feed so many people all across the
world. And maybe it's because our farmers aren't growing food
for its own sake, but because they expect and are proud of the
fact that it will be eaten all the better if by hungry people.
My hope is we won't stand for efforts to divide the safety net
for farmers from the safety net for families, but instead that
we will stand together against such efforts. We're stronger
when we honor the dignity of both the farmers who do the work
to produce the food, and the dignity that each hungry person
has. And not only are we stronger for it, we're better for it
too. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you, Commissioner. Next to the on deck
area I would like to call Bruce Peterson. Our next presenter
will be David Buck, who's President of Minnesota Milk
Producers.
STATEMENT OF DAVID BUCK, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA MILK PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION, GOODHUE, MN
Mr. Buck. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Committee Members.
My family and I are dairy farmers near Goodhue, which is in
southeast Minnesota. We have two major issues, I guess, in the
dairy industry right now and I have pretty much had a front row
seat to both of those issues. We operate two dairy farms. The
one we bought most recently was signed up for the Margin
Protection Program. At home we did not sign up, we chose to go
the LGM route for risk protection. The MPP needs some changes
made to it, as Sadie alluded to earlier, maybe going back to
the original proposal with feed costs would help, and also
maybe allowing some flexibility between LGM and MPP. MPP is a
safety net. LGM is insurance. We also raise crops to feed all
our animals so we participate in a crop insurance program and
ARC, and you can do both. On the dairy side, you have to choose
one or the other, and if we could find some way to integrate
those two, it would be beneficial, possibly lifting the cap on
the dollar limits on LGMs so that there's more money that could
go into that program. We had the same experience basically as
the previous speaker on dairy, that we chose the $6.50 level
and it was a very tough year and you don't even get your
premium back. That really sours you, going forward, in the next
year, some changes have to be made on that side.
The labor issue is another one. It's the number one issue
our staff hears about. Southeast Minnesota had a 2.9 percent
unemployment rate recently, four percent is considered full
employment, and it's very difficult to find people to work. We
used to milk three times a day on our dairy farms and we went
to twice a day just from a labor standpoint, so you lose a
little productivity that way. Possibly changing H-2A visas or
coming up with some type of visa that would allow workers to
come for more than 10 months at a time. We work 24/7, 365 on
dairy farms, so we need labor to accomplish that. One last
note. Trade is very important to the dairy industry: 15 percent
of our production is exported, so let's do everything we can to
keep that trade going. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Our next speaker I'll call up to
the on deck area is Melissa Sobolik. And next we're going to
hear from Bruce Peterson, who is a board member with the
Minnesota Corn Growers.
STATEMENT OF BRUCE PETERSON, BOARD MEMBER, MINNESOTA CORN
GROWERS ASSOCIATION, NORTHFIELD, MN
Mr. Bruce Peterson. Good morning. I farm over in the
Northfield area with two brothers and I've got four of the next
generation also involved on the farm. I want to address one key
component of the farm bill, or two actually. The first one
would be title I. I don't need to remind you that with the last
farm bill, we made this big step from direct payments to ARC,
PLC. Certainly, we're going to see some bumps in the road with
that big of a change, but it's something that I can defend when
we've got a program that's based on either revenue per acre, or
a reference price, compared to direct payments. I can defend
that. I had a hard time defending direct payments when we were
getting those with $5 corn; but, ARC and PLC have not been
perfect. You're going to look at making some small changes, not
sweeping changes. I farm in the corner of Rice County. I also
go across into two other counties so I see the differences from
county to county. I think you know that needs to be addressed a
little bit. But, anyway, the main thing is we can defend the
current title I program.
The second thing is crop insurance. All I can say is please
protect it. It's so vitally important to primarily young
farmers; but, with low prices, maybe you don't necessarily have
to be so young to obtain credit. It's a key component of
obtaining credit. Somebody touched on it earlier, even though
we're in Minnesota, we've got pretty stable yields from year to
year. It seems like about every rainstorm that's gone through
this summer it's got hail somewhere in it. We had hail on about
2,000 acres back in June on a day that was about like this. It
was about 60 and we got hail, which is crazy, so you never
really know what you're going to get. But the second component,
not only to the financing part but the marketing part, with
that crop insurance policy in hand, you look at a lot of the
marketing charts over the last 2, 3 years, you usually get
about 1 week to market the crop and it's long before harvest,
so having that crop insurance in hand allows you to market when
you actually have some profitable opportunities. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
we'll call Brent Davison. And our next presenter will be
Melissa Sobolik with Great Plains Food Bank.
STATEMENT OF MELISSA SOBOLIK, DIRECTOR, ENDING HUNGER 2.0,
GREAT PLAINS FOOD BANK, FARGO, ND
Ms. Sobolik. Well, good morning. I have the privilege of
working as the Director of Ending Hunger 2.0 with the Great
Plains Food Bank, which serves all of North Dakota and western
Minnesota. Last year we served over 94,000 people: 36 percent
of them were children and 11 percent were seniors. We served
people like Willard Carpenter. Willard, he's 71, he's a Vietnam
Vet, he's a farmer, and to this day, still driving truck. He
lives on a farm in northern North Dakota with his wife and he
raises potatoes, alfalfa, and oats. He's a proud, lumbering man
who's quick to admit that he has never shied away from hard
work, not even when an accident resulted in the loss of his arm
45 years ago. He utilizes veteran's benefits for health care
and medications, but every month he and Linda still come up
short. They visit our mobile food pantry where they receive
TEFAP products and fresh produce, and they're on SNAP. They
used to get $175 a month in benefits, but now are only getting
$50, which doesn't go very far. Willard's prairie pride and his
strong work ethic made it hard for him to ask for help, and now
he's hoping that these Federal nutrition programs will continue
to be there for him. We, as food banks, are doing everything we
can to connect people to food, but the reality is, we're
already stretched very thin. Any cuts or significant changes to
SNAP would increase the demand in our services and,
unfortunately, we don't have the capacity to fill that gap.
Our food bank, like so many others, incur high costs when
storing, transporting and distributing TEFAP commodities,
especially in rural areas. In order to alleviate these costs,
the farm bill authorizes $100 million per year for TEFAP
storage and distribution funds. These funds are meant to
reimburse the costs associated with distributing commodities,
yet the $45 million actually appropriated covers about 24
percent of our costs. Last, we ask your Committee to look into
redefining rural within the Rural Development program. We serve
the entire State of North Dakota, including the farthest, most
remote corners, yet we are not eligible for Rural Development
finance programs because our physical warehouse is located in
Fargo. Altering the language would include a lot of
organizations who serve rural areas and would be a great
benefit to hunger relief organizations across the country.
Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area I'd like
to call up Kate Mendenhall, and our next presenter will be
Brent Davison, with Minn-Dak Farmers Co-op, he's the board
chair.
STATEMENT OF BRENT DAVISON, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, MINN-DAK FARMERS COOPERATIVE, WAHPETON, ND
Mr. Davison. Good morning. My name is Brent Davison. Along
with my wife Barb and son Chad we farm at Tintah, Minnesota.
I'm also Chairman of the Board of Directors at Minn-Dak Farmers
Cooperative in Wahpeton, which is a sugarbeet processing plant
which is owned by approximately 488 families that grow
sugarbeets on 100,000 acres. Good trade agreements, strong
sugar policy and crop insurance are all vital elements to any
farm bill, but also equally as important is research funding.
The future of any industry lies in the research that it's doing
today. Unfortunately, there are several sugarbeet scientists
who are about to retire. We need timely replacements and
adequate funding to address the problems that we face in the
years ahead. Sugarbeets are grown on about 1.1 million acres
nationwide. We are heavily dependent on research to fight a
variety of challenges such as weed control, rhizomania,
Cercospora leaf spot, Rhizoctonia, Aphanomyces disease, and
curly top. Any one of these problems can destroy a crop and
also a co-op. The industry has a desperate need for a
virologist, a nematologist and a plant breeder. We need to
quickly fill these positions.
The University of Minnesota and NDSU do a fantastic job
with the funding available, in particular, the research that
they do on Cercospora leaf spot that dramatically reduces
yield, quality, storability and processing efficiency. Their
continued research in this particular area is imperative to our
business, going forward. Our research needs are urgent and
serious. Ignoring them jeopardizes our future. I implore the
Committee to make sugarbeet research funding a priority in the
2018 Farm Bill to ensure a brighter future for both our
families and our customers. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. The next person to the on deck area
will be Gary Pedersen, and next we'll hear from Kate
Mendenhall, Director of Organic Farmers Association.
STATEMENT OF KATE MENDENHALL, DIRECTOR, ORGANIC FARMERS
ASSOCIATION, OKOBOJI, IA
Ms. Mendenhall. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Conaway
and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to
discuss the needs of U.S. organic farmers. I'm Kate Mendenhall,
Director of Organic Farmers Association, and I'm also a
beginning farmer transitioning land to organic in northwest
Iowa. Organic Farmers Association was created in 2016 from a
grassroots effort of organic farmers and organic farm
organizations who wanted an organization to provide a strong
and unified national voice for domestic certified organic
producers. U.S. consumers are demanding more organic food and
have driven the U.S. organic market by ten percent annually
since 2002, reaching $47 billion in organic sales and over
25,000 U.S. certified organic farmers and processors. However,
domestic organic production is not keeping pace with demand and
organic imports are filling this gap. Farm bill policies can
help U.S. farmers keep U.S. organic dollars here at home. A
small but important farm bill program is the organic
certification cost-share assistance, which provides organic
farmers with modest reimbursements for a portion of their
annual certification fees. Both the National Organic
Certification Cost-Share Program and the Agricultural
Management Assistance Act should be renewed with increased
mandatory funding to meet the projected U.S. market demand. Not
only is this program important to current certified organic
farmers and those considering organic transition, but it
invests in the future of farming, supporting the next
generation of farmers to be able to enter the growing organic
market, the fastest growing sector of U.S. agriculture. The
organic market is built on strong standards and organic
integrity.
As the U.S. organic market continues to grow by billions of
sales annually, the National Organic Program must also grow to
meet the needs for enforcement of our rigorous national organic
standards. Funding for the National Organic Program must be
increased so the agency has the necessary resources to perform
its oversight and enforcement activities, keeping pace with the
growth of the organic sector. Congressman Rodney Davis recently
said that as we look at the future of American agriculture,
it's vital that we invest in public agricultural research.
Organic agriculture is the future of American agriculture and
we need more research for organic farming. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
we'll call DeEtta Bilek. Our next presenter will be Gary
Pedersen with the Minnesota Association of Townships.
STATEMENT OF GARY PEDERSEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MINNESOTA
ASSOCIATION OF TOWNSHIPS, ST. MICHAEL, MN
Mr. Pedersen. Thank you. Good morning everybody. I
represent 1,781 townships in Minnesota and the issue that I
want to direct to you today is broadband. Across the State of
Minnesota and the rural part of Minnesota, and once you get
outside of the metro area, we do not have the required needs
for broadband. It's so vital to our economic development in our
rural areas. It's the only thing left that's going to keep our
people in rural Minnesota. We need to take a look at how we are
funding broadband and the Internet service in rural America,
and it needs to be looked at more like a utility. It is really
what it is, and it's a have to be. It's not an extra. It's not
something that we want. It's a need. Everything we do, we turn
and pretty soon we're connecting to the Internet to do whatever
we're doing, whether it's medical, education, small businesses,
agriculture, you can just go right down the list. I would like
to see you take on some of these large companies who really,
the only thing they're looking at is the bottom line. It's the
dollars that they're in it for. They're not going to get the
broadband to rural Minnesota, where the population is low, and
that's where we need the help, and I can't stress that enough.
And so please do whatever you can to put dollars to maybe make
this thing a utility and let's get the job done. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. The next person to the on deck area
will be Robert Lange. Our next presenter will be DeEtta Bilek a
certified organic producer.
STATEMENT OF DeEtta BILEK, ORGANIC HAY, OATS, AND RYE PRODUCER,
ALDRICH, MN
Ms. Bilek. I am DeEtta Bilek and we have a small farm in
central Minnesota. We've been certified organic for 19 years. I
have, in my past, been involved with a certification agency and
I worked for Sustainable Farming Association for a number of
years ago. I've seen a lot of growth in what the farm bill has
had to offer for farmers who are looking at transitioning to
more sustainable practices and going organic certified. I think
that if we can strengthen these programs for research, for
opportunities for farmers to learn how they can transition,
there are a lot of good things that have happened over that
time that I've seen. We need to strengthen it further and we
need to have better enforcement of, and two prior speakers were
talking about similar things as I am, so the markets are
important, so our exports are important, but also the
opportunity to be able to sell your product here in this
country. Looking at those imports, which has become a big
concern, that there's actually some fraud going on. The
products aren't actually certified organic they're finding. We
need to have more enforcement opportunities, strengthen the NLP
National Organic Program. Apparently, with the growth of
organic, they need more funding to actually have more staff
that can take care of the issues with the certification
agencies watching over that and other things too. Thank you for
the opportunity.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we'll call
Noah Hultgren, and our next presenter will be Robert Lange.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT A. LANGE, WINDOM, MN
Mr. Lange. Thank you. I am Robert Lange from Windom,
Minnesota. We farm in Jackson and Redwood counties. We
purchased a farm in 2007. It was never in the farm program and
it doesn't allow us to collect any farm payment from that. I
was told at the time that there were about 133 farmers that are
not allowed in the program also, but the amendment would help
us to sign up. We have kept records. We've certified to the
county committee and Larry Stuckenbroker of Jackson County
needs help so that we can admit these other farmers, which are
small in number, to the farm program. Let's see. We need crop
insurance. That is very important to us. We also need the
ability to have estate tax relief because there are just a
small number of farmers in Minnesota that need that help, but
it will help us to pass our farms, even though there are only a
small number of us, but it would help us tax-wise to pass our
farms to the next generation. We need support in our market
prices. Our corn market had varied only this past year by about
35 and that is no way to market because when we have debt to
pay, we need the high point of the market and the high point
only lasts a few days and it's gone. We haven't got a chance.
Our soybean market has dropped about $1.70 a bushel this last
short time and we need support in that. I thank you for
listening to me. Good luck.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
I'll call Robert Green. Our next presenter will be Noah
Hultgren, past President, Minnesota Corn Growers Association.
STATEMENT OF NOAH HULTGREN, AGRONOMY MANAGER, HULTGREN FARMS;
PAST PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION, WILMAR, MN
Mr. Hultgren. Thank you. I don't have a prepared statement
so I might be kind of short, but I want to emphasize the
importance of the farm bill and crop insurance. On our farm,
and like many others in my area, we employ 10+ employees at
certain times of the year and so there are multiple families
that our farm draws income for and it's just important that we
continue funding on the farm bill for that. I also want to
point out and talk about young farmers. Statistically, I am a
young farmer at almost 40. But crop insurance is so important
to me. We've got three families directly that derive income
from our farm and if we did not have crop insurance, we
wouldn't be able to survive. We had weather issues this year,
just like other people. We had a whole 80 acres of corn that
got hailed out and normally, if we did not have crop insurance,
we wouldn't be able to survive. We needed that to basically
break even possibly and so we can farm again. I've got three
daughters and I've got nieces and nephews that want to farm in
the future and that's why it's so vitally important to continue
funding the farm bill and crop insurance is so important. Thank
you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we'll call
Paul Kvistad, and our next presenter is Robert Green, Chairman,
American Crystal Sugar.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT GREEN, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR
COMPANY, ST. THOMAS, ND
Mr. Green. Thank you. I am Robert Green, and along with my
wife, my son and his wife, we grow sugarbeets, wheat, soybeans
and dry beans near St. Thomas, North Dakota. I am Chairman of
the Board of Directors of American Crystal Sugar, where I've
been Chairman since 2011 and have served on the board since
2005. American Crystal is the largest beet sugar cooperative in
the United States, with around 3,000 farmer shareholders who
grow over 400,000 acres of sugarbeets each year in eastern
North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. We employ about 2,000
people across our five factories in the Red River Valley, and
we also own and operate Sidney Sugars in Sidney, Montana. Over
the past 5 years, sugar prices have been depressed, often
falling close to the loan forfeiture level established in the
farm bill. Our growers cannot survive at this level. With
current low refined sugar market prices, payments to growers
have dropped significantly, jeopardizing the ability of
established farms to acquire operating loans for the coming
year and threatening the viability of sugarbeet farming for
young persons.
The extended period of depressed prices can mostly be
attributed to the flood of subsidized dumped sugar entering our
market from Mexico. We thank the Members of this Committee and
Secretaries Ross and Perdue for working to stop the Mexican
dumping and subsidizing that collapsed our market and caused $4
billion in damage to the domestic industry. We are hopeful that
the new amended suspension agreements governing Mexican sugar
exports will help correct that damage and provide stability to
our market. We ask this Committee to continue to express to the
Administration the importance of monitoring and enforcing those
agreements. With an annual economic impact of $5 million,
sugarbeet growing and processing is the lifeblood of the Red
River Valley. I am a fourth generation farmer and I am hopeful
that with the amended suspension agreements and a strong sugar
provision in the 2018 Farm Bill, that my children and
grandchildren will have a future growing sugarbeets and an
opportunity to continue the proud tradition of American
Crystal. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Our next presenter to the
on deck area is Colleen Moriarty, and our next presenter will
be Paul Kvistad.
STATEMENT OF PAUL KVISTAD, OWNER/OPERATOR, PAUL KVISTAD
POULTRY, WOOD LAKES, MN; ON BEHALF OF
MINNESOTA TURKEY GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Kvistad. Thank you. I'm a fourth generation farmer and
second generation turkey grower from Yellow Medicine County
near Woodlake, Minnesota, and on behalf of the Minnesota Turkey
Growers Association, and all those who rely upon the industry
in this state for their livelihood, we're here today to support
animal disease prevention in the farm bill. After the
devastating outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in
our state, we must do all we can to avoid seeing it in the
future. To see friends watch entire flocks die in a matter of
hours was absolutely devastating. That is why we are supporting
the mantra of, ``An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure,'' by advocating for a new program that focuses on animal
pest and disease prevention. We are thankful that Senator
Klobuchar has agreed to lead the effort in the Senate and look
forward to working with you Chairman Conaway and Ranking Member
Peterson to authorize the fund and look forward to this forward
looking approach in the House bill. Since the 2015 outbreak,
the turkey industry has made significant strides, and a similar
case of High-Path AI in Indiana last year indicates our
improvements, but we still lost critical export markets and
will continue to do so unless we limit the frequency and the
scope of future events. We can do better and still have plenty
to learn about the spread, containment, and eradication of
these types of diseases. As the Committee embarks on a
reauthorization of the bill, MTGA supports the National Turkey
Federation and over 70 associations that are asking for the
inclusion of a mandatory program to the farm bill.
This program will be designed to limit the impacts of
diseases of all animal agriculture producers when an outbreak
occurs. This program will use Federal dollars on targeted
efforts that reduce foreign diseases before they strike. Animal
ag represents over \1/2\ of all farm receipts and in order to
protect this vital sector of the economy, there are two key
pillars of our proposal. First, the prevention program
administered by APHIS that builds upon the 2014 Farm Bill. And,
second, it would further develop the cooperative agreements
that allow states and other key players to strategically target
areas of concern where there's an increased risk. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
I want to call Tom Haag, and next we'll hear from Colleen
Moriarty, who's Executive Director of Hunger Solutions
Minnesota.
STATEMENT OF HON. COLLEEN MORIARTY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HUNGER
SOLUTIONS MINNESOTA, ST. PAUL, MN
Ms. Moriarty. Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity
to present this morning. My name is Colleen Moriarty and I'm
the Executive Director of Hunger Solutions Minnesota. We are a
statewide organization based in St. Paul, with staff in
northeast and southwest Minnesota, and we're engaged with a
network of partners, including the Farmers Union, and in nearly
300 food banks statewide. We appreciate the Committee's support
for the nutrition title of the farm bill. The nutrition title
has made healthy, nutritious foods available to thousands of
low-income Minnesotans, and for Minnesota, a strong SNAP
program has meant that we were able to increase the number of
seniors in their access to nutritious foods, respond quickly in
the face of the recession, and keep a safety net available
during economic crises and natural disasters. Strong nutrition
programs like TEFAP and SNAP are critical to alleviating hunger
in our community and severe cuts as proposed in the Federal
budget jeopardize those successful programs. In Minnesota
alone, nearly 120,000 people could lose their SNAP benefits and
their access to nutritious foods that would be cut at a time
when families are struggling. TEFAP makes nutritious foods
available to emergency food networks while supporting prices
for agricultural commodities like dairy and eggs in the
Midwest.
Hunger Solutions partners with the Minnesota Department of
Human Services, the USDA and several regional food banks to
distribute TEFAP foods throughout the State of Minnesota. SNAP
is critically important for struggling families with children
who need good nutrition to be able to learn as we enter into a
new school year. SNAP features make it particularly responsive
during tough times. The ability of the program to expand
enrollment when unemployment rises, and contract when the
economy improves, is essential to the recovery of Minnesotans.
And while enrollment has decreased in recent years, as the
economy improves, not all Americans and not all Minnesotans
have enjoyed the same recovery. Hunger Solutions has worked
with the Farmers Union, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Center for
Prevention and business leaders in Minnesota like General Mills
to get the message out about SNAP and healthy nutritious foods
and the meaning of this program to Minnesotans. Thank you very
much.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we'll call
up David Scheevel, and our next presenter is Tom Haag, who's a
board member for the National Corn Growers Association.
STATEMENT OF TOM HAAG, MEMBER, CORN BOARD, NATIONAL CORN
GROWERS ASSOCIATION, EDEN VALLEY, MN
Mr. Haag. Thank you. Good morning everyone. With year-
ending stocks exceeding 2.4 billion bushels, the top goal for
NCGA is to build demand for U.S. corn. A robust livestock
industry, expanding exports, and a growing renewable fuels
industry are essential to achieving more profit for corn
farmers. The farm bill risk management tools, as well as the
Market Assistance and Foreign Market Development Programs are
critical to sustaining our family farms through this difficult
environment. While most grain farmers enjoyed positive income
from 2012 to 2013, when corn prices averaged $4.70 per bushel,
incomes have dropped sharply since then, with prices averaging
below $4.00, even falling to less than $3.00 here in our own
state, which is well below our cost of production. Fortunately,
the Agriculture Risk Coverage and the Price Loss Coverage
programs have performed as designed, providing much needed
assistance. These commodity programs are essential, but the
corn farmer's most important risk management tool is Federal
crop insurance.
In NCGA's January 2016 risk management survey, our farmers'
top concerns were potential cuts to premium discounts, coverage
levels, and the revenue policy price component. To sum it up,
crop insurance provides well-targeted within the year
protection against yield loss and declining prices, while ARC
and PLC protect against multiple years of depressed markets.
Finally, our members have voiced strong support for additional
funding for the Market Assistance and Foreign Market
Development Programs. For every dollar invested, these private-
public partnerships are delivering $28 in exports. Thank you
for this opportunity to speak to the group.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next I'd like to call to the on
deck area Ruth Hoefs, and our next presenter will be David
Sheevel with Foremost Farms.
Mr. Scheevel. Mr. Thiesse, somehow my German and Dutch
ancestors got Skaval out of that spelling.
Mr. Thiesse. Skaval. Okay. There we go.
STATEMENT OF DAVID SCHEEVEL, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, FOREMOST FARMS USA; MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
NATIONAL MILK PRODUCERS FEDERATION, PRESTON, MN
Mr. Scheevel. I'm a dairy producer in southeast Minnesota
near Preston, on the board of directors, as you said, of
Foremost Farms, so I'm speaking in support of the changes that
have been proposed and are already through your Committee on
the Margin Protection Program. I believe they need to be made
or the program will cease to exist because people will not sign
up for it. I know personally I stayed out of it because I was
in the Livestock Gross Margin program before, and I'm still in
it, but I can utilize both of them if I had the ability to use
both of them in the marketing toolbox, and a lot of other
producers would be able to as well. The other thing I want to
speak to is the labor shortage. As Mr. Buck alluded to, labor
is increasingly important in the dairy industry. It's getting
harder and harder to find help. I believe we need an expedited
guestworker program. I think that H-2A adjustments is a good
first step to that. And also the domestic workforce. I think
there are some of them that are sitting on the sidelines. I
would like to find a way that we can move some of them back
into active participation in the workforce again, so thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the staging area, on deck
area, will be Duane Anderson, and our next presenter is Ruth
Hoefs, with Minnesota Ducks Unlimited.
STATEMENT OF RUTH HOEFS, MINNESOTA STATE CHAIRWOMAN, DUCKS
UNLIMITED, LE CENTER, MN
Ms. Hoefs. Good morning and welcome, Mr. Chairman,
Congressman Peterson, members of the staff, welcome. My name is
Ruth Hoefs from Le Center, Minnesota, Le Sueur County. I'm a
longtime farmer and livestock raiser on a 350 acre farm that
has been in my family since 1950. I'm also the current state
chair of Minnesota's Ducks Unlimited, the first lady in this
role. I'm so happy to speak on behalf of the one million
members and supporters nationwide, and the 46,000+ members
across great Minnesota. DU is a proud partner with the USDA in
delivering conservation programs on the ground with farmers,
ranchers, and landowners. We understand that the passage of the
farm bill requires trust, coalition building, compromise and
consensus among the broad, diversified groups and regions so
that we can work hard together to strengthen these
partnerships. Conservation programs are a key part of the
safety net used by farmers and ranchers to maximize on farm
efficiency and productivity to maintain soil health, water
quality, wildlife habitat on our lands. Conservation is in high
demand across the country and here in Minnesota.
DU supports wetland, grassland protections for the benefit
of soil and water conservation, fish and wildlife habitat. We
support strong funding for important working land programs such
as the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, EQIP, and the
Conservation Stewardship Program, CSP. We support an improved
Conservation Reserve Program, CRP, with the expanded managed
grazing opportunities that improve wildlife habitat, including
emergency haying and grazing during times like with the drought
in the Dakotas and Montana. We also support the robust
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. This is a normally
popular program demanded by those who virtually seek to protect
their land through conservation easements. Thank you for the
opportunity to speak with you today, and I enjoyed visiting
with you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
I would like to call Terry VanDerPol, and our next presenter is
Duane Anderson with Farmers Union Industries.
STATEMENT OF DUANE ANDERSON, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, FARMERS UNION INDUSTRIES, LLC, REDWOOD FALLS, MN
Mr. Anderson. I'm Duane Anderson, President and CEO of
Farmers Union Industries, headquartered in Redwood Falls,
Minnesota. I live in Morgan, grew up here in Minnesota. Since
1929, FUI has done business that supports grain farmers and
livestock and poultry producers across the Midwest by turning
their non-edible production into new, high value products. I
serve on the board of directors of the National Renders
Association. Rendering accounts for $10 billion in economic
activity each year. Our companies provide tens of thousands of
year-around jobs in rural and urban communities with
competitive salaries and benefits. Each year rendering upcycles
over 56 billion pounds of leftover animal byproducts and used
restaurant cooking oil into valuable ingredients for many high
value products. These include animal feed, pet food, biodiesel,
and personal care and industrial items. Rendering has positive
environmental benefits. For example, upcycling animal
byproducts sequesters at least five times as many greenhouse
gases emissions as it emits. This has the same effect as taking
12.2 million cars off the road each year.
There are several important issues for the renderers.
First, NRA supports a strong Renewable Fuel Standard and
continued Federal values of tax credits since we supply 30
percent of the feedstock for the U.S. biodiesel production.
Second, in the farm bill, we urge you to make decisions that
allow U.S. farmers and ranchers, our customers, to remain
competitive and improve their economic health. Third, with 20
percent of our products sold overseas, we urge increased
funding for the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market
Development Program to help boost export sales and income for
farmers, ranchers and others in agriculture. Last, please
ensure that the animal byproducts and used cooking oils are not
considered waste in any food waste legislation. Our raw
materials are vital inputs to produce high value ingredients.
We urge you not to distort the market with Federal incentives
encouraging other recyclers to use these raw materials to
produce low value products such as methane, fertilizer and soil
amendments. Thanks for the opportunity to speak.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the staging area, on deck
area, Aleta Borrud. Our next presenter will be Terry VanDerPol
with the Land Stewardship Project.
STATEMENT OF TERRY VanDerPol, COORDINATOR, CHIPPEWA 10% PROJECT
AND DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY BASED FOOD SYSTEMS, LAND STEWARDSHIP
PROJECT, GRANITE FALLS, MN
Ms. VanDerPol. Good morning. My name is Terry VanDerPol and
I farm not too far from here. I have a cow/calf operation and I
work with the Land Stewardship Project. With that project, I
work with farmers and landowners in the Chippewa River
watershed to find profitable approaches to improve water
quality and wildlife habitat. We're meeting with considerable
success. In doing that, we're finding that continuous living
cover is absolutely critical and there are profitable ways to
integrate livestock into diverse cropping systems that include
perennials. Historically, the EQIP program has been a very,
very important tool in our toolbox and it seems to be going
away. We're finding in all six of the counties that we work in
that EQIP funding is going to a very small number of huge
contracts. Innovative projects from family farmers that will
improve water quality, things like grazing cover crops to
improve soil health and their bottom line, converting marginal
cropland to grasslands with managed grazing are left out. And
what we're hearing from these farmers is, don't even bother to
apply for EQIP, that's just for the big guys. These mid-size
family farmers are really where a lot of innovation can happen
around building soil health and making conservation pay on
working farmland and we really encourage you to support EQIP
and to make it more available to more producers by putting some
meaningful caps on it. And I do thank you, because that's just
the way my parents raised me. And also I want to just mention
that broadband is extremely, extremely important in the rural
areas. Please attend to that. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next we would like to call Mark
Olson to the on deck area, and our next presenter is Aleta
Borrud, Borrud Family Farms.
STATEMENT OF ALETA BORRUD, OWNER, BORRUD FAMILY FARMS, LLP,
WILLISTON, ND
Ms. Borrud. Yes. Thank you. I'm Aleta Borrud and also a
member of the Land Stewardship Project. I am an owner of a
small grain family farm with my siblings in northwestern North
Dakota. Northwest North Dakota is facing ``exceptional'' or the
most severe level of drought. This raises two issues. One, FSA
loans. I oppose any proposal to increase limits for the
guaranteed FSA operating loans through banks to as much as $2.5
million, as was recently proposed. What family farms really
borrow $2.5 million? Bankers may then favor big industrial
farms, imagining that bigger means better farming practice.
Could mega farms usurp the available funds, leaving none for
family farms and letting them sink? I would favor an increase
in the direct loan limits, not an increase in limits for the
guaranteed FSA loans through banks. The second item,
resiliency. In addition to putting farm bill money into crop
insurance, I would advocate increasing support for farming
practices that actually build resiliency by increasing soil
organic matter as a buffer against drought. Liberalizing the
CSP, or the Conservation Stewardship Program payments, supports
innovations. I know that NDSU is doing really groundbreaking
research out in western North Dakota and so farmers need
support to really incorporate the use of these innovations such
as interseeding, use of continuous cover crops and
diversification through crop rotations. My family would need
CSP support to incorporate these innovations. Finally, we need
a Marshall plan for rural America. Across the Dakotas, Montana,
Wyoming, rural towns are dying. Young people want to stay on
the farm. To keep rural America alive, we need to invest in our
family farmers. They are the anchors for these communities.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we'll call
Bill Post. Our next presenter is Mark Olson.
STATEMENT OF MARK OLSON, PRESIDENT, M. OLSON FARMS INC.,
WILLMAR, MN
Mr. Mark Olson. Good morning. I'm a farmer from Chippewa
County and I wanted to speak a little bit about crop insurance.
I support organic farmers and organic farming, but there's a
disparity between the election prices and the guaranteed levels
that the organic farmers can achieve and the conventional
farmers that is encouraging some fraudulent practices, I
believe. The organic price for corn is $9.03. My price is
$3.93, and with the county guarantees, they can guarantee over
$300 more per acre with fewer input costs and this is something
that needs to be addressed and hasn't been talked about. Also,
between the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bills, there was a designation
of converted wetlands created, and the converted wetland was in
the time when Sodbuster first was written, and for 30 years now
we've had ground that has been idled, that could be farmed,
that we're telling farmers they can't farm it. The regulations
for operating around it are much more strict than a designated
wetland because these boundaries were measured by 2 meter
photographs in 1985 and today we're measuring them to inches.
And if you go across that imaginary line, you're in violation
of all your farm program payments. I would suggest removing the
converted wetlands or taking a look at redesignation. Thank
you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. To the on deck area I'll call Steve
Schlangen, and our next presenter will be Bill Post, who's a
dairy farmer.
STATEMENT OF BILL POST, OWNER, MIDDLEROAD ACRES, CHANDLER, MN
Mr. Post. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I
appreciate the opportunity. I come to talk to you about trade.
I'm a small dairy farmer from southwest Minnesota. I farm with
my wife and two kids. We milk 120 cows with robots. You
probably wonder, why am I worried about trade. Well, I'm the
third generation dairy farmer and I've got a fourth coming. If
we don't have trade, we're going to lose our markets for the
milk. With Mr. Trump talking about building a wall to Mexico,
we'll probably lose some of our workers coming. Our larger
dairies need the workers. We put in the robots, but we still
need the trade, and with a wall going up, that will impede our
trade. I believe Mexico is one of our major buyers for milk so
take that into consideration. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area I'd like
to call Vicki Poier, and our next presenter is Steve Schlangen,
Associated Milk Producers Chairman.
STATEMENT OF STEVE SCHLANGEN, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
ASSOCIATED MILK PRODUCERS, INC., ALBANY, MN
Mr. Schlangen. Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson,
Committee Members, I am Steve Schlangen. I'm a dairy farmer
from Albany, Minnesota, and I'm Chairman of the Board of
Directors of Associated Milk Producers, Incorporated,
headquartered here in New Ulm, Minnesota. AMPI is owned by
about 2,000 dairy farmers and we operate a network of ten
manufacturing plants throughout the upper Midwest where we
manufacture ten percent of the American type cheese in the
country, ten percent of the whey, ten percent of the butter,
and ten percent of the American sliced cheese. Thank you for
this opportunity. There's a common agreement among dairy
farmers that the Margin Protection Program created in the 2014
Farm Bill is ineffective. I believe the program did not have
the opportunity to live up to its potential as a result of
changes made following CBO scoring it, which diluted the feed
cost formula. The result has been a program that does not
provide the safety net we need and consequently has become
widely rejected by dairy farmers. What could be done? To begin,
dairy farmers are not looking for handouts. We are seeking a
toolbox of options to better manage risk and the pain
associated with times of low margins.
I believe this can be accomplished in four key ways. First,
and perhaps the quickest opportunity, is to urge the USDA to
take immediate action and clarify that the $20 million annual
cap limit on risk management livestock insurance programs does
not apply to products of livestock such as milk. This will pave
the way for the USDA Risk Management Agency to provide a dairy
insurance option much similar to what already exists for crop
farmers. Second, would be the reduced MPP premiums for the
first 4 to 5 million pounds of production per farm. Doing this
would increase affordability of the program and make it more
attractive. Third, would be to have a monthly margin
calculation as opposed to the current bimonthly system.
Operating this way would make the program more timely in
responding to market conditions. And fourth, and certainly most
significant, would be to restore the original feed cost formula
back to the level that was established earlier in the last farm
bill. I recognize there are budget challenges with this, but
for dairy farmers to utilize the program, they need to see a
feed cost formula that more closely reflects what they're
experiencing on their farms. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area I want to
call Kyle Petersen. Our next presenter is Vicki Poier with
Bread for the World.
STATEMENT OF VICKI POIER, MEMBER, BREAD FOR THE WORLD,
MONTEVIDEO, MN
Ms. Poier. I'm Vicki Poier and we farm near Montevideo,
Minnesota, and as he said, I'm a member of Bread for the World,
which is a Christian advocacy group for those who are hungry
both at home and internationally. So many people have already
spoken eloquently about the need to support SNAP and food
programs at home and around the world so I'm not going to say
more about that, but just as a farmer, it's, like, we produce
food, and the result should be that food feeds people, and with
so many people hungry in the world, it's so important that we
make food accessible to everyone. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. If I could ask, if people want to
visit, would you please step outside out of respect for the
Members of the House Agriculture Committee and those in the
audience that want to hear the presenters. We're getting a lot
of background noise coming around the edges so if you want to
visit, that's fine, but then please step outside and do it
rather than in the building here. Thank you.
Next I'd like to call Howard Olson to the staging area. And
our next presenter, Kyle Petersen, with southern Minnesota Beet
Sugar Co-op.
STATEMENT OF KYLE PETERSEN, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, SOUTHERN MINNESOTA BEET SUGAR
COOPERATIVE, MURDOCK, MN
Mr. Petersen. First off, thank you so much for your
attentiveness up there. You guys have really been paying
attention, I've been watching, and we appreciate that very
much. Thanks for listening to all of us. My name is Kyle
Petersen and I'm the Chairman of the Southern Minnesota Beet
Sugar Co-op in Renville. Our co-op includes over 500
shareholders and part of our growing area is where we sit
today. The shareholders of Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Co-op
raise sugarbeets, corn, soybeans, sweetcorn, peas, alfalfa,
edible beans, and also have several livestock operations. In
order for our industry to survive, Members of your Committee
know full well that we must manage our risks through fair trade
policies, an adequate price safety net, and effective and
affordable crop insurance. Most crop farmers borrow more in 1
year to produce a crop than most Americans do in a lifetime.
Our growers and our bankers need strong risk management tools
like crop insurance that are essential in order to secure
operating loans to grow our crop. With more frequent and
intense weather patterns, rising interest rates and production
costs, and lower commodity prices, our risk has gone up, while
our balance sheets have gone down. We simply have to have
affordable crop insurance to manage those risks.
Above and beyond, beginning farmer provisions are of
extreme importance as they do not have the reserves and equity
built up compared to people that have been farming for years.
Congress simply cannot allow funding reductions for our crop
insurance coverage and create a lending crisis for our
producers. Sugarbeets are different than other commodities in
the fact that from the time we prepare our land, produce,
process and sell our crop, we have a 2 year investment return
cycle. We borrow to plant the next crop well before we are paid
for the last crop. Sugarbeet farmers across America ask for
your support to maintain multi-peril crop insurance as a good
risk management tool so we can continue to do what we do best,
grow sugar for the American consumer. Thank you very much for
your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the staging area I'd like
to call Eric DeBlieck, and our next presenter is Howard Olson
with the AgCountry Farm Credit Services and American Sugar Beet
Growers.
STATEMENT OF HOWARD OLSON, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, INSURANCE AND
COMMUNICATIONS, AgCountry FARM CREDIT SERVICES, FARGO, ND; ON
BEHALF OF AMERICAN SUGARBEET GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. Howard Olson. Good morning. I'm Howard Olson, as he
said. I'm from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, and I work at
AgCountry Farm Credit Services in Fargo, North Dakota. We work
with over 18,000 farmers across parts of North Dakota,
Minnesota, and Wisconsin, including sugarbeet growers in the
Red River Valley and right here in southern Minnesota. I'm
offering today a lender's perspective on crop insurance in the
sugar program on behalf of the American Sugar Beet Growers
Association. At AgCountry Farm Credit we utilize a risk chain
analysis when we assess the risk involved with a loan with our
customers. The first link in that risk chain analysis is crop
insurance. Today's farm economy, even just an average yield on
the farm, that farmer is going to have a net loss and a net
loss of income. At a 75 percent crop insurance level, they're
deep into a loss before crop insurance even kicks in. When that
happens, they start burning working capital, equity and other
assets, and eventually we have to have a discussion with them
about selling assets to raise cash or possibly even getting out
of the business. When there's a crop loss, there's going to be
a loss of income on the farm, but with a good crop insurance
program and working capital, we may help them farm another
year.
If premium support is reduced or capped, farmers will
choose to go to a lower crop insurance level to cut some of
their costs and they're going to assume more of the risk
themselves. That's going to increase the gamble of farming and
increase the stakes. At AgCountry and other lenders, we'll
probably very well increase the amount of working capital that
is required to offset that reduction in crop insurance
protection, and working capital is getting extremely difficult
to get and create. We may find a lot of farmers that will be
unable to get operating financing. Also, we need a strong sugar
program to support our sugarbeet farmers and we want to see an
increase in funding and loan limits on our FSA loan guarantees.
And one final thought from my view in the seats as a taxpayer
who likes to eat, we've got the lowest cost food in the world
and that benefits our economy and all of our people in America,
all of our people. A strong farm safety net and a strong crop
insurance program are key components to keeping that low-cost
food. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we'll call
Jay Moore. Next we're going to hear from Eric DeBlieck with
Grain Millers, Incorporated.
STATEMENT OF ERIC DeBlieck, CROP SPECIALIST, GRAIN MILLERS,
INC., EDEN PRAIRIE, MN
Mr. DeBlieck. Good morning. My name is Eric DeBlieck with
Grain Millers, and I'm speaking on behalf of the organic
industry. Grain Millers is a conventional, non-GMO and organic
food ingredient manufacturer based out of Eden Prairie and
operating across the U.S. and Canada focused on producing high
quality grain products. These grains include barley, wheat,
soybeans, flax, triticale, corn, and with the back bill of our
milling industry being oats. The $47 billion a year organic
industry is a bright spot for our farm economy. Organic
agriculture boosts local economies, raising household incomes,
reducing poverty levels and creating benefits for rural areas.
Organic provides a profitable opportunity to farmers, a unique
option for aspiring farmers, an opportunity to incorporate more
family members into the operation, and choices to consumers.
Opportunities for continued rural growth can be seen through
this ever growing marketplace. While Grain Millers has seen
slow growth in the conventional business, we have seen
consistent high rates of growth approaching and exceeding up to
ten percent in the organic sector. This growth has caused
companies to direct sourcing efforts to other regions to meet
growing demand, with Canada being the place where we source
those grains.
It is our goal to continue to move those sourcing efforts
back to Minnesota and the upper Midwest. We need a strong and
successful sector to accomplish these efforts. The organic
industry relies on well funded support for organic through
USDA's NOP. What we need for the 2018 Farm Bill are policies
and protections that strengthen the integrity of the USDA
organic seal, boosts investment and research, and supports the
expansion of organic acres.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the staging area we want to
call Robert Gervais, and our next presenter is Jay Moore,
Minnesota Pork Producers Association.
STATEMENT OF JAY MOORE, PRESIDENT, EXECUTIVE BOARD, MINNESOTA
PORK PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION, JACKSON, MN
Mr. Moore. Good morning. I just want to reiterate the need
for a robust foot-and-mouth disease vaccine program. Right now
we couldn't even handle a small outbreak with the vaccine
that's available. And just so everyone knows, a small outbreak,
we're talking about one county in Minnesota or Iowa. We have
just a few limited strands of the antigen available, and then
the time sequence, we would have to ship that over to France or
England to produce the vaccine and then the turnaround, so
we're really at a risk right now. I always hear, it's not if,
but when, and so if an outbreak did occur, it would be, the
first thing, our exports would be totally cut off, and then
just the devastation of the entire ag sector. For example, just
with beef and pork, it would negatively impact us $128 billion
over a 10 year period: corn growers, soybean growers, $44
billion, $25 billion respectively. Those four industries would
mean $200 billion, this is a drop in the bucket, and so, as we
know, we're all connected to agriculture and we need to protect
it and so I just encourage you to do what you can to get that.
I know the National Pork Producer Council will be asking for
$150 million in the farm bill on an annual basis to get us
where we need to be and so $30 million of that would go towards
our National Animal Health Laboratory Network and then also the
$70 million earmarked for states so the states can have the
resources they need to respond quickly to a foreign disease
outbreak. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area I'd like
to call Craig Olson. Our next presenter is Robert Gervais, with
Tru Shrimp.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT GERVAIS, DIRECTOR OF
OPERATIONS AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, TRU SHRIMP COMPANY,
BALATON, MN
Mr. Gervais. Chairman Conaway, Members of the Committee,
I'm Robert Gervais. I'm the Director of Operations and
Government Relations for the Tru Shrimp Company in Balaton,
Minnesota. It is estimated that ten billion people will be on
the Earth by the year 2050. They will need food. It's estimated
by the source Worldometer that 12,000 people die every day of
starvation, and 770 million people are undernourished around
the globe at any time. Seafood is a much needed protein source.
The ocean fish raised, particularly the shrimp, do not have the
capacity for more harvesting. Aquaculture is a piece of the
puzzle and should be supported by any ag bill and farm bill in
the future. It is a protein on quality par with the pork,
poultry, and beef industries. Three percent of the U.S. trade
deficit is seafood alone, of which 45 percent of that is the
seafood, or excuse me, shrimp alone largely from southeast
Asia. It is an industry plagued by disease. We at Tru Shrimp
desire to contribute to the world food supply through our
sustainable aquaculture industry. We ask your support for the
continued development of aquaculture in the United States and
the mainstream source of a protein. Thank you for your time and
attention.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area I'd like
to call Susan Griebel. Our next presenter, Craig Olson, with
the North Dakota Soybean Growers.
STATEMENT OF CRAIG OLSON, PRESIDENT, NORTH DAKOTA SOYBEAN
GROWERS ASSOCIATION, COLFAX, ND
Mr. Craig Olson. Good morning. I'm Craig Olson with the
North Dakota Soybean Growers Association, I'm from southeast
North Dakota, and I'm happy to be here and glad you guys are
listening. Thank you for your time. A few things. Thanks for
you guys' help with the drought in North Dakota. It's real
serious in the western part of the state and we can continue
with you guys' support. Thank you on that. Which also brings up
the importance of crop insurance, and a strong key component of
this is helping our producers in the central and western part
of the state through this tough time when it's dry. In North
Dakota we have to worry about trade. We are landlocked and a
lot of our products are shipped overseas. Trade is very
important to our state so keep that on the front burner.
Conservation is another big issue too. We have a lot of wetland
issues in North Dakota. With you guys' help, they have been
fixed and things are getting better. We still have a mitigation
process we need help with to improve these wetlands so we're
not farming them. We can move them aside and set them aside and
we can not touch them, and with that we can tile ground and we
can improve our crop insurance by tiling ground. We could
reduce our risk with the tile and it would help on the cost of
crop insurance. One last thing, a couple last things. U.S. Fish
and Wildlife easements: The setbacks are different than NRCS. I
would like to encourage you guys to look into that and make
sure that these easements, setbacks, are the same as the NRCS
rules because it's really hard on these farmers. The setbacks
are almost impossible to do any sort of farming ground even.
And with those easements, these farmers should have the chance
to buy back their easements at whatever price. With that, thank
you for your time today. I'll keep it short and I appreciate
it.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. And, again, I would ask those of
you at the east door, if you want to visit, please step
outside. We're getting a lot of background noise coming in
here, please whisper so we can hear the presenters. Okay. Thank
you. Next we'd like to call Gene Paul to the on deck area, and
our next presenter will be Susan Griebel.
STATEMENT OF SUSAN GRIEBEL, MEMBER, LAND STEWARDSHIP PROJECT,
NEW ULM, MN
Ms. Griebel. Good morning. I live on a small dairy farm of
70 cows near New Ulm, Minnesota, with my husband's family.
Together we raise barley, alfalfa, corn, and soybeans on 500
acres, \1/2\ of which is rented from the neighbors. My husband
and I are members of the Land Stewardship Project. Our 2018
Farm Bill can be the best farm bill ever by doing more to
encourage farmers and farmer wanna-be's to use conservation
methods that increase soil health, while providing us all with
healthy organic plants and animals for our food. It makes sense
because we all reap the benefits, the benefits of our own good
health, healthy food, breathing clean air, drinking clean
water, having clean water to bathe in, and having a clean
environment in which we work, play, and rest. It makes sense
because we will be handing this land, this air and this water
over to our children and grandchildren. I work part-time at a
small feed store. Many of our farmer customers must work off
the farm to make enough money to pay their bills. Our 2018 Farm
Bill can provide the education, the incentive, the support to
encourage new farmers to start farming and to keep current
farmers on their land. Our farm bill can create a lively,
bustling farm sector. More farms, more farmers, create a
resilient local economy and vibrant communities. Our 2018 Farm
Bill can be the best farm bill ever by promoting and rewarding
farmers committed to conservation practices that deliver the
greatest environmental benefits. Let's try it for 50 or a
hundred years, see how it goes. We can always go back. Thank
you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next I'd like to call Steven
Hoffman to the on deck area. Our next presenter is Gene Paul
with the National Farmers Organization.
STATEMENT OF GENE PAUL, LEGISLATIVE COORDINATOR, NATIONAL
FARMERS ORGANIZATION, DELAVAN, MN
Mr. Paul. As has been said before, a reliable safety net is
important for farmers. In the past few years, that has always
been crop insurance, and so we urge you to continue with
adequate funding for the crop insurance program; but perhaps,
take a look at the program, when we've had a history of low
commodity prices the last few years, it may not provide the
safety net that farmers really need. Are there some reforms
that can be put into it that give farmers some more choices
that would give them an adequate safety net? We would like to
encourage support for the dairy farmers. We know that the MPP
program needs to be fixed, but we also need to be aware that I
believe that will be a hard sell to dairy farmers because
they've had a bad experience with it in the past couple years.
Also, some type of program that would manage growth of dairy in
this country would be helpful.
In some areas of the country milk is being dumped. Federal
Milk Marketing Order I, out in the Northeast, has reported that
just in the month of May, 25 million pounds was dumped. The
USDA has reported several million gallons of milk was dumped
this past year because there were not adequate markets for
that. One of the things we need to be aware of is that as that
milk is dumped, the cost of that is assessed back against all
dairy farmers, even those that have not increased production.
And then last, we want a reliable inspection program for the
imports of organic grain. The imports that have been coming in
largely from Turkey have been mislabeled as they come across
the ocean and that has devastated the markets for our organic
grain producers in this country. Organic grain will give
producers an opportunity to live out in those rural areas and
support the local businesses. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. The next person I want to
call to the staging area is Michael Petefish. Our next
presenter is Steven Hoffman, dairy farmer.
STATEMENT OF STEVEN HOFFMAN, OWNER, HOFFMAN DAIRY, NEW ULM, MN
Mr. Hoffman. Thank you Congressmen and Congresswoman. I'm a
dairy farmer just south of New Ulm here in central Minnesota.
We have 140 cows. I farm with my wife and I have two sons that
also farm, so we are a slightly below average size dairy here
in the State of Minnesota and I just want to emphasize a few
struggles we have and concerns. And I apologize ahead of time
because what I'm going to talk about is the DAIRY PRIDE Act,
and I know that is not directly related to the farm bill so I
do apologize for that. But I would just like to encourage all
of you to sign onto the DAIRY PRIDE Act that current regulation
from the Food and Drug Administration defines dairy products as
being from dairy animals, and even though I am also a corn and
soybean grower, there are products in the dairy case in grocery
stores that are labelled as milk and they are not truly milk.
They are soybean products and almond products and algae
products and all kinds of things, and I'm not saying they're
not good, all I'm saying is that they should not be labelled
with milk. They should have on there soybean drink or almond
drink. And that's a big concern for us. That kind of eats away
at our market share in the dairy case and we, as dairy
producers here in the United States, we need all of that market
share, along with our exports to Mexico, so that's my other
comment. We need to keep that trade going with Mexico and the
other countries, so thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
we'll call Mike Schneider, and our next presenter is Michael
Petefish, who is the President of the Minnesota Soybean
Growers.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL PETEFISH, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA SOYBEAN
GROWERS ASSOCIATION, CLAREMONT, MN
Mr. Petefish. Hello. I'm the current President of the
Minnesota Soybean Growers Association. I'm also a third
generation farmer in southeast Minnesota. There are three areas
of importance for the upcoming farm bill. The most important,
most critical part is, of course, the crop insurance program.
Prior to the 2014 Farm Bill we had record high commodity
prices, and as such, we took a $23 billion baseline reduction
over the next 10 years. Well, since that time, a lot has
changed. We've seen a 40 to 50 percent decrease in commodity
prices and on farm incomes and so we would ask at a minimum
that you maintain current levels of funding for the crop
insurance program, or perhaps move back towards that goal of
where we were prior to those cuts. I also think of importance
in the next farm bill is the bioenergy program and the
biomarket based programs. Those programs help us find new uses
for our products such as biodiesel, biolubricants, and a whole
host of other products not yet known or to be discovered that
help create demand for our product and make us less dependent
on that safety net of crop insurance, and so if we can create
demand, it helps the farm economies and the rural economy, so
thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
I want to call Jeff Schuermann. Our next presenter, Mike
Schneider with Schneider Farms.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL SCHNEIDER, OPERATOR, SCHNEIDER FARMS, LLP,
SACRED HEART, MN
Mr. Schneider. Hello. I'm a second generation organic dairy
farmer from Sacred Heart, Minnesota, just to the northwest of
here about a half hour. We've heard a lot about organic
agriculture today, and for the most part, it's really a bright
spot in agriculture, so I'm really just asking you, if we have
a bright spot, let's work together and keep it. We have organic
crop insurance, that's working well, for the most part. NOP
works well, for the most part. We have heard about some issues
with it, but for the most part, organic agriculture is really a
bright spot and when organic operations are profitable, we
spend money on main street, just like conventional operations,
and it's just a trickle effect, so if we have a bright spot in
agriculture, let's work together to keep it. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
I want to call Jim Riddle, and our next presenter is a farmer,
Jeff Schuermann.
STATEMENT OF JEFF SCHUERMANN, NEW ULM, MN
Mr. Schuermann. Hi. I'm a, yeah, fifth generation family
farmer from Nicollet County, Minnesota. I'm here to talk today
about today's farm bill. When you do write it, there's far too
much influence from large corporations and corporate farming
that are really masquerading as family farms, and I'm kind of
glad to see there are two iron rangers on the board today
because who better than them to understand what happens when
large East Coast corporations come into southern Minnesota or
anywhere else and have a failed business plan to establish
these large corporate farms that compete with local individuals
and local generational farmers that have to compete for the
resources that are here. I think you know all too well what
happens when they come in and exploit the land and labor and
resources, and then when it's no longer profitable, they just
sort of up and leave and leave you with a lot of empty
promises. It's very hard today, as a beginning farmer, to
compete with these large corporations and try to build barns
that support the animal head units that they seem to require in
their business models. I hope that you'll think of the smaller
farmers when you write this new bill. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we'll call
Paul Sobocinski. Our next presenter is Jim Riddle, who's with
the Organic Farmers Association.
STATEMENT OF JIM RIDDLE, CO-OWNER, BLUE FRUIT FARM; ADVISOR,
NATIONAL ORGANIC COALITION; CHAIRMAN, STEERING COMMITTEE,
ORGANIC FARMERS ASSOCIATION; CHAIRMAN, MN ORGANIC ADVISORY TASK
FORCE, MDA AND UMN, WINONA, MN
Mr. Riddle. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Committee, my name is Jim Riddle. My wife and I raise perennial
fruit, certified organic, at Blue Fruit Farm near Winona. I
serve as an advisor to the National Organic Coalition and
steering committee chair of the Organic Farmers Association. I
also chair the Minnesota Department of Ag's organic advisory
board. Data shows that the U.S. market for organic food has
grown 80 percent over the last 6 years, but the amount of
American organic cropland has only grown by 12 percent during
that same time. This situation has led to a massive increase in
questionable imports. As has been mentioned, cargo ships have
imported conventional corn and beans that have been sold as
organic in the U.S. This undercuts markets for bona fide
American organic farmers. The USDA must enforce our organic
regulations. Currently, 70 percent of the organic soybeans and
40 percent of the organic corn are imported. If any crops can
be grown organically in the U.S., it's corn and beans, but
American farmers are reluctant to go through the 3 year
transition process. The next farm bill must include a safety
net to provide financial and technical support to farmers to
switch some or all of their land to organic comparable to the
support they receive by staying conventional.
A level playing field is needed so that transition to
organic is a production choice, not an increased risk. A unique
cost faced by organic farmers is the annual organic
certification fee. The next farm bill must maintain the organic
certification cost-share, which began in Minnesota in 1998.
Organic and transitional producers face all the same production
challenges, extreme weather, changing markets, access to
capital and government red tape. On top of that, organic
producers are required to take steps to protect their farms
from contamination. Better mechanisms are needed to help
organic farmers protect their land and give them the right to
farm organically. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next to the on deck area we want to
call Scott Taylor. Our next presenter is another farmer, Paul
Sobocinski.
STATEMENT OF PAUL SOBOCINSKI, FARROW-TO-FINISH LIVESTOCK
PRODUCER, WABASSO, MN
Mr. Sobocinski. My name is Paul Sobocinski. I'm a livestock
farmer. I raise pigs for Niman Ranch. I'm an independent
producer, not a contract producer. I have this hat here, it
says our farm bill, and it says about a farm bill for the
people and the land, and what we need you to think about is as
we think about the farm bill, if we want to have a farm bill
for future generations, we have to make that connection with
the rest of the community, the people in the towns, the people
who work, the consumer and the people who care about soil and
water. As I look at the issue of the farm bill, we have to look
at the piece of how we help family farmers and beginning
farmers, help farmers do right by the land by building soil
health, growing diverse crops. A farm bill should lead to more
people on the land, not less, more vibrant rural communities.
This next farm bill should prioritize farmers. Farmers first
over corporate aggregate business mergers that only lead to
squeezing farmers more and more. Farmers in this room have been
pressured with the mergers that have been allowed to go
unstopped in terms of seed, chemicals, and we've also seen the
whole push in the livestock concentration in terms of packers
and processors.
The second part we need to look at is how do we keep a farm
bill for this future. Well, we have to have the farm bill doing
the public good, and one of the connections besides nutrition
is conservation, and one of the pieces that is really strong
and a connecting piece is the farmer has the tools and that is
the Conservation Stewardship Program. I think that's an
important piece and we ought to put the resources in there. And
farmers need to be rewarded for diversity. The final piece is
on crop insurance. We need some type of limit, some mechanism
about which to say enough is enough, but we also need to look
at more diversity. Crops like oats ought to be considered.
Finally, the last piece I want to say is, don't raise the loan
limits on guaranteed operating loans. We need more dollars
available to more farmers. We need more farmers. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Okay. Next to the on deck area will be Matthew
Fitzgerald. Our next presenter is Scott Taylor with National
Wild Pheasant Conservation Plan.
STATEMENT OF J. SCOTT TAYLOR, Ph.D., COORDINATOR,
NATIONAL WILD PHEASANT CONSERVATION PLAN,
MIDWEST ASSOCIATION OF FISH & WILDLIFE AGENCIES, BROOKINGS, SD
Dr. Taylor. Thank you and good morning. The National
Pheasant Conservation Plan represents a partnership among 23
state wildlife agencies and Pheasants Forever. We have member
states from Washington and Oregon to Texas, to Pennsylvania and
points north, and our mission is to foster science based
policies and programs that promote pheasant conservation,
pheasant hunting and the communities that they depend on. We
polled our members earlier this year with regard to what the
states felt was their most important items, their needs with
regard to the farm bill in 2018, and number one with a bullet
was increasing the CRP acreage cap. We've seen over the life of
CRP that as CRP goes, so goes pheasants, and to a large extent
grass and wildlife across the northern half of the country. As
the acreage cap has come down in the last 2 decades, we've seen
pheasant hunting decline, pheasant populations decline, and
just the loss of an important tool in the toolbox for grass and
wildlife conservation. Since 2000 we've lost about 40 percent
of our pheasant hunters, from 1.25 million of them to less than
700,000. That's not a good trend. The spending that they
generate, we've lost about 35 percent of that as well, and that
spending supports not only state wildlife agencies, but rural
communities as well, so I appreciate your consideration and
thank you for your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Next I would like to call up to the
on deck area Jake Hamlin, and our next presenter is Matthew
Fitzgerald with Central Minnesota Young Farmers Coalition.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW FITZGERALD, OPERATOR,
FITZGERALD FARM; FOUNDER, CENTRAL MINNESOTA YOUNG FARMERS
COALITION, GLENCOE, MN
Mr. Fitzgerald. Good morning. My name is Matthew
Fitzgerald. I'm a 25 year old beginning farmer. I raise organic
grains with my family in Hutchinson, Minnesota. I kind of wish
I was in the hot coffee business this morning because it's so
cold, and you guys are staying with us so I appreciate that.
I'd like to share a little bit about the context for beginning
farmers in Minnesota and ask for some help at the Federal
level. In Minnesota we're facing a crisis for the next
generation of farmers. Less than four percent of farmers in
Minnesota are under the age of 35. That's lower than the
national average. We face many issues, but like our friends and
fellow farmers across the country, the number one issue is
access to land. That's not a unique issue in Minnesota, but
we're working on local solutions.
In this last legislative session, the Central Minnesota
Young Farmers Coalition, along with the Minnesota Farmers
Union, the Farm Bureau and LSP worked to create a tax credit
incentive. This incentive helped transition land to beginning
farmers through a tax credit going to retiring landowners and
farmers. It's a win-win solution and we're doing our part at
the state level. We now need help at the Federal level. There
are two tangible options that will help in the 2018 Farm Bill.
The first is direct farm ownership loans. It's a terrific
program that helps build critical equity and secure land for
the long-term. Unfortunately, those loans are capped at
$300,000, which doesn't reflect the reality of land prices,
despite the current ag depression that we're experiencing. Our
ask is to raise the cap to $500,000, or to create a regional
index that reflects the actual market trends. Second, young
farmers need access to training, budget management skills,
financial planning and mentorship. The Beginning Farmer and
Rancher Development Program is the only program in the farm
bill specifically designed to do that. It's currently funded at
$20 million. Our ask is to reach baseline funding by the end of
the 2018 bill. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. Next to the on deck area
we'll call James Kanne, and our next presenter is Jake Hamlin
with CHS.
STATEMENT OF JAKE HAMLIN, DIRECTOR, STATE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS,
CHS, INC., ST. PAUL, MN
Mr. Hamlin. Mr. Chairman and Members, thanks for being here
today. I am here on behalf of our member directors from
Minnesota who are currently in district meetings here, as well
as our Chairman and other board members who are also hosting
town halls in your respective states. CHS wants to see good
farmland remain in production. That said, we play an active
role in implementing on farm conservation practices with our
owners and members. Thus, what we would like to see, going
forward, is the maintenance of funds for working land
conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives
Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program, so Mr.
Chairman and Members, we do look forward to hoping to have the
opportunity to work with you and identify ways to target some
of those conservation dollars toward programs that will focus
on nutrient management and water quality in your respective
states and your districts. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. And next we will call to
the on deck area John Busman, and we're going to hear from
James Kanne with the Land Stewardship Project.
STATEMENT OF JAMES KANNE, MEMBER, LAND STEWARDSHIP PROJECT,
FRANKLIN, MN
Mr. Kanne. Good morning. I would like to say that walking
through Farmfest and after a lifetime of being a farmer, I
would say there's plenty of money in farming, but it doesn't
stay in farmers' pockets very long. We have always been the
means that other people, corporations, businesses, have made
huge profits off of us and we have never been the end that the
farm bill is aimed at. I would like, for once in my life, just
once, to see a farm bill where the end result is more family
farmers. Right now we are diminishing in the number of family
farms across this country and our communities are shrinking,
and as a result, we are losing our clout in Congress. As you
said, we're down to 36 Congresspeople who are really directly
related to a farming area. As such, I would like to see a farm
bill that increases the number of family farms across this
country. To do so, we have to look at the emphasis first and
foremost on the people. And from that point, we go forward into
things like conservation and needs that we look for in those
areas. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you. Our next presenter will be John
Busman with Busman Farms.
STATEMENT OF JOHN BUSMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, BUSMAN FARMS, INC.,
CHANDLER, MN
Mr. Busman. I'm John Busman from Chandler, Minnesota, and
we are a farm family masquerading as a corporation. My sister-
in-law and I and her kids, we're trying to manage a farm and
having a great time doing it. But I'd like to take us away from
this part of the world and go overseas. I've had the privilege
of working in many parts of the world that are much less
privileged than ourselves and we have, like, 25 million people
in dire need of food aid. And there have been proposals to zero
out a lot of the programs that the U.S. Government has
sponsored in the past through the agriculture, through the farm
bill and others, but we cannot do that. This is so cheap an
investment to put money into our international food aid
programs and the investment pays off now in saved lives and in
the future in relationships that we simply can't build in any
other way. It's soft diplomacy, it's cheap diplomacy, and it
works. Thank you.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you very much. And obviously we have
another stack here, and on behalf of Chairman Conaway and the
rest of the Committee, we apologize we couldn't get to them
all, but there's a show on here at noon so we do have to wrap
this up. But I do want to encourage those of you and any others
that have some written comments, You can maybe leave them with
staff, but they also have an e-mail address at
[email protected], that's
[email protected], where anybody can submit
comments directly to Chairman Conaway about the next farm bill.
And thank you to all of you for your comments. I'm going to
turn it back to Chairman Conaway to wrap this up.
Mr. Peterson of Minnesota. I want to thank the Chairman for
coming out to the Seventh District of Minnesota, and I want to
thank the Members, there's no international airport here close
to Redwood Falls and so it's not an easy thing to get out here.
But I want to thank you, and as Dwight Evans left, he drank too
much coffee like I did, but I just want to thank him because he
wins the award. He had his plane canceled, then he had his
plane delayed. He got in at 2:00 in the morning last night and
he still got here this morning and he doesn't have a single
farmer in his district, and that's the kind of commitment we
have with the people on the Agriculture Committee. And it's
people like Dwight Evans and other folks from the urban area
that we have to rely on to help us pass this bill. We can't do
it with just those of us in ag. Thank you Members, thank all of
you for hanging in there, and thank you Mr. Chairman, and we're
looking forward to getting this done and making it happen.
The Chairman. Well, thank you Collin. You're a great
partner. I look forward to working with you. And I thank each
and every one of you for coming and allowing us to hear your
passion, to hear your stories, to hear your ideas. We're going
to fold all of those into the effort that we'll make in trying
to get this new farm bill done. In talking to leadership, we
want to have our bill on the floor toward the end of this
calendar year, or early next year, to get that done. I'm driven
to get it done on time. It hasn't been done on time in 16
years. Collin and I are going to get this thing done before it
expires in September. If you want the drama of extensions and
expirations and permanent law threats, all that kind of stuff,
I need you to go to a different theater, because we're going to
try to avoid that all together. We'll have very difficult
decisions to make. You heard conflicting testimony today across
a variety of issues. We're going to need the wisdom of Solomon
to be able to parse all this through and get that farm bill
done. I think that makes the most sense. The decisions we make
will not be any easier in October than they are in August and
September and we've got two CPAs, the only Committee in
Congress led by two CPAs.
We're going to get this thing done, and done on time, if
either one of us have anything to do with that. This September
we'll celebrate the 230th anniversary of our Constitution: 230
years of living in this way that we've lived. When that
document was finished, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman
after he finished, ``Good Doctor, what are you giving us, a
monarchy or a republic,'' and he looked at her and said, ``A
republic, madam, if you can keep it.'' Think about that. If you
can keep it. For 230 years, good Americans have kept this
republic, through hard times and good times, we've kept the
republic. John Adams wrote that only a moral and religious
people can self-govern. Self-governing people keep the
republic. As I look at our country, I'm deeply concerned about
the moral high ground that we are losing day in and day out,
that is slipping away from us and we will no longer be able to
self-govern unless we reclaim that moral high ground. We all
ask God to bless this country and we do that with heartfelt
enthusiasm. Think about, from time to time, just exactly what
you're asking God to bless that's going on in our country. Can
we bless the killing of 57 million babies in the last 44 years?
That's twice the population of Texas, plus five million babies.
The stuff that comes out of Hollywood that we think is
entertainment, the way we deify the folks who put that on. The
break up of the nuclear family and the impact that has on the
moral consciences of children. These and lots of other things
going on in this country God cannot and will not bless, and you
and I have to step into the breach. And that's the other
question you have to ask. What's my personal role in making
that happen. This isn't a legislative issue. This is an
individual effort. Each one of us has a specific role starting
today to reclaim that moral high ground so that we can extend
this self-governing scheme another 230 years. You've got to do
that by living the code. I live the Judeo-Christian model.
Jesus Christ is my personal savior and I try to live his tenets
every single day, and some days I'm better at it than others,
but you have to live a code as well. You, and your family, your
neighborhood, the community, all of us have those influences
where every day we have to stand up for the truths and the
values that have sustained the republic for 230 years. Each of
us has a role. What are we asking God to bless and what's my
role in reclaiming that moral high ground. It's a republic,
madam, if we can keep it. God bless each one of you. God bless
Texas, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you
all very much.
Mr. Thiesse. Thank you to the U.S. House Agriculture
Committee.
(Thereupon, the listening session was adjourned at 12:20
p.m., C.D.T.)
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
(MODESTO JUNIOR COLLEGE ACE AG PAVILION, MODESTO, CA)
----------
SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Agriculture,
Modesto, CA
The Committee met at 9:00 a.m., P.D.T., at Modesto Junior
College Ace Ag Pavilion, Modesto, CA, Hon. K. Michael Conaway
[Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Conaway, Denham, LaMalfa,
and Evans.
Staff present: Chris Heggem, Josh Maxwell, Stacy Revels,
Callie McAdams, Rachel Millard, Margaret Wetherald, Troy
Phillips, Keith Jones.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
The Chairman. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our
listening session here in Modesto, California. I'd ask Doug
LaMalfa to lead us in a prayer, so if everybody will rise.
Mr. LaMalfa. Good morning. Please bow with me.
Your Lord, we are so grateful and thankful, as a people, as
a nation, for the opportunity to gather here on a day like
this, as a free people, to express ourselves, to help mould and
shape the direction of our government, which, as we know, is
formed by You, is appointed by You.
Help us this day to have constructive and positive
conversations that are informative for constituents, and as
well as for us, as the leaders you appoint, to take back to
D.C. and make the best possible beneficial decisions in the
process for our people.
We give thanks for all of our people. We give thanks for
our great nation. We also want to give thanks for those folks
in law enforcement, who protect us on the front lines and our
cities and our counties, and those overseas, who help keep the
flag flying high. We ask these things and we give praise.
In Jesus's name, Amen.
The Chairman. I will ask Hunter Andrade from the FFA to
lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The Chairman. Thank you, everybody. We've got several of
our FFA folks here.
We've got Luke O'Leary. He was the state president. Luke,
stand up. There we go.
We've also got Jasmine Flores, secretary.
Genevieve Regli, who is the treasurer.
We have Armando Nevarez, who is the reporter.
Hunter Andrade, who is the sentinel.
And is Bobby Marchy here? Bobby? Bobby, I don't have a job
description for you here. You're just an innocent bystander.
Thank you for being here, buddy.
They are the future of agriculture. We're glad to have the
FFA kids with us this morning, and it's always great seeing
them in D.C., especially in May and early June when it's hot
and humid, and they have got the corduroy jackets on, and you
never see them take them off, so it's good stuff.
I would also like to recognize Karen Ross.
Where's Ms. Ross? Karen Ross is here. Secretary of
Agriculture for California.
I will ask each Member to introduce themselves.
I will start with our host Member, Mr. Denham.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF DENHAM, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM CALIFORNIA
Mr. Denham. Well, good morning and welcome to Modesto.
We talk a lot on the Agriculture Committee about the
different challenges across the entire country, the different
things that we're facing here in California, and, certainly, in
California's Central Valley. There's no better way to really
understand our community and our industry than coming here.
I want to welcome the Chairman as well as Members from the
Agriculture Committee and my friend Dave Valadao from
Agriculture Appropriations. They all come together to get a
better understanding of the different issues that we have.
I just want to welcome you here, real quickly, not only in
the middle of California's Central Valley, where we grow just
about everything, but you are at MJC, and Modesto Junior
College is, what I would say, like no other. We have a main
campus downtown. But right here, in the Ag Pavilion, we've got
all kinds of events we do here. We compete nationally against
many of the universities around the country on a lot of the
different ag programs. It's something that we really are proud
of it here.
Welcome to Modesto in the 10th District of California.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DOUG LaMALFA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM CALIFORNIA
Mr. LaMalfa. Thanks, Jeff.
My name is Doug LaMalfa. I'm a congressman from the 1st
District of California; we're the very top end of the state. We
touch Oregon and Nevada in that corner there, with an 11 county
district. Heavy on resources, ag, et cetera.
I'm a Member of the House Agriculture Committee as well as
the House Natural Resources Committee and the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Basically, I just
follow Jeff around his committees, and it works out very well.
He's one of my best friends in Congress and all through this.
In my real life, I'm a rice farmer just west of Oroville.
You all may have heard of Oroville.
I'm on the committees I'm on for the basic reasons: To help
agriculture, to build more water supply, and have wise use of
our water supply, which includes us, and to have the
infrastructure that gets our raw materials and finished
products where they need to be, through our highway system, et
cetera.
We're focused very, very deeply on making these issues
work. With this new Administration, we're making some headway.
I'm glad to be here in Modesto. We're always proud to see
the FFA folks here. Some of them know my daughter, and it's a
real pleasure.
Now, what I had hoped last night, I brought my Mustang down
here, and Modesto is supposed to be famous for the cruise
night, according to American Graffiti, but I didn't find the
cruise. So maybe you guys can point that out to me a little
later.
It is a real pleasure to be here.
Thank you, all.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID G. VALADAO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM CALIFORNIA
Mr. Valadao. Good morning, I am David Valadao. I sit on the
House Agriculture Appropriations Committee. Well, on the House
Appropriations Committee, one of my subcommittees is
Agriculture. I'm also on the Military Construction, and the
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittees.
I represent California's 21st Congressional District, which
is just south of here, basically from Fresno County all the way
down to Kern County, so the Grapevine.
I also represent a lot of agriculture as well. I'm very
proud of my agricultural background. I'm a dairy farmer in my
real life. So this is something that is very personal to me and
something I'm thrilled to be a part of.
I thank the Chairman and Jeff for inviting me to be a part
of this, and I'm really looking forward to hearing everybody's
input.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DWIGHT EVANS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Evans. Thank you very much.
My name is Dwight Evans. You could say, I'm from the east
of here. I'm from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I'm in the
2nd Congressional District. I'm on the House Agriculture
Committee. I'm on the Small Business Committee. And then my
district, I have a school called Saul Agricultural School,
which has the largest Future Farmers of America in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
I've been very active on the issue of ag. I've always
stressed the part about consumers and farmers have a direct
connection in this, and everybody likes food. So, again, I
appreciate this opportunity and the Chairman's leadership.
The Chairman. Well, thanks. I am glad you could join us
this morning, and we're here to listen.
We have a couple other folks I would like to introduce. We
have Steve DeBrum, who is the Mayor of Manteca. Steve, are you
here? There he is. Steve, thank you for joining us.
We also have Gary Soiseth, who is Mayor of Turlock. Gary,
where are you? Thank you, Gary. We appreciate you being here,
along with Karen Ross.
Again, I want to thank the school for hosting us this
morning. They have been terrific. Just incredibly easy to work
with; got everything done that we asked for and beyond; the
security guys have been off-scale good; and anticipating
everything we want.
I would like to thank Don Borges, who is the Dean of the
Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. So, Don,
thank you for very much.
I also want to thank our moderator today here in a second.
Paul Wenger, who is the President of the California Farm
Bureau; and also a recent witness in D.C. We put him through
that crucible here, recently, as well. I want to thank everyone
who came this morning. I'm not sure who drove or came the
farthest, but we certainly appreciate it.
We're going to listen. This will be a pretty odd experience
for the five of us, to sit here and not say anything for the
next couple of hours while we listen to you.
If one of us has a question about something you say to us,
we'll certainly try to clarify it, but we're just going to
listen. It's your show. It's your event. And we want to hear
from you, and you have 2 minutes to squeeze it all in there.
One thing that would be helpful, just know, all of us know,
you thank us for being here. So don't waste any of your 2
minutes thanking us for being here. Just get right to the heart
of what you want to say. You don't need the pleasantries and
all that kind of good stuff, because 2 minutes will go by
pretty fast.
We're going to try to hear from as many people as we can.
Paul will walk through the details of that here in a second,
but we want to get through that very quickly.
All of this folds into the farm bill process that we're
coming toward the end of. I hope to have the farm bill with
three gentlemen here, that are with me on the Agriculture
Committee on the floor sometime later in the fourth quarter of
2017 to the first quarter of 2018. We're driven to get this
thing done on time for the first time in 16 years.
Your testimony this morning, your comments, as well as your
written comments, those of you that don't have a chance to talk
to us and get it into this transcribed record, just know,
there's an e-mail address there. You can submit any written
information you want to, and it will be considered just like
oral testimony will be this morning.
If you have got something that's longer than 2 minutes,
that you want to talk to us about, be sure and submit that for
the written record as well.
But getting this farm bill done is important, the stability
associated with getting it passed on time, avoiding the drama
of the expirations and the short-term extensions and permanent
law threats, all of that drama. Let's avoid that this time and
get it done.
And your input this morning is going to be really
important.
We've done one of these in Florida; Texas; Minnesota day
before yesterday; California today; we'll have one in Illinois
at the end of the month. So a broad spectrum of ag production.
None more varied, none more broad than the Central Valley
of California. I don't know of anything you guys don't grow out
here. Maybe weeds. I'm not sure you grow any weeds. But not the
smoking weed. The other----
(Audience laughter.)
The Chairman. That was a bad, bad phrase. I'm sorry. Sorry
about that.
I was thinking of stuff you don't want to grow in your
fields. Anyway, I better shut up.
We've asked Paul Wenger to be a moderator. Paul, you want
to walk through the mechanics of how we get people up and down?
Thank you very much for being here. We will have closing
comments later, but, from this point forward, we hope to just
listen to you.
Thank you.
STATEMENT OF PAUL J. WENGER, PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU
FEDERATION, MODESTO, CA
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Chairman Conaway. Thank you for
letting me be a moderator. It's nice, a mile from home.
In my alma mater, although this wasn't quite the way it was
when I was going to Modesto Junior College, I date myself. But
having something like this, for this area, is great. It's great
to be able to have a group here for the listening session, and
having the Chairman here and the other Members of the
Agriculture Committee.
As I told the Chairman, we were talking yesterday. I don't
know that there's any other town in the United States that's
had two Secretaries of Agriculture come from their town, like
we have here, with Ann Veneman and Richard Lyng. And we've had
five state ag secretaries come from this town. Agriculture is
really key, not only to the valley, but here in Stanislaus
County and Modesto.
Thank you for being here and bringing the group here,
Chairman Conaway, we really appreciate it.
The rules of the road is, as long as my battery holds up,
I'll have it on a timer for 2 minutes. And at about 1\1/2\
minutes, we're going to have to pretend this is yellow. There
are no kids in our households anymore, so I ran over to Wal-
Mart, and that's as yellow as I could find. I apologize. And
then when we get to 2 minutes, I'm going to hold up this other
very flamboyant-looking color, and that will let you know to
end your comments.
Now, I will say, just try to hit the high points. At the
end, we will have up on the screen where you can send your
written comments to [email protected], that will be
up there at the end. And so, certainly, the Committee would
like to have all of your written comments as well. So please
keep your comments concise and short.
I'm going to call two names. The first one, I would like to
come up to the east microphone. And then the other one will
come over here. And so as we're transitioning, I will call the
next person, and we'll just kind of go back and forth. So I'm
going to call two names.
The first one is going to be Tony Toso. And so, Tony, we'll
have you head over to this one, on the east side.
And then the second one is going to be Bill Mattos. And
we'll come over here, and I think you might have to make sure
that your microphones are on there.
Again, you'll have 2 minutes, and we'll try to get through
as many as we can. I think we're scheduled for about 2 hours,
so we'll see how many we can get through.
Tony, we're going to start with you. California Farm
Bureau, Second Vice President.
STATEMENT OF ANTHONY J. ``TONY'' TOSO, SECOND VICE PRESIDENT,
CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION, HORNITOS, CA
Mr. Toso. Test, test. There we go.
Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for
being here to take our comments today.
Just to put a little bit of brief context behind my
comments. I'm going to try to keep this general, because you
are going to hear a lot of different stories this morning from
different agricultural people that are going to be able to
convey a message.
In a state that produces $47 billion worth of product, and
we run from $47 to $56 billion, it's pretty imperative that
California plays a major role in getting these comments out
today.
Research and development, specialty crops, and being able
to tackle labor issues, immigration issues, and different
options for crop insurance, those types of issues are going to
be very important and play a major role in what we do here in
California.
We greatly appreciate your attention to the specialty crop
programs, being able to fund new research and development,
almonds, and the different commodities the we do produce here
in California.
EQIP funding, is going to be very critical for us.
Complying with regulations, air quality, those types of
programs too. Continuation of livestock and disaster program.
We've just gone through the Detwiler Fire. The LIP Program,
the ELAP Program are going to be really critical components to
helping us stave off disaster. Programs that help us to manage
and mitigate these damages that have occurred. We recently lost
660 acres in those fires, and the ability to help our
communities and our agricultural community fight through those
problems are going to be very critical.
We will be submitting some more extensive comments, and we
appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Tony. Two minutes does go fast, I'll
tell you.
Next, we have Bill Mattos. And then Vaughn Koligian can
step up over there.
And for anybody that didn't get caught coming in the door,
if you want a speaker card, look for the staff back there and
fill out one of these speaker cards, and we'll get you in the
line-up. So I just wanted to make sure that you knew. For the
speaker cards, they are back there in the back. And get one
filled out, and give it to staff.
Thank you.
Bill.
STATEMENT OF BILL MATTOS, PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA POULTRY
FEDERATION, MODESTO, CA
Mr. Mattos. Good morning, Chairman Conaway, Members of the
Committee. I'm Bill Mattos, President of the California Poultry
Federation.
On behalf of our federation, and all those who rely upon
the industry and the state for their livelihood, we are here
today to support animal disease prevention in the farm bill.
After the devastating outbreak of High-Path AI that started
here in California and swept across the country, we must do all
we can to avoid it in the future. That is why we are supporting
the mantra of, ``An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure,'' by advocating for a new program that focuses on animal
pest, and disease prevention.
We look forward to working with you, Chairman Conaway and
Ranking Member Peterson, to authorize and fund this forward-
looking approach to the farm bill.
Since the 2015 outbreak, the turkey industry has made
significant strides, and a similar case of High-Path AI in
Indiana this year indicates our improvements.
But we still lost critical export markets. As the Committee
embarks on the reauthorization of the farm bill, the California
Poultry Federation joins the National Turkey Federation and
over 70 associations that are asking for inclusion of a
mandatory program in the farm bill.
I'm not going to go into the key provisions, because I've
sent it in to your e-mail, and I'm going to do that.
There's one other issue that's very important to us, and we
think it's about done. I want to point out, GIPSA was
disastrous for the poultry industry. We understand that the
Office of Management and Budget has typically suspended work on
the Farmer Fair Practices Rules; the two proposed rules, and
one interim final rule, also known as GIPSA rules.
As California Poultry Federation, as well as National
Chicken Council and National Turkey Federation stated, in
multiple sets of public comments filed by GIPSA rules earlier
this year, these rules would have disastrous effects on our
poultry industry, and our contract growers here in California
oppose them.
We are pleased to see the Department pause and review these
costly, burdensome regulations, and we hope they will be
permanently rescinded once and for all before the October 22nd
deadline.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Bill.
I have to tell you, usually it's me getting flagged with
these little colors. It's great to be on the other side of it.
Hey, stop, stop, that's it. Anyway, that's great.
Vaughn will be up next. And coming up, Steve Summers.
Steven Summers.
Vaughn.
STATEMENT OF VAUGHN KOLIGIAN, DIRECTOR CORPORATE
SUSTAINABILITY, SUN MAID GROWERS OF CALIFORNIA, KINGSBURG, CA
Mr. Koligian. Good morning. My name is Vaughn Koligian. I'm
a farmer of grapes for raisins and almonds in Fresno County.
I've met with numerous of you in the past. Thank you.
I also work for Sun-Maid Growers in Kingsburg, and I want
to talk to you about a nutrition topic today.
Sun-Maid Growers of California is a 105 year old
cooperative, owned by 700 raisin farmer members.
And we request that you support the amendment H.R. 3402 to
the Richard B. Russell Natural Food Lunch Act, which will
specifically allow canned, frozen, dried, and pureed foods and
vegetables to be included in the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Program.
Further, we believe that all other Federal feeding
programs, including the school breakfast and lunch programs,
align with the United States Department of Agriculture's 2015
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which appropriately
recommends that Americans eat all forms of fruits and
vegetables, including canned, dried, and frozen.
For background, the USDA's program, Snack Program, is
administered in eligible elementary schools in all 50 states.
I've left a written copy, so I'm going to jump ahead a
little bit.
Historically, there have been legislative efforts to
restrict the Fruits and Vegetables Program to a fresh-only
program. Such efforts have denied school food service,
nutritionists, and service managers the opportunity to make
their own decisions as to the most appropriate snack to offer
elementary school children.
It's simply wrong that some Members of Congress attempt to
legislate the type of fruit and vegetable snacks to offer
children when there's proof, school food service professionals
prefer the opportunity to vary the snacking menu to include all
forms of fruits and vegetables.
The Guidelines for Americans emphasize the importance of
across-the-board increase in fruit and vegetable intake, and
the recommendations specifically include fresh, frozen, canned,
and dried products.
School nutritionists are key influencers in determining
which healthy products children will consume under the various
Federal programs. It should be noted that many schools lack
either the infrastructure to store or the ability to prepare
many fresh products, which can result in excessive waste and a
nutritional and monetary loss.
I'm out of time. I thank you for the opportunity to speak
before.
As you know, the House position is all forms. The Senate
position is fresh only. I assume this will be determined in
conference.
Congressman Valadao, I know you are a cosponsor of the
amendment. Thank you.
The rest of you, I hope you sign on board, and I will thank
you for being here today. I appreciate it.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Vaughn.
Steve Summers will be next.
And stepping up would be Larry Salinas.
STATEMENT OF STEVEN SUMMERS, VOLUNTEER, ALAMEDA COUNTY
COMMUNITY FOOD BANK, OAKLAND, CA
Mr. Summers. Good morning. Thank you. My name is Steven
Summers. I live in Oakland, California. I'm here on behalf of
the Alameda County Community Food Bank, and I'm here to talk
about the SNAP portion of the farm bill. I'm here to encourage
you to expand this program and not to cut it.
I know, from personal experience, that SNAP is the most
important Federal program of fighting hunger. I know this from
my own personal experience, when I became homeless during the
Great Recession in 2008. SNAP benefits, as a homeless person,
helped me to make healthy choices in eating, because they serve
a lot of junk in the shelter.
After I got out of the shelter, I found a job. Eventually,
that company closed. I was unemployed and back on SNAP for a
year. Having SNAP during this time, it enabled me not to make
the choice between food and paying rent. It was an extremely
vital program for me at the time.
I was able to secure work. But now, I'm in this recovery.
I'm underemployed. I only work 20 hours a week, and even with
that job, I still qualify for a certain amount of SNAP
benefits, which help me to put food on the table.
It's a very important program. And even with the SNAP
benefits that I get in my salary from my job, it's not exactly
like I'm living the high life.
I look forward to having a conversation sometime in the
future to dispel a lot of myths about SNAP. Who gets it, how do
you get it, and just what it does, and things about fraud.
And thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Steven. We appreciate that.
Coming up after Larry Salinas will be Anthony Schuur.
Larry Salinas.
STATEMENT OF LARRY SALINAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENTAL
RELATIONS, CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY-FRESNO, FRESNO, CA
Mr. Salinas. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Members of
the Committee.
I'm Larry Salinas, the Executive Director of Governmental
Relations at California State University in Fresno, in the
Office of the President.
I'm here to take a different twist, to talk about
innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of agriculture.
California State University of Fresno, or commonly known as
Fresno State, is a 106 year old institution. We have a living
laboratory, a 1,000 acre farm on our campus, about a hundred
miles south of here.
Mr. Wenger. Larry, can you move a little closer to the
microphone?
Mr. Salinas. Sure.
Mr. Wenger. They are having trouble hearing.
Mr. Salinas. Sure.
We're encouraging the Committee to look at language in the
new farm bill that includes financial support for the
development of new and innovative technologies that will keep
U.S. agriculture competitive and economically viable for the
foreseeable future.
These technologies should include, but are not limited to,
robotics that ensure plant health, the harvesting of crops, the
monitoring and management technologies necessary to optimize
water and energy resources, and quality assurance technologies
that provide safety in the food chain.
Most universities today support incubators and accelerators
that provide proven pathways from concept to commercialization
for new ideas conceived by faculty and students. And many of
these campus-based programs are focused on food, energy, and
the water nexus.
Since its opening in 2007, California State University's
WET Lab, which is Water, Energy, and Technology, has provided
and launched a platform for water and energy and ag technology
start-ups. And, in fact, next month, we're going to launch the
first in the valley, Valley Ventures' accelerator, which will
be a flagship of our growing innovative ecosystem, and this
will be the first accelerator in the San Joaquin Valley.
We have identified ten start-ups that will be providing
support from an academic and research perspective, and we
encourage the Committee to take a deeper look into this. It's
critical that programs such as these receive a broad range of
support from stakeholders such as you, who have a vested
interest in keeping U.S. agriculture as the leading supplier of
food to our state, our nation, and our world.
And, in fact, recently, I believe the California Farm
Bureau was advocating in Washington, which included this topic
on innovation and entrepreneurship.
I thank you very much for your time and interest.
Mr. Wenger. Well, you had that down. Perfect timing.
Next, we'll have Anthonie Schuur. And coming up after that,
Frank Coelho.
Anthonie.
STATEMENT OF ANTHONIE M. SCHUUR, PRESIDENT,
CALIFORNIA AQUACULTURE ASSOCIATION, POLLOCK PINES, CA; ON
BEHALF OF NATIONAL AQUACULTURE ASSOCIATION
Mr. Schuur. Hi. I'm Tony Schuur. I'm President of the
California Aquaculture Association, and I'm here on behalf of
our association and the National Aquaculture Association to
encourage you, respectfully request, that aquaculture be
included in the farm bill as a specialty crop.
This designation would provide aquatic farmers with access
to a number of critical USDA programs that would help thousands
of aquaculture producers survive when disaster strikes and
would improve their marketing and research capacity.
As President of the California Aquaculture Association, I
represent over a hundred farmers and a thousand jobs that
produce a wide variety of species, shellfish, and fish, the
various species of fish, including sturgeon. You might be
surprised that California is one of the global centers of
caviar and sturgeon meat production, which was developed at the
University of California at Davis. It was absolutely crucial to
its development.
Some people may think that aquaculture is a strain of
specialty crop, but we probably rank in the top ten of
California's smaller crops. And we produce about $150 to $200
million worth of product, depending on how you count the values
and at what level. So we're a substantial industry. We would
like to be a much bigger industry if we had access to the
Pacific Ocean.
We would also encourage the Committee to support a new
National Aquaculture Act, which is in development to replace
the one that was passed in 1980, which is sadly out of date.
As a matter of fact, in California and in Federal waters,
there are almost no practical means of a farmer getting a
permit to farm fish in our very largest aquatic resource, the
Pacific Ocean.
I hope that you will follow that and look at passing for
that bill.
How much time have I got left?
Mr. Wenger. You are done.
Mr. Schuur. I'm done.
Mr. Wenger. Yep. Went fast.
Mr. Schuur. Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you. But again, I know 2 minutes goes
really, really fast, and we'll put that e-mail at the end. And
the Committee would really like to have those because then they
can have that for the record as well, as well as these comments
that are on the record.
We'll have Frank Coelho. And, after that, Jim Brandy.
STATEMENT OF FRANK R. COELHO, PARTNER, NATURE'S CLOVER DAIRY,
MODESTO, CA
Mr. Coelho. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Frank Coelho. I am a third generation dairy
farmer in the State of California. I've been organic for 20
years.
My question today is, what are you going to do about the
integrity of the organic dairy industry? Enforcement of the
pasture rule is set by the NOSB and has been implemented
nationwide. And the integrity of organic farming has been
damaged, hurting organic dairy farmers.
Organic state laws are not in line with the NOSB and are
allowing large corporate organic dairy farms in other states to
exist without following Federal pastoral rules, and to
jeopardize the Federal rule.
I understand that state taxes approved by organic dairies
is large, which may be why the enforcement is nonexistent. But
states, too, must be held accountable, and the large organic
dairies must comply with Federal rule. All organic dairies must
be held equally to the same standard and rules regardless of
certifiers, state or private. And those certifiers and
inspectors must be held accountable to enforce the rule.
I support the OFRF, as long as their research foundation
works to support the implementation of Federal pasture rules
set forth by the NOSB.
Thank you for your time.
May I add praise for the FFA and encourage the Committee to
keep the family farm alive.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Frank.
Okay. So I have Gene Brandi, and, following that, Shanti
Prasad.
Gene?
STATEMENT OF GENE BRANDI, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN BEEKEEPING
FEDERATION, LOS BANOS, CA
Mr. Brandi. Good morning. Hi. I'm Gene Brandi. I'm a
beekeeper from down the road, in Los Banos, and I'm also the
President of the American Beekeeping Federation.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here today so you can
listen to our concerns about the beekeeping industry in the
U.S.A.
Our honeybees are not as healthy as they used to be. For us
old-timers, who started keeping bees back in the 1970s, I
remember the good old days. We just don't have that anymore.
Our winter and annual losses are remaining at very high
levels at this time, and there's some recent survey results
from USDA NASS; indicates the nation's honeybee colony numbers
are increasing slightly, but this is due to the hard work and
dedication of the nation's beekeepers. (Unintelligible) nights,
exposure to certain pesticides, inadequate nutrition, and
certain diseases continue to take their toll on the nation's
honeybees.
We believe it is important that the USDA and all Federal
agencies embrace the framework of the National Strategy To
Promote the Health of Honeybees and Other Pollinators.
We also believe that honeybees need to be specifically
mentioned in the farm bill, as allowed, on all USDA
conservation program lands.
The U.S. Forest Service, BLM, and other Federal agencies
allow apiaries on some of their lands, and we believe the
honeybees need access to clean, uncontaminated forage, and
there are opportunities on Federal lands that are currently not
being utilized, and we certainly would like to see that
explored and expanded.
The ABF also believes that there should be an increase on
the cap on CRP acres and that the cap be raised to at least 40
million acres, and this would greatly benefit honeybees and
other pollinators. Seed mixtures need to be reformulated, in
many cases, to improve the value to pollinators while
significantly reducing the cost.
ELAP, NAP, and Federal crop insurance are helpful programs
that provide a safety net for beekeepers and should be
continued. And also, there's a new ARS facility, a research
facility at UC Davis, that's ready to go, but it's not yet
staffed.
We would love to see that staffed so that those folks can
get to work on behalf of the bee industry.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Gene.
I would just say, too. I'm not sure how the Committee can
hear up here. I know from mine, and speak really close into the
microphone, because some of the Committee Members said they are
having a hard time hearing. You might be able to hear better
out there, but the Committee might not, it could be that I ran
too many tractors without hearing protection.
But we'll have Shanti Prasad and then John Bedell.
Shanti.
STATEMENT OF SHANTI E. PRASAD, SENIOR POLICY
ADVOCATE, ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK, OAKLAND, CA
Ms. Prasad. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Members of
the House Agriculture Committee.
I'm Shanti Prasad, the Senior Policy Advocate at Alameda
County Community Food Bank in Oakland, and a Fresno,
California, native.
At Alameda County Community Food Bank, we serve over
300,000 of the 1.5 million of the Alameda County residents,
annually.
I would like to, first, echo Steven Summers' comments about
the SNAP program. In Alameda County, SNAP serves 112,000
people; 59 percent of those are children. It's a vital program,
and I urge you to protect SNAP from any proposals to cut it or
to alter its structure. It's designed to help people when they
need it most, and as the economy improves, fewer people are on
the program.
Currently, though, food banks across the country are
distributing more food than ever. We still only provide one
emergency meal for every 19 meals that are provided by Federal
nutrition programs, mainly SNAP.
Food banks would not be able to pick up the slack if there
were a monetary cap, and more people would be left food-
insecure, causing poor health and poorer educational outcomes
and an increase in health costs.
I also want to talk about another piece of the SNAP program
for able-bodied adults without dependents. ABAWDs, as they are
called, are restricted to 3 months of SNAP benefits within a 3
year period, unless that person satisfies the ABAWD work
requirements or meets an exemption.
The ABAWD population is a diverse group, across gender,
across age, and also across urban, suburban, and rural
residences. Most are extremely poor, at 29 percent of the
Federal poverty level. They are veterans. They are young
adults, who are just out of foster care, trying to make it. In
California, there are about 470,000 people who are on SNAP as
part of ABAWDs.
Research shows that ABAWDs want to work. This time limit of
3 months in 3 years is unrealistic. The limit also doesn't
realize other barriers to employment, like chronic
underemployment, of under 20 hours a week, despite looking for
work, transportation, and lack of skills.
States are allowed to apply for a waiver if they meet
certain guidelines, and I urge you to keep this waiver. It's
important to keep folks facing unemployment from being hungry
and actually helps them to keep looking for work. Cutting SNAP
for ABAWDs would mean turning our back on a struggling
population that needs more assistance, not less.
Mr. Wenger. You need to wrap up.
Ms. Prasad. I also want to share that SNAP, or food stamps,
as they were called in the 1970s, when my mom used them, in
Fresno, California, helped me to grow up without knowing what
it is to be hungry, or, worse, malnourished. I had consistent
access to fresh, nutritious food, and this is because the SNAP
program accomplished what it was there to do. I grew up healthy
and was able to get an education and contribute to society.
No one in this country should go hungry, and SNAP worked
then and it works now as the most efficient and effective anti-
hunger program in America.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Shanti.
Next, we'll have John Bedell. And after that, Steve DeBrum.
John.
STATEMENT OF JOHN BEDELL, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF AG
OPERATIONS, J.S. WEST MILLING COMPANY; PAST
PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA EGG FARMERS, MODESTO, CA
Mr. Bedell. Good morning. My name is John Bedell. I'm
Senior Director of Ag Operations at J.S. West Milling Company
and past President of the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association.
J.S. West was founded in 1908 by a native Nebraskan who
moved to California to enjoy the slightly warmer weather and
drier climate. Don't let anybody tell you it's hot in the
Central Valley. It's a dry heat. (Unintelligible) know that. We
are made up of 300 employees. We operate in 22 counties in
northern California, and we produce shell eggs, liquid eggs,
almonds, propane for agricultural, commercial, and residential
operations.
J.S. West is also active in the Association of California
Egg Farmers, who is very interested in the language in the next
farm bill, as it pertains to something that's currently out
there, H.R. 2887, the No Regulation Without Representation Act
of 2017, which would impact not just California, but many other
states in the nation.
In doing some research, I found that 150 state statutes
would be in effect in 46 different states, from Alaska to
Florida, Maine to Hawaii, and the Dakotas to Texas. California
has always had an excellence of being one of the best egg
producing states with the safest eggs.
Because of legislation passed by Californians, A.B. 1447,
which states that all chickens in the State of California have
to be vaccinated with Salmonella enteritidis vaccine. And, as
we know, in the last 17 years, there has not been one incidence
of egg-related human Salmonella enteritidis. The California Egg
Farmers have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure
that Californians have safe food.
J.S. West alone has invested tens of millions of dollars in
providing safe, affordable, wholesome food for California
families and businesses, and language like that in H.R. 2887
would undermine the food safety protecting 39 million
Californians.
On behalf of the Association of California Egg Farmers,
J.S. West Milling Company, and myself, I would like the
committee to consider language about H.R. 2287 in the next farm
bill.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, John.
Maybe I butchered Steve's last name. I thought it was
DeBrum. Mayor of Manteca, DFA. There we go, okay.
And then after that, if we could have Mark Lipson come up,
at the next microphone, and be ready to go.
Thank you.
STATEMENT OF HON. STEPHEN ``STEVE'' DeBrum, MAYOR, CITY OF
MANTECA, CA; NORTHERN CALIFORNIA MANAGER, DAIRY FARMERS OF
AMERICA, MANTECA, CA
Mr. DeBrum. Thank you very much. Today I represent Dairy
Farmers of America.
My first point: Improving the Margin Protection Program.
Restoring the MPP to its original proposal is vital for dairy
farmers to have a viable and dependent safety net, which
dairymen currently do not have.
Without correcting key elements of the programs, such as
premiums and coverage, dairymen as a whole will not be able to
sign up for the program in future years because it does not
work. MPP needs to be a program that will work when margins are
significantly low. MPP is not a program to guarantee a profit,
but to help save the equity in dairymen's farms.
Dairy farmers need to have as many risk managements tools
available to them as does any other commodity. There is no
reason dairies should be precluded from accessing both the farm
bill safety net programs and other government risk programs at
the same time.
We are currently having labor challenges. Dairy farmers
support efforts to reform our immigration system to make sure
our country has more secure and more effective for businesses
in need of workers. Without access to a current worker Visa
program, despite specific requests from National Milk Producer
Federation, the Department of Labor has turned down access to
H-2A Visa programs and the difficulty to define higher wages
and benefits dairy needs.
Comprehensive immigration reform that takes into account
the needs to protect current programs and create access to
future programs for the needs of our dairy farmers.
The importance of trade: NAFTA is critical to the excess
and success of the dairy industry. We must protect what we have
in Mexico and challenges in Canada to efforts to distort trade.
Dairy exports are a key to our future success already in more
than one day a week of U.S. milk production abroad. We need to
advance the strong trade agenda and will help the dairy
business expand.
In terms of the DAIRY PRIDE, dairy farmers work hard to
meet the dairy standards required by USFDA with the products of
butter, milk, yogurt, and ice cream. Dairy imitators should not
be able to ignore current law and use these terms. The FDA must
enforce existing regulations.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Steve. We appreciate that.
Mark Lipson will be up next. And then behind that, Marla
Livengood. I may have butchered that, so I'm sorry, from the
California Strawberry Commission. But next, Mark.
STATEMENT OF MARK LIPSON, SENIOR ANALYST AND POLICY PROGRAM
DIRECTOR, ORGANIC FARMING RESEARCH
FOUNDATION, SANTA CRUZ, CA
Mr. LIPSON. Thank you, Paul. Good morning.
Good morning, Representatives. Thanks for being here in
California.
My name is Mark Lipson. I've been an organic farmer over on
the coast, due west of here, since 1983, proudly certified by
California Certified Organic Farmers.
I'm also the former chair of California Organic Products
Advisory Commission, and I served under Secretary Vilsack as
the USDA Organic Policy Advisor. It was my honor to serve there
with Secretary Ross.
I want to start out by saying, on behalf of organic
farmers, solidarity with all farmers is a very important part
of how we try to interact with the policy world and with all
the various sectors in agriculture.
I served on the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau Board for a
number of years, when I was a younger farmer.
Today I'm representing the Organic Farming Research
Foundation. I'm the senior policy specialist there, which is a
national organization that's dedicated to the improvement and
widespread adoption of organic agriculture through education
and research, primarily.
We fund research. We are a grant maker.
For over 25 years, OFRF has been working with Congress and
USDA to build the capacity for organic research and extension
nationally.
We played a major role in the creation of USDA's flagship
organic research program, the Organic Research and Extension
Initiative, which has been part of the farm bill, with
mandatory funding, since 2002.
From Chico to Lubbock, OREI has built an outstanding
research capacity and track record of performance for organic
research all over the country, for all different kinds of
organic production and processing. The importance of preserving
that capacity can't be overstated.
My time is already up.
I will just say, I support what Mr. Coelho said about
enforcement of organic. There are a number of other needs for
improvement of the enforcement and oversight of the organic
trade.
We're very happy to work with the committee on that.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Mark.
Next up, we'll have Marla Livengood. And after that, Ken
Hecht. Ken Hecht.
STATEMENT OF MARLA LIVENGOOD, REGULATORY AFFAIRS MANAGER,
CALIFORNIA STRAWBERRY COMMISSION, WATSONVILLE, CA
Ms. Livengood. Good morning. I'm Marla Livengood with the
California Strawberry Commission.
Mr. Wenger. Up really close.
Ms. Livinggood. Really close, okay.
Mr. Wenger. Yeah.
Ms. Livinggood. Okay.
The commission represents California's farmers, processers,
and shippers of strawberries. Growing on less than \1/2\ of 1
percent of California farmlands, our farmers grow nearly 90
percent of the nation's strawberries; they generate an
estimated 70,000 farm jobs; and they contribute $3 billion to
rural communities.
I want to take a minute to highlight a couple of programs
which support strawberry production that are in the farm bill.
The Market Access Program is a program that provides
Federal matching funds to promote and expand exports. In 2016,
California strawberries gained access to the China market. MAP
funding has been crucial in exporting U.S. strawberries to
China, a market which has the potential to grow to $30 million
in the next few years.
Another program which benefits strawberries is the
Specialty Crop Research Initiative. For example, the California
Strawberry Commission recently supported a UC Santa Cruz
request to develop effective biofumigation treatments to reduce
soil-borne disease.
In addition, we've supported a request to identify disease-
resistant strawberry genes. In addition to this research, a
priority for the commission is labor saving automation, and we
believe that the farm bill represents an opportunity to
dedicate some funding within the SCRI to automation.
Last, the School Nutrition Program has purchased nearly 50
million pounds of strawberries from California growers. This
program is important to both farmers and consumers and
important in promoting healthy eating and nutrition for
children.
We ask that you continue these programs in the next farm
bill, and we thank you for your time.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Marla.
Next, we'll have Ken Hecht. And after that, Lilli Kirby.
STATEMENT OF KENNETH HECHT, J.D., DIRECTOR OF POLICY, NUTRITION
POLICY INSTITUTE, DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL
RESOURCES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, CA
Mr. Hecht. Good morning. I'm Ken Hecht, Director of Policy
at the University of California's Nutrition Policy Institute.
We're a part of the Division of Agriculture and Natural
Resources.
I have an offer, an observation, and a recommendation.
First, the offer: The Nutrition Policy Institute contains
about 30 researchers, all focused on food and nutrition, with a
particular focus on the Federal food programs, and, within
that, on SNAP and on the SNAP-Education program.
If we can be of any assistance to the committee, we would
like to be so.
The observation: SNAP-Ed is minuscule. It is less than one
percent of the SNAP program. But we would like you to think of
it as value-added. The purpose of SNAP-Ed is to help people
make healthy decisions on purchases of food and enable them to
prepare and consume healthy food.
Given the cost to the nation, as well as the cost to
individuals, of obesity and food insecurity, it seems to us a
very good investment to help people get the most that they can
out of their SNAP benefits.
The recommendation: Our research has shown that, next to
cost, accessibility is the biggest barrier for people wanting
to get healthy food, particularly for seniors, particularly for
disabled, and for people who live in a neighborhood without any
supermarket, where transportation may not be available. That is
a serious barrier to getting healthy food.
USDA is conducting a pilot program, which you may be aware
of, in seven sites, using online purchasing and payment for
food for SNAP participants, and we urge you to keep on eye on
that and consider making that a permanent part of the SNAP
program.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Ken.
Next we'll have Lilli Kirby, and, after that, Jeff Stump.
Lilli.
STATEMENT OF LILLI KIRBY, VOLUNTEER, HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE
UNITED STATES, DAVIS, CA
Ms. Kirby. Hi. My name is Lilli Kirby. I'm from Davis,
California, and I'm a volunteer with the Humane Society.
Animal welfare is especially important to me, so I hope
that you will work to strengthen animal welfare measures when
drafting the new farm bill.
Also, the Dog and Cat Meat Trade Prohibition Act, or H.R.
1406, was referred to the Agriculture Committee and amends the
Animal Welfare Act to prohibit the domestic slaughter, trade,
and import/export of dogs and cats for human consumption. It
establishes penalties for individuals involved in the dog or
cat meat trade and prevents the dog and cat meat trade from
taking hold in the U.S. while strengthening our country's
standing to press for reform, worldwide.
Representative Denham is a cosponsor of this legislation,
and I appreciate your support, Congressman.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you.
Next we'll hear from Jeff Stump, and, after that, Alicia
Rockwell.
Jeff.
STATEMENT OF JEFF STUMP, DIRECTOR OF CONSERVATION, MARIN
AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST, POINT REYES
STATION, CA
Mr. Stump. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Jeff Stump.
I'm the Director of Conservation for the Marin Agricultural
Land Trust, also known as MALT.
MALT was formed in 1980 as the first organization of its
kind. It's a partnership between farmers and conservationists
that work to protect agricultural land in our county. As of
today, MALT protects 80 family farms and ranches on more than
48,000 acres in our county, but the need is still great due to
development pressure and escalating land values.
Our success is not measured just in acres and in farms, but
in permanence and stability that is brought to our agricultural
lands, due in large part to the commitment to long-term
monitoring and enforcement in support of place-based
conservation practices.
MALT has partnered with NRCS to protect eight family farms
in the county, more than 5,500 acres of land, and has helped us
leverage significant local, state, and private funding for
these programs.
Protecting land is only the first step. MALT works closely
with our resource conservation districts and our NRCS
Conservationists to assist landowners with projects through the
EQIP Program. These projects deliver significant public benefit
while helping our producers be more resilient to drought and
changed market conditions.
I hope you will continue to support that vital program,
also ensuring that NRCS has the staff to make the program work.
As our time is limited today, I'm going to give you three
specific recommendations that would improve the Agricultural
Conservation Easement Program in our country, in our county,
and across America.
First, please, we're asking you to authorize funding for
the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program at a minimum of
$500 million per year. As you probably know, the base funding
for this current fiscal year will be \1/2\ of that and it is
likely to result in less than 7 percent of the applications
from families to protect their farms being funded. A critical
level of base funding is necessary to meet the demands of our
family farms as they seek to stay in agriculture.
Second, we ask that you revise the Agricultural Land
Easement Program minimum terms to allow more flexibility in the
program, for partners like MALT, so we can use local tools to
meet local conditions.
Last, really quickly, please, we ask you that you remove
the Agricultural Land Easement Plan requirement, which is a
burden to landowners and to easement holders, as it requires
implementation of practices without funding for them.
Thank you for your time. And we'll submit a longer list of
comments for the record.
Mr. Wenger. Great. Thanks, Jeff. We appreciate that.
Next, we'll hear from Alicia Rockwell. And after that,
Denise Hunt.
STATEMENT OF ALICIA ROCKWELL, DIRECTOR OF
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, BLUE DIAMOND
GROWERS, SACRAMENTO, CA
Ms. Rockwell. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Congressional
Committee Members.
My name is Alicia Rockwell.
Blue Diamond Growers is a 107 year old nonprofit brand
cooperative owned by over \1/2\ of California's almond farmers,
averaging around 50 acres. They are small, multigenerational
families.
International trade is vital to U.S. agriculture. It needs
to be a priority in the farm bill. Almonds are the number one
exported specialty crop in the U.S. and the number one
agricultural export in California.
The Market Access Program is a critical tool in maintaining
export markets. In light of our stalled trade policy, the U.S.
is being left behind, and almonds are facing great disadvantage
at the worst time, with estimated supply increases in coming
years to be over 2.6 billion.
An increased investment in MAP could help offset lost trade
momentum by keeping new, innovative products in foreign
markets, driving consumer awareness and consumption. Currently,
Blue Diamond is in over 90 countries around the world.
It is requested that MAP funding be increased to $400
million. This is essential to keeping our export markets. Our
competitors are spending much more than this right now. The EU
spends more on wine promotion than the entire MAP Program, as
an example.
The MAP increase benefits all commodities exported. The
increase would be $40 million per year for 10 years. The
Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance also supports this increase.
The Foreign Agricultural Service Office of Trade Promotions
published, as an annual success story report in the 2016
Report, under Horticultural Products, Nuts, and Other, U.S.
tree nut exports reached $7.6 billion, and almonds represent
over \1/2\ of all U.S. nut exports, at $4.3 billion.
As the only branded cooperative in this category, the
success of our products into foreign markets can be directly
measured by increased consumption and sales, providing a great
benefit to the entire almond industry. With the support of the
MAP Program, BDG's efforts are an essential strategy to serve
the U.S. almond farmers who have made these investments at
home.
Additionally, the Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops
Program needs to be maintained at the $9 million level.
While not within the Committee's jurisdiction, it is
critical that this Committee encourage the House to adopt
legislation that provides for a legal ag workforce. Without a
legal workforce, U.S. ag will continue to shrink and, in some
cases, disappear. Our cows need to be milked every day, all
year long, and perishable crops need to be harvested when they
are ripe, and not later.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Alicia.
Again, any additional comments, we'll have that e-mail at
the end, where you can send that.
Next will be Denise Hunt, and, after that, John Unruh.
Denise.
STATEMENT OF DENISE HUNT, TURLOCK, CA
Ms. Hunt. Good morning. Thank you for being here.
I've lived in Stanislaus County since 1973, and I'm proud
to be a valley resident in one of the richest agricultural
regions in our country, in the world. I've been privileged to
serve for several years as a children and families commissioner
in Stanislaus County.
In California, these county commissions are responsible for
administering funds from tobacco taxes for services to very
young children, ages zero to five, and their families.
I've come to know about the effects of food and security.
Many families in this county and region have periods every year
when they can't afford to put enough food on the table. There
are real consequences to this, especially for our children.
Food-insecure kids have increased rates of developmental
and mental health problems. They have problems with cognitive
development, or they have slowed or stunted growth. These
problems, in turn, have impacts on behavioral, social, and
educational development, leading to growing costs down the
line.
In Stanislaus County, 21.8 percent, or 31,320, of our kids
are estimated to be living below the poverty level. In San
Joaquin County, 19.8 percent, or 38,766, of our kids are living
below the poverty level. That's 70,000 children. That's almost
the total population of Turlock, the city that I live in.
It gets worse the farther south you go. With Fresno County
alone having more than 68,500 children living in poverty.
I really don't need to tell all of you that, because I know
some of you are from counties south of here.
We know that this is what we face in one of the leading
agricultural regions in our county and the world.
As you move toward developing and finalizing a 2018 Farm
Bill, I'm asking you today not to decrease SNAP or food stamp
funding; not to decrease school nutrition and Summer Food
Service Programs; and, especially, not to even consider moving
to block grant funding for nutrition programs. We all know
block grant funding leads to significant program service
reductions, going forward.
Please take the opportunity your positions afford you to
keep our children from going hungry.
Thank you for your consideration.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Denise.
We'll now hear from John Unruh, and, after that, Ryan
Cosyns.
John.
STATEMENT OF JOHN A. UNRUH, Ph.D., DEAN, COLLEGE OF
AGRICULTURE, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, CHICO, CHICO, CA
Dr. Unruh. Good morning.
As Dean, I'm here today on behalf of the College of
Agriculture, California State University, Chico. Chico State is
a comprehensive Hispanic-Serving Institution/University located
in the north part of the state, with an enrollment of over
17,000 students.
Over the past 5 years, our college has experienced over 40
percent growth, with over 920 undergraduates expected this
fall. Our focus is on student success and preparing students
for careers in agriculture and also applied research that will
advance California agriculture.
Our 800 acre farm and agricultural facilities are key to
providing students with experiential learning opportunities and
conducting applied research.
As the House Committee of Agriculture begins to draft a new
farm bill, I ask that you please look to reauthorize and
reinvest in the following programs important to America's 60
non-land-grant colleges of agriculture, the California State
University's four campuses with Colleges of Agriculture, and
the California State University's Agriculture Research
Institute.
They include non-land-grant colleges of agriculture,
McIntire-Stennis Capacity Grant, Hispanic-Serving Institutions,
educational grants, Hispanic-Serving Agriculture Colleges and
Universities, Specialty Crop Research Initiative, Specialty
Crop Block Grant Program, and Agriculture College
Infrastructure Improvement Program.
In the interest of time, I would like to just say a few
words about the Agriculture College Infrastructure Improvement
Program.
We seek authorization for a new Agriculture Infrastructure
Improvement Program to support construction and deferred
maintenance of Agriculture College research facilities, farms,
and classrooms. Facilities are in bad need of attention, both
for construction of new capital projects, and for tackling the
backlog of deferred maintenance of existing facilities.
Deferred maintenance alone, in a detailed commissioned
report, is estimated to be $8.4 billion in 2015. With this,
this strategy does align with Federal efforts to invest in
America's infrastructure and a means of strengthening our
economic growth.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, John.
Next, we'll hear from Ryan Cosyns, and, after that, if
Claire Brumley could come up.
Ryan.
STATEMENT OF RYAN COSYNS, EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, AMERICAN
HONEY PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION, MADERA, CA
Mr. Cosyns. Good morning. Ryan Cosyns here, representing
the American Honey Producers Association. My family also farms
almonds for about the past 40 years in Madera, and we've been
beekeeping for about 12 years.
I'd like to thank Mr. Denham for co-chairing the
Pollination Caucus in the House and for all you have done to
bring attention to this issue.
And to you, Mr. Chairman, for your recent statements
acknowledging the challenges we face and committing to work
towards solutions in the farm bill.
Honeybee health is still in major jeopardy, with annual
losses up to 45 percent, according to USDA. And this, 10 years
after identifying most of our major issues.
Our bees are responsible for pollinating $20 billion in
agricultural output. Recent news about improvement in honeybee
health are overblown. Even if colony loss numbers are slightly
better, year over year, those numbers do not account for the
substantial practice changes and input costs we are bearing as
an industry.
The truth is that anything over 15 percent is a challenge
for us. We have a long way to go.
Pollinated crops like almonds will continue to be at risk
if we can both get colony numbers and colony vitality back up.
There is no replacement for the honeybee.
In this farm bill, the American Honey Producers Association
is calling for: increased cap in the ELAP Program, since we are
currently only collecting pennies on the dollar with a $20
million program limit; more conservation program acreage into
affordable and large-scale honeybee plantings; more coordinated
research for honeybee health with ARS, NIFA, and all other USDA
agencies, so that longitudinal field research can be done to
identify causes, and, more importantly, find solutions for the
commercial beekeeper.
Bottom line: Whether pesticides, mites, or habitat are the
primary cause of our plight, we need to continue to live within
the agricultural community. We are not looking for solutions
that benefit us to someone else's detriment, but serious
efforts need to take place if we are to find a way to both
protect crops and the pollinators, like honeybees.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Ryan.
Next we'll hear from Claire Brumley, and, after that,
Milton O'Haire.
Claire.
STATEMENT OF CLAIRE BRUMLEY, VICE PRESIDENT--LENDING, AMERICAN
AgCredit, OAKDALE, CA
Ms. Brumley. Good morning. My name is Claire Brumley, and
I'm a VP of Lending with American AgCredit, part of the Farm
Credit System.
American AgCredit specializes in providing financial
services to agricultural and rural customers throughout
California, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Financial services provided by American AgCredit include
production and mortgage financing, equipment and vehicle
leasing, crop and life insurance, and lines of credit.
We also have programs that help serve young, beginning, and
small farmers.
I was born and raised here in the Central Valley and
continue to be part of my family farm operations that currently
produces almonds and walnuts. Our family farm has utilized
financing from American AgCredit and its predecessors for over
30 years, initially for land acquisition; then again, when
transitioning from grain crops to permanent plantings.
We have always found American AgCredit to be one of the
most secure sources of long-term financing. Dealing with people
from American AgCredit has always included the benefit of many
of the employees being dedicated professionals who not only
know, but have lived, agriculture.
The family farm has utilized services from the University
of California Extension in planning and developing orchards,
especially in regards to information relative to nutrient
management and water management.
We have also utilized the services of the Natural Resources
Conservation Service, by participating in programs to retire
equipment no longer environmentally sound and in improving
irrigation systems.
The farm has participated in the crop insurance program for
many years. After watching hail obliterate our rice crop in the
mid 1990s, with our crop insurance, we were still able to make
our loan payments and moved forward. The crop insurance program
continues to provide a safety net and preserve the family farm
in the event of a disaster.
American AgCredit, along with the Farm Credit System,
supports passage of a strong farm bill in 2018. Our priorities
include strengthening the Federal Crop Insurance Program,
expanding of the Farm Service Agency Direct and Guaranteed Loan
Program, and boosting investment in rural infrastructure.
Along with these remarks, I am providing, for the record,
further details on each one of these issues.
Thanks again for coming out to California, and we look
forward to working with the Committee as you continue to craft
the next farm bill.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Claire.
Next we'll hear from Milton O'Haire, and, after that, Larry
Hunn.
STATEMENT OF MILTON O'HAIRE, AGRICULTURAL
COMMISSIONER AND SEALER OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, STANISLAUS
COUNTY, MODESTO, CA
Mr. O'Haire. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and
distinguished Members of the House Committee on Agriculture.
My name is Milton O'Haire, and I'm the Stanislaus County
Agricultural Commissioner and Sealer of Weights and Measures.
Welcome to Stanislaus County, the home of the largest almond
acreage in the nation.
Agriculture is the number one industry and lifeblood of the
county. Over 35 percent of the jobs are related to agriculture,
and we produce over 250 different crops and livestock. And
along with the rest of California, we supply the U.S. and the
world with fresh produce.
However, this precious resource is under constant threat
from invasive insects hitchhiking aboard cargo or brought in by
unsuspecting travelers.
One of the best ways to combat these invasive insects is
through an early warning system. Stanislaus County deploys and
services over 6,000 invasive insect traps that serve as an
early warning system by detecting species that are harmful to
agriculture. The outcome is significant cost savings, as early
detection avoids the high costs of a long-term management
program. It also helps to maintain access to international
markets for U.S. plant products.
Since the early 2000s, Stanislaus County has detected
various insects that could have proven detrimental to our local
and state agriculture industry if not found at an early stage.
Invasive pests found in the county include red imported
fire ant, guava fruit fly, glassy-winged sharpshooter, light
brown apple moth, and Asian citrus psyllid.
We employ 20 seasonal staff to service these traps, and a
portion of the programs cost is covered with funding from the
USDA, funded through the Biological Pest and Disease Management
provisions of the farm bill.
I urge Congress to continue adequate support for these
provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Thank you for coming to our county and for the opportunity
to make these comments this morning.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Milton.
Next, we'll hear from Larry Hunn, and then Tim Schultz
after that.
Larry.
STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE H. HUNN, OWNER-OPERATOR, HUNN & MERWIN &
MERWIN, INC.; BOARD MEMBER,
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF WHEAT GROWERS;
ALTERNATE VICE CHAIR, CALIFORNIA WHEAT COMMISSION, CLARKSBURG,
CA
Mr. Hunn. Good morning. Good morning.
My name is Larry Hunn. I'm a fourth generation Owner-
Operator of a diversified family farm in the Sacramento Delta.
I'm here representing the California Association of Wheat
Growers and the California Wheat Commission.
I'm glad to hear from the Chairman that you are going to
expedite this farm bill. Like, last time, it was delayed for 2
years. So I am pleased to hear that we're going to try to move
that forward, quicker.
Wheat growers are suffering right now with some of the
historical low prices, and so the FMD and the MAP Program are
vitally important. Nearly \1/2\ the wheat in the nation has to
be exported, and U.S. Wheat presently takes $10 million and
utilizes those funds in those programs. The return on that
investment, for every dollar, $28 comes back in export
enhancement. So those programs are vitally important for us.
Crop insurance is also, too, important. There's been talk
of reducing the AGI limit, and there's some talk of putting a
$40,000 cap on the subsidy for the insurance.
What would happen, you would have many farmers not buy crop
insurance, and then we'll go back to the old system where, when
there was a disaster, you go back to Congress and apply for a
disaster payment. And I don't think you would want to do that.
It would be better to have crop insurance.
Those things should stay the same.
The other is, agricultural research is also vitally
important. I don't know if you are familiar with the $9.7
million that was granted to the NIFA program. That's being
headed by Jorge Dubcovsky, who is a renowned researcher at UC
Davis. It's vitally important that we continue to develop new
varieties.
Presently, 65 percent of the varieties that we have are
being developed by the public program. So that's vitally
important. If you are a true believer in global warming,
climate change, we're ultimately going to have to adapt to
these conditions, and varieties are the way to do it.
The other thing also, too, is----
Mr. Wenger. You have to wrap up.
Mr. Hunn.--we'd like to keep the nutrition title and the
farm program together. It's vitally important. We need to have
support from both the urban members and the rural members, and
I think that's probably one program that we can all kind of get
together and agree on.
The PL 83-480 Program, the Food for Peace, is important to
us also. It's a way we can move some of this excess product off
into the world and feed hungry, hungry people.
There had been some talk about----
Mr. Wenger. You have to wrap up.
Mr. Hunn.--eliminating that P.L. 83-480 Program, and just
giving money; I think that's the wrong way. We want to give the
food, not money.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Larry.
Yes, 2 minutes goes fast. I apologize for that, and we have
a stack here, and I know that the Chairman and the Committee
want to hear as many as they can.
Next, we'll have Tim Schultz up, and then Dave Phippen.
Tim.
STATEMENT OF TIM SCHULTZ, VICE PRESIDENT OF
ADMINISTRATION AND DIRECTOR, LUNDBERG FAMILY FARMS, RICHVALE,
CA
Mr. Schultz. Good morning. My name is Tim Schultz. I'm with
Lundberg Family Farms, a third generation family business.
We're the country's leading supplier of organic rice and
quinoa.
This past year, sales of organic food products exceeded
five percent of total food sales in the United States. Organic
is one of the few growing segments in the overall food
industry.
California is the organic capital with nearly 4,800
certified organic operations that produce 40 percent of all of
organic farm sales in the country.
In the next farm bill, we have several priorities, but I
would like to focus today on three of them: Funding for the
Organic Research Extension Initiative; annual funding support
of the National Organic Program; and one-time funding to
improve NOP's enforcement tools.
Mark Lipson addressed the success of OREI, and we're
requesting that this research funding be increased to $50
million annually to support continued growth of the organic
sector. NOP is charged with maintaining and enforcing the rules
and regulations for organic products.
We're asking NOP receive full funding at current levels and
grow at the same rate the industry is growing, which is
currently about 10 percent per year.
Finally, we need one-time funding of $5 million for the NOP
to eliminate paper documents and move to electronic import
certificates to ensure full traceability of organic products
throughout the complex, global supply chain. Along with this,
the NOP needs increased authority to ensure effective
oversight, robust investigations, and enforcement across the
entire supply chain.
Organic agriculture brings economic benefits to rural
America, enables beginning farmers to have sustainable
operations, and provides great tasting, nutritious food to our
consumers.
Thank you for considering organic priorities in the next
farm bill.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Tim.
Next up, we'll have Dave Phippen, and, then, Melissa
Cannon.
STATEMENT OF DAVID PHIPPEN, CO-OWNER, TRAVAILLE & PHIPPEN;
BOARD MEMBER, ALMOND BOARD OF
CALIFORNIA, RIPON, CA
Mr. Phippen. Good morning, Members of the Committee.
My name is Dave Phippen. I represent the third generation
of Travaille and Phippen, an almond family farming partnership
that's located in Ripon, California.
It's my understanding that a few of you had the pleasure of
meeting my son-in-law, the fourth generation of Travaille and
Phippen.
I hope you noted, while you were there, that over 65 family
farmers assist us in our operations and depend on our industry
for their well-being.
I am also honored and privileged to be elected, for a
number of years now, to the Almond Board of California, and I
want to testify to you that the Almond Board has been the
recipient of Market Access funding for a number of years while
I've been on the board and previously. And I want to testify to
you that we have effectively used that to assist and help over
6,000 almond growers throughout the State of California, and
moving over 70 percent of those tasty, nutritious, crunchy
almonds to foreign markets all over the globe.
This program has been wildly effective, and we recommend
that you consider increasing the funding for this very
important market opportunity.
I also want to testify to you on the local level that our
organization, the Travaille and Phippen Family Partnership, has
utilized EQIP funding for a number of our noncompliant farm
machinery operations, and that program is very effective, well-
used. I see many of my neighbors availing themselves of that
opportunity.
California is well-renowned now for the drought, but less
people realize the very strict air restrictions we have in the
Central Valley, and so it's very difficult to comply.
Last, I want to also urge you to continue funding for the
specialty crop insurance. Our organization, again, ensures a
hundred percent of our operation under crop insurance. We are
funded 100 percent for over 30 years by the local Farm Credit,
American AgCredit now, and it's a huge risk mitigation measure,
and very effectively used, not only by those who finance
California agriculture, but those who are being financed.
Thank you very much for your consideration of these three
things.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Dave. You set a record for getting a
lot in, in just under 2 minutes. Well, done.
Melissa Cannon will be up next, and, after that, Andy
Souza.
STATEMENT OF MELISSA CANNON, R.D., NUTRITION POLICY ADVOCATE,
CALIFORNIA FOOD POLICY ADVOCATES,
OAKLAND, CA
Ms. Cannon. Good morning. My name is Melissa Cannon, and
Modesto is my hometown, so I'm happy to be here today.
SNAP is one of our country's most vital nutrition programs,
our primary defense against hunger. And I urge you to continue
to support SNAP, as the Agriculture Committee has done strongly
over previous farm bills.
It was here in Modesto, California, that my family first
had to rely on SNAP. We fell into poverty almost overnight. My
father went to prison. We lost everything. We lost our home. We
lost the primary breadwinner for our family.
My mother, who was a stay-at-home mom, had to enter the
workforce. It took a while for her to find a job after not
working for 10 years. She eventually found a position, really,
just up the road here, as a maid, but making barely over
minimum wage.
SNAP is one of those programs that helped me to have a
somewhat normal childhood, despite what we went through. It
helped to keep me fed, it helped to put food on the table, it
helped to give me the ability to concentrate and focus on
school, to give me a chance to provide a future for myself that
didn't rely on the choices that my father made. And so I am
eternally grateful for programs like SNAP.
It has helped me to get to where I am now today. I am now
an advocate for healthy food for low-income Californians at the
California Food Policy Advocates.
My brother, he is another success program. He is now making
a six-figure salary as a financial advisor at Charles Schwab.
My sister works just up the road here, at the Sierra
Conservation Center, as a corrections officer. She just bought
her first home.
SNAP helped us get there. And I urge you to continue to
support SNAP in the farm bill. And for the 4.3 million
Californians that depend on SNAP, it's vital that we continue
the benefits of their current level.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Melissa.
We'll near hear from Andy Souza, and, after that, Cathy
Huyghe, I believe. But forgive me if I'm pronouncing it wrong.
H-U-Y-G-H-E.
Andy.
STATEMENT OF ANDREW SOUZA, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, COMMUNITY FOOD BANK, FRESNO, CA
Mr. Souza. Good morning. I am Andy Souza, CEO of the
Community Food Bank. It's kind of tough following Melissa's
story, but we are the primary food access source for the
southern five counties of San Joaquin Valley: Madera, Fresno,
Tulare, Kings, and Kern Counties.
We currently serve about 280,000 people every month, and we
have recently, over the last 4 years, doubled the amount of
food we distribute from just under 20 million to just over 40
million pounds of food a year. Included in that 40 million
pounds is 20 million pounds of fresh produce, thanks to the
very generous ag region that we live in.
Yet, with all of that, all that's being done, the stories
like Melissa's duplicate rapidly.
We are facing a hunger epidemic in our portion of the
valley. Our unemployment rate is just over 9 percent, which is
just twice the national average. We have poverty rates between
25 and 28 percent in each of our counties. We have one in four
adults, and one in three children, that are going hungry every
month. This is very real, and it's very real on a daily basis
to families like Melissa's, the very people we serve at the
Food Bank.
SNAP is a huge component of what we do. It's a huge part of
the line of defense that we serve between families going hungry
and families being productive in our communities.
We know, as Shanti shared earlier, the amount that we can't
possibly make up at the Food Bank what's going to be lost with
any potential cuts in SNAP. It's critical to families we serve.
It's critical to the communities we serve in.
We've had the pleasure of Representative Valadao coming to
multiple distributions. And we make a distribution out to rural
communities, in Fresno County. We load up our truck at the
warehouse, we drive out there, we deliver the food. Families
are served. It's critical. It's important to those very
families.
But it has minimal, if any, economic impact to those
communities. SNAP's impact is to every one of those
communities. When folks receive that SNAP benefit, they are
purchasing those meals right there in that community. They are
helping employ the clerk, the bag boy; everybody in that local
supermarket is being employed because of the value of SNAP.
We would ask that, as you go into your deliberations, we
know you have heard a lot of competing interests, but we know
that, for the very future of our valley, SNAP is critical to
that. And we'd like to ask you to consider maintaining the
funding that's in place, and, as was previously mentioned,
please do not consider block granting. We know there's,
certainly, ramifications that are far beyond the initial
discussion.
I want to thank you again for your time, for being here,
and we will also be submitting written comments.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Andy.
Next up will be Cathy, and, then, Piper Crussell.
STATEMENT OF CATHY HUYGHE, CO-FOUNDER, ENOLYTICS, ATLANTA, GA
Ms. Huyghe. Good morning. I'm Cathy Huyghe. I'm the Founder
of a company called Enolytics, which brings big data and
business intelligence to the wine and spirits industry.
You may have heard that the exports of American wine, and,
particularly California wine, as reported in the last 2 weeks,
has dropped precipitously, despite quantitative evidence of
increasing consumer interest around the world.
I would like to suggest that we can do better, and the
technology and the language exists for us to do better.
Since 2014, I've been researching, for the Congressional
Wine Caucus, where USDA funding goes, especially in relation to
the Market Access Program. I would like to respectfully suggest
that it can be used a lot more strategically and a lot more
efficiently.
As I said, the language related to this topic, related to
the use of data, exists currently in the current iteration of
the farm bill, specifically in relation, in fact, to the SNAP
Program. There is awareness that data and business intelligence
is a strategic and effective use of funding.
This conversation started earlier this year for me, with
Congressman Mark Hurd from Texas and his staff, including Caleb
Crosswhite, who encouraged me to come today and bring this
potential to you.
I actually live in Atlanta, so I may be the farthest one
away to come today. But I believe in it very much. I believe
very much in the possibility of data to use better government
funding to help wineries and spirits producers, in particular,
market their wine abroad. I believe that it's possible to
improve the perception of U.S. wines globally. The smart and
efficient use of data is one of the ways that we can do it.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Cathy.
Next, we'll have Piper, and, after that, Karen Buhr.
Piper.
STATEMENT OF PIPER CRUSSELL, SENIOR DISTRICT LEADER, VOLUNTEER
PROGRAM, HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES, ROCKLIN, CA
Ms. Crussell. Good morning. My name is Piper Crussell.
Mr. Wenger. You need to get closer.
Ms. Crussell. It'll take 2 minutes for me to get this low
enough.
Mr. Wenger. There you go.
Ms. Crussell. Can you hear me?
Good morning. My name is Piper Crussell. I'm from Rocklin,
California. Is that better? And I am a Senior District Leader
for the Humane Society of the United States Volunteer Program.
I am here to ask you today to include animal welfare in the
reforms for 2018 Farm Bill currently under review.
The completed farm bills in the last 15 years have all
included animal welfare provisions, and with animal welfare
getting such currency with every sector of the American public,
the Agriculture Committee should be doing more on this topic.
The USDA enforces our Federal laws related to animal
welfare, and there are bills in Congress that strengthen
enforcement relating to the USDA. Therefore, they relate to
your Committee.
One of those bills, known as H.R. 909, is the Pet and Women
Safety Act. This bill has 231 House cosponsors. It protects
battered partners and their pets by extending current Federal
domestic violence protection to include pets, and authorizes a
small amount of grant money to help domestic violence shelters
accommodate pets or arrange for shelter.
This bill also authorizes very modest funding of $3 million
per year to deal with a real and acute problem. It is assigned
to the Agriculture Committee, and I know that Representative
Denham is a lead cosponsor of this bill, so I would like to
thank him for his humane leadership. We look forward to working
with you and beside you on these important issues.
Thank you for your time this morning.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Piper.
Next, we'll have Karen Buhr, and following Karen will be
John Duarte.
Karen.
STATEMENT OF KAREN BUHR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICTS,
SACRAMENTO, CA
Ms. Buhr. Good morning. Karen Buhr. I'm the Executive
Director of the California Association of Resource Conservation
Districts, and I represent the 98 RCDs here in the state, as
well as their boards, which are primarily made up of farmers
and ranchers.
We have four very simple asks for you this morning.
The first is that in order to maintain strong agriculture
and rural economies in California, that you maintain the farm
bill, at least at its current levels, if not reverting back to
previous levels in the farm bill.
Second, we ask that you maintain the conservation title.
Especially here in California, the conservation title is really
critical to assisting farmers and ranchers in maintaining their
properties, their agricultural businesses, and also in being
able to comply with regulation.
Technical assistance is also a very critical part of this,
given the diversity of landscapes and the diversity of crop
types here in California, and we hope that you will maintain
the technical assistance provided to farmers and ranchers.
Finally, given the current crisis that we have in the
Sierras, we hope that you will maintain at the forestry title
and keep funding strong there, so that we can help to repair
our Sierra Nevadas.
Thank you very much for your time this morning.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Karen.
Now we'll hear from John Duarte, and following John, John
Kautz.
STATEMENT OF JOHN DUARTE, PRESIDENT, DUARTE NURSERY, INC.,
MODESTO, CA
Mr. Duarte. Hello, Mr. Chairman, Congressman Denham,
Congressman LaMalfa, Congressman Valadao, Congressman Evans.
Thank you for being here. I've met with all of you back in
Washington, D.C.
I'm John Duarte from Duarte Nursery. We produce trees and
vines. We employ about 600 people, on average, throughout the
year, here in Modesto. And I'd really like to be talking to you
today about the Clean Plant Network and plant importation,
health, and exotic pest issues, which the farm bill has done a
great job of addressing, but that's not, unfortunately, my
priority right now.
I am being sued by the Army Corps of Engineers and
Department of Justice for planting wheat in a wheat field.
Congressmen Denham and LaMalfa, you have both been to the
property. You've seen the truth of what the facts are on that
site.
A major priority of this farm bill absolutely needs to be
to clarify protections of right to farm from regulatory
overreach. We have found that Army Corps of Engineers did not
even have subject matter jurisdiction to bring this case
against my company and myself. Yet, it's already cost us $3
million in legal expenses and threatens the existence of our
company here in Modesto.
We've got the Congress. We've got the Senate. We've got a
President who has voiced very clear support for farmers' rights
to farm.
This case shows that food security in America is threatened
by the progressive regulatory government power agenda. That
should be a major focus in this year's farm bill.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, John.
John Kautz. And following John will be Steve Schwartz.
STATEMENT OF JOHN KAUTZ, OWNER AND CHAIRMAN, IRONSTONE
VINEYARDS AND JOHN KAUTZ FARMS, LODI, CA
Mr. Kautz. Thank you, welcome, good morning. John Kautz,
past President of the State Board of Food and Agriculture. Had
the honor of doing many things, growing many crops.
First, two items that I would like to discuss: First, the
fight that John Duarte is putting on for our benefit, all of
us, we all need to jump in and help solve that problem, because
the outcome of that event is going to definitely affect all of
agriculture. So I highly urge you to support any of the actions
that we can do.
The second item that I would like to talk about is the
endangered species. The endangered species that
(unintelligible) for all of the environmentalist organizations.
An example: the long-horned elderberry beetle, 3 years ago, was
listed to be de-listed as endangered, and we still haven't got
it done. It is ridiculous that we're leaving so many of these
items, that are being devastating to agriculture, and we need
to clean them up while we have the opportunity.
And let's get the job done.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, John.
We'll next hear from Steve Schwartz, then, following that,
Bob Elliott.
STATEMENT OF STEVE SCHWARTZ, COORDINATOR,
CALIFORNIA CAUCUS, NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE COALITION, SEBASTOPOL, CA
Mr. Schwartz. Good morning. I'm speaking on behalf of the
California Caucus of the National Sustainable Agriculture
Coalition, which is the state's leading sustainability
agriculture and organic organization. We have 15 groups
representing over 50,000 stakeholders.
First, I want to thank the California Members of the
delegation for the work, the cooperative work, in the last farm
bill cycle, and say that I'm looking forward to working with
you all next time.
NSAC has over a hundred groups around the country,
including members in Texas and Pennsylvania.
Our caucus priorities include the working lands
conservation programs like EQIP, especially Specialty Crop
Block Grant Programs, soil health initiatives, organic research
programs, and food safety programs.
I want to make two points here.
First, about the programs without baseline. Congress has
invested over $1 billion into the last farm bill to support a
more sustainable food and farming system, through several
programs for which funding will dry up next year due to lack of
baseline. So we really urge you to do everything you can to get
this job done in 2018.
We saw what happened last time. It affected a lot of
California farmers and others around the country.
Second one is, we've heard rumors that it's kind of a very
partisan climate back in D.C., but we all know that agriculture
is a nonpartisan issue. And what I would say is, the last five
farm bills, none of them have gone forward without clear
support from both sides of the aisles, significant votes on
both.
We know we're going to need bipartisan support, and I want
to commend the California Members here today, who have a
history of demonstrating that they will vote their conscience,
vote their district, even when it's going against party
leadership on certain issues of agriculture and food.
I hope that you will step up early to be champions on
markup bills. We know we're going to need bipartisan support at
the end of the road. Let's do it early and show that
leadership.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Steve.
We'll now hear from Bob Elliott, and, after Bob, we'll have
Jenee DiCosta.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT V. ``BOB'' ELLIOTT, DISTRICT 5 MEMBER,
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, TRACY, CA
Mr. Elliott. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Conaway,
distinguished Members of the panel.
I'm Bob Elliott, county supervisor, San Joaquin County.
Agriculture is the number one industry in San Joaquin
County, so it's certainly in our best interest to support it
and protect it as much as we can.
We've already heard from several Members of San Joaquin
County this morning, so I won't repeat what they have said, but
I would like to make just a couple of points.
First, in general, any severe cuts to our specialty crops
would certainly have a detrimental effect to our agriculture
here, especially in terms of pest exclusion and pest detection
programs. So I would urge your continued support for that type
of program.
Along those lines, funding for the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service is critical. This defends our animal and
plant resources from agricultural pests and diseases, and one
great example is the Mediterranean fruit fly, which could be
devastating if it's not controlled.
I will certainly urge you to continue support for these
programs in the farm bill, and I thank you for being here today
to listen to these concerns.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Bob.
I hope I didn't butcher somebody's name. Is it Jenee or
Janet DiCosta, Driscoll's?
I don't see them. We'll go on with Nelia Alamo, and then,
after that, Lupe Lopez.
Nelia.
STATEMENT OF NELIA ALAMO, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND
COMMUNICATIONS, RENAISSANCE FOOD GROUP,
RANCHO CORDOVA, CA
Ms. Alamo. Good morning. My name is Nelia Alamo. I am
Director of Marketing and Communications for Renaissance Food
Group. We are a fresh cut fruit and vegetable processor based
in Rancho Cordova, California.
I'm also a proud member of the United Fresh Produce
Association. United Fresh represents all segments of the fruit
and vegetable industry across the country, and United Fresh is
part of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, and I would like
to highlight a few of the Alliance's top farm bill policy
priorities.
The first one is invasive pest and diseases, specialty
crops industry continues to support actions by Federal
Government to eradicate and protect the domestic market from
increasing threat of exotic pests and diseases entering the
United States.
We believe Congress should continue to support these
important programs.
Nutrition: A key nutrition program is the Fresh Fruits and
Vegetables SNAP Program, which reach more than 4 million low-
income children. And we believe that this is a highly effective
program in providing fresh fruit and vegetables to the youth of
our nation and should be continued.
Research: The 2008 and 2014 Farm Bill included key
provisions which dedicated funding for the Specialty Crop
Research Initiative and Specialty Crop Grant Programs. These
investments must be sustained in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Trade: U.S. specialty crop growers faced significant
obstacles due to the perishability of our products. We strongly
support the continuation of Technical Assistance for Specialty
Crops and Market Access Programs.
And finally, ag workforce. I know immigration policy is not
under Committee's jurisdiction, but our industry needs leaders
in agriculture policy at the forefront, pressing Congress to
take action on immigration policy that addresses our critical
labor needs. Without them, our industry will suffer greatly.
I, and other members of United Fresh Produce Association,
look forward to working with you, on this and other issues in
the fruit and vegetable industry.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Nelia.
Lupe Lopez, and then Joseph Augusto.
STATEMENT OF LUPE LOPEZ, OWNER, ARTEAGA'S FOOD CENTER, NEWARK,
CA
Ms. Lopez. Good morning. My name is Lupe Lopez, and I'm the
owner of six grocery stores in the Bay Area.
Through the grocery store, I see firsthand the struggles
that people that have very little money to spend on food can go
through. So I urge you to support the SNAP Program and to
expand on it, and, specifically, the incentive programs.
Seeing my customers who struggle, when they come in, and
they have very little money to spend, and they reach for the
first thing, which is either pastas that are inexpensive or the
hot dogs. Why? Because they can get two meals out of this hot
dog for a family of four.
What happens with this? Obesity and unhealthy.
Through the incentive programs, we can gain a lot more.
Since February of this year, I've been part of an incentive
program called Double Food Bags. It (unintelligible.)
You come to the store and you buy California-grown produce,
and as you purchase those produce, then you qualify for extra
fund. For instance, I come to the store, and I buy tomatoes, I
buy lettuce, and now I was able to buy the melon. I spend
$5.23.
With this $5.23, then we issue a coupon for the same value,
penny for penny, up to $10. So that customer is now able to
come back, purchase the peaches, purchase the corn, the chili
peppers, and also the blueberries.
What did you gain with that? You gain a customer that is
putting food on the table, which makes a big difference for the
family. You gain a healthier individual.
What do we gain? We gain not spending as much money on
their medical bill.
What does the farmer gain? The farmer selling more produce
that are being grown in California are being bought, so the
California economy is growing.
It's a win-win situation. So let's expand those incentive
programs. Let's support the SNAP Program. Don't cut this vital
program, because it's a difference of the children having food
on the table or being hungry all day.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Lupe.
Next we'll have Joseph Augusto, and then Luke O'Leary.
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH AUGUSTO, PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA DAIRY
CAMPAIGN, TURLOCK, CA
Mr. Augusto. Good morning, gentlemen. Chairman Conaway and
Members of the Committee, my name is Joe Augusto. I currently
serve as President of the California Dairy Campaign.
CDC is a grassroots organization representing dairy family
farmers throughout California. CDC is a member organization of
California Farmers Union CFU, a state chapter of the national
Farmers Union, a farm organization representing more than
200,000 farmers and ranchers nationwide.
California is the largest milk producing state, but
continues to face significant challenges due to the difference
between prices paid to dairy producers and the cost of
producing milk in their state.
During this farm bill debate, our members consider it
critical that Congress recognize the failure of the dairy
Margin Protection Program to provide an effective safety net,
particularly for dairy farmers in California. Dairy farmers
lack a real confidence in this program because they paid
substantial premiums in the Margin Protection Program in the
first full year and it failed to provide any sort of effective
safety net. The margins in the dairy Margin Protection Program
failed to reflect the farm margins for dairy producers in
California.
When the dairy Margin Protection Program was originally
proposed, dairy farmers in California were told that it could
do better than the Milk Income Loss Program, because more milk
would be eligible for coverage.
Our organization opposed the dairy Margin Protection
Program during the last farm bill debate, because we considered
it to be an untested insurance scheme.
Today, the test results are in, and they are not good for
California. Just one dairy farmer signed up for coverage level
above the $4 catastrophic level in 2017. The debate in Congress
now seems to be focused on lowering premiums for producer
operations below 5 million pounds of production per year, or
approximately 233 cows.
It's important to recognize that the average herd size in
California, according to the latest CDFA statistics total now
1,249 cows for California.
Under their proposed changes passed by the Senate
Agriculture Appropriations Committee, which has received some
support from Members of both House and Senate Agriculture
Committees, the premium rates for any production above 5
million pounds or operations above 233 cows would be
approximately ten times higher. Not only would this create
inequitable system for larger operations in California, it
would also insulate smaller dairies from any market signals and
would increase milk supplies in the future, regardless of
market conditions, depressing milk prices further.
I would like to, today, dispel the myth that larger dairy
operations are not in need of a safety net, because they have
other risk management tools. When milk prices do not match milk
costs, there is no way out.
Mr. Wenger. You need to wrap up. Yes. You need to wrap it
up.
Mr. Augusto. Okay. They need to encompass Federal dairy
program safety net across all dairy sizes. With that, I'm out
of time. I would just like to say, on behalf of the California
Dairy Campaign, I thank the Committee for letting me testify
here today, and I would like to request the ability to submit
additional written testimony and arrange subjects important to
the dairy producers, to the Committee.
Thank you again.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Joe. We appreciate it.
Again, I know it's a short time, but make sure you get your
comments in, and we'll have that up at the end so that you can
make sure and get your written comments. But we have a stack
here. We want to make sure we give everybody some time.
Luke O'Leary. And then, after that, Olivia Hahn.
STATEMENT OF LUKE O'LEARY, STATE PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA FFA
ASSOCIATION, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA
Mr. O'Leary. Good morning. My name is Luke O'Leary, State
President of the California FFA Association.
I'm here to just extend, on behalf of the California FFA
Association, as well as, truly, the national FFA organization,
a reminder that agriculture industry, as well as agricultural
education, are inherently tied together.
And as we consider the farm bill and consider the future of
our industry, we must constantly consider those students who
are beginning to join college and careers in the agricultural
industry.
Our association and our organization impacts students'
lives positively by developing their potential for premier
leadership and personal growth, as well as career success. And
we do this so that we can grow leaders who will then build
communities and strengthen the agricultural industry.
Our organization across the nation has grown tremendously
over the years, now reaching 650,000 students across the
country. And just in the past year, our association has grown
nearly 4,000 students; it's now having a total of 87,000
members in the State of California.
We're hopeful about the future of agricultural education
because of the response we've seen from students, as they have
experienced rigorous classroom instruction, as well as hands-
on, relevant projects as they put what they learned in the
classroom into practice in their supervised agricultural
experience projects. And then get tangible relationships with
other students from across the country through the FFA and the
leadership development they experience there.
We're grateful for the relationship and cooperation we have
with legislators in our own state, as well as across the
nation, so that we can continue to promote agricultural
education in our industry.
Some specific bills that have come up recently in our
state, of securing more funding for agricultural education, as
well as nationwide, as well as certain bills that, in our
capital right now, that are handling with tax exemptions for
students' projects for the first $5,000 they earn annually, are
very important bills to consider, perhaps, including in pieces
of the farm bill, that will support the future of these
students for pursuing careers in the agricultural industry.
We thank you for your time and we thank you for the
constant consideration of the hopefulness of our students who
are the future of our industry.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Luke.
(Applause)
Mr. Wenger. Very good.
O'Learia, and then Martin Settevendemie. Martin.
Next, Olyvia----
STATEMENT OF OLYVIA HAN, DISTRICT LEADER VOLUNTEER, HUMANE
SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES, SAN JOSE, CA
Ms. Han. I'm Olyvia Han.
I live in San Jose, California, and I'm a District Leader
Volunteer with the Humane Society of the United States.
As we all know, animal welfare is a growing concern for
many Americans, including myself. We've witnessed this growing
concern in corporate reform, in animal agriculture, as well as
local, state, and Federal legislation.
I ask that the committee not try to weaken, delay, or block
the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices final rule.
USDA published a final rule to strengthen and clarify the
animal welfare standards to protect the integrity of the
organic label. Following a memorandum to freeze all regulatory
action, the USDA opened a comment period, soliciting input on
whether the rules should be allowed to become effective.
Nearly 50,000 comments poured in, with more than 99 percent
favoring the immediate implementation of this rules, as it was
finalized.
Every measure of public sentiment has favored the adoption
of this rule, which was decades in the making. The rule would
keep thousands of farmers on the farm and give them a value-
added opportunity to connect to consumers who are willing to
pay more for organic products, but expect them to be consistent
with higher animal welfare standards.
I ask you, please keep the integrity of this rule as you
put together the farm bill.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Olyvia.
We'll have Martin next, and then Sean Hurley.
STATEMENT OF MARTIN SETTEVENDEMIE, PRESIDENT,
CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONERS AND SEALERS ASSOCIATION;
AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONER AND SEALER, COUNTY OF SAN LUIS
OBISPO, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA
Mr. Settevendemie. Thank you, Chairman Conaway, Members of
the Committee. My name is Martin Settevendemie, and I serve as
the President of the California Agricultural Commissioners and
Sealers Association, or CACASA.
California agricultural commissioners are the boots-on-the-
ground, implementing many of the Federal programs Congress
authorizes. And I can tell you firsthand, both the funding and
the consistency of funding by Congress is critical as the work
we do is biological in nature.
First, the authorization of Section 10007 in the 2014 Farm
Bill helps with consistently funding ongoing initiatives that
support the United States comprehensive network of local,
state, and Federal stakeholders addressing pests and diseases
harmful to the ag industry.
The current level of $75 million should be maintained in
the upcoming 2018 Farm Bill.
Also, the use of these funds should strictly adhere to the
targeted activities previously authorized by Congress.
Second, APHIS collects an estimated $754 million in user
fees. We believe a portion of those dollars should be
authorized to augment stakeholder activities throughout the
comprehensive network of local, state, and Federal efforts to
combat pests and diseases harmful to the ag industry.
And last, in the forestry title, we urge your consideration
of the U.S. Forest Service's fire borrowing and its impact on
biological programs directed at improving forest health and
reducing hazardous fuels.
We also urge consideration of reducing regulatory hurdles
of NEPA analysis for invasive species management.
We understand that you have a tremendous task before you in
crafting and passing the 2018 Farm Bill. CACASA supports the
Committee's efforts in maintaining a broad coalition of
organizations interested in other important programs, such as
commodities, conservation, and nutrition.
Thank you for your time, and we appreciate you coming to
California.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Martin.
Sean Hurley, and, after that, John Pandol.
STATEMENT OF SEAN HURLEY, Ph.D., AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCTION ECONOMIST AND PROFESSOR, AGRIBUSINESS DEPARTMENT,
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE
UNIVERSITY, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA
Dr. Hurley. My name is Sean Hurley, and I am here on behalf
of California Polytechnic State University, College of
Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences; and our dean,
Andy Thulin.
The college is globally recognized as a Center of
Excellence in Applied Sciences. It enrolls 4,000 undergraduate
students, making it the fifth largest undergraduate and the
largest non-land-grant college of agriculture.
The university's farmland is situated where much of the
leafy greens and berries are grown for the nation. The
university utilizes over 10,000 acres of agricultural land for
production, research, and processing facility to educate our
students in one of 15 majors.
As the House Committee on Agriculture begins to draft the
new farm bill, I ask that you please reinvest in non-land grant
colleges of agriculture, and the Hispanic-Serving Agricultural
Colleges and Universities, and also to reauthorize the
McIntire-Stennis Capacity Grants, Hispanic-Serving Institution
and Educational Grants, Specialty Crop Research Initiative,
Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, and the Agricultural
College and Infrastructure Improvement Programs.
I ask that you please amend existing eligibility to allow
campuses to apply for both the McIntire-Stennis Capacity Grants
Program for Forestry Research, and the non-land-grant colleges
of agricultural program, which offers capacity building for
non-land-grant schools.
Those that receive funding for McIntire-Stennis are
ineligible to compete for this other grant, and vice versa.
Non-land-grants have separate and necessary capacity-
building needs in both agriculture and forestry. Under existing
law, they are forced to choose one funding source over the
other. The law needs to be amended to allow campuses to compete
for both.
The Specialty Crop Research Initiative provides grants to
support research and extension for the specialty crop industry.
California researchers received over $30 million from this
program from 2008 to 2014.
And Specialty Crops Block Grant Program provides grants for
states to run competitive grants program for research,
marketing, and education about specialty crops. As you know,
California produces a large percentage of the specialty crops
in the U.S., including 73 percent of the total domestic non-
citrus fruit and 70 percent of the total vegetables in the U.S.
These funding sources are extremely important for maintaining
the technical capacity to produce these high-value, nutritious
crops.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Sean.
Next we'll have John Pandol, and, after John, Lester
Patrick.
STATEMENT OF JOHN PANDOL, DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS, PANDOL
BROS. INC., DELANO, CA
Mr. Pandol. I am John Pandol. I'm based in Delano,
California.
We make about \1/2\ of our money growing grapes in central
California. The other half of the money, we turn crops into
cash for other growers in California, New Jersey, Georgia,
Mexico, Peru, and Chile.
Two quick things and a big thing: One, Country-of-Origin
Labeling. Get rid of it. We argued about it for 10 years. We've
had it for 10 years. We got nothing to show for it. You want to
eliminate a few things? Like our President said, let's get rid
of that one.
Second, some of the little regional promotional programs,
like we have the Buy California (unintelligible) Fresh. I spend
75 days a year talking to retailers and wholesalers. I've had
very little call for those types of deal. They have done their
benefit. The states want to do them or industry want to do
them. Fine. But the Federal Government doesn't need to fund
that.
The big thing is foreign trade. It is absolutely critical
that the U.S. be viewed as a reliable market and supplier. It
looks like TTP is in the rest area for right now. But it is
absolutely critical that we maintain and respect all of our
other trade deals, especially NAFTA, which is such a big deal.
Right now, there's rumblings at a level of sectors of guys
that want to go out and put dumping cases have no place in the
produce business. It should be prohibited. I've been involved
in five dumping cases, both as an exporter and as an importer.
They're like divorces; they're messy, expensive, and nobody
wins. So dumping must be taken off the table as a remedy in the
produce business.
And since I have a little time, I want to thank you guys
for serving in Congress. I couldn't put up with the incivility
and indignities that you guys got to deal with, with
constituents. You have my respect.
Mr. Denham. Thanks, John.
Next we'll have Lester Patrick, and, after that, Dulce
Garcia.
STATEMENT OF LESTER PATRICK, MEMBER, HUNGER TASK FORCE;
COMMISSIONER, HOUSING AUTHORITY OF SAN
JOAQUIN COUNTY, STOCKTON, CA
Mr. Patrick. Good morning. My name is Lester Patrick. I'm
from Stockton, and I'm currently a Commissioner of the Housing
Authority of San Joaquin County, which services low-income
people throughout San Joaquin County, with public housing,
housing choice vouchers, and other related services.
I want to focus your attention, just briefly, on those
people this morning, and how cuts in the farm bill will impact
them.
Currently, there's about 303,000 California households
receiving housing choice vouchers, and about 30,000 low-income
people in California live in public housing, and have an
income, believe it or not, of less than $20,000 a year. Most of
these households include children, the elderly, as well as the
disabled and are also SNAP recipients: 73 percent of low-income
people pay more than \1/2\ of their income towards rent, with
very little left for food.
If there's a cut, then obviously this reduces the amount of
money that these people then have for food, especially with the
rate of increase in rent throughout California.
For eleven years, I have conducted a mentoring program at
three schools. And in doing so, I try to take students on field
trips. One of the primary decisions that have to be made in
planning the field trip is when to leave and when to get back
so that the students can have food.
Students should not have to make those kinds of decisions,
because some of them are required to then decide, do I go on
the field trip, or do I stay at school, where I can get food?
No student in the United States should be faced with making
that kind of decision. However, the children who are the
recipients of public housing do sometimes have to make those
decisions.
I respectfully urge you this morning not to cut SNAP or any
other program that fights hunger and food insecurity in the
United States.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Lester.
Next, we'll here from Dulce Garcia and Lisa Kessler.
STATEMENT OF DULCE GARCIA, SECRETARY, REGION V,
STUDENT SENATE FOR CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY
COLLEGES, MADERA, CA
Ms. Garcia. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Members of
the House Agriculture Committee.
My name is Dulce Garcia. I am the Secretary and former
communications officer of Region V for the Student Senate for
California Community Colleges, and I reside in the Central
Valley, the heart of California, Madera, where agriculture and
supply of food is important in my town and nearby colleges.
The Student Center for California Community Colleges is a
nonprofit organization advocating for student rights at the
local, regional, and state level. We do go to the capitol, and
we do support bills up there, which represents 2.1+ million
community college students in California.
I come to voice my perspective on the importance of the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, contained in
the farm bill. This past semester and this spring, while
volunteering for the Ram Pantry at Fresno City College, a food
pantry available for students who are in dire need of food and
other supplements, I learned and talked to a few students who
made it known that food insecurity is there and is an issue,
not just on campuses, but at home as well.
Twenty-two percent of community college students said they
have gone hungry, due to a lack of money and food, which leads
to health issues and lack of academics. A student's daily
struggle is to be stable and have housing, but an even greater
struggle is to meet the basic need of food supplement. Food
insecurity is one of the most devastating variables to the
development of the future of America.
SNAP supports nutrition assistance for low-income
individuals, such as students and families. It's the largest
program in the domestic hunger safety net. We hope you keep
this in mind and recognize, we students are involved and ready
to tackle this issue.
Thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee and
share my views on this very important topic.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Dulce.
Lisa Kessler, and then Joel Karlin.
STATEMENT OF LISA A. KESSLER, Ph.D., INTERIM DEAN, DON B.
HUNTLEY COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC
UNIVERSITY, POMONA, POMONA, CA
Dr. KESSLER. Good morning. I'm Dr. Lisa Kessler, the
interim Dean of the Huntley College of Agriculture at Cal Poly,
Pomona.
Our college offers comprehensive bachelor's and master's
degrees programs in agriculture and is the only such program in
the southern half of this large state. We have more than 2,000
students in the following departments: Human nutrition and food
science, animal and veterinary science, ag business, ag
science, plant science, apparel merchandising and management.
Eighty percent of our majors are students of color, and 76
percent are females, and many are from economically
disadvantaged backgrounds, and are the first in their family to
attend college. Our students engage in hands-on learning on a
700 acre farm that includes swine, cattle, sheep, vineyards,
greenhouses, crops, and the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center,
which is the oldest continually operating Arabian horse
breeding farm in the country.
There are two aspects of this legislation that are
particularly important to us. Cal Poly Pomona is a Hispanic-
Serving Institution, an HSI. Programs that support minority-
serving institutions are especially critical in agriculture.
The HSIs, along with our sister minority-serving institutions,
fill in the geographical and service gaps left behind by the
land-grant institutions.
HSI grants have provided extensive internship opportunities
for our students, which are critical to their preparation for
the ag workforce, including work with the USDA. Please continue
these HSI internships, whenever you can, to assure their robust
support.
Second, the programs of our college place emphasis upon how
we serve our urban and suburban environment. Applied research
efforts, such as the Specialty Crops Research Initiative, are
vital to what we're able to accomplish in urban agriculture.
Please retain support for applied research that allows us to
address and resolve the complex problems facing our
agricultural industry.
Thank you for supporting ag education at the university
level.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Lisa.
We'll have, next, Joel Karlin, and then Gary Martin.
STATEMENT OF JOEL KARLIN, ECONOMIST AND FEED GRAIN
MERCHANDISER, WESTERN MILLING; ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS, JORDAN
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY, CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO, GOSHEN, CA
Mr. Karlin. Good morning. My name is Joel Karlin. I'm an
economist at Western Milling, which is one of the largest
manufacturers of feed in the country. We service and sell feed
to more than 1.75 million cows and 1,400 dairy operations in
the State of California.
In addition to my responsibilities at Western Milling, I
also teach agriculture and food policy and international ag
econ at Fresno State's Department of Ag Business.
The topic I wish to address is the importance of foreign
trade. As many people in the audience are aware, the economics
of dairy has deteriorated over the past number of years, both
nationwide, particularly in the State of California, which,
despite a number of impediments, remains the largest dairy
producing state in the country.
The escalation of feed prices and the long-term decline of
milk prices has made margins that are nonexistent or
unprofitable for many producers. The California dairymen and
women are already beset with the unenviable combination of the
highest feed costs and the lowest milk prices. Problems are
magnified by a number of factors inherent in this state,
including increased regulations with regard to air, water, and
land; forthcoming minimum wage and overtime work stipulations;
drought; and increased difficulty in procuring farm workers due
to immigration concerns.
In the past 10 years, California, which used to produce 23
percent of the nation's milk, is down to 18 percent. Our cow
numbers have fallen a hundred thousand while rows in the United
States have increased.
The biggest factor is that foreign trade is very important.
The fact is that people throughout the world need United States
products. It results in a wider variety of goods and lower
prices.
California, which produces a large amount of milk, a
tremendous amount is exported. Unfortunately, a large amount is
turned into powder, which is exactly the product that's needed
overseas.
I would urge the committee to pay particular attention to
trade, particularly for the country. U.S. ag is the only sector
in the U.S. economy that enjoys a trade surplus. We export more
than we import.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Joel.
Gary Martin will be next. Then we passed over, is it Janet
or Jenee DiCosta from Driscoll's? Are they in the room?
Mr. Wenger. Okay. Then after Gary, we'll go with Janet
Smith.
STATEMENT OF GARY MARTIN, MANAGER, PIKALOK FARMING, FIREBAUGH,
CA
Mr. Martin. Chairman Conaway, gentlemen. My name is Gary
Martin. My family's been farming in Fresno County for over 80
years. We currently farm Pima cotton, minimum till----
Mr. Wenger. Just get closer.
Mr. Martin. You okay with that? Sorry about that.
We're also growing almonds; drip, micro sprinklers; alfalfa
supported by solar power of our ag wells; and lip pumps.
For the last 3 years, market returns from cotton and
cottonseed have fallen short of the total costs of production.
These costs do not include return to management and family
living expenses.
When accounting for the minimal Federal farm policy support
provided for cotton, the last 3 years have seen total costs
significantly exceed our returns. These sustained losses
occurred in a period of unlike any in recent U.S. history for
cotton. It is my hope that the Administration can operate, step
forward, and offer farmers like myself a bridge to the next
farm bill, with the Cotton Ginning Cost-Share Program.
The last Administration operated the program. It is
extremely helpful to California growers like myself.
It is imperative the comprehensive cotton support that is
on par with other commodities be included in title I of the
next farm bill.
Conservation programs continue to be extremely popular
across the Cotton Belt, specifically in California, the EQIP
Program. It is critically important in providing us with cost-
share funding to implement practices to help comply with a
litany of regulations we face on our farms.
I commend the Committee for streamlining conservation
programs in the 2014 Farm Bill. This makes it easier for NRCS
to administer, and, more importantly, for producers like myself
to utilize.
These programs have become integral parts of many
producers' operations and achieved the goal of protecting and
improving the environment, while also enhancing production on
our operation. As commodity prices have fallen, these cost-
share programs have become even more important, as a way for
many producers to help cash flow their operations. I encourage
you to continue the robust funding for our working lands cost-
share programs.
Thank you for letting me speak.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Gary.
Janet Smith, and then Rudolph Villegas.
STATEMENT OF JANET SMITH, PARTNER, EDWIN H. SMITH & SONS DAIRY,
TURLOCK, CA
Ms. Janet Smith. In 1983, when I got my first part-time job
in high school, I worked with a couple of young Navy wives. I
remember that one of the women, a mother of two young
daughters, had Food Stamps. I don't know if she utilized the
now-eliminated FSSA Program or if she was on the program now
called SNAP. What I do remember was that despite military
housing, subsidized childcare, and having two full-time working
parents, their family qualified for food assistance due to the
high cost of living in the Silicon Valley.
Representative Denham, I know that you were once enlisted
in the Air Force. I am certain that you served with families in
similar situations.
In 2014, the USDA projected 22,000 military families were
using SNAP to help support their families: 8 percent of
veterans' families are utilizing the SNAP Program.
In 2014, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
reported that nearly a hundred thousand veterans in California
alone depended on the SNAP Program to feed their families.
In addition, more than \1/4\ of recent veterans reported
service-connected disabilities, which can make it harder to
provide for their families.
Households with a veteran who has a disability that
prevents him or her from working are about twice as likely to
lack access to adequate food as compared to households that do
not include someone with a disability.
For veterans struggling to overcome obstacles to feed their
families, SNAP makes a crucial difference. I am asking all of
you to commit to maintaining SNAP funding and refuse to sever
the SNAP Program from the 2018 Farm Bill.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Janet.
It looks like we're going to be able to get all the cards
that we have as long as everybody sticks to their 2 minutes.
And I appreciate that, Janet. You were under.
We're going to have Rudolph, and, after that, Kimberly
Houlding.
STATEMENT OF RUDOLPH VILLEGAS, VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATION,
STUDENT SENATE FOR CALIFORNIA
COMMUNITY COLLEGES, SAN DIEGO, CA
Mr. Villegas. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Members of
the House Agriculture Committee.
My name is Rudolph Villegas, and I am an executive officer
for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, a
nonprofit organization which represents 2.1 million community
college students in our state of California.
I come to voice a student perspective on the importance of
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, contained
in the farm bill.
In the student's daily struggle, one primary consideration
is securing stable housing, but even greater to that is the
encumbrance to meet the basic necessity of food. Food
insecurity is one of the most crippling instabilities to the
development of the future workforce of America.
SNAP supports low-income Californians, including students,
seniors, disabled, children, and, in special circumstances,
out-of-work persons, and the general citizenry of this great
country.
I offer a personal experience to show, by comparison, the
disparity experienced by others, which are less fortunate than
myself.
At reaching the age of 18, I was immediately expelled to
the world from my home. With no support but a bit of savvy,
thankfully, I leaned on the California community college system
to pursue my education and acquire a student-worker job,
serving the public.
I slept in the cold parts of San Diego, battling the
weather and struggling to survive. At no point did I actually
qualify for SNAP, however.
The experience opened my eyes to the real struggles and
daily realities of others which are low-income, which must have
had it way worse than I did.
In our particular demographic, I wish to stress the urgency
of continued support for programs which assist us in meeting
our basic needs.
I appreciate the opportunity to address the committee and
share my perspective on this important topic and for your
consideration when you review this in the farm bill.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Rudolph.
Kimberly Houlding.
Mr. Wenger. Okay. Then we're going to Leonard Van Elderen.
There you go. And after Leonard, Dawn Ward.
STATEMENT OF LEONARD VAN ELDEREN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, YOSEMITE FARM CREDIT, TURLOCK, CA
Mr. Van Elderen. Good morning. My name is Leonard Van
Elderen. I'm President and CEO of Yosemite Farm Credit, part of
the Farm Credit System. Last week, we were on Capitol Hill, and
it was a little cooler there than it is here today.
We've got $2.5 billion, primarily in two counties, the
county where you sit today, and the county to the south of us,
Stanislaus and Merced County: 35 percent of that loan volume is
dairy, and our dairymen are struggling, and we just ask that
you would address the dairy support in the farm bill.
Also look at crop insurance. And while we might like to
have very cheap corn and very cheap grains for the dairy
business, we realize that grain farmers need to survive also
and need to have a viable operation.
We just ask that you would take a look at the crop
insurance for what it does for the State of California, but
also especially where food products come from for the cows that
we feed here.
We ask that you would take a look at FSA Guaranteed levels:
$1.399 million on the Guaranteed Program, and $300,000 on the
Direct Program. About a mile from here, we're financing
property that's costing about $30,000 to $40,000 an acre. And
as you can see, in order to get young, beginning, and small
farmers off the ground, those guarantees do not go very far or
allow us to do much there.
Finally, rural infrastructure. Farm Credit has been a
proponent for rural infrastructure and bringing people together
to support that, and we would ask for your support in that area
also.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Leonard.
Dawn Ward will be up next, and then Nicole Van Vleck.
STATEMENT OF DAWN WARD, DEPUTY DISTRICT VOLUNTEER, HUMANE
SOCIETY OF UNITED STATES, MODESTO, CA
Ms. Ward. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Committee.
My name is Dawn Ward, and I'm here as a Deputy District
Volunteer with the Humane Society of United States.
I'm coming here today to urge you to keep animal welfare in
mind when putting together the farm bill.
The Prevent All Soring Tactics Act, or H.R. 1847, is a bill
that would ban devices integral to the cruelty of horse soring,
strengthen penalties, and end the failed system of industry
self-policing, and hold abusers accountable.
The bill currently has 252 House cosponsors, including
about 80 Republicans with a half dozen Republican cosponsors on
the House Agricultural Committee, also including Vice Chairman
Glenn Thompson and the lead author-veterinarian Ted Yoho.
The USDA is the agency responsible for enforcing Horse
Protection Act that the PAST Act, or H.R. 1847, amends, so the
farm bill is a logical place to consider an upgrade to the law.
My special thanks go to Representative Denham, since he is
a cosponsor of the PAST Act. Thank you.
Thank you for your time today.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Dawn.
We'll have Nicole Van Vleck, and, after that, Kimberly
Holding.
STATEMENT OF NICOLE M. VAN VLECK, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, MONTNA FARMS; CHAIR,
PRODUCERS COMMITTEE, CALIFORNIA RICE COMMISSION; VICE CHAIR,
USA RICE, SACRAMENTO, CA
Ms. Van Vleck. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of
the Committee.
My name is Nicole Van Vleck, and I am a farmer in Sutter
County, about 45 minutes south of Mr. LaMalfa. I farm with my
sister and my parents.
I am representing the California Rice Commission Producers
Committee. We represent 25 rice farmers in California, and I'm
the chair of that committee, and I'm also the Vice Chair of USA
Rice Farmers.
I want to mention today that the situation in California,
as many of you know, for rice, has been significantly
challenged in the last few years.
In all honesty, when the farm bill was signed in 2014, we
did not expect a payment to be triggered during the life of the
farm bill for rice in California.
However, as a result of market declines and fluctuation in
our acreage over the last few years, due to drought first, and
then flooding last year, we have had significant issues with
our market and a steep decline.
With that, both the ARC and the PLC will trigger for rice
farmers for 2016 and, very possibly, for 2017.
We have safety net needs, two of which are critical. For
PLC, the reference price for rice produced in California is far
below the cost of production and not equivalent to the level of
protection provided for in other rice growing regions
throughout the United States.
We ask that a modification be made. And, please note, this
is supported by USA Rice, as well as through an economic
analysis provided for by Texas A&M.
Rice is also widely recognized for the critical waterfowl
and shorebirds habitat provided for in our working lands. We
have forged many important partnerships with bird conservation
groups, including Ducks Unlimited, of which I am a life member.
Their efforts to work with rice growers nationally help deliver
farm bill conservation programs to working lands.
To support these working farms, we need to tweak
conservation programs to better meet wildlife needs,
specifically, we need a longer EQIP contract period that is
specific for annual wildlife friendly farming practices.
The wildlife would benefit from such a tweak. If we could
designate five percent of the available EQIP funds for
enhancement of long-term health of our American flyways. Rice
can help benefit those American flyways.
I want to thank you for trying to get the farm bill done in
a timely fashion. And whether we grow vegetables or rice or
dairy, we really need a farm bill here in California that works
for the diversity of all of California.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Nicole.
Kimberly Houlding and Rob Vandenheuvel.
STATEMENT OF KIMBERLY HOULDING, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, AMERICAN OLIVE OIL
PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION, CLOVIS, CA
Ms. Houlding. Chairman Conaway and Members of the House
Agriculture Committee, my name is Kimberly Houlding. I'm the
President and CEO of American Olive Oil Producers Association.
I would like to take a moment to address two market-related
challenges before I address the farm bill, which are the EU's
$3 billion per year subsidies of their olive oil industry,
which creates excess supply and exports of olive oil to the
U.S.; and fraudulent olive oil, which creates marketplace
instability. AOOPA greatly appreciates the spotlight that many
Members of this Committee have placed on these issues, and we
look forward to working with you to address them.
Our members across the U.S. utilize a number of the farm
bill programs, including conservation, the Market Access
Program in Rural Development. We encourage you to continue
authorizing funding for these programs, as well as the
Specialty Crop Grant Programs that are vital to the growth of
our nascent industry.
The SCBG Program has provided well over $1.2 million for
research, education, and marketing efforts to develop our
industry in California, Georgia, Texas, and Florida.
The SCRI Program awarded a $50,000 planning grant to AOOPA
last year to develop a strategic plan to identify and
prioritize our research needs throughout the U.S. This brought
together industry leaders and land-grant universities from
California, Georgia, Texas, and Florida to work together for
the first time, and we're currently working to develop a full
SCRI grant that will be a multiyear, multi-institution,
multimillion-dollar grant.
Last, I would like to address crop insurance. It's an
important safety net. Our California olive oil producers are
eligible for crop insurance, and we encourage the Committee to
maintain the program's authorization as it currently stands.
And we also encourage the Committee to amend the adjusted gross
income limitations to $2 million, which will expand eligibility
for high value specialty crop farmers, such as our olive oil
producers.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Kimberly.
Next, Rob Vandenheuvel, and then Jim Parsons.
STATEMENT OF ROB VANDENHEUVEL, VICE PRESIDENT,
INDUSTRY AND MEMBER RELATIONS, CALIFORNIA DAIRIES, INC.,
VISALIA, CA
Mr. Vandenheuvel. I am Rob Vandenheuvel representing
California Dairies Incorporated, a farmer cooperative made up
of 400 California dairy families.
In the 2014 Farm Bill, when the Margin Protection Program
was created, it was sold to the industry as a move away from
picking winners and losers in the industry, based solely on
farm size, into a scenario where we're having a safety net for
all farmers, regardless of size.
Certainly, there are things we could look at in the Margin
Protection Program for improvements and tweaks. But troubling
news is, as we talked about earlier with one of the previous
witnesses, coming out of the Senate Appropriations Committee,
looking at some tweaks, focused solely on the smaller farmer
side of our industry.
We have to resist that temptation. Certainly, with the
budget constraints that you all face with the farm bill, and
generally the budget with the Appropriations Committee, the
temptation is to take care of the smaller farms because it's a
lot more affordable. We've got to look at policies that apply
to everybody. Budget constraints doesn't excuse bad policy, and
we need a safety net that applies to all farmers who are facing
these booms and busts and the volatility of our milk prices and
feed commodities. So I wanted to make that point.
On improvements to the program. California Dairies is very
much in line with some of the other cooperatives around the
country, National Milk Producers Federation, on some of the
restoration of cuts that were made in the last farm bill to the
program; but, really, I just wanted to make the point, short-
term, we need to resist those temptations to only take care of
the small guys.
Thank you very much.
Congressman Evans, Chairman Conaway, I hope you enjoy the
rest of your stay in California.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Ron.
Up next will be Jim Parsons, and I believe it's Jane Sooby,
CCOF, will be after Jim.
STATEMENT OF JIM PARSONS, PARTNER, PARSONS & SONS FARMING, LLC,
DUCOR, CA; ON BEHALF OF CALIFORNIA
ASSOCIATION OF WHEAT GROWERS
Mr. Parsons. Good morning, Committee, Chairman Conaway,
Members of Congress.
I'm Jim Parsons. I farm in Congressman Valadao's district
and I live in his district. I also farm in Congressman
McCarthy's district. I farm dryland wheat, irrigated wheat,
organic wheat, corn silage, alfalfa, lettuce for seed, and
we're trying cotton this year, for the first time.
I have used the farm bill in the past. The crop insurance
program, I used for the wheat and the oranges. I would like to
see it continued. I would not like to see the AGI reduced. I do
farm with my nephews, so there's more than one in the
operation.
I would like to see the FMD and the MAP Program continued,
because the bulk of my operation is wheat, and we do happen to
have an oversupply of wheat right now.
Research: I would like to see that continued. ARS Lab, when
I visited it a couple years ago, was working on a program to
get gluten out of wheat. I don't know how successful they've
been, but they have been doing it.
Also, some years back, we had a rust problem in California,
and I planted a variety that was supposedly rust-resistant, and
it was. But eventually, they came out with the 515, which is
some genes that are resistant to rust, so I sold my entire crop
and purchased the 515 and went that way.
I would like to thank the Committee for letting me speak to
them today.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Jim.
We'll have Jane Sooby and then Colleen Rivecca.
STATEMENT OF JANE SOOBY, OUTREACH AND SENIOR POLICY SPECIALIST,
CALIFORNIA CERTIFIED ORGANIC FARMERS, SANTA CRUZ, CA
Ms. Sooby. Thank you, sir, and thank you, Chairman Conaway,
for convening a farm bill listening session here in California,
the mightiest agricultural state in the nation. And thank you,
Congressman Denham, for hosting this meeting.
I'm Jane Sooby. I'm the Senior Policy Specialist for
California Certified Organic Farmers.
CCOF is a nonprofit organization that advances organic
agriculture for a healthy world through organic certification,
education, and advocacy.
We represent 3,500 certified organic operations across the
U.S., Mexico, and Canada; and here in California, we certify
2,000 organic farms and ranches. Organic production offers a
remarkable opportunity for farmers and ranchers. It has reached
$6 billion in farmgate value in the United States, in 2015.
California's organic farms and ranches produce 40 percent of
the total, producing $2.4 billion of organic farm gate value.
Together with the value of California's organic processed
products, gross value of certified organic sales in California
was $12.34 billion in 2016. Using a multiplier, we calculate
that this has created 259,000 jobs in the state.
To support existing organic farmers and ranchers, and to
create conditions that will attract new producers to organic,
the organic infrastructure must be strong.
We have submitted written feedback to the Committee on our
farm bill priorities and will today emphasize our top three.
First, keep the National Organic Program strong. The
National Organic Program is responsible for overseeing and
enforcing organic standards in 50 states and overseeing the
international organic supply chain. It's a big job, and they
need adequate resources to do it.
Second, bring dedicated organic research funds to baseline
levels. We hope and request that the entire California
Congressional delegation that sits on this Committee will
recognize the importance of research and sign on as cosponsors
of the Organic Agriculture Research Act, which will provide
much-needed stability to the Organic Research and Extension
Initiative.
Third, please maintain the Organic Certification Cost-Share
Program. It's important in making certification accessible to
growers of all scales.
Mr. Wenger. You'll need to wrap up because we're going to
try to get through everybody. So if you could put your comments
in by written.
Ms. SOOBY. Thank you very much for this opportunity.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks. We're going to really keep the time
close because we want to get everybody in.
We have Colleen Rivecca and then Allen Moy.
STATEMENT OF COLLEEN RIVECCA, ADVOCACY PROGRAM LEAD, ST.
ANTHONY'S FOUNDATION, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Ms. Rivecca. Hello, Chairman Conaway and Members of the
Agriculture Committee.
I'm Colleen Rivecca. I work at St. Anthony's in San
Francisco. We are a special place that's located in the
Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, one of the poorest
neighborhoods of the city. We've been around 67 years, and our
flagship program is the free meal program.
We serve an average of 2,400 meals a day, that's almost
900,000 meals a year, to low-income, homeless San Franciscans,
working poor folks, people who are housed but still have a lot
of trouble making ends meet, veterans, seniors, and people with
disabilities.
We think of ourselves as the hands below the government-
funded safety net. We run our programs without government
support, but we run our programs in partnership, with programs
like SNAP and other programs in our community, that help to
serve the folks that we take care of every day.
Our mission is to help people with basic needs that they
have today, but also work towards a time when we can be out of
business, because we don't have people who are struggling to
feed themselves in our community anymore. It's in that spirit
that I am here today. I want to talk about the importance of
the SNAP Program, to the people that eat in our dining room.
About 35 percent of the folks that eat in our dining room
receive SNAP as well. Without the SNAP Program, we would see
business booming at St. Anthony's even more than it currently
is.
It's an important support for folks that are struggling to
make ends meet and are struggling to make their lives better.
And there's also a part of the SNAP Program that our county has
opted into, called Restaurant Meals, which allows homeless
people and people without access to kitchens to be able to use
their SNAP benefits to get prepared food, so that they can be
able to increase their stability with SNAP as well. Restaurant
Meals is really important and helps SNAP work for people, even
people that don't have kitchens at home.
And if you have any questions about it, I would love to
talk more or submit my comments.
Thanks.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Colleen.
We'll have Allen Moy, and then David Absher.
STATEMENT OF ALLEN MOY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PACIFIC COAST
FARMERS' MARKET ASSOCIATION, CONCORD, CA
Mr. Moy. Good morning. My name is Allen Moy. I'm the
Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market
Association. We are a nonprofit organization that operates in
more than 50 farmers' markets in the San Francisco Bay area.
Our farmers' markets provide economic opportunities for
more than 260 California farmers. These are small-scale
specialty crop farms, nearly all of them family-owned and
operated. I strongly encourage you to keep the unique needs of
these farms in mind as you craft the next farm bill.
To be successful, these farms need three things: Assistance
to grow and harvest their crops on their farms; healthy markets
in which they can sell those crops; and customers with the
means to purchase their crops.
The 2014 Farm Bill made great advances in each of these
three areas.
In California, under the variable management of the
California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Specialty
Crop Block Grant Program has produced important research to
assist small-scale farms with production, harvesting, and post-
harvest handling. Markets for specialty crops are strengthened
by the investment of the USDA's Farmers' Market Promotion
Program and Local Food Promotion Program. And more customers
are able to buy specialty crops from these farmers through
investments in SNAP, the Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, and
the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program, which Lupe
spoke about, which also supports California's Market Match
Program, of which we are a founding member.
A disinvestment in any one of these three areas threatens
the viability of the small-scale specialty crop farmers that we
serve and thousands more like them. If we do not continue to
support these programs that strengthen the small-scale farmer,
we're also closing off the path to the new farmers that will
follow.
Hewlett-Packard started in a garage, and Facebook in a dorm
room. They started small and grew as they became successful.
New farmers must have the same opportunity, to start small,
work hard, and grow their business. Without ongoing support for
programs like the Specialty Crop Block Grants, Farmers' Market
Nutrition Program, and Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive
Program, that path to starting a farm will be much more
difficult.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you.
David Absher, and then Ben Feldman.
STATEMENT OF DAVID S. ABSHER, PRESIDENT, ABSHER LAND &
LIVESTOCK, INC., HUGHSON, CA; ON BEHALF OF
CALIFORNIA CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION
Mr. Absher. Good morning. My name is Dave Absher. I guess
it's picking me up even though it's a little low.
Again, my name is Dave Absher. I'm here on behalf of the
California Cattlemen's Association.
We, as a family, are involved in California agriculture in
five counties, stretching from Mariposa County to Modoc County.
California beef production plays a prominent role in
California's agriculture. And with $3.5 billion in cash
receipts produced annually, ranching is California's fourth
largest agricultural commodity. Farm bill programs play an
important role in helping ranchers withstand natural disasters
like drought and improve the production efficiencies of our
operations.
Improving the regulatory climate in Washington D.C. is also
extremely important. Although many regulatory programs are not
the product of the farm bill, the farm bill can and should be
used to ease regulation on ranchers.
We know well that the government intrusion in the
marketplace disrupts the speed of commerce, and even
regulations that are well-intended can actually harm, not help,
our state's farmers and ranchers.
In general, the principles we would like to express here
are: Federal farm policies should not guarantee profit;
restrict the operation of the competitive marketplace; dictate
who can or cannot own cattle; be used as a vehicle to enact new
regulations on the cattle industry that are cost prohibitive.
The farm bill should be used to promote U.S. agriculture,
both domestically and abroad.
In regard to fair trade and the GIPSA rule, the
finalization of this rule will further disrupt commerce and
create a trial attorney's dream, by allowing any individual who
believes they have been economically harmed, due to bad trading
practices, to bring suit against a buyer with little or no
evidence.
In regard to Brazilian and Argentinean beef imports,
California ranchers continue to oppose the importation of fresh
and chilled beef from Brazil and Argentina. Ranchers promote
and accept fair trade. However, this action by the USDA leaves
our nation's herds vulnerable to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease.
In regard to trade, the export of U.S. beef plays an
important role in returning the whole value of carcass to
ranchers and producers across the beef production chain.
In 2015, U.S. beef exports accounted for over
$6,450,000,000 in the export of California beef and beef
products. Our largest trading partners, who purchase the
greatest amount of U.S. beef, are Japan, Canada, and Mexico.
It's clear that TTP is dead. However, we encourage the
Administration to move forward with the development of trade
agreements that promote the export of U.S. beef.
Mr. Wenger. You will have to go with the rest on written,
Dave.
Mr. Absher. Okay. Thank you for the opportunity.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks. We appreciate it, Dave.
We're going to have Ben Feldman, and then Kevin from Second
Harvest. And I'm having trouble with your last name.
Ben.
STATEMENT OF BEN FELDMAN, POLICY SPECIALIST, FARMERS MARKET
COALITION, ALBANY, CA
Mr. Feldman. Thank you.
Thank you to the Agriculture Committee Members for being
here today.
My name is Ben Feldman. I work at the national Farmers
Market Coalition, and I'm here today speaking on behalf of our
thousands farmers' markets and farmer members.
This is a significant one for farmers' markets with release
of the Federal Reserve Report on Local Foods, and the Secretary
produced signing of the proclamation for National Farmers'
Market Week, which begins Monday.
The report entitled, Harvest Opportunity, highlights the
significant role of local food and farmers' markets, in
particularly, play in developing new and beginning farmers,
improving long-term farm viability, and generating economic
growth in rural comments.
The report also notes the need for increased education,
partnerships, and research, as well as investment and
development in the sector.
And to that end, I'd like to speak to you today about three
programs.
The first is SNAP at farmers' markets. Ensuring a robust
SNAP at all American farmers' markets is critical for the
health, nutrition, and choice of SNAP recipients and provides
an important revenue source for farmers.
Since 2014, the national Farmers Market Coalition has
operated a low-cost, wireless equipment program through a
contract with FNS. In 2016 alone, this program supplied 892
wireless terminals to farmers in farmers' markets. We would ask
for support in resolving FNS's ``One Location, One Machine''
policy. This policy is both burdensome to markets and wasteful
of taxpayer money.
We appreciate the support that Agriculture Committee
Members have provided to us on this issue already.
We would also ask for your support in maintaining efforts
to increase SNAP redemption at farmers' markets.
Related to the SNAP Program is the Food Insecurity
Nutrition Incentive Program, which some commenters have already
spoken to today. In its first year, this program generated over
$14 million in additional funds for American farmers, and 75
percent of the participants report increasing consumption of
fruits and vegetables as a result of the program.
Please continue FINI funding at or above previous levels;
preserve the local and direct-to-consumer priority that was
included in 2014 Farm Bill; we'd encourage you to also consider
reducing matching requirements for farmers' markets, especially
at the pilot level; and simplification of the evaluation
component.
Last, but not least, the Farmers' Market and Local Food
Promotion Program has been an effective and important factor in
the growth of farmers' markets over the last 10 to 20 years. A
2013 study found that the modest investment as a result of the
FMPP grants, customer attendance increased by 47 percent, and
vendor sales by 27 percent.
Mr. Wenger. Rob, you're going to have to end there.
Mr. FELDMAN. Please continue funding for this program at or
above previous levels.
Thank you for taking the time----
Mr. Wenger. I appreciate that. I know a lot of people have
waited, too, to get their words in, so I'm going to be a
little, really, kind of, tight on it.
Kevin. And then Ron Ratto.
STATEMENT OF KEVIN HEUER, CHIEF OPERATIONS AND
PROGRAMS OFFICER, SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK, WATSONVILLE, CA
Mr. Heuer. Kevin Heuer, Second Harvest Food Bank, Santa
Cruz County, based in California's beautiful Pajaro Valley.
My message is about SNAP. When SNAP is strong, my food bank
is strong and my community is strong. When SNAP is weakened, my
food bank is weakened, and my community is weakened.
Our food bank runs a pretty lean operation: For every
single dollar that we receive, we can turn that into four
healthy meals. That's a good thing, because I have to feed
about one in five local residents in our service area.
Some of your colleagues have proposed a 25 percent cut to
SNAP, so I just want to give you a little perspective of what
that looks like from my seat.
As we heard, for every single bag of groceries that a food
bank can distribute, SNAP does 19. So what that means is, when
I make my delivery to the senior center, for every one bag that
I can hand out, that means there's five seniors that may have
to choose between looking at their prescription refill and
their food budget.
When I go out to the Head Start Center and distribute bags
of food to the parents, it means five kids might have to
wonder, why isn't Mom sitting down at the dinner table anymore?
When I go out and deliver to the VFW, it means five
veterans might have to think about getting that PG&E shut-off
notice.
That's what cuts to SNAP looks like in my neck of the
woods, and this is in one of the most bountiful, ag-producing
regions in the richest state, in the greatest country in the
world.
SNAP is highly effective. It's highly cost effective at
reducing hunger and hardship, boosting nutrition, and
supporting a healthy economy, especially with our ag partners.
I want to say thank you to Chairman Conaway for standing up
to those who would like to take a slash-and-burn approach to
SNAP; your double-headed approach to look at policy analysis;
and to really listen to the needs and the stories of the
community is much appreciated.
Last, I just want to say that without SNAP as a strong
first line of defense, I cannot make up the difference. The
food is not there and the dollars are not there. So it only
means more hunger, more hardship, and more lost opportunities
for vulnerable people in communities struggling to get on more
stable footing.
Simply put, SNAP works.
Mr. Wenger. We will have to end it there, Kevin. Sorry.
Mr. Heuer. All right.
Mr. Wenger. I'm going to move on, out of respect for those
that are still there.
Ron Ratto, and then Eli Zigas.
STATEMENT OF RONALD A. RATTO, PRESIDENT, RATTO BROS., INC.,
MODESTO, CA
Mr. Ratto. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Congressmen.
Thank you for coming to Modesto, along with your staffs.
Ratto Bros. is a 100 year old grower of fresh market
vegetables. We're harvesting vegetables every day to present in
the produce markets and retail grocery stores in California and
elsewhere.
Our biggest problem at the farm at this time is labor.
We've tried to recruit labor at local grocery stores, at going
to flea markets, visiting early morning bakeries, every which
way we can think of. And although I realize, it's not in the
purview of your Committee, it's the predominant problem that we
have in our farm operation at this time.
Another problem that we're experiencing in agriculture in
California is nitrates in groundwater. It's an issue that
affects communities up and down California, both at the farm
level, but also in small towns. As the Committee considers what
to do in the farm bill, if there's a way that the Committee can
consider the issue of nitrates in groundwater and how it might
assist communities that need to provide safe drinking water for
its citizens, I urge you to do so.
Other possibilities in the farm bill would be, what would
be the possibilities for research? If you can consider research
possibilities in automation and mechanization that would save
labor.
Another area of research would be in food safety.
Third area of research would be into pest and disease
issues and biologic controls of pests. Last of all, as you
reconsider how to renew the SNAP Program, please continue to
include fresh vegetables and produce as a main feature of that
program.
Thank you very much.
The Chairman. Thank you, Ron.
Eli Zigas, and then Mark McKean.
STATEMENT OF ELI ZIGAS, FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL POLICY DIRECTOR,
SPUR, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Mr. Zigas. Thank you. Good morning, Representatives.
My name is Eli Zigas. I'm the Food and Agricultural Policy
Director at a nonprofit organization, SPUR, based in the Bay
Area, with offices in San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
I'm here today with two main asks of you: The first is to
continue and expand healthy food incentive programs. Lupe
talked about the Double Up Food Bucks Program that we are
working with her on, in San Jose and Gilroy. And you have also
heard about it from Allen Moy and Ben Feldman, as well as
others.
This is a program that works. It works in two ways. It
makes healthy food more affordable for SNAP recipients, and it
does that by providing matching dollars.
In the last farm bill, Congress provided $100 million for
pilot programs, and we are a beneficiary of that, as one of the
grant recipients, as are many, many people across the country.
This program works by making the healthy choice and easier
choice to do, as a supplement to SNAP. And we know that has
public health impacts, and you've heard from many others how
SNAP and more money for SNAP can help kids in school and adults
be better workers. It's just good across the board.
We also know what works, and this is what Lupe touched on,
is that healthy food incentives support produce growers, here
in California and nationally, in other places. Our program
matches California-grown produce and gives SNAP recipients a
coupon that they can then spend on any produce in the store.
There are similar models, you have heard about, in other
parts of the country, and having additional funding in this
farm bill to continue these pilots and see how we can make this
program permanent would be the right way to go.
The last thing I would like to say, as many others have
said, healthy incentives only work as a supplement to SNAP, and
so we should be looking to keep the current levels of SNAP, not
turn it into a block grant program. Keep it as an entitlement
program. We need to be expanding it, not cutting it, especially
in high cost areas of living like California.
Thank you for your work, and I hope you will take both of
those into consideration.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Eli.
Mark McKean, and then Linda Crow.
STATEMENT OF MARK McKean, OWNER, McKean FARMS INC., RIVERDALE,
CA
Mr. McKean. Good morning. I am Mark McKean, a third
generation grower of row crops and permanent crops. My home
town is Riverdale, a small community in western Fresno County.
Mr. Wenger. Pull it closer, Mark.
Mr. McKean. And recently the fourth generation joined back
on our farm.
While cotton prices have improved slightly this year,
relative to prices of other commodities, cotton is still
without an effective and equitable safety net.
As you may or may not be aware, Pima is the cotton of
choice for many growers in California. There are important
policy considerations for extra long staple, or Pima, cotton,
which is predominantly grown here in California.
Overall, the ELS Cotton Competitiveness Program, the ELS
Loan Program, and the Pima Trust Fund should be maintained with
some slight improvements in the next farm bill.
The industry is evaluating the potential for an increase in
the loan rate of the ELS Loan Program in order to better
reflect the relative market value of Pima cotton. Since this is
a non-recourse loan, without marketing loan provisions, there
should be little, if any, additional government cost or
exposure.
Also, the ELS Cotton Competitiveness Program is not
currently functioning as intended, given the recent shift in
countries that are major producers, importers, exporters of ELS
cotton. For the intended objective of this program to be met,
USDA needs to take steps to update the key price data being
used. If USDA does not take these steps, then direction from
Congress may be needed.
I also want to add and stress the importance of EQIP
dollars. California is a highly regulated place. These EQIP
dollars have been extremely important for us to try to
implement some of those practices that are necessary to come
into compliance.
I thank you. Have a good day.
Mr. Wenger. Thanks, Mark.
Linda Crow and then Kelly Covello.
STATEMENT OF LINDA CROW, MEMBER, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION,
NEWMAN, CA
Ms. Crow. Hi. Thank you so much for coming. It's a delight
to be here. My name is Linda Crow, and I'm a second grade
teacher here in Modesto, California. I'm also on the Board of
Directors for the National Education Association.
And I would like to give you the message from them, we'll
be meeting you again in a few months, to protect and strengthen
SNAP. We would like no block grants, no structural changes, and
no cuts.
Basically, what this means to me, as a schoolteacher, since
I look at the little faces in my classroom every morning, on
whether they are hungry or not.
Twenty-five years ago, I actually saw students climbing
trees to eat birds' eggs. Within the past 20 years, I've seen
students going through garbage cans to take food home.
Under SNAP, and through the assistance of everybody in our
community, we have been able to provide free or reduced
breakfast, free or reduced lunch, and a snack in the afternoon
for the after-school program.
We provide student education on nutrition. And through the
Stanislaus Department of Agriculture here, we've been able to
give them food samples, since they have little corner markets
in the area where I live and where I work.
The other thing is to provide a Second Cup of Coffee
Program, where we provide parent education on nutrition.
The fourth thing that we also provide at our school under
SNAP is through United Way, the chef program, every 2 weeks,
they have a take-home bag featuring the items that they have
been educated about, both their parents and the students in
class, for them to try.
All of these things would be severely harmed if SNAP is
reduced.
I've been teaching for a long time. And I really don't want
to see my students climbing trees, going after birds' eggs
again. And I really don't want to see them going through trash
cans.
I really thank all of you for coming and listening to me.
But as a schoolteacher, I cannot provide for the future of
our country through education, unless they are fed and ready to
learn.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Linda.
Kelly, and then Rachel Tucker.
STATEMENT OF KELLY COVELLO, PRESIDENT, ALMOND ALLIANCE OF
CALIFORNIA, MODESTO, CA
Ms. Covello. My name is Kelly Covello. I'm President of the
Almond Alliance of California.
The farm bill is important to the California almond
industry, with respect to trade, conservation, bioenergy,
technical assistance, research, and block grants.
With respect to conservation, the almond industry has used
EQIP funds to upgrade ag motors to help the San Joaquin Valley
meet Federal air quality standards. EQIP is historically under-
funded and always oversubscribed. Additional funding for EQIP
will help the California ag industry meet increasingly strict
air quality regulations.
With respect to trade, the Market Access Program, the
Foreign Market Development Program, and the Technical
Assistance Program for Specialty Crops are very important to
the almond industry, as we export 70 percent of our crop.
Additionally, we are looking at options to export our
byproducts overseas.
Despite the importance and success of these programs, MAP
funding has not increased since 2006, and FMD funding has not
increased since 2002. We urge you to increase funding in these
programs, and we would ideally like to see MAP increase from
$200 million to $400 million, and FMD funding to increase from
$34.5 million to $69 million.
Additionally, we fully support the farm bill's rural
business development programs, but there is a need to expand
job training programs.
In the next 5 years, the agricultural job landscape of
California will change. With the adoption of a new minimum wage
and new agricultural overtime laws, coupled with rapid changes
in science, technology, and mechanization, the ag jobs of today
will not be the ag jobs of the future.
Last, with respect to energy, we have a biomass crisis in
California. Open burning is not allowed in the San Joaquin
Valley, generally speaking. Cogeneration and biomass plants are
closing and are becoming less available to our industry.
Woody biomass produced in orchards and orchard removals can
be used as feedstock for biofuels or bioenergy. However, USDA
bioenergy programs have traditionally focused on rural crops
and ethanol production and do not take into consideration
biomass from specialty crops. It's imperative that the biomass
produced in fruit and nut orchards be eligible for USDA's
bioenergy programs.
Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Kelly.
Rachel Tucker, and then Pete Garbani.
STATEMENT OF RACHEL TUCKER, SENIOR POLICY
ASSOCIATE, CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF FOOD BANKS, OAKLAND, CA
Ms. Tucker. Hello, Chairman Conaway, Members of the House
Agriculture Committee.
My name is Rachel Tucker, and I am here today on behalf of
the California Association of Food Banks. We are a membership
organization representing over 40 food banks across the State
of California, including 6,000 local agencies that work in line
with us to address ending hunger here in California.
We operate the nation's largest food recovery program,
known as Farm to Family. Farm to Family distributes surplus,
healthy produce, and fresh protein to our network of food
banks. Farm to Family is a national program model, connecting
growers, packers, and shippers to food banks, setting a record
200 million in donated pounds in 2016 alone.
In addition to the relationships we have cultivated with
our farmers and agricultural partners, Farm to Family also
works very closely with our grocers and retail partners, who
provide fundamental sources of expensive, but vital, protein
sources, things like meat and dairy that our food banks highly
prize and certainly benefits the health and well-being of the
clients in communities that we serve.
As proud as we are of the work that we do to address hunger
here, in the State of California, we know that we cannot reach
everyone in our communities without the support of SNAP. SNAP
is the nation's most important anti-hunger program. It serves
over 4 million food-insecure Californians, including 2 million
children.
And for this reason, we're deeply fearful of the impact of
the House budget proposal and the impact that would have on our
food banks. The current House budget would increase hunger and
harm throughout the State of California, and our network for
food banks would not be able to absorb the increased need and
impact if those cuts are enacted, which is why we believe that
SNAP must be maintained in its current program structure.
SNAP also boasts significant economic benefits to the State
of California. The program drives over $7 million in local
economic activity, particularly in our rural communities. And
it's one of the most effective economic stimulus programs
throughout the Federal Government, generating roughly $1.70 in
local economic activity for every dollar that is spent in SNAP.
We thank you for the opportunity to provide public comment
and speak to the importance of the program. Thank you for your
consideration.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Rachel.
We'll do Pete and then Cindy Lashbrook.
STATEMENT OF PETER GARBANI, DIRECTOR, STATE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS,
LAND O'LAKES, INC., TULARE, CA
Mr. Garbani. Good morning. My name is Pete Garbani, and I
work for Land O'Lakes, a national cooperative representing over
2,000 dairy farmers across the U.S. In fact, we have some dairy
farmers in the Pennsylvania area, so glad to see you here,
Congressman Evans.
What I would like to first say is that Land O'Lakes
supports Federal policy through the farm bill that promotes an
economically healthy and competitive U.S. ag sector.
American farmers, ranchers, and the co-ops they own must
have the certainty of a comprehensive, 5 year farm bill past
2018.
We urge Congress to support a responsive safety net,
together with adequate funding, that incorporates improved,
comprehensive risk management tools, including title I and crop
insurance for producers and their cooperatives.
On the lines of dairy, we urge Congress to improve the
Margin Protection Program for dairy producers and to support
the development of an insurance program for milk through USDA's
Risk Management Agency. We support efforts led by National Milk
Producers Federation that will improve margin calculations,
adjust premium rates and triggers, provide more flexibility in
signing up for coverage, and develop other tools, including
those outside of title I for producers to manage risk.
On the lines of conservation, Land O'Lakes wants
conservation solutions to be in the best interest of farmers
and supports voluntary incentive-based conservation solutions.
We want farmer cooperatives to work alongside USDA to help
farmers with the know-how and the tools to make the best
decisions for their individualized situation.
Land O'Lakes offers to help USDA incorporate new
technologies into conservation solutions as soon as they
emerge.
On the lines of international development, we support
maintaining existing international food security and
development programs, including Food for Progress, Food for
Peace, and Farmer-to-Farmer, in order to build stability for a
growing world economy.
Thank you for being here.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Pete.
Cindy Lashbrook, and then we'll do Catherine Smith.
STATEMENT OF CINDY LASHBROOK, CO-OWNER, RIVERDANCE FARMS;
MEMBER, CALIFORNIA CERTIFIED ORGANIC
FARMERS, LIVINGSTON, CA
Ms. LASHBROOK. Okay. I am Cindy Lashbrook. I'm a co-owner
of a farm on the Merced River, about 30 miles south of here.
We're certified organic for a couple reasons. One is that
we have all this water edge, a lot of habitat, wild animals,
and we live in the middle of our farm. I've been certified
organic since 1991.
I've also been on the board of CCOF and on the board of
Community Alliance of Family Farmers. Organic agriculture and
family-scale farming are super important to me and what we do.
I'm also a Merced College Trustee, so having you use these
venues have been great for me. I know the one in Salinas, at
Hartnell.
Okay. Basically, the National Organic Program, when it was
developed, it was actually because organic farmers were saying,
there are too many people out there saying they're organic, and
they are not. So we asked it to happen. But we need it funded
to a level that grows with organic farming, as it's growing;
plus, to really be able to make sure that people can count on
organic food being organic.
Those of us that care and believe in organic, we want it to
be well regulated and well looked after.
Please, keep that funding, and there are some proposals for
upping the funding over the years.
The Specialty Crop Block Grants, I really want to thank
your former colleague, I know some of you weren't there then,
but Dennis Cardoza really fought to bring California
agriculture into the whole farm bill. It wasn't much thought of
before.
These block grants, we've seen a lot of local businesses,
local agencies, local educational institutions really benefit
from those, and we're able to customize that for our area, and
so we're hoping those stay and do just as well.
Oh, I'm almost there.
Conservation programs really have to stay, because farmers
do a lot of environmental services, and they don't normally
make us money, so the EQIP grants, I'm hoping they stay, and
that organic programs get funded as the same level as the, yes.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you.
Thank you, Cindy.
We're going to go to Catherine Smith and then Anja
Raudabaugh.
STATEMENT OF CATHERINE SMITH, TURLOCK, CA
Ms. Catherine Smith. Hello. My name is Catherine Smith, and
I'm a student of John H. Pitman High School in Turlock.
I just finished a Girl Scout Journey project dealing with
nutrition. This project helped me learn about local foods and
how they have a smaller carbon footprint and less loss of
nutrition due to aging and transport.
The Turlock Farmers' Market at the fairgrounds is located
in the heart of one of the poorer neighborhoods in Turlock. It
makes healthy food easily accessible for the people who live
there. They accept SNAP payments at that farmers' market. This
also helps benefit the local farmers, who are selling their
products there, by increasing sales.
It is important to our community to protect the SNAP
Program and not separate the bill from the farm bill.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you.
Anja. You have to be up here. I'm going to do Abigail Hart
next, and then you got to be up here at the microphone. Because
we're really, really close, and we're really tight on time.
Here comes Anja.
Abigail Hart after that.
Yep. Go.
STATEMENT OF ANJA RAUDABAUGH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WESTERN
UNITED DAIRYMEN, MODESTO, CA
Ms. Raudabaugh. Good morning. My name is Anja Raudabaugh.
I'm the CEO of Western United Dairymen.
I will keep it brief, because I understand you guys have
been here for a while and it's hot.
We need some different calculations associated with feed
adjusters on the MPP Program. So we are going to go ahead and
submit our comments in the long, lengthy fashion.
But again, I appreciate your time today and thank you for
coming to California.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Anja.
Abigail Hart, and then we're going to, I think it's
Vernidad or Vernette Marsh.
STATEMENT OF ABIGAIL HART, AGRICULTURE PROJECT DIRECTOR, THE
NATURE CONSERVANCY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Ms. Hart. Hi. Good morning. My name is Abby Hart. I'm
originally from a farming family in Ohio and transplanted to
California. I'm the Agricultural Director for The Nature
Conservancy, and I'm also a member of the California Roundtable
on Agriculture and the Environment.
I'm here to speak with you today particularly about
maintaining funding for the conservation title, in particular,
the Regional Conservation Partnerships Program.
As you know, we're coming out of a historic drought in
California, and we also recently had groundwater legislation
that was passed, that's going to cause dramatic changes to
agriculture in our state.
We see the farm bill as creating lots of opportunities for
farmers to partner with people in the conservation sector on
developing programs, innovative programs, to achieve
groundwater sustainability.
The Regional Conservation Partnerships Program supports
collaboration among producers, land and water managers, and
conservation partners.
But we want to see two things: In particular, more funding
directed to the Regional Conservation Partnerships Program, and
that it has flexibility.
For instance, the NRCS could use an umbrella organization,
like an RCD or a water district, to distribute the funding.
We have supplied written comments, so I will leave it at
that. And I thank you very much for your time.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Abigail.
Vernette.
STATEMENT OF VERNETTE MARSH, DAVIS, CA
Ms. Marsh. I'm Vernette Marsh. I'm from Colusa County, and
I'm glad to see Mr. LaMalfa here.
Our family is a seventh generation farmer, but I'm also a
public health nurse for many, many, many years.
I support the ongoing food programs, the SNAP Program. I
would like to see someone take a look at the internal operation
of Food Stamps, SNAP, and all of them, for their nutritional
content. The distribution has been to allow the families to
make their own choices. I think education within it is good,
but there's too much junk food being allowed to be purchased
with using the nutrition programs.
I would like to see the junk food portion of it, I've been
told, the cereal people will be angry, but sorry, sugar cereal,
candy, cookies, those foods are not nutritious foods. And I
would like to see some way for them being taken out.
SNAP does a good job. WIC does a good job, but there's the
other segment that needs to do that.
Mr. Wenger. Great.
Ms. Marsh. Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you, Vernette.
We're really close. We're at 11:55.
We have two more, Mr. Chairman. I will give them a minute
each, if that's okay with you, so that, that way, we cover them
all.
I know some of this has already been covered. But Janet
McCarthy and Chris Winn. If you will come up. We do want to
stay on time, but I'm going to ask you to just be brief. But
you've been waiting. Janet.
STATEMENT OF JANET McCarthy, DISTRICT 7 VOLUNTEER LEADER,
HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES,
FOLSOM, CA
Ms. McCarthy. Good morning. My name is Janet McCarthy. I'm
from Folsom, California. I'm a Humane Society of the United
States District 7 leader volunteer.
Animals are the center of so many agricultural operations,
and we should not forget about them as the farm bill is
developed.
I ask that you please consider the Opportunities for
Fairness and Farming Act, or H.R. 1753, which has been referred
to the House Agriculture Committee.
Farmers don't want to pay into check-off programs that work
against their interests. The OFF Act encourages market
fairness, prohibits disparaging or deceptive statements, and
promotes transparency. Check-off programs have repeatedly acted
beyond their statutory mandate. They create anticompetitive
marketplace practices, and engage in collusive and illegal
relationships that entail the use of check-off funds to
influence legislative and executive action against family
farmers who value traditional husbandry practices.
Not only that, but these programs advocate against
advancing animal welfare initiatives.
I thank you for your consideration to support measures like
H.R. 1753, when putting together the farm bill, which will help
to level the playing field for small family farmers.
Mr. Wenger. Thank you.
Chris.
STATEMENT OF CHRIS WINN, DISTRICT LEADER, HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE
UNITED STATES, OAKLAND, CA
Mr. Winn. I am Chris Winn, a volunteer with the U.S. Humane
Society.
I hope you will consider serious-minded animal welfare
policies and include them in the farm bill. Since the USDA is
responsible for implementing and enforcing major animal welfare
laws, I ask you to oppose H.R. 2887, the States' Rights
Elimination Act.
This measure is an even broader and more dangerous version
of Representative Steve King's failed farm bill provision from
4 years ago.
It is an attack on California agriculture and on animal
welfare. More than that, it would nullify hundreds, and perhaps
even thousands, of state laws, rendering states helpless to
enforce their own rules on topics ranging from agriculture and
food safety to animal fighting.
Examples of state laws that it could affect include
governing water rights, diseased livestock, dangerous
pesticides, labeling of farm-raised catfish and salmon, puppy
mills, horse slaughter, dog meat, the list goes on and on.
The National Conference of State Legislators, which
represents all state lawmakers from both parties, calls H.R.
2887 one of the most coercive, intrusive, and preemptive
legislative measures ever introduced in Congress.
The National Governors Association also----
Mr. Wenger. You are going to have to wrap up there. Thank
you.
Mr. Winn. Thank you.
Mr. Wenger. We got it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're three minutes over your
allotted time.
We thank you for coming to Modesto for this important
dialogue and bringing your Committee Members here and really
appreciate you being a part of this.
The Chairman. Thanks, Paul.
(Applause)
The Chairman. Thank each of you for coming and talking with
us this morning, particularly those of you that shared your
personal stories on SNAP. That's really helpful, to get that
into the record. We appreciate that.
You have just witnessed what not many people ever get to
see, and that's five Members of Congress being relatively
silent for 2\1/2\ hours.
I appreciate my colleagues coming this morning to be a part
of this exercise in democracy and exercise in getting it right.
I want to thank the Modesto Police Department and the local
campus police as well, for their security arrangements this
morning. Topnotch. We appreciate the school.
Dean Borges, thank you for all of your help in making this
happen.
I want to thank my staff and all the other staffs who
participated in this, making this happen this morning, and
making that move forward.
We have challenges in the farm bill. Not many of the
presenters this morning asked for less money. I don't remember
hearing one ask for less money.
As the five of us, and rest of our colleagues on the
Committee, pray diligently for the wisdom of Solomon as we move
forward to try to address all of the issues that you mentioned
this morning, and how we take scarce resources and apply them,
to the best of our ability and knowledge, for the welfare for
the most number of people in this country, it is an important
task that we're on the stage and about to embark on that, and
we've been on it for quite some time.
When people ask, why the farm bill, here's a fact: The top
20 percent of the economic food chain in America, those people
in our society who make the most money, spend more on food than
the bottom 20 percent of the economic food chain make in
disposable income. Think about that.
As my colleagues and I examine changes to the farm bill,
the current farm bill, you can hate it or you can love it. But
it delivers the most abundant and safest and affordable food
and fiber supply of any developed country in the world.
You and I, as consumers, get a deal every time we eat.
Every time we go to the grocery store, every time we go to a
restaurant, we spend less on food than anybody else in the
world. Now, we all love getting a deal. But in this instance,
we don't know we're getting a deal, and most of us don't know
why we're getting that deal.
I'm going to deputize every one of you in here to begin to
tell that story, because in addition to the farmers and
ranchers who benefit from the farm bill and the SNAP
beneficiaries who benefit, anybody who eats in this country
benefits from this farm bill. We need them telling their
Members of Congress, support the work that gets done as a part
of this farm bill process. And I'm going to need your help to
make that happen and get that there.
The work goes on, we're going to be having one more
listening session, at least, in Illinois. I appreciate, again,
everybody sharing with your heart this morning, those of you
that were able to testify. And this was the only meeting so far
where everybody got to say at least something. And again, I
appreciate that.
Let me quickly take my Member of Congress hat off and just
talk to you about something that I think is also of importance
that faces our nation.
September will celebrate the 230th anniversary of our
Constitution: 230 years of living in this republic, living in
this free society, living in this self-governing society, that
has developed all the opportunities and all the challenges and
struggles, but more so opportunities than any other nation
ever.
John Adams wrote that only a moral and religious people can
self-govern. And amoral and immoral people have to have a
different scheme altogether, because they will not voluntarily
comply with the laws and rules that confront them, even the
ones they don't like. And so as we look at that, we've got a
struggle.
When Benjamin Franklin, who was the oldest framer of the
Constitution, came out of that experience, he was asked by a
woman, ``What have you given us, good doctor? A monarchy or a
republic?''
And he looked at her and said, ``Madam, a republic, if you
can keep it.''
Think about that phrase. ``If you can keep it.'' For 230
years, good Americans have kept this republic strong and have
provided you and I with the opportunities we've had.
I am generally concerned because only a moral religious
people can self-govern, that we're losing the ability to self-
govern, and, by extension, we will lose this republic if we
don't turn this nation's heart around.
All of us see things going on in this country every day
that God cannot and will not bless. And the list is almost
endless.
What do we do about that? How do we address that? It is not
a legislative fix. We can't fix it in Congress or the state
House or the local county commissioners courts or city
councils. This is something I have to fix and you have to fix.
Well, you fix it by living a code. I live the Judeo-
Christian model; Jesus Christ is my personal savior, and I try
to live His tenets every single day; and some days, I'm better
at it than others.
But you have to live a code as well. You and your family,
your neighborhood, your community. All of us have those
concentric rings of influence. For every day, we have to stand
up for the truths and the values that have supported and
sustained this republic for some 230 years.
We've got good men and women, in uniform, who stand in the
breach every day around this world to protect us from bad guys.
They put their lives on the line to make that happen.
I'm asking you to put something on the line as well. Be a
part of that group that's going to reclaim that moral high
ground, that's going to claw back the moral authority to
continue to self-govern; because, if we don't do that, then, at
some point, the history of this nation will be written in the
sins of that long, slow, miserable decline into oblivion, that
was a grand experiment in self-governance, began in the second
decade of the 21st century. You and I do not, I believe, want
to be a part of that exercise.
Think about it from time to time what we ask God to bless.
And then, today, think about what you will do from this point
forward to reclaim that moral high ground that will allow us to
extend this self-governance scheme and also protect the
republic.
As Benjamin Franklin stated, ``It's a republic, Madam, if
you can keep it.''
Again, thanks to each one of you for being here. Be that
keeper of the republic that each of us has to be.
God bless each one of you, God bless Texas, and God bless
the United States of America.
Thank you all very much. I appreciate you being here.
(Thereupon, the listening session was adjourned at 12:04
p.m., P.D.T.)
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
(SHILLING AUDITORIUM, RICHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE, DECATUR, IL)
----------
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Agriculture,
Decatur, IL
The Committee met at 9:00 a.m., C.D.T., at Shilling
Auditorium, Richland Community College, Decatur, IL, Hon. K.
Michael Conaway [Chairman of the Committee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Conaway, Thompson, Davis,
Peterson, and Bustos.
Staff present: Chris Heggem, Matthew S. Schertz, Bart
Fischer, Rachel Millard, Trevor White, Evan Jurkovich, Lisa
Shelton, and Margaret Wetherald.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
The Chairman. All right. Good morning everyone. One of the
trademarks of the Agriculture Committee is we start on time,
and so it's 9 o'clock. Thanks, everyone, for being here this
morning.
As we get started, I'm from Texas and we've got a bit of a
ruckus going on down there right now that's of biblical
proportions. I've seen some photographs of our cotton guys had
just harvested. They had their modules in the field; the
modules have been blown apart. They've got round bale modules
standing in water, just a wreck of biblical proportions. I know
that you join me and all of us with our prayers and thoughts
going out to all those folks in Houston.
I live in the dry part of the state. I've never been in
rising water floods. I really don't have a good feel for it,
but just the images, it will break your heart when you see the
things that are going on. We've got some good Americans in
trouble this morning and we appreciate your prayers.
At this time, I'll ask Mike Bost to open us with a prayer.
Michael?
Mr. Bost. Thank you, Chairman. If you will bow your heads.
Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for the
opportunity that we have in this nation to come and meet like
this to discuss the issues that are before us. Lord, we ask
that you guide us in this meeting, that you give us wisdom and
direction.
Lord, we thank you for this nation in which we live. We ask
you to please put your protective hand on the people that are
suffering with the floods in Texas and all the issues they're
dealing with there. We thank you for the people that will go
down and volunteer and help and work with each other to try to
make things better. Lord, we ask you just put your protective
hand upon them.
Lord, guide us, as I said, in this meeting that what we do
is right before you and right before the people.
Lord, we thank you for all your many blessings and we ask
all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Chairman. Thank you, Michael.
We now have Ryan Reeverts, who is the FFA State Reporter,
and Chase Clausen, who is the FFA State Treasurer, who will
lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. Fellows?
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of
America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The Chairman. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
I'll now ask Dr. Cris Valdez, who is the President of
Richland Community College, to join us this morning. Cris, your
comments?
STATEMENT OF CRISTOBAL ``CRIS'' VALDEZ, Ed.D., PRESIDENT,
RICHLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE, DECATUR, IL
Dr. Valdez. Thank you, Chairman Conaway. It is certainly
our honor and my honor to welcome you, Chairman Conaway, and
your distinguished colleagues to Richland Community College for
this listening session.
If I may just take one moment, I wanted to present to each
of you as a token of our appreciation for what you do, not only
for our community colleges, but for the agriculture sector,
with a ball cap. I know you're going to get down to the Farm
Progress today and you'll want that coverage because it's going
to be hot out there.
Also, there's a pin that represents Richland Community
College and a pin that will get you into Farm Progress. We're
looking forward to you coming in and seeing that show. I know,
Mr. Chairman, that they say that everything's larger in Texas,
but I want to tell you, you'll see the largest show in the
country at Farm Progress today, and that's a partnership
between Richland Community College. It's a good indicator of
how a small, rural serving community college can partner with
someone who is as large and informed as Farm Progress to
present such a great show for this sector.
Again, thank you all for coming. We welcome you and we hope
you have a great day.
The Chairman. Cris, thank you very much.
(Applause.)
The Chairman. Cris, thank you very much. I appreciate that.
I'd now like to direct us to the Ranking Member of the
Committee, Collin Peterson, for comments and introduction.
Collin?
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. COLLIN C. PETERSON, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Peterson. Thank you, Mike, and welcome, everybody, to
the fifth listening session that we've had.
I'm Collin Peterson. I am from western Minnesota. I
represent from Canada, almost to Iowa. We have the equivalent
of your county, and the south part of my district is all corn
and soybeans, and you might have an argument about who does the
best, but we have some good farmers up north. It's a little bit
different, and so this year we got too much water in the south
and we're dry in the north. It's typical farming, but we'll
survive.
I'm a CPA and Mike is a CPA. It's the first time, in the
history of Congress that a Committee has been led by two CPAs,
so hopefully we'll get the numbers right.
Anyway, my side of the aisle, and I, are committed to
working with Mike and his compatriots on a bipartisan basis to
get this bill done, to get it done sooner rather than later.
I was Chairman when we did the 2008 Farm Bill, and I was
Ranking Member when we did the 2014 Farm Bill, and so I've been
through a few of these, and I'm going to do everything I can to
make sure we keep this thing out of politics and we keep
focused on what's right for rural America, what's right for
agriculture, and we get this done.
I'm looking forward to the session, and thank you.
The Chairman. Thanks, Collin. We've got joined by six other
Members of Congress, so I'll ask each of them to introduce
themselves. I'll now go to the Vice Chair of the Committee,
G.T. Thompson. G.T.?
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GLENN THOMPSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Thompson. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and good morning
everyone. Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to be
here and to listen, to hear from you in terms of agriculture,
its impact on the rural economy.
I'm from the Pennsylvania Fifth Congressional District.
There are 18 Ranking Members of Congress, so I serve a very
rural area. I actually represent 24 percent of the land mass.
Agriculture is our number one industry. We do have some
corn and soybeans, but obviously from just my ride in, not near
what you have.
Now, our number one commodity is dairy, but we do have some
of the world's finest hardwoods and just real diverse
agriculture there.
The Chairman has allowed me the privilege and honor to
serve as the Vice Chair of the full Committee, and my other
duties and responsibilities with the Committee, I chair the
Subcommittee on Nutrition, because, after all, farmers feed and
nutrition matters. And so it's just an honor and privilege to
be here.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RODNEY DAVIS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM ILLINOIS
Mr. Davis. I am Rodney Davis. Welcome to the Thirteenth
District of Illinois. I'm very glad to be able to host you here
today, and my special thanks to Chairman Conaway and his team
for allowing us to have this listening session at the Farm
Progress Show. It kind of does double duty. We get a chance to
show off what the Farm Progress Show means to central Illinois
and also to agriculture throughout the Midwest and throughout
our country, but it also gives us a chance to hear from you.
This is my third listening session out of the five, and
this is an opportunity for us to sit back and understand what
it means to be involved in agriculture and what policies that
we face and that we put in place, what they mean to each and
every one of you in your workplace and your daily lives.
I really want to thank the Members who came in today, the
Ranking Member, my good friend, Collin Peterson; G.T.; also, my
colleagues from here in the State of Illinois, and what this, I
hope, shows each and every one of you is what we see every day
on the House Agriculture Committee. There aren't Republican and
Democratic solutions, there are just the right solutions and
the wrong solutions, and we are a Committee, and this is the
team up here at these tables that consistently works together
regardless of what party we belong to.
Thanks for being here, and again, welcome to the Thirteenth
District.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHERI BUSTOS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM ILLINOIS
Mrs. Bustos. Good morning, everyone. I'm Cheri Bustos and I
represent the northwest part of the state of Illinois, the
Seventeenth District, 14 counties, 7,000\2\ miles.
Ag is our biggest economic driver, not just for my
Congressional district, or Mike Bost at the end, or Darin
LaHood's or Rodney Davis'. It's the number one economic driver
in the State of Illinois. I just want to say welcome.
I'm the granddaughter of a hog farmer, the niece of a dairy
farmer, the cousin of an Angus farmer, and they all grow corn
and beans. I'm very glad to be here and I couldn't have worded
it any better than Congressman Davis did. This is a bipartisan
Committee. I think it is one of the best Committees in all of
Congress, where we understand the need to work together. Thanks
and welcome to everybody.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE BOST, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM ILLINOIS
Mr. Bost. My name is Mike Bost. I represent Illinois
Twelfth. Illinois Twelfth is the most southern and western
district in the State of Illinois. It is also the most
diversified agricultural district. We have grain farming in the
north. As you get down towards the Murphysboro area, it rolls
into the rolling hills where you have apple and peach orchards
and grapevines. Also, then, you go down along the river, we
raise rice, and we've heard rumors that cotton is coming back
down in Alexander County. It's very diverse as far as
agriculture is concerned.
I do want to say thank you for being here. I look forward
to this listening session and I do want to repeat what many
have said. You've got to understand our Agriculture Committee.
It's not partisan; it's a group of people that understand the
issues and want to work forward to make it better so that the
people in our ag communities can work and provide for this
great nation and the world, and I look forward to the hearing
today.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DARIN LaHOOD, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM ILLINOIS
Mr. LaHood. My name is Darin LaHood, Congressman from the
Eighteenth Congressional District. I am happy to be here today.
I want to thank Chairman Conaway, the Agriculture
Committee, and Ranking Member Peterson for holding this
listening session today. I want to thank all of you for being
here today that cared enough to come here and let us hear from
you about issues that affect you in agriculture. That's really
what today is all about, so I want to thank you for that.
I remind people every day, ag is the number one industry in
the State of Illinois. It's not up in Chicago, it's
agriculture, and we need to remind folks of that.
The district that we represent are 19 counties in central
and west central Illinois; very proud that we're the ninth
largest district in the country in terms of corn and soybean
production. I like to tell people I've got some of the most
fertile farmland in the entire world in our Congressional
district, and as we head into next year with the farm bill,
getting your feedback on those issues is vitally important.
That's what today is all about.
The other thing is, I've just been in Congress for less
than 2 years, but when you go out to D.C., you realize there
are less and less Ranking Members of Congress that come from
rural districts, less and less Ranking Members of Congress that
come from agriculture districts, so you find yourself educating
Ranking Members all the time on the importance of crop
insurance, the importance of the RFS, the importance of good
trade, the importance of rural broadband, lots of issues
related to infrastructure, and so today we want to hear from
you on those issues and talk to the Agriculture Committee about
the importance of agriculture, and today is all about that.
I couldn't be prouder to be here today to have all of you
and look forward to a great session.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Again, I thank my colleagues for joining me
this morning for the listening session. Once again, I thank the
school, Richland Community College and Dr. Valdez, for all the
hard work that his team did. He told me earlier, he said he
didn't do much but his team did a lot. He set today's meeting
up and I appreciate all the work that went into setting this
up.
Duane Noland will be our moderator this morning. Duane is
the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Illinois
Electric Co-ops, and he'll lay the ground rules here in a few
minutes for how we're going to conduct what's happening.
I'm Mike Conaway and I represent the Eleventh Congressional
District of Texas. I'm Chairman of the Agriculture Committee,
and District 11 is north and west of where the wreck's
happening in the southeast part of Texas. Nothing directly
affecting us; a lot of indirect effects with families and
others are having out there.
They grow cotton, a little bit of grain sorghum, cattle,
sheep, goats, a lot of hunting. That represents the bulk of the
ag industry that I get to represent, and good deal of dairy as
well.
So good of y'all to be with us this morning.
We don't need to tell you that the last 4 years, we've had
a 50 percent drop in net farm income, the worst 4 year drop
since the Depression. Things are difficult in production
agriculture, and so setting the new policy this time next year
for the 2018 Farm Bill is going to be important. With your
input, we hope to get that done. None of us live in Washington,
D.C. We all go there to work but we need to hear from you.
One of the beauties of this listening session is that we
get to hear from the folks most directly affected by the
policies that we put in place, how they're working, how they're
not working, could they be done better. We are excited about
that.
Just as an overall statement, you get 2 minutes. Don't
waste any of it thanking us for coming; all right? Right off
the bat, we're thanked all we need to be thanked. We're
actually on your payroll and so we're just doing our jobs, so
don't waste any of your time thanking us. We've got that. We
know you're appreciative of us. Spend your time talking to us
about what's the most important thing going on with respect to
your particular piece of the agricultural system.
I'm hopeful we'll have comments on all titles of the farm
bill this morning: nutrition, title I; crop insurance, title
II; conservation, rural development, trade, all of the titles.
If you've got something to say to us, now is your opportunity
to say that, and so we're excited about the opportunity to
listen this morning.
We are not going to say much beyond this point. We're here
to listen to you. This is not a hearing where we ask you
questions and we banter back and forth. This is just an
opportunity for Members of Congress to sit and listen to real
farmers and ranchers and others involved in what we're trying
to listen to this morning. We're not going to say much from
this point forward, that's by design, because we're going to
listen to you from here forward.
Duane, the floor is yours.
Mr. Noland. Okay. Let's get it out of the way. Let's thank
the Committee for being here.
(Applause.)
The Chairman. One other point. Let's be respectful of each
other. There may be some differences of opinion, but we're
going to try to hear from everybody. You signed in cards this
morning and we're going to go through those to make sure that
all of the various points of view are represented. Let's be
respectful to each other. If you've got a difference of
opinion, got that. Listen to each other and let's don't do
anything to get yourself on TV or whatever. That's just not the
design for this morning to make that happen. So be respectful
and listen.
Duane, thank you.
Mr. Noland. I appreciated Congressman Bost's prayer, and
out of respect to Ranking Members that are not from Illinois,
we have membership from Minnesota and Pennsylvania and Texas,
as you know, at these events we normally pray for God's
blessing and bounty on Illinois and a drought in Iowa, but
because of other states represented, we thank Mike for not
sharing that part.
What our goal is for you to give as many comments as
possible. It's a listening session. We're going to listen;
you're going to speak. If you'd like to speak, please fill out
a card and hand it to the staff. We're going to get through as
many as we can, and I've got a stack all ready, and they've
been handed to me in the order they've come. I thought possibly
it was based on importance, but I've looked at it and it's
based on looks. The first ones we're calling are the best
looking ones here, so you can be the judge for that.
You'll have 2 minutes. At 10 seconds, I will indicate you
have 10 seconds and I will call time. Please just finish your
comment, finish your thought, and be respectful to the person
behind you.
What we'd like to do, we have two microphones and we'd like
to stage two at each microphone so we're not spending time
waiting for you to come up to the microphone. So that's our
plan.
This is being live streamed courtesy of the college, so you
can go to the House Committee's website and you can watch the
streaming of this later on. If you want to see yourself on air,
you can watch that.
We'll have an opportunity if you have more comments you'd
like to give or didn't give comments, you're welcome to e-mail
[email protected].
With no further adieu, I'd like to ask these four people to
come to the microphones, two and two.
First, Rich Guebert and Phil Carson, Gary Sandrock and Ken
Maschhoff. If those four would please come forward.
And it's always risky to do this but I've seen some people
I want to introduce. I saw the Director of the Department of
Natural Resources, and that's Wayne Rosenthal. He's here. Good
to see you, Wayne.
Representative Sue Scherer is right here in the front row,
and I saw State Senator Chapin Rose out in the lobby, and I
know there are some others.
If you are here and would like to be recognized, let staff
know. The view here is not real great, but I want to thank you
for being here. Thank you for participating in America's
greatest farm show.
With that, Rich, possibly the best-looking member here
because you're first. Rich Guebert, Illinois Farm Bureau.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD GUEBERT, Jr., PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS FARM
BUREAU, ELLIS GROVE, IL
Mr. Guebert. I beg to differ, Mr. Noland. But Chairman
Conaway, Members of the Committee, thank you for coming and
being a part of Illinois on behalf of all of Illinois
agriculture.
Second, Chairman Conaway, on behalf of Illinois farmers,
ranchers, we extend our prayers and our thoughts to those in
Texas, the residents, the farmers, the ranchers. Texas and
Louisiana, our hearts go out to you and Godspeed to recover
from this travesty.
My name's Rich Guebert, Jr. I'm President of the Illinois
Farm Bureau. I'm a farmer from Randolph County, approximately
50 miles south of St. Louis. I farm in the river bottoms with
my son Kyle, and I'd like to start by expressing Illinois'
thoughts about the magnitude of the hurricane that you've just
experienced. I experienced some significant rainfall this
spring. We lost 400 acres of corn due to flooding. In addition,
we had to replant 120 acres of corn and 260 acres of soybeans.
We, Illinois farmers, experienced a significant drought on
our farm in 2012, and the statewide loss in Illinois was $3.5
billion. Fortunately, in both cases we had crop insurance,
which is an important part of the risk management tools in our
toolbox. By offering crop insurance in this farm bill, farmers
have a tool to manage risk that Mother Nature gives us. This
also saves the government from requests to provide additional
disaster relief each time a significant weather event impacts
crop production around this great country.
By law, the FCIP program is required to be actuarially
sound. Their current program achieves this by insuring all
sizes of farms, large and small. Insurance programs work best
with high levels of participation and when losses are spread
across as many participants as possible to make this program
more actuarially sound.
We want to keep farmers in the crop insurance program, and
we must avoid additional means testing, because the means
testing would reduce the pool and reduce the soundness of these
programs.
Thank you, Chairman Conaway, and the Committee for the
opportunity to speak to you here this morning. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Rich.
Would John Williams come to this microphone now?
Next, we have Phil Carson, President, Board of Directors,
National Rural Electric Co-op Association. Phil, welcome.
STATEMENT OF PHIL CARSON, PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD, NATIONAL
RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, OAKDALE, IL
Mr. Carson. Yes. As Duane said, my name is Phil Carson. I
serve as an electric cooperative board member here in Illinois.
Mt. Vernon is where my distribution co-op is, and also I'm
Illinois' representative on the National Board, and as such,
serve as its President as well.
Electric co-ops across the country, there are 900 co-ops
serving almost 43 million Americans, so we cut a swath across
this country. We deliver electric power, we deliver other
products and services, and we're also very keenly aware of the
needs within our communities and very community sensitive.
What I'd like to speak to today with regard to what we do,
and also included in the farm bill, is the RUS program. It is
an extremely important tool for us. It's a tool that we use in
order to maintain the grid that we currently have out there and
also to modernize the grid as it needs to be modernized; a very
important tool for us.
The second very important tool is the REDLG Program, Rural
Economic Development Loan and Grant, and we're able to take
those moneys, whether in Illinois or across the United States,
and put those back into our communities in really key ways.
Hospitals are built and other key essential infrastructure is
put in place through those programs. Those two, just to be
succinct, are extremely important to us.
We thank you for the great way that you've defended rural
America over the years, and we know that you're going to
continue to do that, and those are tools that really help us as
we go about our work in serving in our communities.
Thanks for this opportunity to speak to you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Phil.
And would Troy Uphoff come to the far microphone?
Next is Gary Sandrock with Independent Insurance Agents.
Gary?
STATEMENT OF GARY SANDROCK, CHAIR, NATIONAL CROP
INSURANCE TASK FORCE, INDEPENDENT INSURANCE AGENTS AND BROKERS
OF AMERICA, INC., TAMPICO, IL
Mr. Sandrock. Chairman Conaway, Members of the Committee.
This is Greg Sandrock, actually. I'm in a rural agency in the
little town of Tampico, northwestern Illinois, which is the
proud birthplace of Ronald Reagan. I chair the National Crop
Insurance Task Force for the Independent Agents and Brokers,
representing about 25,000 rural agents, helping farmers deliver
and service the crop insurance program.
I basically have two items that I'd like to ask today. The
first item, with farmers paying a significant portion of the
premium of crop insurance, it's a very efficient and effective
tool for protecting against losses in crop and price drops.
There is one risk that it struggles with, and that is long
periods of sustained low prices, as it seems we're in right
now.
As you draft this next farm bill, I would encourage you to
design commodity policy to be a target for long-term price
risks so that it complements crop insurance rather than
competing with it.
The second item that I would ask you to consider affects,
for the most part, new entities, beginning farmers and
ranchers, limited resource farmers, especially estates, widows
and widowers, and that's the link to conservation compliance.
Make no mistake, conservation compliance is crucial to
maintaining and sustaining the land for future generations, but
this compliance link requires an AD-1026 form be on file at FSA
June 1st, preceding the year that the premium discount or
subsidy is eligible. Basically, we needed the paperwork filed
by this last June 1st for the 2018 crop year. Several policies
get penalized as these new entities are formed, unintentionally
forgetting that June 1 is such a critical date. These farmers
and ranchers pay the price of what I believe is a simple
oversight, as dates do not align between crop insurance and
FSA. My ask is to allow that 1026 form to be part of the
application or the acreage report so that it aligns with the
current crop year, instead of conflicting with it, so that no
one gets penalized.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
Mr. Noland. Greg, thank you. Thank you for insuring our
farmers.
Would Ron Moore please come to the microphone next?
And now Ken Maschhoff, National Pork Producers. Ken,
welcome.
STATEMENT OF KEN MASCHHOFF, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL PORK PRODUCERS
COUNCIL, CARLYLE, IL
Mr. Maschhoff. Thank you. I won't thank you for being here;
I will thank you for doing your jobs. And I know that I speak
for everyone in this room, we're very proud of this Committee,
this particular group, and through the years, Cheri, I can see
why you said this is a fun group to work with and everybody
wants to be on this Committee. But I will tell you, personally
and on behalf of America's pork producers, we thank all of you.
I know most of you on the Committee and I know how hard, how
serious you take this job, so I appreciate it.
I'm a pork producer from Illinois, and most of you know
that our operation is spread across the country, but today I'm
representing the National Pork Producer's Council as its
President, and it has 65,000 pork producers in the country, and
so I'm just going to cut to it and get to the three critical
areas, and so I'm never scripted, but Mr. Chairman, I'm going
to mention those areas that the Council supports in the farm
bill: The 2018 authorization of a potential funding for a foot-
and-mouth disease bank that I know we've talked to all of you
about before; Rodney, something that's very critical to you,
increased funding in ag research across the board; it's
something that over time as you look comparatively to other
sectors of the economy, we've lagged there; and then funding
levels for maintaining market access through the Foreign Market
Development Program, which is, as you all know, very, very
critical to exports.
On the FMD bank, the reason I personally, the industry
feels, and as we look at all of agriculture, I'm going to hit
this up-front so that we don't get cut off here.
The number that ISU has reported, as well as other groups,
is that the cost of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak within
the agriculture sector would cost the U.S. beef, pork, corn,
and soybeans alone over a 10 year period over $200 billion.
These are known numbers, and so what we are looking for within
the 2018 Farm Bill is authorization to allow APHIS to move
forward and establish a vaccine bank that would be adequately
in place so that we can protect the beef and pork sectors in
particular, along with the other sectors that would be
protected.
In doing so, I want to get those numbers out there first
because----
Mr. Noland. 15 seconds, please.
Mr. Maschoff. Okay. Because these are the things that, as
we look at the U.S. economy, we all understand that it's not
just agriculture at stake and that it's much more broadly than
that, it's the entire economy as a whole.
We appreciate that. And Rodney, we'll keep going to bat for
ag research as well. Thank you very much.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Ken. For some reason, a bacon,
lettuce, and tomato sandwich just sounds good right now.
Would Ryan Reeverts come to the microphone?
And there is more than one John Williams in the audience.
This is John Williams from Enfield.
John, please come forward.
STATEMENT OF JOHN M. WILLIAMS, SORGHUM, SOYBEANS, CORN, AND
WHEAT PRODUCER; OWNER, WILLIAMS
INSURANCE SERVICES, ENFIELD, IL
Mr. John M. Williams. Good morning. I'm John Williams. My
son and I operate a third and fourth generation family farm in
southeast Illinois where we raise sorghum, soybeans, corn, and
wheat.
In the 2018 Farm Bill, we need safety nets that provide
predictability in this unstable agricultural economy. The price
I get for my sorghum today is less than half of what it was
during the last farm bill.
For some commodities, ARC made sense during the last farm
bill when we didn't think prices would fall as far or stay as
low as they have, but in this current market environment, title
I of the farm bill should be focused on providing protection
from the market collapsing, like PLC does, and let crop
insurance continue to cover my yield losses and 1 year revenue
declines.
The only hope that we have for climbing out of this
downturn in commodity prices is to sell more of our crops
across the globe. This is why maintaining and even increasing
funding for the Market Access Program and Foreign Market
Development Program is so important.
Burdensome regulations also continue to take a toll on
farmers and ranchers across the nation. In recent years, it
seems that each time a product is approved by the EPA under the
FIFRA Act, it's challenged under the Endangered Species Act. We
need Congress to provide clarity on how FIFRA and the
Endangered Species Act apply to pesticide restrictions, or I
fear the lower acreage crops, like sorghum, will be left
without the necessary tools to deal with the pests, disease,
and weed challenges farmers face.
John F. Kennedy once said, ``The farmer is the only man in
our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at
wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.'' This is why we
need a strong farm bill that is written for the tough times we
are currently in and we need it to be reauthorized on time. I
deal with enough uncertainty in my day-to-day businesses. The
stability of a reliable safety net gives me the confidence and
certainty that I need to survive to farm another year.
Thank you all for what you're doing in Washington for
family farmers like myself, and God bless you for all the work
you do on our behalf and our country. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, John. John, do you have a family
member who was the Director of Ag?
Mr. John M. Williams. Excuse me?
Mr. Noland. Do you have a family member who was the State
Director of Agriculture at one point?
Mr. John M. Williams. No, sir. Different Williams.
Mr. Noland. Same committee, different Williams. Wade
Williams was the Illinois Director of Agriculture years ago.
Mr. John M. Williams. But he did say all Williams were good
folks.
The Chairman. Gentlemen, you heard it. All Williams are
good folks. It's hard to top that.
Mr. Noland. Would Richard Lyons please come to the
microphone next?
And with that is a dear friend and a good farmer, Troy
Uphoff, Illinois Farm Bureau.
STATEMENT OF TROY UPHOFF, DISTRICT 11 DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS FARM
BUREAU, FINDLAY, IL
Mr. Uphoff. My comments today are in support of the crop
insurance program.
As a young man growing up in central Illinois, I grew up
hearing about the drought years of 1936, 1940, 1954, 1988, and
then as a farmer in 2012. As an organization, and as all of us
in agriculture, we understand that direct payments are now
gone, but as crop insurance, we need that not only for
agriculture but we need it in support of our rural communities,
so I want to leave you with six easy words to remember. Crop
insurance, safety net, no changes.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Noland. Outstanding. Thank you, Troy.
Would Dave Janson make his way to the microphone?
Next, we have Ron Moore, American Soybean Association.
Welcome, Ron.
STATEMENT OF RON MOORE, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN SOYBEAN
ASSOCIATION, ROSEVILLE, IL
Mr. Moore. Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity to
be here today and I'm excited that you're here in central
Illinois at the Farm Progress Show.
I mentioned that I'm Ron Moore. I'm a farmer from northwest
Illinois in Roseville, and I'm currently serving as President
of the American Soybean Association, and so I understand many
of you are going to be----
Mr. Noland. Ron, let me stop you there. Please, everyone,
get a little closer to the microphone. We are live streaming
and we want good sound quality, so everybody get close. Get
right up to it, please.
Mr. Moore. Do my 2 minutes start over again?
Mr. Noland. You can start over right now. Belt it out.
Mr. Moore. All right. I want to thank you. I am Ron Moore
from western Illinois in the Town of Roseville, currently
serving as President of the American Soybean Association, and
I'm excited that you're here because you're going to be touring
some of the show this afternoon, some of you, and you're going
to hear the same message today in the afternoon that you're
going to hear this morning about how tough the economic times
are for agriculture. Prices are continuing to be stubbornly
low, and we are fearful of the relationships that we're
jeopardizing when we talk about the foreign markets that are so
critical to the products that we raise, and as you process that
feedback, please be reminded that the farm bill has great
potential to address some of those concerns.
In tough economic times, we need strong financial programs
in the title I program and also crop insurance. We need to have
a robust trade title that not only supports our activities in
the marketplace overseas but also strengthens the Foreign
Market Development and the Market Access Programs.
We're going to need some more funding for agriculture
research to help continue ag to develop the innovations that
you're going to be seeing this afternoon on your tour.
There's also a need for conservation programs that are
progressive that will encourage sustainable practices on our
farms, and one aspect is that we need a strong farm bill from
top to bottom. Every title needs to be strong.
We all know that cutting the end of a rope at one end and
tying the other end doesn't make a longer rope, and the same
can be said for the farm bill. We don't want to go into the
discussions of the farm bill knowing we're going to make some
cuts. We want to make sure that the things that need to be
addressed in the farm bill need to be addressed to make a
strong farm bill and not necessarily go in there thinking that
you have to make cuts. There may be some areas of the farm bill
that need to have more spending. We encourage you to work
forward, to looking at a farm bill that's the best that can be
developed.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Ron. Would Chip Bowling please come
to the microphone?
And Ryan, thank you for your leadership at FFA. Please.
STATEMENT OF RYAN REEVERTS, STATE REPORTER, ILLINOIS
ASSOCIATION FFA, BYRON, IL
Mr. Reeverts. Good morning, everyone. I'm Ryan Reeverts.
I'm from Byron, Illinois, and I'm the fifth generation farmer
on our family's farm there.
This year, I'm currently serving as the State FFA Reporter
for Illinois where I represent over 17,500 FFA members across
our state. Illinois FFA is also part of National FFA, which
boasts of 649,355 FFA members from all over the United States,
Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.
Being the youngest of five kids in my family, I grew up
watching my older siblings show livestock at the county fairs
in my area. We raised purebred wool sheep at the time, and the
summer before my freshman year, it was time for me to start my
FFA project. I thoroughly described my aversion for sheep to my
father, and he then gave me the permission to purchase pigs for
my SAEs. I would show those at the county fairs and then bred
those for my FFA project.
Then my sophomore year, I made the decision to expand my
agriculture operation to produce grass and alfalfa hay to sell
to local producers in my area, as well as 3 acres of sweet corn
that I would sell to my local grocer and to farmers' markets.
If it wouldn't have been for my upbringing, I wouldn't have
ignited my passion for production agriculture and my aspiration
to pursue a career in the agricultural industry, but according
to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the United
States Department of Agriculture, an estimated 57,900 highly
skilled jobs in the United States agriculture sector will open
annually in the next 5 years, but there will be an estimated
annual shortfall of 22,500 agriculture professionals to fill
those jobs.
Now, more than ever, we need sound legislation that
considers the future of agriculture, as much as it considers
our current needs for strong safety nets and nutrition
programs. We need policy that encourages students to return to
the farm or to pursue agriculture careers and support them in
doing so. The next version of the farm bill can do that by
heightening the profile of youth and food in agriculture in
establishing an agriculture youth coordinator position within
the Secretary of Agriculture's office to communicate areas
where there's a match between the delivery needs of USDA and
agriculture youth programs like National FFA, a person who can
connect the dots for students like me, who wish to pursue a
career in agriculture.
As the 115th Congress works to advance agriculture
priorities and as your bodies work to reauthorize the farm
bill, we hope that you continue to consider us, the next
generation of agriculture.
Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Ryan.
Would Jim Hires come forward?
Richard Lyons, Illinois Association of Drainage Districts.
STATEMENT OF RICHARD LYONS, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION OF
DRAINAGE DISTRICTS, HARVEL, IL
Mr. Lyons. My name is Richard Lyons and I'm a farmer from
Montgomery County, and Representative Davis is my
Representative in Congress. We know each other well and we work
out at the same YMCA when he's home. But I'd like to welcome
the three Members that are not from Illinois to Illinois, and I
really appreciate you taking the opportunity to listen to what
we have to say.
I represent the Illinois Association of Drainage Districts.
One of the things that I think is important for all of us is
that today I'm going to direct my comments basically to
conservation on working lands.
Previous farm bills have worked well to protect fragile
lands under cultivation through the CRP and the RCPP programs.
Only CSP in the Midwest addresses the working lands and it's
limited to its size and scope with restrictive requirements for
producers.
As we address the nutrient loss reduction strategies of 45
percent reductions in nitrates and phosphorus across the 31
Midwestern and Great Plains states, we must address
conservation to incentivize producers to adopt agricultural
practices which reduce nutrients from leaving the land and
moving into the water courses that lead to the Gulf of Mexico.
I am a member of the working policy group for nutrient loss
reduction here in Illinois. I prefer a carrot, rather than a
stick approach to the incentives for conservation. It might
well be the one that was used in the Chesapeake Bay, and I was
in the Chesapeake Bay for a week touring three different states
about 16 months ago, and there's a program on cover crops and
also nutrient management that should be added within the farm
program. Nutrient management and cover crops on every acre
across the Mississippi River Basin would drastically reduce the
hypoxia problem in the Gulf of Mexico.
Every farmer I talk with wants the 2018 Farm Bill to retain
the present coverage for Federal crop insurance. Increasing the
subsidy to the individual farmer crop insurance coverage for
his voluntary practices of cover crops and nutrient management
on every acre should and would provide the carrot for their
working lands preservation.
I presently have a nutrient management plan on every acre
on my farm. I use cover crops on every acre of my farm. I
started with an EQIP program 4 years ago with just 40 acres of
each, but over time I find that the cover crops make the
difference and they will keep the nitrates and the phosphorus
out of our tile lines and out of the water.
Thank you very much for coming and allowing me to speak.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Richard.
Would Jonathan Coppess from the University of Illinois
please come forward?
Next, Dave Janson.
STATEMENT OF DAVE JANSON, OWNER AND PRESIDENT, STRATEGIC FARM
MARKETING, CHAMPAIGN, IL
Mr. Janson. Hello, Chairman Conaway and Members of the
Committee. My name is Dave Janson. I'm the owner of Strategic
Farm Marketing in Champaign, Illinois, in Congressman Davis'
District. I'm a crop insurance agent. We write insurance in
eleven Midwestern states.
With these low prices and high input costs, farmers are
struggling to make a living. Lending regulations have become
tighter since 2008, making crop insurance a critical component
to getting an operating loan. Last year, I had several farmers
choose the highest level of crop insurance solely because the
lender would provide the most operating money. Personally, one
of my clients was required to sell a thousand acres of land
before he could get his operating note renewed. The thing that
I hear over and over from my producers is, ``Do no harm to crop
insurance,'' and affordability is the key.
I'd also like to speak on the harvest price option of the
RP Policy. There has been some talk of eliminating this feature
or not subsidizing it as much. This component is critical
because it provides replacement cost insurance for my livestock
farmers. When crops are poor, they need to buy feed for their
animals, and prices are quite often much higher than historical
prices. For the grain farmer, it allows them to forward
contract when prices are profitable without the fear of
overselling their crop. As a matter of fact, in 7 of the past
10 years, the corn market has fallen from the spring to the
fall.
Products like whole farm insurance are gaining traction as
farmers near the fringes of the Corn Belt seek more cost
efficient ways to provide higher coverage.
And last, I'd like to address loan rates. My farmers would
like to see a higher loan rate for corn, soybeans, and wheat,
and to keep the cost of the program reasonable, one might
consider a higher loan rate but not necessarily a higher
default rate or an LDP rate. They need access to capital but
not necessarily a bigger LDP. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Dave.
Would Heather Hampton please come forward?
Next is Chip Bowling. Chip's here from Maryland, National
Corn Growers Association.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES ``CHIP'' BOWLING, Jr., CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL
CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION, NEWBURG, MD
Mr. Bowling. Good morning. I'm Chip Bowling. I farm in
Newburg, Maryland, which is about 45 miles south of Washington,
D.C., in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I'm Chairman of the
National Corn Growers and I'm here to represent our 300,000
check-off members.
By now, you know all too well the impacts of the declining
commodity prices for corn farmers. Average prices have fallen
from $6.22 a bushel in 2011 to $3.30 today. Without the
Agriculture Risk Coverage-County program to help offset the
sharp fall in income, we would be facing more severe financial
stress.
NCGA believes the ARC county can be modified to remain an
effective risk management during weak prices, even more
critical in maintaining sound, affordable Federal crop
insurance, which softens the blow when significant crop losses
occur.
These tools allow more investment into Market Access and
the Foreign Market Development Programs are essential as we
work to build demand and increase exports, a more robust
livestock sector, and an expanding ethanol market.
The next farm bill should include emphasizing voluntary
working lands and conservation programs. We're well aware of
the budgetary restraints, but there is no question we must
maintain adequate funding for conservation programs. These
programs must be environmentally sound, based on sound science
and performance driven.
We ask you to consider our top policy objectives in title
II, Conservation Reserve Program enrollment targeted to the
most environmentally affected areas, supporting the
Conservation Stewardship Program to enhance conservation
efforts on working lands, and support the EQIP program, the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program, on a cost-share basis
for environmental conservation practices.
Again, thank you for traveling to Illinois and listening to
us, the nation's farmers. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Chip, I'm confused about your e-mail address.
You're the National Corn Growers Chairman, but your e-mail
address is tobacco man.
Mr. Bowling. My family raised tobacco for generations in
southern Maryland and I'm proud to be Tobacco Man Five.
Mr. Noland. The corn man wasn't already taken?
Mr. Bowling. I'm corn man now, but I'll go back to tobacco
man shortly.
Mr. Noland. Chip, thank you.
Will Jill Appell from the Pork Producers please come
forward?
Next is Jim Hires, Eastern Illinois Food Bank CEO. Welcome,
Jim.
STATEMENT OF JIM HIRES, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, EASTERN ILLINOIS FOOD BANK,
URBANA, IL
Mr. Hires. Thank you.
Good morning. I'm Jim Hires, the CEO of the Eastern
Illinois Food Bank and a member of the Feeding America network
of food banks around the country. There are 200 food banks like
ours across the United States. There are eight of those food
banks in the State of Illinois.
TEFAP, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, has become a
strong, strong and very important component of the service that
we provide to the thousands of food pantries across the
country. The case of TEFAP is that it often becomes the primary
source of small rural food banks across the country, and
particularly in Illinois, and the staple foundation needs to be
maintained at the level that you have provided the last several
years.
The last farm bill was a great opportunity for us to show
the public-private partnership that can exist to work on the
problem of food insecurity.
Obviously, the commodities are the lynchpin of the program,
but just as important are the funds needed for the storage and
distribution of the food that we secure through this program.
Oftentimes, food banks are forced to look for other funds
because those funds provided in the program fall short of the
actual costs for storing and distributing food.
Therefore, we're seeking and asking that as you develop the
next farm bill, and with the current farm bill, to make sure
that those funds that you have set aside in that bill are
actually appropriated and available to the food banks across
the country.
As I've told Congressman Davis on many times, we really
appreciate the partnership that we have with the Department of
Agriculture and the fact that this is truly a private-public
partnership, so attention to that would be greatly appreciated
by the 200 food banks in the United States.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jim.
Would John Reifsteck, with GROWMARK, please come forward?
Next is Jonathan, did I pronounce your last name right? Is
it Coppess?
STATEMENT OF JONATHAN W. COPPESS, J.D., DIRECTOR, GARDNER
AGRICULTURE POLICY PROGRAM, AND BOCK AG LAW/POLICY PROGRAM,
CLINICAL ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER
AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS,
URBANA, IL
Mr. Coppess. Coppess, yes.
Chairman Conaway, Ranking Member Peterson, Members of the
Committee. I'm Jonathan Coppess from the University of
Illinois, College of ACES, the Garden and Agricultural Policy
Program, and the Farmdoc Project.
Dr. Mertz is going to talk a little bit more about basic
research and issues in the college, and Jennifer is going to
talk about some extension and SNAP-Ed. I want to focus a little
bit more on the applied research, extension and outreach, the
investment and innovation there, with a couple of examples of
what we're doing and how we can look forward to improving our
extension and outreach.
Farmdoc, of course, has worked on the decisions to support
tools of farm programs, and we're looking to build out from
that to look at comprehensive risk management and research, to
look at things beyond just price and yield, but financial risk,
conservation risk, and even some of the trade and export risk
we see today.
We also have an incredible resource in the University of
Illinois in supercomputing capacity and data management and
we're looking at how we can apply that with precision
agriculture and farm business management to conservation needs
through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, in
partnership with Illinois Corn and many others.
We also have a data intensive farm management, helping
design field trials and get information out to farmers to help
improve use of technology to help them improve their nutrient
management, all of which, obviously, is to further our goals
under the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy, as we look
forward to encouraging additional investment, additional
innovation and extension and outreach and research. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jonathan.
And would Chad Schutz please come forward?
For the Committee's benefit, our next speaker's father, Joe
Hampton, was a former Illinois Director of Agriculture.
Heather, welcome.
STATEMENT OF HEATHER HAMPTON KNODLE, VICE
PRESIDENT, KNODLE, LTD.; FIRST VICE PRESIDENT, VITAL ISSUES AND
RESOLUTIONS, AMERICAN Agri-Women,
FILLMORE, IL
Ms. Hampton Knodle. Thank you. I am Heather Hampton Knodle,
and we farm about 1 hour south of here. We raise corn,
soybeans, Angus cattle, and four children under the age of 15.
All right. As a mom of four, I realize that everything is
negotiable and we start out as--American Agri-Women have also
chaired our Farm Bill Task Force this year. We have some
recommendations we'll provide to the Agriculture Committee, as
well as the comments here. We have several innovative ideas on
that. But first and foremost, crop insurance, a critical tool
for risk management, not only for farmers and rural communities
but also for the government. Let's really emphasize how much
money's been saved in disaster payments alone.
When I say everything's negotiable, we in American Agri-
Women would say we value the conservation programs that are on
the land that are in place. We value the decades of trust that
has been developed with Natural Resources Conservation Service
as a technical advisor. However, in this era of level funding
or less funding, everything is negotiable, and it's time to de-
couple conservation compliance from crop insurance. Crop
insurance is a business tool for risk management. Conservation
agreements are separate agreements that have been entered into
where we say, ``Okay, government, you want to help pay us for
this specific practice; we're going to put it in place, and we
commit and we pledge to doing that.'' We should not place NRCS
in an adversarial role. We need to keep them as our trusted
advisor and technical resource.
Other comments: Just to highlight, again, we have several
innovative ideas related to nutrition and wellness programming
and things like that, but funding for a foot-and-mouth disease
vaccine bank is critical, not only for our food supply, but
also the welfare of millions of animals. Where can the funding
come from? Possibly an offset from the organic program: $150
million; the dollars are there. It's about priorities. Is it
existing food supply or is it telling people that one
production practice is better than another? How do we want to
spend our dollars?
Third, and probably foremost in my mind as a rural economic
advocate, and Rodney's going to say, ``There's no money for
this, Heather,'' but yes, there is. Give rural America a
fighting chance for 21st century telecommunications. There are
opportunities in this 2018 Farm Bill to redesign some of the
eligibility requirements under existing USDA grant and loan
programs, and there is also a very real opportunity right now
for the House Agriculture Committee to weigh in on the Federal
Communication Commission's redesign of the Connect America
Fund. We can have input on their technical design requirements,
and now is the time to say what better agency than the USDA to
actually administer that program.
Mr. Noland. Ten seconds.
Ms. Hampton Knodle. USDA has feet-on-the-ground
relationships in place and has a unique understanding of our
geographic and economic landscape. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. I'm sorry. Did you finish your comment?
Ms. Hampton Knodle. I did. We need the USDA to be
administering that because they understand our unique rural
landscape that varies widely across the country.
Thank you for the chance to plant some seeds. We hope they
grow in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Heather.
Would Linda Carlton-Huber come forward?
And Jill Appell, National Pork Producers. Jill, welcome.
STATEMENT OF JILL APPELL, PORK PRODUCER, APPELL'S PORK FARMS,
INC.; PAST PRESIDENT, NATIONAL PORK
PRODUCERS COUNCIL AND ILLINOIS PORK PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION, ALTONA, IL
Ms. Appell. Thank you. I am Jill Appell. I'm a farmer from
Altona, Illinois, and I would like to welcome you to this
beautiful, unusually nice, August day in Illinois.
I am the past President of the Illinois Pork Producers
Association and also the National Pork Producers Council, and I
would like to echo a couple of the comments about the funding
for FMD vaccine bank. I understand that it's very costly.
However, if we do get an FMD outbreak, it is going to be
devastating unless we can prevent it and we can, or if we get
one, if we can quickly eliminate it. Otherwise, anything else
in the farm bill for the pork industry and for other parts of
agriculture, it's not going to be useful at all.
That said, there are a lot of other important programs for
farmers that need to be continued, such as conservation,
exports, and research.
As a crop farmer, I support existing programs that help me
predict and improve natural resources on my farm. I hope that
conservation funding will be continued at the current level. I
would also like to see funding levels maintained for the Market
Access Program and for the Foreign Market Development Program,
both of which support U.S. exports and are vital to the U.S.
pork industry.
To ensure that the U.S. livestock industry maintains a
competitive global marketplace, we need to have funding for
agricultural research. We have fallen behind our competitor
countries when it comes to research, and that will be
critically needed for developing ways to feed the world when,
if predictions are right, if the population grows by 30 percent
within the next 30 years.
Pork producers and all of U.S. agriculture need a farm bill
policy and programs that support farmers and that enhances
their ability to continue producing safe food, especially
delicious pork, for consumers worldwide.
The bottom line is that we need a farm bill that maintains,
or better yet, strengthens U.S. agriculture and the U.S. pork
industry's competitive advantage globally. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jill.
Would Jered Hooker please come forward?
The next one from Champaign County, farmer extraordinary,
John Reifsteck. John?
STATEMENT OF JOHN REIFSTECK, CORN AND SOYBEAN
PRODUCER; CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND PRESIDENT, GROWMARK, INC.,
CHAMPAIGN, IL
Mr. Reifsteck. Thank you, Duane.
As a farmer and a member of a cooperative, we know how
important this legislation is, not just to farmers, but to our
rural communities. Our industry relies on risk management
programs to help farmers weather these times of challenging
commodity prices. We believe that a market-oriented risk
management program that works with crop insurance, and are
consistent between counties in the same area, should be a
priority.
Ongoing conservation programs should be flexible, defend
projects that utilize innovative technologies that help farmers
protect water quality, reduce greenhouse emissions, and at the
same time, help our farmers feed an increasing world
population.
One of the sad consequences of low commodity prices is the
distress and sometimes the devastation that is inflected on our
next generation of farmers. Our future lies with the young
people that are so engaged in agriculture. We need to continue
extension programs that help them sustain and to build their
farms and their families. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, John. Thank you for your leadership
with GROWMARK. Boyd Schaufelberger, please come forward.
Chad Schutz. Chad, good morning.
STATEMENT OF CHAD SCHUTZ, CORN, BEEF, PORK, AND
SOYBEAN PRODUCER, SCHUTZ FARMS, INC.; DISTRICT 15
DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS FARM BUREAU, WHITE HALL, IL
Mr. Schutz. Good morning. I'm Chad Schutz. I'm a grain and
livestock farmer. Our family farm is on the western part of
Rodney's district.
What I wanted to stress this morning was the importance of
the conservation title in this, and in particular, the EQIP
program.
Over the years, our family's been able to utilize the cost-
share in the EQIP program to install dry dams, tile lines, and
better utilize or better use those resources that we have on
our land and conserve our soil. Over the years, we've been able
to transition from the way Grandpa used to farm, where you'd go
work in ditches, to what we do now is a hundred percent no-
till. That's really been a game changer for how we farm and how
we take care of our land.
The second part of the EQIP program that we've been able to
utilize greatly has been through the comprehensive nutrient
management plan. We've always thought we've done a really good
job of how we handle our livestock manure and apply fertilizer,
but whenever you go back and you go through that plan, it helps
make you document that and then you're able to show other
people that you are actually doing a really good job. And so
that program has worked well, and as we're looking down the
road at the nutrient loss reduction strategy here in the State
of Illinois, that the more people that can show that we are
doing a really good job that it just gives the farmer the
higher ground.
With that, thank you very much for your time this morning.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Chad.
Would Matt Coatar come forward?
And Linda Carlton-Huber with the Big ``I''. Linda, good
morning.
STATEMENT OF LINDA CARLTON-HUBER, OWNER, CF&H
INSURANCE AGENCY, INC.; MEMBER,
INDEPENDENT INSURANCE AGENTS AND BROKERS OF AMERICA, INC. AND
INDEPENDENT FARM INSURANCE AGENTS OF ILLINOIS, SULLIVAN, IL
Ms. Carlton-Huber. Good morning. I'm Linda Carlton-Huber.
I'm a member of the Big ``I'' and the Independent Insurance
Agents. I'm in Rodney's district. My husband farms and I own
CF&H Insurance.
I've been a partner in farming insurance since the 1990s.
During that time I've seen all types of weather, and conditions
seem to be becoming more and more volatile. Just this past
spring, we've replanted a thousand acres, more than the last 39
years added together of our farming career.
Agriculture plays an integral role in our economy. If the
farmer struggles, so does every town in Illinois. Crop
insurance has made farmers a better businessman. There are not
the major swings in both the up and down of income and losses.
I'm here today to provide the Association's position on
Federal crop insurance and the upcoming farm bill. The Big
``I'' strongly supports the crop insurance program and urges
Congress to reject any attempt to cut or cap the budget for the
2018 Farm Bill. We are also working to ensure that the private-
sector remains the primary distribution force for the crop
insurance program.
We oppose legislation at the Federal level of the AFFIRM
Act. Changing the risk pool and reducing participation from any
group of farmers will change the premium for all farmers, and
enacting that legislation will have a negative impact on
farmers across our country.
Second, I would like to ask that Congress oppose any
measure to discourage farmers to buy at an adequate coverage
level. Providing premium assistance to farmers of all shapes
and sizes also encourages the expansion of coverage options, so
the insurance works well for growers from green beans to
soybeans. Capping insurance discounts or even excluding farms
altogether carries unintended consequences for farmers across
our country. By removing your most established farmers and all
those acres associated with those farms, you're doing the same
thing as excluding the healthy people from health insurance.
Crop insurance works well because it's a tool available to
farmers of all sizes and all geographical areas. I strongly
believe in the crop insurance program as the farmers' strongest
safety net. Crop insurance programs allow the farmers to assume
the risk by continuing to promote large production of crops and
livestock to provide the food supply that is needed for a
growing country.
Thank you for your time today and for coming to Illinois.
Perfect.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Linda.
Would John Caupert come forward?
Boyd Schaufelberger, Holstein Association USA.
STATEMENT OF BOYD E. SCHAUFELBERGER, PRESIDENT, HOLSTEIN
ASSOCIATION USA, GREENVILLE, IL
Mr. Schaufelberger. Good morning. I am Boyd Schaufelberger,
from Greenville, Illinois. It's the very southern edge of
Congressman Davis' District, and after 40 years of being a
dairy farmer, we transitioned out of that last winter, and part
of the reason for that is that our daughter, who was part of
the dairy operation, married a young dairy farmer from eastern
Pennsylvania, and I'm not sure that he's in Congressmen
Thompson's District, but that's caused a transition and I've
become a lot more familiar with Pennsylvania because of that.
The Holstein Association represents 15,000 adult members
across the country, 9,000 junior members, which we consider to
be the future of the dairy industry, and the Holstein cow
produces 85 percent of the milk that is consumed in America.
Just a few areas that I want to address or that I would
hope would be addressed in the coming farm bill is immigration,
the labor issues that are probably at the forefront of dairy
farmers across the country, and then the regulation as far as
hiring dairy workers. We just dealt with the issue of the part-
time worker having only 30 hours a week and that really
provides some complications for dairy operations.
Also, trade is a big thing, and trade wasn't known to be a
part of the dairy industry a few years ago, but 15 percent of
the product is exported now, so it's important that we work out
the trade issues with our neighbors to the north and to the
south.
And then as far as pricing, the MPP program really hasn't
worked that well for dairy farmers. There needs to be some
modifications to that, both in how the milk price is determined
that would reflect the hauling charges that the farmer has to
pay for, and then also that feed price is adequately reflected
in that formula as far as the margin.
And then just this week I was in a grocery store and saw in
the dairy case a carton of almond milk, and after milking
animals for 40 years, I've never been able to milk an almond,
with that, it's kind of understood that labeling is an issue
there and so we'd hope you address that.
Thank you very much and we'll look forward to working with
you in the future.
Mr. Noland. Boyd, thank you for that one.
We'll remember that, won't we?
Would Dr. David Kopsell please come forward?
And next is Matt Coatar, Feeding Illinois.
Mr. Hooker. Good morning.
Mr. Noland. Good morning.
Mr. Hooker. Good morning. I'm Jered Hooker.
Mr. Noland. Oh, I'm sorry, Jered. I apologize, Jered. Jered
Hooker from DeWitt County.
STATEMENT OF JERED HOOKER, ASSISTANT TREASURER-
SECRETARY AND DISTRICT DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS SOYBEAN ASSOCIATION,
CLINTON, IL
Mr. Hooker. Yes, sir. I farm just 25 miles due north. I've
been there since 1875 and that's where I'm going to stay. All
right. I've hauled my last hog, by the way.
I'm here from the Illinois Soybean Association, I'm the
Treasurer, and I represent 43,000 soybean farmers in Illinois,
and I signed a witness slip with respect to conservation and
research and crop insurance and I brought a couple copies of my
statement and I'd like for it to be part of the record, Mr.
Chairman. And I'm going to associate my remarks with what's
already been made by Ron Moore, the American Soybean
Association President, and my comment here, we need you. I'm
pleased and privileged and proud to be a constituent of Mr.
Davis. I'm getting goose bumps just saying it, which I don't
mind, okay, because that comes from here. Oh, yeah, I guess it
is.
We need your energy collectively, we need your talent, we
need your leadership, and I'd just like for you guys to just
take care of one another; all right?
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jered. I served in the state
legislature with Mike Bost and he gave me goose bumps, too, but
it was for a different reason.
Would John Linville please come forward?
Matt with Feeding Illinois.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW COATAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FEEDING
ILLINOIS, GLENVIEW, IL
Mr. Coatar. Thank you. My name's Matt Coatar. I'm the
Executive Director of Feeding Illinois, the network of food
banks that serve every county, every 102 counties of the state.
We have a big job. Our food banks are actively at it. Last
year they distributed more than 200 million meals to those
folks in need around Illinois, and I'm here to tell you, that's
a lot of work, it's not enough, and we're trying hard. We have
some of the best donors of funds, time, expertise, food, right
here in the room, for which we're really, really grateful.
I'd like to mention two points. As you're looking at SNAP,
going forward, it's a really invaluable tool to individuals,
but also to communities, communities that are all over this
state that might not necessarily get the same attention as we
might see in a bigger community, but it's really essential to
those individuals because it makes a difference getting
breakfast on a table, feeding your son or daughter before
school, but it also makes a difference in that community that
food's available.
Please consider actively funding that. We'd appreciate
similar levels. I know it's a challenge but I really appreciate
your effort.
The other issue is TANF, a terrific program for our food
banks, really great diversity of product, and as Jim Hires
mentioned earlier, anything we can do to get those allocations
at the level that you intend would be really, really
appreciated. To walk into food banks and see dried cherries and
walnuts and a lot of things that are really dollar-wise out of
the hands of a lot of our lower income folks who come to food
banks, it really makes a big difference to see those sorts of
commodities come across.
Thank you all very much for your time today.
Mr. Noland. Matt, thank you.
Would Susan Donovan with The Nature Conservancy come
forward?
Next is John Caupert, National Corn Ethanol Research
Center. If we can't find John, we'll come back to him.
Dr. David Kopsell. David, I have to ask you this question.
My sister Diane is a horticulture professor at the University
of Illinois, and she has a show called Mid-American Gardener.
Do you watch it every week?
Dr. Kopsell. Not every week, but I know what you're talking
about.
Mr. Noland. Do you know who she is?
Dr. Kopsell. Yes, it's a great program.
Mr. Noland. Good, good. My sister would be very proud to
know that.
STATEMENT OF DAVID KOPSELL, Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF
HORTICULTURE, COLLEGE OF APPLIED SCIENCE &
TECHNOLOGY, ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY; MEMBER,
COLLEGIATE ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE, AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR
HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE, NORMAL, IL
Dr. Kopsell. My name is Dave Kopsell, and I'm a Professor
of Horticulture at Illinois State University in Normal,
Illinois, and at Illinois State University, we're a regional
non-land-grant university specializing in applied research and
student education.
This spring on May 17th I was a member of a delegation from
the American Society of Horticultural Science that lobbied
Congress on behalf of the benefits of specialty crop research
funding. Our talking points were as follows: Specialty crops
make up \1/2\ of the crop value in the U.S. annually. The
current USDA, ChooseMyPlate.gov, dietary recommendations calls
for \1/2\ of our plates to be fruits and vegetables, and those
are specialty crops. Specialty crops provide regional and
economic development as high value enterprises for rural
communities. For every $1 invested in publicly-funded
agricultural and food research, $20 in economic activity is
generated.
Specialty crop exports earn the U.S. $20 billion per year
from abroad. Specialty crop research funding is essential to
ensure the future improvements in specialty crop production to
provide national food security, ensure economic sustainability,
and opportunities for both rural and urban communities, sustain
a growing world population, and also adapt to a changing
environment.
On behalf of myself and the American Society for
Horticultural Science and the specialty crop growers who are in
the audience today and around the country, we would like to
endorse the inclusion in the 2018 Farm Bill of following
programs: The Specialty Crop Research Initiative, the Organic
Research an Education Initiative, the Agricultural and Food
Research Initiative, and Specialty Crop Block Grants for the
states.
Thank you for your time.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Professor Kopsell.
Would Len Corzine please come forward?
Next is John Linville with Linville Farms, Bement,
Illinois.
STATEMENT OF JOHN LINVILLE, PARTNER, LINVILLE FARMS, BEMENT, IL
Mr. Linville. Yes. My name's John Linville, and our family
farms 16 miles due east of here in Piatt County in Rodney's
district.
I first want to note the people that we come in contact
with daily from USDA, those in FSA, and those in soil
conservation, you have excellent people, and they are doing a
good job, and so I thank you for that.
My main point is, as you've heard from a lot of people,
crop insurance is working, don't screw it up, and if you look
at in, say, like 1983 or 1988, what it costs the U.S.
Government to cover the droughts then versus 2012 when it was
budgeted and was a serious problem, it worked much better.
Don't mess up something that's working. Who knows what Harvey's
going to cost? And this way this program works good for you and
it works good for us, so don't screw it up.
The second thing I would say is we farm in Piatt County. We
have never had an ARC-County payment. All the counties around
us have. The Lord has blessed us with excellent yields, but I
would make a suggestion that you look at the crop insurance
yields instead of NASS for what the yields in the county are.
You already have the data, and it would be much more accurate
than the estimates that are coming through. Now, Piatt County
still may not have had a payment, but it would improve the
program. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, John.
Would Yoram Shanan with the National Young Farmers
Coalition please come forward?
Next is Susan Donovan, The Nature Conservancy. Welcome,
Susan.
STATEMENT OF SUSAN DONOVAN, DIRECTOR OF
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY, CHICAGO, IL
Ms. Donovan. Thank you. Good morning and welcome to all of
our distinguished guests today.
My name is Susan Donovan. I'm here on behalf of The Nature
Conservancy in Illinois and we look forward to working with you
in the reauthorization of the farm bill and the process. The
farm bill is the most important legislation for conserving
private lands in the United States and it provides farmers with
the tools necessary to protect and conserve their land and
their way of life.
The Nature Conservancy is very active in sharing our best
practices with the agriculture community, and our priorities
include nutrient management and soil health.
In the 2018 Farm Bill, we would like you to consider the
following priorities to incentivize sustainable agricultural
practices and remove unnecessary barriers to farmers trying to
utilize these benefits to their operations: Increase the
funding in the conservation title, which currently is about six
percent and to avoid further cuts in the research title; to
fund nutrient management plans in the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program, known as EQIP, with the goal at 5 million
acres enrolled annually under nutrient and soil health
management plans and geographically targeting those that have
the greatest nutrient delivery to the hypoxic zones; improve
easement programs, the Agricultural Land Easement program in
the Wetlands Reserve Easement Program specifically to at least
$500 million a year; and creating incentives for producers to
adopt soil health practices.
Thank you very much for your consideration of our
recommendations and for being here today. Thanks.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Susan.
Would Representative Sue Scherer come forward?
And as a father, you can only do so much to encourage your
kids to get active, and so I told my son he should really think
about, he's farming full-time, he ought to get involved in a
farm group, and so he looked at me like, Right, Dad, and then
one day he tells me that Leon Corzine had called him from
Assumption asking him if he wanted to get involved in the
Illinois Corn Growers and he thought that was a good idea. Len,
thank you for mentoring my son, who's now on the Corn Growers
Board. Len, a former National Corn Growers President.
Welcome.
STATEMENT OF LEON ``LEN'' CORZINE, PRESIDENT, LPC FARMS; PAST
PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS CORN GROWERS
ASSOCIATION AND NATIONAL CORN GROWERS
ASSOCIATION, ASSUMPTION, IL
Mr. Corzine. Thank you for that, and good morning.
Yes. I was very pleased to be able to be part of that,
because I farm in Christian County, which is in Rodney Davis'
district. I help my son Craig and my wife Susie on the farm, so
I'm fifth generation and Craig's the sixth, and so we talk a
lot about the future. I'd like to speak a moment about two of
the most important things when we look to the future and look
at our young folks and the next generation in farming. The
first one is crop insurance and the second one is research.
We have a very close story that happened Monday on our
farm, it actually hit half of my son's acres, we had a severe
hailstorm go through and over half of his corn was hit. We're
going to have about a 30 percent loss in that corn and there's
only one thing that is going to help him really be able to
continue and go on in the future, because Dad's kind of limited
in what he can do, and that is crop insurance.
If you take a look at the commodity title and the good
things that we've put together with ARC, it's still county,
it's not going to help, it's crop insurance. I want to really
stress the importance of crop insurance, which others have. We
need to make it more inclusive and not exclude people, and that
has been some of the talk, to exclude some things, make it more
expensive to us on the farm, but we need to have a program that
is strong that helps our future, and we invest in it as farmers
and we never talk about all the money we put into the crop
insurance and never collect. That's never part of what the CBO
or anybody else puts out, and I urge you to remember that part
of it.
I think we can strengthen the program. We use enterprise
units because they're better policies and they're more
affordable policies, and they're actually easier for us to
manage on the farm and for everybody up the line as well.
The other thing that I want to mention is the research
title. We are well blessed where we are. We're in a very
productive area. Our yield goals are 250 bushels. When I
started farming, which I don't think was that long ago, it was
150 bushels. We have gotten there because of research, and if
we don't continue with a strong research title, we're going to
be sitting here in 10 years and thinking, ``Gosh, how come our
corn and soybean yields have leveled off? How come we aren't
increasing the quality of the product coming off the farm?'' We
can carry it to new products from our agriculture products.
We've got a National Corn Ethanol Research Center at
Edwardsville not very far away that we really need to keep that
because it's not just about ethanol, it's about biorefineries
and producing new products from corn, and we need to keep those
in mind.
That and the land-grant universities in their mission, I
urge you to continue to work on the commodity title and the
research title to keep it strong, too. Thank you very much.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Len.
Would Gary Niemeyer come forward?
Next is your Yoram Shanan with the National Young Farmers
Coalition from Grays Lake.
STATEMENT OF YORAM SHANAN, PROPRIETOR, SANDBOX ORGANICS FARM;
DIRECTOR, NORTHERN ILLINOIS
CHAPTER, NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS COALITION, GRAYSLAKE, IL
Mr. Shanan. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Conaway,
Members of House Agriculture Committee. Good to see you again,
Cheri.
I want to thank my colleagues for sharing their valuable
input, and before I share my testimony, I'm going to respond to
one of the comments about the Organic Cost-Share Program, which
I'm sure you all know is just a drop in the bucket compared to
all the funding that goes towards conventional agriculture. It
ought to be expanded and not diverted back towards conventional
agriculture.
My name is Yoram Shanan. I own and operate an organic
vegetable and livestock farm in Grays Lake. I'm here today with
the Illinois Stewardship Alliance and as the Director of a
local chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition. We would
like you to know that the 2018 Farm Bill must invest in
beginning farmers for the next generation of agriculture.
Beginning farmers face many barriers to getting into the
field, one being inadequate access to training. The Beginning
Farmer and Rancher Development Program, or the BFRDP, is the
only Federal program exclusively dedicated to training the next
generation of farmers and ranchers. BFRDP funding has been used
to develop incubator farm programs such as the one I've been
fortunate enough to take part in for the last 3 years, and has
allowed me to start my farm business. It also provides business
planning and food safety training services, and is one of the
most successful programs to date helping to grow the next
generation of American farmers.
When Congress failed to pass a bill in 2012, the program
did not receive funding in the next year. To avoid such
shortfalls and uncertainty in the future, we urge you to
increase mandatory baseline funding to $50 million per year. We
also ask that you prioritize small and beginning farmers in key
Federal programs.
Recent farm bills have included special participation
incentives, beginning farmers in EQIP and other conservation
programs. However, small scale farmers, which include many
young farmers, are often at a competitive disadvantage with
larger operations for program funds and NRCS staff resources,
and I can tell you that from my own personal experience.
The success of the FSA microloan program indicates that
scaling down programs and reducing paperwork can significantly
improve young farmer access. Congress should replicate the
success by establishing a national pilot initiative with an
EQIP initiative to target small scale farmers with funding for
the programs set aside through existing equipment funds.
If you'd like to learn more, I encourage you to contact the
National Young Farmers Association, and I thank you for your
time.
Mr. Noland. Thank you very much.
Would Rebecca Osland please come forward?
And next is our local state Representative, Sue Scherer.
STATEMENT OF HON. SUE SCHERER, REPRESENTATIVE, 96TH DISTRICT,
ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, VICE-
CHAIRPERSON, AGRICULTURE & CONSERVATION
COMMITTEE, DECATUR, IL
Ms. Scherer. Thank you. I'm the Representative here for the
96th District, and I am also the Vice-Chairperson of the Ag
Committee for Illinois.
Something that I wanted to make you aware of is the serious
concern that we have on our Ag Committee here in Illinois and
that is the struggles that we have trying to find enough
agriculture teachers. Last year, we had 80 openings and only 20
qualified agricultural teachers in Illinois coming from our
state universities, so with agriculture being our number one
driver for our economy and then the shortage of agricultural
teachers, it really concerns me when I think of the young man
that spoke here from the FFA, and if they don't have the
teachers, the classes aren't going to take place, and then
we're just not taking care of our future the way we need to.
I've also heard a lot of concerns about the vaccinations
for the hoof-and-mouth. Those are really the two concerns that
I've heard the greatest, sitting on the Ag Committee.
And I most appreciate everything you guys do. Thank you so
much.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Sue, for being here.
Would Brad Pastrovich please come forward with Ducks
Unlimited?
And next is Garry Niemeyer.
STATEMENT OF GARRY NIEMEYER, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
WATERWAYS COUNCIL, INC., AUBURN, IL
Mr. Niemeyer. Good morning. My name is Gary Niemeyer. I'm
currently Chairman of the Inland Waterway Trust Fund, I'd like
to take credit for that, but the Waterways Council.
As you're well aware, the inland waterway transportation
system is vital to our Illinois farmers, providing the most
effective option to send our products to both the domestic and
export markets.
As world demand grows for corn, soybeans, and wheat, we
need a dependable transportation system, and our waterways need
recapitalization.
There are currently 25 projects authorized by Congress and
ready for construction. We need your help and leadership to
obtain a portion of the President's Infrastructure Initiative
to get these projects under construction, and as being Members
of the House, all of the appropriations begin in the House and
we'd really like to see some infrastructural legislation come
forward, because there are several of you that do have locks in
your districts and we really appreciate working with you any
way we can. I'm also looking forward to talking to the
Secretary this afternoon and sharing the same information.
I want to thank you very much for the opportunity, and if
there are any questions, please contact me. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Garry, Martin must have told you to keep it
quiet because that was very succinct.
Martin Ray must have tutored you on that, your comments.
Thank you, Gary.
Next, Rebecca Osland, Illinois Stewardship Alliance.
And would Marc Ayers, Humane Society, please come forward?
STATEMENT OF REBECCA OSLAND, POLICY ASSOCIATE, ILLINOIS
STEWARDSHIP ALLIANCE, SPRINGFIELD, IL
Ms. Osland. Good morning. My name is Rebecca Osland. I'm
the Policy Associate at Illinois Stewardship Alliance, and I
serve as the secretary on the Illinois Local Food Farms and
Jobs Council.
I wanted to talk to you today about the importance of local
foods infrastructure and its inclusion in the farm bill.
Thanks to the Illinois State Legislature, this year both
chambers passed resolutions that went to every Ranking Member
of the Illinois caucus, as well as, I believe, the Agriculture
Committee, expressing support from the state legislature for
local food programs in the farm bill.
Local foods have been gaining in popularity over a number
of years at this point. In 2009, the predecessor to the Local
Food Farms and Jobs Council found that we would need as many as
5,000 more farmers producing local food to meet the demand at
that time, and here we are, 8 years later and demand has only
been growing, but we don't have the infrastructure in place to
support all those new farmers in reaching the markets that want
their product. Things like specialty meat processing, getting
kitchens back up to the ability to actually cook food in
schools, helping farmers to aggregate products so that they can
reach wholesale markets, those are examples of some of the
things that would be very helpful in helping to make those
connections between the producers and the consumers, and it's
definitely important in every region in Illinois.
We're based in central Illinois and have a number of
farmers' markets and local producers growing diversified
product, southern Illinois is very diversified, and we've seen
the example of Appalachia, a very effective replacement for
coal mining in some regions has been local food development, so
providing new opportunities for the dollars to stay in your
community. Rockford has a really amazing farmers' market that's
led to a lot of new business incubation. This is a way that we
can stimulate the local economies throughout our state, but we
need that infrastructure in place to make it happen. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Rebecca.
Would John Williams, Prairie Earth Farm, come forward?
And next, Ducks Unlimited, Brad Pastrovich, from
Litchfield.
STATEMENT OF BRAD PASTROVICH, CHAIRMAN, CHAPTER #197, ILLINOIS
DUCKS UNLIMITED, LITCHFIELD, IL
Mr. Pastrovich. Good morning. My name is Brad Pastrovich
and I'm a third generation farmer from Litchfield, Illinois, in
Mr. Davis' District.
I raise corn and soybeans on 1,400 acres with my father.
I've been actively farming since 2009. I'm also Chairman of the
Litchfield chapter of Illinois Ducks Unlimited and I'm happy to
speak on behalf of the 34,000+ members of our state and more
than one million supporters and members nationwide.
Conservation is in great demand today, and conservation
programs are vital assets to farmers and ranchers. These
programs allow us to maximize efficiency and productivity while
protecting our soil health and water quality and wildlife
habitat. Programs like EQIP and CSP are such tools, and the
Conservation Reserve Program is another program that greatly
benefits both landowner and wildlife. Ducks Unlimited supports
strong wetland and grassland protection for the benefits of
soil and water conservation and fish and wildlife habitat.
We also support an improved CRP program with expanded
managed grazing opportunities, not only to improve habitat, but
to allow emergency haying and grazing during times of drought,
like now in the Dakotas and Montana.
The Agriculture Conservation Easement Program is a
nationally popular program where demand by those who
voluntarily seek to protect their land through conservation
easements and wetland easements far exceeds the program supply,
and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program is yet
another important and innovative conservation tool that
incentivizes partnerships and brings private dollars to the
table.
As a farmer and supporter of conservation, I can tell you
that farming and conservation go hand in hand, and Ducks
Unlimited looks forward to working with you all on the next
farm bill. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Brad.
Would Ashley Rube please come forward, of the St. Louis
Area Food Bank?
Next, Marc Ayers, Humane Society.
STATEMENT OF MARC AYERS, ILLINOIS STATE DIRECTOR, HUMANE
SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES, SPRINGFIELD, IL
Mr. Ayers. Hi. I'm Marc Ayers. I'm the Illinois State
Director for the Humane Society of the United States, and
actually, a constituent of you, Representative LaHood.
I'm here today to ask that you include animal welfare
reforms in the 2018 Farm Bill currently under review. The
completed farm bills in the past years have all included animal
welfare provisions, and with animal welfare gaining such
traction with every sector of the American public, the
Agriculture Committee could be doing more on this topic, and I
want to talk with you today just briefly about one of those
bills, which is actually current in the House Agriculture
Committee, the Pet and Women's Safety Act or H.R. 909. This
bill has 231 House cosponsors. It protects battered partners
and their pets by extending current Federal domestic violence
protections to include pets and authorizes a small amount of
grant money to help domestic violence shelters accommodate pets
or arrange for shelter. This bill authorizes a very modest
funding of just $3 million per year to deal with a real and
acute problem.
This bill is currently assigned to the House Agriculture
Committee and I know that Representative Davis and
Representative Bustos are both cosponsors of that legislation.
It's our hope that this bill gets called as a standalone bill
on the floor for a vote. If it does not get called for whatever
reason, I would hope that that bill could be included in
negotiations for the 2018 Farm Bill. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Marc.
Would Steve Stierwalt come forward?
Next is from the fine Williams family, John Williams.
STATEMENT OF JOHN WILLIAMS, POST-HARVEST MANAGER, PrairiErth
FARM, McLEAN, IL
Mr. John Williams. Good morning. My name is John Williams.
I'm the other John Williams in the crowd. I currently live and
work in Representative LaHood's district. We sell much of our
produce to Representative Davis' district, and I am a Knox
College grad, so I'm well familiar with your district as well.
I do have a goal to one day farm my family's land in Ford
County as well, but today I'm here to impart to you guys the
importance of the 2018 Farm Bill, invest in the future of our
farm economy by continuing to invest in a vital part, beginning
farmers.
As you know, the average American farmer continues to get
older as the bars to enter the farming profession continually
raise for many who want to begin to feed their community with
healthy fresh fruits and vegetables.
With the price of equipment and land always on an upward
trend, it will continually be difficult for farmers to begin
their own farming operation to help build local food systems.
Most beginning farmers are not as fortunate as me to have
family farmland, but even with this great advantage, I'm still
stuck waiting to see how this farm bill and the current USDA is
going to change programs for small and beginning farmers such
as myself.
Without the farm bill support for young farmers through
programs such as EQIP or other beginning farmer loan programs
and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, we
will continue to erode our rural economies and risk a drastic
shortage in farmers sooner than we probably would imagine.
I hope that we can increase funding for the Beginning
Farmer and Rancher Development Program, which I have benefitted
from through The Land Connection in Champaign, and I encourage
you to continue as you build this new farm bill, to reach out
to such organizations as The Land Connection and the Illinois
Stewardship Alliance and the National Young Farmers Coalition
to get a better sense of what beginning farmers need to help
build back up our local economies and help feed our own
communities. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, John.
Would Ross Fogle of Pheasants Forever come forward?
Next is Ashley Rube, St. Louis Area Food Bank. Ashley?
STATEMENT OF ASHLEY RUBE, OUTREACH COORDINATOR, ST. LOUIS AREA
FOOD BANK, ST. LOUIS, MO
Ms. Rube. Good morning. My name is Ashley Rube. In a former
life I worked in a very small grass-fed dairy, so I'm thrilled
to be here with all of you today.
I now have the privilege of working for the St. Louis Area
Food Bank, which serves 26 counties across Missouri and
Illinois. We're a member of Feeding America, and we're
privileged to work with 500 local agencies across the service
territory that put life-changing resources into the hands of
our neighbors in need.
With your help, we distributed over 42 million pounds of
food last year to 392,000 individuals, including senior
citizens, veterans, working parents, and our single largest
food-insecure population, children: and their need persists.
During the food bank's first year of operation in 1975, we
distributed roughly 160,000 pounds of food and we now move that
much every day. We've grown to better address the need in our
communities, but with one in six people in our region facing
hunger, we can't meet the need that exists on our own.
On a personal note, my church in St. Louis operates a food
pantry that partners with the food bank. Every Sunday service
during the prayer requests, the prayer requests of the pantry
guests are shared aloud, and they pray for better health, for
stable work, for their families; they pray for our elected
officials and they offer Thanksgiving for things like upcoming
job interviews and good health and more.
The people we serve are struggling to put food on the
table, but once that need is met, they can focus on all of the
other parts of life they need to thrive, like steady employment
and health and even civic engagement.
Those of us here today, from farmers to food bankers, to
Ranking Members of this Committee, we know that food is where
it all starts. Meeting this most basic need makes so much more
possible, and food makes a difference.
Thanks to the partnership of the Federal Government, those
of us at the food bank make a bigger difference in our region.
Nearly 20 percent of the foods we distribute are provided
through The Emergency Food Assistance Program, and all told,
Federal nutrition programs provide over \1/4\ of all the food
that goes out of our warehouse, and these are among the most
nutritious we're able to offer.
The nutrition programs contained in the farm bill, from
TEFAP to SNAP, are vital in every sense of the word. They mean
food on people's tables, which means fuel for good work and
healthier lives.
Now, there's still need in Missouri and Illinois we cannot
meet, but together with a strong farm bill, fully funded
nutrition programs, and conscientious policies, we can meet
that need.
I ask on behalf of my colleagues at the food bank, our
community partners, and the families we serve, please
thoughtfully consider how this upcoming farm bill can preserve
and bolster our commitment to eliminating hunger in this
country.
Thank you for your partnership. We're eager to collaborate
with you for the good of all of our communities.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Ashley.
Would Timothy Burch, Professional Surveyors, come forward.
Steve Stierwalt. Good morning, Steve.
STATEMENT OF STEVE STIERWALT, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF
ILLINOIS SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICTS, SADORUS, IL
Mr. Stierwalt. Hello. My name is Steve Stierwalt. I am a
farmer from Champaign County, Sadorus, Illinois, and I serve
now as the President of the Association of Illinois Soil and
Water Conservation Districts. I wanted to talk to you about
resources for NRCS, both people and programs.
We've heard a lot of talk about the programs, but obviously
without the people to implement those programs, they don't
happen. Across the state, soil and water conservation districts
work with NRCS and other partners in trying to implement this
nutrient loss reduction strategy, and when our efforts are
hampered by the lack of resources both for CSP and EQIP, but
also for the technical staff, the NRCS technical staff, to help
farmers actually implement these programs.
What I'd hope for you to consider is that we have some very
good programs out there, but we actually need those people to
get them done, and we need to support these voluntary efforts
for conservation. We send a strong message to our urban
neighbors that farmers do really care about clean water and
healthy soils.
I'd also like to talk about one thing I don't think I've
heard talked about yet today, and that's the idea of asking the
farm bill to help with a market approach to conservation. As a
farmer, we have always produced for the market. That's what we
do. Where the market is, we produce for it, and as we've
noticed, if you pick up a box of Cheerios, if you look at most
any consumer product, they very proudly will put, if possible,
something on there that says, this is sustainably raised, or
some kind of identifier that talks about the care that was
brought to producing that product. And so one of the things
that we're trying to work on is how do we get our next group of
farmers to take that next step in conservation? The idea is, in
addition to what I call the push method, which is having cost-
share, we'd like to really develop the pull method to where we
are able to use these bulk commodities and identify them as, I
don't know what the right word is, if it's sustainably raised
or like that, but instead of trying to get farmers to do things
that they maybe don't understand well or just doing to get the
cost-share, let's develop the market. Let's get that market to
where the farmers want to be in, and then it becomes a long-
term sustainable way of getting conservation done and we help
with all the issues out there.
It's a little bit different concept that the farm bill
could help with through some incentives and basically for tax
incentive or premiums. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Steve.
Would Carol Hays from Prairie Rivers Network, please come
forward?
Ross, welcome.
STATEMENT OF ROSS FOGLE, NORTHERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL
REPRESENTATIVE, PHEASANTS FOREVER AND QUAIL
FOREVER, BLOOMINGTON, IL
Mr. FOGLE. Thanks. Hi, how are you guys?
I'm Ross Fogle. I'm hoping to be the fourth generation
farmer and beef producer of my family farm someday, but I also
come today to represent Pheasants and Quail Forever, who's also
done so much for my family farm and local area.
Roughly, 10 years ago, 13 years ago, my grandpa walked into
a USDA office and signed up a portion of his farm into CRP, and
it took roughly 10 years to decide that his grandson would have
a passion for wildlife, a passion for agriculture, but by his
opportunity of being able to go into the USDA office and sign
up a portion of his farm, he's created a passion and a legacy
for me and his land, going forward.
I hope that you'll consider an increase in the acre cap of
CRP back to 40 million acres. There are more opportunities of
young men and women out there just like me who want to have the
opportunity to become a hunter, to become an outdoorsman, and
to tie it back into their home farm or family farm.
Also, through this, we've become accustomed to other
programs. Conservation is a common conversation in our family.
We signed up for the Illinois Recreational Access Program on
our home farm, where we now allow use, for hunters to come in,
in exchange for habitat enhancements on our home farm,
introducing the next generation of hunters and outdoorsmen, and
we're having so much private land here in Illinois, those
dollars through VPA and HIP are so important for us to be able
to have more access here and incentivize private landowners to
do so.
I appreciate your consideration, and thank you for what
you're doing for conservation.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Ross.
Would Matt Hanauer from Macon County Soil Conservation
District come forward?
Next is Timothy Burch, Professional Surveyors. Good
morning.
STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY W. BURCH, SECRETARY, NATIONAL SOCIETY OF
PROFESSIONAL SURVEYORS; DIRECTOR OF SURVEYING, SPACECO, INC.,
FREDERICK, MD
Mr. Burch. Good morning. My name is Timothy Burch. I want
to say right here and now, I am not a farmer, I'm a
professional land surveyor currently living outside of Chicago.
I'm formerly from central Illinois, spent most of my life in
central Illinois, and my family on my mother's side farmed for
years in Rodney's district, Christian and Shelby Counties.
I am currently the Secretary of the National Society of
Professional Surveyors and I'm also currently the Government
Affairs Chair for the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors.
What I'm here to ask the Committee is not necessarily for
the farm bill, but for support for another program that's being
introduced.
A wide variety of my surveying experience has been in the
farming community, so I've seen what mapping does and the
antiquated mapping that we have currently nationwide, and we're
seeing some of that mapping that's really coming into play in
Texas right now, and it's not always just along the river, it
can be anywhere. There's a program coming out through the USGS
and the NRCS right now. It's a collaboration. It's called 3DEP,
3D Elevation Program, and what it is, it's going to be a
nationwide program with newer technology with LiDAR to collect
elevation data nationwide to update all the mapping elevation-
wide across this country. That includes FEMA. That includes any
national planning that needs to be done. There are major
beneficiaries. It also includes the farming community.
There are over 600 applications for this updated mapping
that we need to consider. It's estimated that there's going to
be a five-to-one return on that investment by flying all of
this, getting all of this done. We need to have that updated
mapping.
This is going to be a key component moving forward with
precision ag. Everybody's going to auto steer. Everything's
being data collected. That precision face map is critical.
I will leave some cut sheets for each state that the USGS
has produced and we would ask that the Agriculture Committee
consider supporting this moving forward. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Tim.
Would Stephanie Wise come forward?
Next is Carol Hays, Prairie Rivers Network.
STATEMENT OF CAROL HAYS, Ph.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PRAIRIE
RIVERS NETWORK, CHAMPAIGN, IL; ON BEHALF OF NATIONAL WILDLIFE
FEDERATION
Dr. Hays. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank
you for being here today. My name is Carol Hays. I'm Executive
Director of Prairie Rivers Network. We're Illinois' advocate
for clean water, healthy rivers and wildlife, and the
independent state affiliate of the National Wildlife
Federation.
Prairie Rivers Network is the founding partner of
Regenerate Illinois and the idea of Farm Network. We're also a
stakeholder in the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy.
Regenerate Illinois recently formed an Illinois-based
consortium, uniting a regional network of farmers, agrostology
researchers, educators, nonprofits, rural and urban farming,
and food business interests and community institutions that
seek to increase locally grown nutritious food options and
revitalize local farming and food economies across Illinois.
Regenerative farms combine diverse crop rotations and
regenerate pastured livestock to improve soil health, protect
water quality, ensure safe environments for people and adequate
habitat for wildlife, while providing nourishing foods for the
communities and for growing regional demand for locally grown
foods.
Regenerate Illinois brings together a growing network of
farmers who are eager to learn how to effectively expand the
diversity of crops they grow and can make available to new food
markets.
Our principles for the farm bill include encouraging an
integrated approach to farming that balances the needs of
production with the needs of nature, making effective
conservation outcomes in farming systems, incentivizing farming
practices that are healthy for land and animals, sequester
carbon, and protect air and water by integrating livestock with
a mix of annual and perennial food crops so that farmers can
make a good living while protecting the environment and
benefitting communities.
We ask that you consider making the crop insurance program
more efficient and performance based.
We would like to see Whole Farm Revenue Policy Program
expanded in order to allow farmers more ability to diversify
their crops while managing risk. While the Whole Farm Insurance
Program allows farmers to grow more crops in a year, it should
also account for planting diverse crop rotations with known
ecosystem benefits, such as conservation cropping systems,
regenerative integrated grazing systems, continuous living
cover practices, and the transition from annual to perennial
cropping systems.
The crop insurance in our nation encourages the use of
cover crops, including winter hardy annuals and not just a
single crop, providing allowances for cover crop seeding and
maturation dates, as well as termination strategies that do not
increase chemical inputs.
We would like to see increased funding for research related
to the on-farm and off-farm non-crop effects of large scale
pesticide and herbicide use, which has been dogging both
farmers and landowners this spring.
We encourage you to preserve farm bill conservation
programs, including robust funding for conservation technical
assistance. We'd like to see an emphasis on conserving native
grasslands and re-seeding native prairie grasses and flowers
for pollinators and other wildlife. We'd like to see
conservation programs performance-based to ensure that public
investments go to strategies that provide the greatest benefits
at the lowest cost, prioritizing CSP practices to maximize
improving soil health, habitat, and water quality.
I have other comments that I will submit to the Committee.
Thank you for your consideration.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Carol.
Would David Erickson come forward?
Next is Matt Hanauer, Macon County Soil and Water
Conservation District. Matt?
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW HANAUER, WATERSHED
SPECIALIST, MACON COUNTY SOIL AND WATER
CONSERVATION DISTRICT, DECATUR, IL
Mr. Hanauer. Hello, there. I'd like to speak about water
quality being a priority of the offered programs that you guys
have. The Clean Water Act, Section 319 Amendment made in 1987,
leads the water quality to a watershed approach, which has
really been very successful throughout the years, and it really
focuses priority water resources to the concerns that are there
for the entire state and statewide initiatives; especially in
Illinois is the nutrient loss reduction strategy, which lists
nitrogen and phosphorus as our priority concerns. In 2 years of
this strategy, we've seen significant increases in adoption of
the best management practices and real improvements through
collaborative efforts.
The agriculture sector in Illinois has invested $54 million
into nutrient loss reduction research for water quality, and
wastewater treatment facilities have spent $145 million on
feasibility and optimization studies. That's nearly $200
million for water quality through outside sources. The Illinois
EPA has $3\1/2\ million annually for section 319 funds that
really focuses these efforts.
SWCDs, including Macon County, are the bridge from the
government to the landowners and operators. For example, Macon
County in 2016 spent $250,000 putting cost-share or to get BMPs
on the ground, and nearly $200,000 of that was through section
319 funds. These water quality funds are having a great impact
on the national, state, and local levels, and these fund
conservation, they employ conservation-minded people, and they
show the importance of conservation to the Federal Government,
which leads to other investments, like the $200 million in
Illinois.
If we veer from the water quality as a priority, I fear
that a lot of the progress that we've made will go away and the
work that we've done will start to fade.
Thank you for your time.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Matt. Matt's office is just here on
campus across the parking lot.
Would Michael Baise of Farmland Trust come forward?
And the next is Stephanie Wise. Stephanie?
STATEMENT OF STEPHANIE WISE, MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
COMPEER FINANCIAL, SUN PRAIRIE, WI
Ms. Wise. Good morning. My name is Stephanie Wise. I'm the
fifth generation of my family to farm in Bureau and Henry
Counties in north central Illinois. We grow corn, soybeans, and
popcorn, and my family also operates businesses that provide
farm inputs and custom farming services to other farmers in our
area.
I'm very proud of the contribution that ag makes to our
economy and I'm passionate about sustaining that contribution
and that opportunity for future generations. It's also my honor
to serve as an elected member to the Board of Directors of
Compeer Financial. Compeer is a member-owned cooperative that's
part of the Farm Credit System. We provide loans, leases, risk
management and financial services to individuals and borrowers
throughout 144 counties in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
I have three things that I'd like to share with you for
which your support is needed. First, passage of a strong farm
bill within the next year is essential. As you're aware, we're
in the midst of, for a large portion of our industry, a
multiyear downturn, so that's a very clear and present reminder
of the need for a safety net against sustained downturn.
Second, there are some key tools that must be maintained
and remain adequate for their intended purpose. Of course,
there's the Federal Crop Insurance Program, along with the
Agricultural Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs
that should be maintained and improved.
Another important tool is USDA's Farm Service Agency direct
and guaranteed loan programs. The guaranteed loan program gives
flexibility to lenders like Compeer in working with our
clients. That flexibility is particularly important in working
with young, beginning, and small farmers to help them get into
the business, as well as existing businesses to help them
expand and sustain themselves during the downturn.
You're also aware that the cost of crop inputs, land, and
equipment have increased significantly over the last several
years, so we would support seeing an increase not only to the
guaranteed loan limits, but also to the funding for the
guaranteed, as well as direct loan programs, to better enable
Compeer and other lenders to partner with USDA to serve the
needs of the users of the programs given their current economic
circumstances.
Third and last, I'd like to speak about rural development,
specifically Community Facilities programs, and USDA has a very
successful Community Facilities program. Sparing the details
right now, it's challenging, given the FCA's procedures,
they're slow and burdensome, for promoting and facilitating
partnerships between Farm Credits like Compeer, community
banks, as USDA, in promoting investment in vital projects for
rural communities like nursing homes and hospitals. We'd ask
that you instruct FCA to provide a more programmatic and
efficient approach to approving those investment partnerships.
Thank you. We look forwarded to working with you on the
next farm bill.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Stephanie.
Would Neal Merchen from U of I come forward?
Our next speaker is Darin, I knew the next speaker's wife
in college and I was kind of sweet on her a little bit, but as
you can tell, she preferred tall, dark, and handsome.
David Erickson, Illinois Farm Bureau. Welcome, David.
STATEMENT OF DAVID C. ERICKSON, VICE PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS FARM
BUREAU, ALTONA, IL
Mr. Erickson. She couldn't find that either, so she got me.
Thank you. Good morning. I'm David Erickson from Altona,
Illinois. My wife Nancy and I farm corn and soybeans in Knox
and Henry Counties in the Seventeenth Congressional District,
and it's just a stone's throw away from the Eighteenth
Congressional District.
I also serve as Vice President of Illinois Farm Bureau, and
earlier this year, we had the opportunity to have about 15
working sessions with our members working on aspects of the
farm bill that they thought were important and some that they
thought perhaps could be improved. One of those areas, given
today's current commodity prices and need for additional
operating capital, was the commodity marketing loan program.
They came up with three ways that we think we could enhance
that program with a little or no cost increase to the program.
First of all, if we could tie those loan rates to a more
reasonable cost of a current price of those commodities, maybe
in the 80 to 85 percent range of a 5 year average, there'd be
more meaningful dollars available for those loans again for
operating capital in these tight times.
Second, if we could provide some additional incentive on
interest rates that would encourage producers to use
conservation practices that they're not already currently
doing, it could help that green aspect of the farm bill through
lower loan rates, interest rates, but without increasing the
cost of the program.
And third, it's a way that we could provide additional
incentives for beginning farmers; perhaps, again, a lower
interest rate for those beginning farmers to help them get the
needed capital, get their feet on the ground in these times.
We like to refer to it as the three-in-one marketing loan,
something that's a little bit closer tied to the current
prices, something that provides interest incentives for
conservation practices, and also something that provides
interest rates that are more competitive for beginning farmers.
Thanks for your consideration.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, David. Thanks for your leadership
with Farm Bureau.
Would Joni Bucher with the Illinois Beef Association come
forward?
Our next speaker is Michael Baise of American Farmland
Trust.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL BAISE, SENIOR MIDWEST POLICY ADVISOR,
AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST, BLOOMINGTON, IN
Mr. Baise. Good morning. Welcome to central Illinois. My
name is Michael Baise. I grew up on a grain livestock farm in
Morgan County, straight west of here. I represent American
Farmland Trust in Illinois and Indiana, and I do hope that
you'll take some time and go see the farm equipment and the
show, but I also think that it might be helpful for you to look
beyond the show and look at the flat, black, precious farmland
that I would argue is a national strategic asset that should be
protected and preserved.
American Farmland Trust's mission is to protect America's
farmland, promote sound farming practices, and keep farmers on
the land. We promote the ``No Farms, No Food'' bumper stickers.
I had a colleague that almost ran into the Chairman's Jeep
the other day. He saw the bumper sticker that was on your
vehicle. At least it had Texas District 11 plates on it.
We understand that there are difficult funding decisions to
be made in the farm bill, but I would like to point out some
programs that we see as important. In terms of protecting
farmland, the quantity of farmland, our focus is on the
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, ACEP. At a recent
Senate hearing, NRCS shared their estimates for a future
without additional ACEP funding. Over 93 percent of farmers and
ranchers who are currently seeking to protect their farmland
would be turned away.
AFT strongly supports maintaining overall conservation
title funding. A toolbox of conservation programs is crucial
for the quality protection of our natural resource, and title
II should at least maintain its current level.
We see working lands programs such as the EQIP and RCPP
programs as particularly important and we advocate a balanced
approach for funding conservation and working lands.
Finally, we see great opportunity to help the next
generation of farmers with farm viability and land access,
programs such as the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development
Program and Farmers' Market and Local Food Promotion Program
provide opportunities for new farmers. An increase in farm
ownership loans to $500,000 indexed to inflation would be also
helpful for beginning farmers.
Thanks again for your time today, and if you need another
one of these, I've got plenty. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Mike.
Would Steve John, Agricultural Watershed Institute come
forward?
Next, Neal Merchen from the University of Illinois ACES
Office of Research.
STATEMENT OF NEAL R. MERCHEN, Ph.D., ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR
RESEARCH, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS; DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT
STATION, URBANA, IL
Dr. Merchen. Good morning. My name's Neal Merchen and I
direct agricultural research programs at the University of
Illinois, and this is a fitting venue for this Committee
session with the Farm Progress Show going on just to the north
here because Farm Progress Show is all about innovation and
technology with application to agricultural production.
In our realm, conducting publicly funded research to
develop solutions to agricultural problems through the
applications of fundamental science is what we do. Our private
partners, in turn, use that knowledge that we create to create
value and new technology like we see at the Farm Progress Show.
Let's think about what it would mean if we saw the
application, or if we saw an increase in our ability to capture
solar energy through photosynthesis in plants of 10 to 15
percent. That's the goal of research that's going on at the
University of Illinois, funded through the Gates Foundation
right now.
What would it mean if we thought about making more and more
of our chemicals that we use every day from polymers that are
derived from our crops and other biological commodities? That's
the goal of the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory, a
facility that's nearing completion in construction on
University of Illinois campus right now, and our partners in
that endeavor include companies that are located right here in
Decatur.
The point that I want to make about those projects is that
they would never have been possible without the public funding
through capacity funds and competitive funds through the
National Institute for Food and Agriculture to develop the
background information needed to take those things to
application.
Consequently, we're here to ask the Committee for continued
strong support for activities related to research, extension,
and other related activities in the farm bill. At the
University of Illinois, we're very careful about stewarding
those resources to maintain science and extension capacity and
we're also, again, very competitive for research opportunities
presented through the National Institute for Food and
Agriculture.
Thank you very much for your attention and for your
continued support through the authorization of these programs
in the farm bill.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Neal.
Would Doug Hanson come forward?
Next, Illinois Beef Association, Joni Bucher.
STATEMENT OF JONI BUCHER, PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS BEEF ASSOCIATION;
OWNER, BUCHER CATTLE COMPANY, GOOD HOPE, IL
Ms. Bucher. Good morning. I'm Joni Bucher from McDonough
County. I serve currently as the President of the Illinois Beef
Association. I'd just like to say, if Rich is still in the
room, they said the prettiest was going to come first. I guess
I wasted makeup this morning.
Mr. Noland. Joni, speak close to the microphone.
Ms. Bucher. I'd like to just follow up with you on a couple
points: Conservation: The conservation title is befitting
sustainability at cattle operations like mine. I'm a fourth
generation cattle producer, first woman owned and operated.
EQIP has allowed my farm to run more animals more efficiently,
while simultaneously safeguarding the environment, so we feel
very strongly about those programs for conservation.
We echo the livestock community's unified voice about FMD
vaccine and I want to clarify that just a little bit further.
We're not only talking about a development of a vaccine, but
we're talking about a management program as well. When we ask
for $150 million over 5 years, I want you to look at it in this
sense. We're talking about developing the vaccine, then we're
talking about warehousing that vaccine offshore. There's a
management company that is ensuring that we're doing first-in,
first-out. As in the past, we've had vaccine that has expired.
This will safeguard that we do not run into that, and the
reason we're asking for that $150 million over 5 years is
because we'll be able to market that product, and when I say
first-in, first-out, we get those products that are about to
expire, that vaccine that might expire, we sell to another
country. This will become a self-sustaining program but we need
your help.
Who does this affect? Anyone that eats. It affects all of
us. It's not if, it's when. We really have to get the FMD funds
available so that we can work on this project.
Market development: That's something that we're very
concerned about. We don't want to get rid of NAFTA, we want to
fix it. NAFTA works. We need you to really look at that and see
how it would affect us if NAFTA goes away. Our trade partners,
Canada and Mexico, are very important to us and we need to look
at that. Japan is a market that our tariff increased from 38\1/
2\ percent to 50 percent. We need that to be looked at. We
understand that TPP went away, and if we had been in that
program in that sense we wouldn't have this issue, but we do
have this issue, and Japan is one of our largest markets, so we
really have to get on board and get this taken care of.
And finally, we'd like you to look at the opportunity for
regulatory relief in the farm bill by keeping the livestock
title out of the 2018 Farm Bill. We want you to keep the
revival of the GIPSA Rule and mandatory COOL out of the farm
bill. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you.
Would Doug Wilson come forward?
Next, Steve John, Agricultural Watershed Institute here in
Decatur.
STATEMENT OF STEVE JOHN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AGRICULTURAL
WATERSHED INSTITUTE, DECATUR, IL
Mr. John. Thank you. I'm very pleased to have this
opportunity to raise the profile of perennial crops, and in
particular, deep-rooted, high-yielding perennial biomass crops
that in the years and decades to come can provide food, feed,
bioenergy and bioproducts and also really enhance the
environmental performance of our agricultural landscapes, with
a lot of conservation benefits. We think perennial biomass
crops cross multiple titles within the farm bill, especially,
both conservation and the energy title and research. We have a
particular interest in one, farm research, where we can be
demonstrating how perennial biomass crops can fit into a farm
operation, reduce nutrient losses, improve soil health, provide
wildlife habitat, reduce nitrous oxide emissions from farmland
and that sort of thing.
My organization, we're a small nonprofit. We are right here
on the Richland campus, but we're a part of a consortium called
Green Lands Blue Waters, that includes land-grant universities
in the upper Midwestern states and nonprofits throughout the
upper Midwest, and Green Lands Blue Waters has kind of a vision
of a significant increase, once again, over a period of
decades, in your perennial crops on the landscape.
Green Lands Blue Waters' theory of change for how this is
going to happen is to be working with farmers, with industry,
and with policymakers to expand uses and markets and
enterprises that use the products of perennialized agriculture.
With regard to the farm bill, I'd just quickly mention that
we would support continued funding of the BCAP, Biomass Crop
Assistance Program. We would like to see that be able to be
used more for basically small- to medium-sized thermal energy
projects that can support one farm demonstration of perennial
biomass crops.
I just want to wrap up by saying that we have perennial
crop plots at the north end of the Farm Progress Show site. If
any of you, or if any in attendance, have the opportunity, we'd
love to talk to you in more depth about this. We're at 12th
Street at the far north end of the site. Thank you very much.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Steve.
Would Earl Williams please come forward?
Next is Doug Hanson, Illinois CAE Chair.
STATEMENT OF DOUG HANSON, CHAIRMAN, ILLINOIS
LEADERSHIP COUNCIL FOR AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, DANFORTH, IL
Mr. Hanson. My name is Doug Hanson. I live in Iroquois
County, where my wife and I have two daughters that, if they
choose to, will be fifth generation agricultural opportunities
on both sides, my wife's as well as mine.
I am here as the ILCAE Chair, which is the Illinois
Leadership Council for Agricultural Education, which is a
committee that has been together for over 30 years. That
includes 30+ members of the agribusiness industry in Illinois,
as well as educators at all levels of agriculture education. We
follow a plan that is utilized to move agriculture education
forward and to address those issues that need to be addressed.
I am actually here today to give word from one of our
agriculture teachers in Illinois, who is doing his job today,
so he's not able to come and express this message. His name is
Jesse Faber. He's a decorated agriculture teacher from Pontiac
High School, a very successful two teacher agriculture program
in Illinois, but Jesse is today still facing the same issue
that has plagued agriculture education for decades.
I want to give just a little bit more foundation on my own.
I am a grain farmer. I am a beef producer. I work for a seed
company, an independent seed company out of Illinois,
ProHarvest Seeds out of Iroquois County, and myself, my wife,
the owners of that company, the people who work for that
company, most all have agriculture high school education
experience. It's something that we have all found valued and
it's something that we look for in our employees.
Jesse had a student come to him as a junior this year in
high school, first-time agriculture student, who is a decorated
4-H member in their community, but when they sat down and did
his plan for college, he knew that he had certain college
entrance requirements to go to a university in Illinois and was
not able to take ag as a freshman or sophomore. These are
Jesse's words: ``As an agriculture educator, I am focused on
addressing the agriculture workforce shortage, specifically the
shortage of college graduates.'' With this in mind and with the
start of the school year, one of my greatest frustrations is
students who want to be in agriculture courses, but his or her
schedule is filled by fine arts courses needed for admission to
college. When these students are lost from high school
agriculture programs, we lose the connection to recruit them
into our outstanding industry. As I look at USDA programs that
provide resources and partnerships to institutions of higher
education, I encourage the use of these relationships to
promote the consideration of agriculture education to meet
requirements for the admissions process.
We have funding that goes both to the universities, it goes
to high school education, that is developing quality
individuals, but there is a gap that is not letting these
individuals get accepted to the universities at entrance
levels. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Doug. And would Sarah with Land
Connection please come forward?
Next is Doug Wilson. For the Committee's benefit, Doug was
the Illinois Director for USDA Rural Development.
Mr. Wilson. Former director.
Mr. Noland. Former director, yes.
STATEMENT OF DOUGLAS A. WILSON, PRINCIPAL, DOUGLAS A. WILSON
FARMS, GRIDLEY, IL
Mr. Wilson. I'm here today as Doug Wilson, corn and soybean
farmer from north central Illinois.
I'd like to make just a few comments, Chairman Conaway, you
asked about all the different titles within the farm bill. My
notes count to this, so I hope I can make some good sense for
you all. Good morning to you.
I've had the opportunity in addition to farming to serve on
a variety of boards and organizations over the years, and my
guess would be if I asked the room, probably well over half the
room has served on township boards, county boards, school
boards, hospital boards, fire and ambulance districts, and so
producers in Illinois and across the nation do give back to the
elements within that, and it doesn't just stop with rural
development into the community projects and things that I've
mentioned, it goes into the businesses, as I'm sure all of you
know.
In our state, rail loops, elevators, anaerobic digesters
and the other parts of ethanol is something that has been
involved in that as well, and we're talking real money when we
come down to this when it goes into communities and areas of
50,000 and less, and states like Texas, North Carolina, and
Michigan are successful in bringing back over $1 billion a year
for their rural areas.
It's important to remember the overall health of the rural
communities, not only the farms and the other elements, because
I still am a farmer, I'm getting my combine ready to go, but
there are other elements that help to the overall economic
well-being of a state and a community, and really, when it
comes down to it, rural development is about economics, it's
about health, and it's about safety, and I encourage you to pay
a little attention to that title of the farm bill, too. Thank
you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Doug.
Would Jennifer McCaffrey from U of I come forward?
Next, Earl Williams, Illinois Farm Bureau. Hello, Earl.
STATEMENT OF EARL WILLIAMS, Jr., DISTRICT 2 DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS
FARM BUREAU, CHERRY VALLEY, IL
Mr. Earl Williams, Jr. Do three Williams in the crowd give
you a win? I'm the third Williams. Is that automatically a win?
Mr. Noland. Yes.
Mr. Earl Williams. Okay. My name's Earl Williams. I farm up
in Winnebago County. I'm also on the Board of Directors of the
Illinois Farm Bureau, and, first, I'd like to thank past
Agriculture Committees for the programs such as CSP, which I
have used in our family operation to convert from the
techniques my grandfather and father used to plow and control
the weeds that way, to a hundred percent no-till.
As I look forward, I realize that we, as farmers, are going
to have to make a lot of changes on how we grow our crops in
order to meet some of the needs of the nutrient reduction
strategies to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that
goes down the Mississippi. The program like the CSP, which I
strongly urge you to continue to support, is very important for
allowing farmers to make that transition. It covers some of the
risk in learning how to farm differently than what we did over
the past and gives us some of the tools and support needed to
make that transition so that we can benefit our environment,
which benefits the environment of the whole country. So, with
that, I thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Earl.
Sarah, I hesitated to pronounce your last name, so would
you please pronounce it for me?
Ms. Simeziane. Simeziane.
Mr. Noland. Simeziane. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF SARAH SIMEZIANE, FARMERS' MARKET AND FOOD ACCESS
MANAGER, THE LAND CONNECTION,
CHAMPAIGN, IL
Ms. Simeziane. Thank you very much.
Hi, my name is Sarah Simeziane. I grew up in Pontiac, but
I've lived in Champaign for the past 10 years where I am the
Farmers' Market and Food Access Manager for The Land
Connection.
There are two key issues of the farm bill I'd like to talk
to you about. One is the importance of the Farmers' Market
Promotion Program, FMPP, and the critical importance of SNAP
and food assistance programs like FINI at farmers' markets.
Two years ago, I helped launch a midweek farmers' market in
Champaign in Congressman Davis' District, and last year we
received an FMPP grant to support our 2017 and 2018 seasons.
This grant has made a world of difference in expanding our
capacity to reach the community and create a solid sales base
for local farmers.
Most notably, the FMPP funds made it possible to expand our
advertising by allowing us to make small purchases with local
radio, print, billboard, and online outlets, who, in turn,
matched or sometimes even tripled as in-kind donations what we
had purchased, so it's really allowed us to amplify the funds
we received from the program and expand our purchasing power.
We've been able to also purchase equipment for cooking
demonstrations and a sampling tent at our markets, where we've
been able to introduce local shoppers to new produce that's
grown locally, help teach children about fruits and vegetables,
get kids to try things like kohlrabi and radishes, which you
wouldn't believe happens, and directly boosts sales for our
farmers.
As a result of this grant, this season our sales are up 40
percent over last year. Our farmers are happy and we're pumping
tens of thousands of dollars into the local economy, all while
making this a regular food shopping destination for thousands
of Champaign residents.
One of the cornerstones of our success has been our SNAP
incentive program, which was made possible by the LINK Up
Illinois program, originally funded out of a FINI grant. We
offer SNAP benefits that has so far generated over $10,000
worth of sales, and our season is only \2/3\ of the way
through.
Not only are we expanding access and food budgets for
struggling families, but we're putting a lot of money directly
into the pockets of our local farmers, and in turn, this is
really benefitting our local economy, which is kind of what
food stamps were designed to do in the first place when they
were originally developed.
We urge you to continue support for these really critical
programs. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Sarah.
Would Gordon Clark and Kelly Hurst come forward?
Next is the Assistant Dean at U of I, Jennifer McCaffrey.
STATEMENT OF JENNIFER McCAFFREY, Ph.D., ASSISTANT DEAN, FAMILY
AND CONSUMER SCIENCES, OFFICE OF
EXTENSION AND OUTREACH, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, CHAMPAIGN, IL
Dr. McCaffrey. I'm Jennifer McCaffrey. I direct the SNAP-
Education Program and research food access and food insecurity
at the University of Illinois.
We know that SNAP works. The hearings conducted over the
past year show that when families fall on hard times, SNAP is
the stopgap needed to help them get back on their feet. We know
firsthand in Illinois, where nearly two million residents rely
on SNAP, that it lowers food insecurity by 30 percent. With
more than \1/2\ of the SNAP recipients being children,
alleviating hunger is critical for growth and development of
the future workforce.
When SNAP is combined with SNAP education, we see families
accessing more fresh produce, children eat and encourage
parents to select healthier foods, and we ensure that families
are spending SNAP benefits more effectively. We work with
schools and community partners to ensure that the environments
where our families live are enabling healthier choices. This
generates not only better nutrition, but also sustainable
community solutions that support health. SNAP and SNAP-
Education benefit local and national economies, as well as the
agriculture industry. USDA research shows that for every $1
million spent through SNAP, it generates $340 million in farm
production and over 3,000 farm jobs. That is why the farm and
nutrition components of the farm bill make sense. The entire
economic system supported in the farm bill is critical for
supporting the well-being of families.
At the University of Illinois, we officially and
effectively leverage the dollars, such as those authorized in
the farm bill, to generate the solutions for the residents of
Illinois. These examples highlight how research, extension, and
the targeted funds like SNAP-Education produce benefits for
families facing food insecurity.
We know that tough financial times require new ways of
thinking and maximizing efficiencies.
That is why at the University of Illinois, we are exploring
innovative methods for the next century in an initiative called
Extension 3.0. We believe that we are on the path of carving
out new models. We look forward to working with you to share
our success and efforts that demonstrate the results. Thank
you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jennifer.
Would Sarah Moore come forward? Gordon Clark. Gordon's from
Texas.
Mr. Chairman, do you see Gordon Clark, Dumas, Texas? Pass
that down.
Kelly Hurst, Central Illinois Food Bank.
STATEMENT OF KELLY WICKHAM HURST, FOUNDER,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEING BLACK AT SCHOOL,
SPRINGFIELD, IL; ON BEHALF OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS FOOD BANK
Ms. Hurst. Thank you. My name's Kelly Hurst, and I am
representing the Central Illinois Food Bank. I'm not a farmer,
I am not a food banker, I am simply a face. I am the face of
someone who has used SNAP benefits in order to get out of some
very tough times.
At the age of 18, I took my 3 year old daughter with me on
to college for some seriously uncertain times. I was not sure
if I was going to finish, I was not sure how we were going to
eat, I was not at all certain how I was going to raise this
child by myself. However, when I got to Eastern Illinois
University and found a community of people who were willing to
help me, I found myself in a situation where I could use those
SNAP benefits and I found food banks that were willing to help
me, and lo and behold, I came to find out that when you're
raising children, it actually helps to feed them very healthy
foods, and I finished that college degree within 4 years and
became a teacher.
I went on to get another college degree and became an
administrator in schools where I could continue to take the
things that I learned about being a single parent on those
benefits and also about healthy eating. I found myself being
the assistant principal who kept the fresh fruits and
vegetables in her office for those students that I knew hadn't
eaten a meal the night before or who could not possibly think
about going into a math classroom without having anything in
their stomach for the day.
I'm just simply here to say, I appreciate that you've given
us this opportunity, and while I'm not a farmer and I'm not a
food banker, I'm just a face, if I were a better face, I would
have been earlier on in speaking today, but this is the one
I've got, I'm going to keep it, and I just want you to remember
that as you are making considerations for SNAP benefits and
that people are not who they seem to be in that moment, I'm
certainly grateful that I had the opportunity to use them, that
I had the opportunity to raise my daughter in a healthy
situation, who has now given me my first grandchild, and I just
appreciate being able to have shown her exactly what it is that
our nation is capable of doing when we care about our neighbors
and when we feed them. Thank you very much.
Mr. Noland. Thank you for sharing your personal testimony.
Would Aron Carlson and Jason Propst come forward?
Next is Sarah Moore, Animal Protective League.
STATEMENT OF SARAH MOORE, CLINIC MANAGER, ANIMAL PROTECTIVE
LEAGUE, SPRINGFIELD, IL
Ms. Moore. Yes, hello. My name's Sarah Moore. I work at the
Animal Protective League, which is in Springfield.
Representative Davis, I'm a constituent.
Animal welfare is important to me, especially for cats and
dogs, so I hope that you will work to strengthen measures to
protect our pets when drafting the farm bill.
Specifically, I want to talk about the Dog and Cat Meat
Trade Prohibition Act or H.R. 1406. It was referred to the
Agriculture Committee and it amends the Animal Welfare Act to
prohibit the domestic slaughter, trade, and import and export
of dog and cats for human consumption.
It establishes penalties for individuals involved in the
dog and cat meat trade and prevents the dog and cat meat trade
from taking hold in the U.S., while also strengthening our
country's standing to press for a forum worldwide.
Representative Davis, you are a cosponsor of that
legislation and I just want to thank you for that. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Sarah.
Would Randy DeSutter come forward?
Next is Aron Carlson, Illinois Corn Growers Vice President.
STATEMENT OF KENNETH HARTMAN, Jr., OWNER, GLENDELL H. FARMS,
LTD.; CHAIRMAN, MARKET ACCESS ACTION TEAM, NATIONAL CORN
GROWERS, WATERLOO, IL
Mr. Hartman. Well, I'm not Aron Carlson. Aron had to leave,
so I'm Kenneth Hartman from southern Illinois in Mike's
District and a member of the Illinois Corn Growers, and also
current Chairman of the National Corn Growers Market Access
Action Team.
I know you have already heard a great deal about the
continued need for strong safety nets in the next farm bill.
Commodity programs and crop insurance are essential, but I
believe expanding our markets is the best way for farmers to
mitigate risk and create more opportunity. Trade is becoming
increasingly important to corn farmers, since we export upwards
of 20 percent of our crop, and if you consider corn in all
forms: corn, feed, DDGs, ethanol, and livestock. Since exports
accounts for more than 30 percent of our income, in fact, trade
was Illinois' second priority this year, second to only the
Federal crop insurance.
Two programs critical for developing global markets for
U.S. agriculture exports, that include corn and corn products,
are the USDA's Market Access Program, or MAP, and the Foreign
Market Development Program, FMD. It is estimated that these two
programs alone account for more than 15 percent of our revenue
generated in the U.S. ag exports. In fact, FMD and MAP funding
leverage the private-sector's investment to create markets for
our ag exports, with 70 percent of overall investments coming
from the private-sector. Without MAP and FMD funding, for
example, in corn, the U.S. Grains Council, it is likely that
the country of Peru would not have become the fifth largest
export market for U.S. corn. The U.S. Grain's Council
investment of $35,000 of MAP funding in its customer service
and market programs in 2015 increased Peru's purchases by $53
million, for a return on investment of $1,500 for every dollar
of MAP funding invested.
Unfortunately, due to the inflation, sequestration, higher
administration costs, and more commodities competing for the
same dollars, MAP and FMD funding is being stretched thin. In
fact, while U.S. funding levels for exports promotion programs
have remained static in recent years, our global competitors
are outspending us.
We have heard about the budget constraints around the farm
bill, but the agriculture economy is too fragile to tell
ourselves ``no'' on trade. This needs to be a priority.
I want to urge you to increase funding for MAP and FMD to
help ensure we farmers can continue to compete in the world
market. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Kenneth.
If Steve Turner from Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau would come
forward.
Next, Jason Propst, Illinois Pork Producers. Jason?
STATEMENT OF JASON PROPST, PRESIDENT, ILLINOIS PORK PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION, NEOGA, IL
Mr. Propst. Thank you, Duane. As he said, I'm Jason Propst
with Illinois Pork Producers. I reside out by Neoga, Illinois,
southeast of here.
The thing first I would like to clarify, the ask on the
foot-and-mouth disease is actually $150 million a year for each
of the 5 years of the farm bill. From that standpoint, 3 weeks
ago we had the opportunity when Secretary Perdue was here, we
talked about it, brought those numbers up to him, and he
quickly said we needed to do more with less and said $25
million is a great number to be looking at.
I come to you guys because I know you guys write the farm
bill, he just implements it. The thing we look at is, $150
million a year that we talked about is very steadfast numbers.
It's based on looking at numbers done by Iowa State University,
and the other fact is from the National Pork Producers Council,
we put numbers together. As you guys have seen, we come with
the numbers in hand. We don't come with wild numbers, we come
directly with the numbers in hand. The reason we look at this
$150 million a year is we know what it does to the rural
economies and the ripple effect it has in the U.S.
From the livestock industry, we export about 25 percent of
our livestock products throughout the world, so if a foot-and-
mouth disease outbreak happens, 25 percent of our production
goes away immediately because the world will not take our
product. There's nothing wrong with it nutritionally, but from
a trade standpoint, they will not take it. Basically, 25
percent of our market goes away, so that means we lose 25
percent of our U.S. workforce. In turn, it has a ripple effect
and we lose our feed companies, we lose our veterinarians, we
loose the ripple effect throughout there, and ultimately it
comes back to our crop farmers. The livestock industry is the
number one consumer of U.S. grains, and so with that, we're
going to lose 25 percent of our farmers, so it has a ripple
effect down there.
As a livestock industry, not very often do we come to the
farm bill asking for things, but we look at this as a very good
security process, insurance process, to allow our livestock
industry to continue to grow but, in turn, allow our U.S.
economy to continue to grow with that.
Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jason.
Would Dennis Wurth come forward?
And for the Committee's benefit, several counties claim
supremacy in agriculture in this state. One is Knox, and you
might remember the name John Block. John Block hailed from Knox
County. The DeSutter family are also from Knox County and,
Randy, we're glad to have you here. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF RANDY DeSUTTER, PARTNER, DeSUTTER FARMS, WOODHULL,
IL
Mr. DeSutter. My name is Randy DeSutter. I'm a corn and
soybean farmer from Woodhull, Illinois. I guess you'd have to
consider me bipartisan because I voted for Cheri Bustos as my
Congressman and Darin LaHood used to be my State Senator, so
that's kind of neat.
I guess today I represent all the farmers in the United
States that would like to be in the farm program and use it as
a safety net but can't get in because we don't have a base on
some of our farms.
Through no fault of my own, I have a farm. I can't get into
the farm program because it doesn't have a base. The previous
owner didn't like farm programs, so he didn't go in and certify
his acres. There has not been a provision to add base since
2002, so I can't get in.
Farms that used to have livestock also have a similar
problem. They probably grew a crop like hay that's a non-
program crop. Now they're out of livestock, they can't get that
portion of their farm in.
Because of situations like these, we need a provision to
both add and update bases in the next farm bill. As I said,
it's not been done since 2002. We've seen a lot of changes in
farming since 2002. We've got a new generation of farmers, new
seeds, and economics have changed where and what crops are
grown in this great country.
In addition, there will be environmental benefits because
the new base acres will be required to have a conservation plan
in order to participate in farm programs.
Senator Thune has a proposal to add and update bases, based
on what has been planted the last 4 years. Senator Thune's plan
would solve my problem and provide a safety net that helps to
more accurately reflect what is grown in this great country.
Who do you think should make a decision on my farm on whether
to sign up for the farm program, me or the previous owner
that's been dead for 20 years?
Are you going to write a farm bill with bases that are 20
years old, or are you going to write a farm bill for the
farmers of 2017? If you're writing it for us farmers in 2017,
we need to be able to both add and update bases so people like
me can participate. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Randy. Dennis Wurth and Mallory
Krieger, please come forward.
Next is Steve Turner, Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau President.
STATEMENT OF STEVE TURNER, PRESIDENT, CASS-MORGAN FARM BUREAU,
CHANDLERVILLE, IL
Mr. Turner. Yes, thank you. I am Steve Turner. I operate a
family farming operation with my wife and two adults sons in
west central Illinois, located in Congressman LaHood's
District.
I come to you today, I wanted to bring your attention to
basically some guidelines that we face as farmers out here, and
this is the cumbersome NRCS wetland rules and regulations, and
I guess here I come posing a question to this Committee. Is
there anything you can do to see if the current law and statute
is being fairly applied consistently across all regions, or
across all your Congressional districts?
In Illinois, river bottom farmers, farmer drainage
districts made up of farmers, even to the flat background that
surrounds this site today, face a very burdensome regulation
process. The whole process is very top heavy, meaning the local
levels sometimes needs to be involved more, and I talk to that
local level from the service center. A lot of these decisions
are passed going up the line, and it loses some of its merit
when you don't have some of the local persons in these service
centers have more say on it. And, basically, like I said, it's
a very burdensome process and I just wanted to bring that to
your attention.
Second, and last, I'd ask this Committee to support the
Secretary's plan to put RMA, NRCS and FSA operations under one
Under Secretary.
I just hope this can be a positive change agent for all the
USDA agencies and maybe springboard that to make the USDA
service centers more service oriented out here. I just want to
tell you I strongly support that.
Other than that, I appreciate your time, and good luck with
your Committee assignments.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Steve.
Leslie Cooperban come forward, and next is Dennis Wirth.
STATEMENT OF DENNIS WIRTH, PARTNER, WIRTH BROTHERS FARMS, GAYS,
IL
Mr. Wirth. Good morning. My name is Dennis Wirth. I farm in
partnership with my twin brother, Darrell. We live, or farm
basically, Shelby/Moultrie County, and I was asked by a good
friend, that couldn't make it today to bring up a couple
talking points. Dave Janson from Strategic Farm Marketing has
covered one of my points, the HPO, the Harvest Price Option.
This feature was a big factor on our farm's financial outcome
in the drought year of 2012.
And another thing, the Renewable Fuel Standard, I don't
think anybody has mentioned it yet today, but that's something
that we need to support and maintain. That's greatly needed.
Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Dennis.
Mallory Krieger.
STATEMENT OF MALLORY KRIEGER, FARMER TRAINING
PROGRAM MANAGER, THE LAND CONNECTION; OWNER/
OPERATOR, LOWER MEADOW FARM, LLC, CHAMPAIGN, IL
Ms. Krieger. Good morning. Thank you.
Hello. My name is Mallory Krieger. I am the Farmer Training
Program Manager at an organization called The Land Connection.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, based in Champaign, Illinois,
which is in Mr. Davis' District, and we are dedicated to
growing the local food economy, both on and off the farm. We do
this by running a local farmers' market. My colleague, Sarah
Simeziane, spoke to that earlier. We also do beginning farmer
training and experienced farmer training. We are members of the
National Farm Beginnings Collaborative and we use that
curriculum to help train farmers in business practices that
help enhance farm livelihood and viability.
I am also an owner and operator of a farm in Pike County,
Illinois, which is in Mr. LaHood's District, where I raise
organic grain and I formerly raised vegetables.
I'm here today to ask the Committee to please invest in
programs that support regenerative agriculture, conservation
systems, conservation cropping systems and beginning farmer
training.
The Land Connection is fortunate to receive \1/3\ of its
funding from farm bill supported programs, including Risk
Management Agency grants, Farm Service Agency cooperative
agreements, and the Farmers' Market and Local Food Promotion
Programs. With these funds, I'm able to provide farmer-led
training to over 300 beginning and experienced farmers every
year, several of whom are or were in the room today, in order
to help them enhance their livelihoods, improve their
environmental footprints, and increase their access to markets
for their products.
I urge the Committee to scale up investments in our local
food economies by increasing baseline funding for the Beginning
Farmer and Rancher Development Program and to ensure robust
funding for Rural Development grants.
Thank you very much for your time.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Mallory.
Leslie Cooperband and Jeff Kerwin, Illinois Farm Bureau.
Leslie is with Prairie Fruits Farm, Champaign.
Okay. Jeff, you're up. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF JEFF KERWIN, DISTRICT 3 DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS FARM
BUREAU, NEW WINDSOR, IL
Mr. Kerwin. Thank you. I'm Jeff Kerwin. I farm south of the
Quad Cities, so I'm in Representative Bustos' District. I'm
here to talk about two things, specifically, the conservation
title.
First, the topic that hasn't been broached today is CRP
rental rates. While I fully support the CRP program, I am
concerned about the rental rates that are being used today.
They are very competitive, almost to the point of uneconomic,
so it's a real challenge as young farmers in our area try to
rent ground and they're competing against the Federal
Government in those things. I would urge in our new farm bill
that we look at those rental rates and try and tighten that up
so that it's more reflective of the economic times that we're
in at the current time.
And then also I'd like to talk about the CSP program and
the Wetlands Conservation Program, specifically CSP and the
fact that I experienced that myself. I went in and signed up
for the CSP program. I was really going to go at it and had a
lot of different trades to look at and things to do, so I
signed up for it, and it's a big, thick book of paperwork to
do. I did that and then I was denied because it wasn't funded,
and I did that for 2 years before I finally got that program
initiated this past year.
From that point we talk about CSP and the importance of it
and all those programs, but we have to make it so that we can
implement those programs when we're ready to do it. Let's try
and streamline that and fund it to make sure that we can use
those programs on our farms. Thank you.
Mr. Noland. Thank you, Jeff.
Mr. Chairman, we did very well. We got through this many,
but we had a few left, but we're at the time you'd like to wrap
it up?
The Chairman. I think so.
Mr. Noland. Thank you.
The Chairman. Well, first off, Duane, thank you for running
a very efficient listening session for us this morning. You did
great. Some of those inside jokes, I have no clue whether
they're funny or not, but apparently some folks did, but we're
CPAs; we're not very funny by design. But again, thank you.
I want to thank the school, Dr. Valdez, for hosting us this
morning. I also want to thank the Agriculture Committee staff,
many of them are sitting over here on the sides, for putting
all of this together. This is the fifth one and they've done an
exemplary job making that happen. But I specifically want to
thank each presenter who stood up and shared with us from your
heart about what's going on, what's working, what's not
working. We heard a wide variety of suggestions today and
things that we will be taking into consideration.
We have a stenographer over here who's dutifully recorded
all of this. This will be a part of the permanent record. It
will be a part of the consideration for the Committee.
If you were in that stack that did not get to present, as
you mentioned, we have an e-mail address where we'll take all
your comments. It's [email protected], they're
given the same weight as the ones who stood up and presented to
us today as well, so you'll want to make that happen.
Collin and I have a very difficult job ahead of us. Collin
and I are committed to getting this done on time. We will not
be any smarter in October of 2018 than we are before September
30, 2018. Those hard decisions will not get easier. The
difficulties will still be there, and so let's make the
decisions, and we'll need the wisdom of Solomon to decide on
lots of these things, to competing interests, to competing
comments, to make that happen, but that won't get any easier by
putting it off into the following year.
The drama associated with expiring farm bills and short-
term extensions and permanent law threats, we don't need that
drama. We're adults. We can make this happen and make those
hard decisions.
Our intent right now is to have the farm bill on the floor
in the House either late the fourth quarter of this year or
early in the first quarter of next year.
Senator Pat Roberts, he's the Chairman of the Senate
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, is committed to
a similar timeframe, so that I see the stars coming together to
get this done on time. The elegance of having a farm bill done
on time for you to know the next 5 years what the programs will
be: right, wrong, or indifferent. You'll be able to make those
plans, which is an important element of what we're trying to
get done and get accomplished.
As we look at the changes in the farm bill, things we're
going to get to do, there's a concept that I'm going to have in
the front of my mind on every one of these decisions. It's
illustrated by this: If you broke the American economy, people,
into segments of the top 20 percent of wage earners or the most
top 20 percent richest people in the country, et cetera, the
top 20 percent of the economic food chain spends more on food
than the bottom 20 percent makes in disposable income.
You can love the current farm bill or you can hate the
current farm bill, but it delivers, as you all know, the most
abundant, safest and affordable food and fiber supply than any
developed nation in the world. We spend less on our food than
any other country. Why on Earth would we screw that up by doing
something in the farm bill that would arbitrarily and
capriciously add to the cost of food?
We had a very impactful statement made by the teacher/
administrator on her experiences going through SNAP. You've
seen reports recently about over \1/2\ the country lives
paycheck to paycheck, just trying to make ends meet. The food
budget is where those folks flex. Their rent doesn't change.
Their car payment doesn't change. If something goes wrong in
the middle of the month, it comes out of the food budget, and
why on Earth would we, as a group, collectively try to make
those folks' lives any harder than it already is by raising the
cost of food. And so every time we make a decision, what's
going to go in the front of my mind is what does that do to the
ability of the American farmer and rancher to continue to
produce the most affordable food and fiber supply in the
developed world? It's a pocketbook issue.
I'm going to deputize every single person in here to tell
that story, to understand that when we go to the grocery store,
when we go to a restaurant, we get a deal. We love getting
deals. I mean, it's kind of hardwired into us. Most folks who
go to the grocery store get that deal, they know they're
getting a deal, and they don't know why they're getting that
deal. Well, you're now deputized to be a part of the
conversation as to why.
Not only do farmers and ranchers on our farms want a strong
farm bill, SNAP recipients and beneficiaries want a strong farm
bill, but every single person in America who eats every day or
wants to eat every day should be an advocate for getting this
farm bill done.
Our Committee is going to work on a bipartisan basis as its
common mission to make that happen, and your comments this
morning and your ability to sit in those chairs and listen, as
we've done up here, is a big piece of that, and I want to thank
you for that.
Let me put in the last comment and then we'll go to the
Farm Progress Show, which I'm really excited about doing.
In September we'll celebrate the 230th anniversary of our
Constitution, 230 years of living under a document that was put
together by our framers back in Philadelphia some 230 years
ago.
When Benjamin Franklin, who was the oldest person in that
group, came out of it, he was confronted by a lady who we think
was named Ms. Powell, and she asked him, ``Good Doctor, what
have you given us; a monarchy or a republic?'' And he looked at
her and said, ``A republic, madam, if you can keep it.'' Think
about the challenge inherent in that phrase, ``if you can keep
it.''
For 230 years, good Americans have kept the republic that
you and I benefit from, you and I have enjoyed all of our adult
lives. John Adams wrote that only, ``A moral or religious
people can self-govern,'' and, quite frankly, only self-
governing people can keep the republic the way we've kept it.
As I look at our country and as I see the things going on
in our country, I'm genuinely, deeply concerned that we are not
on that moral path, that moral high ground, to allow us to
continue to self-govern, and if we lose the ability to self-
govern, then we'll lose the ability to maintain and keep the
republic.
You keep that moral authority, that moral high ground, by
living a code. Each of us has to be a part of that solution
because we're going the wrong direction.
As we ask God to bless this country and the things that are
going on, ask yourself, What's that inventory of blessable
things? We've killed 57 million babies in 43 years. Our
families are breaking up and the impact that has on the moral
compasses of children, the questioning of our society, the
language we use we think it has become acceptable, the way we
interact with each other, all those things are evidence of a
moral decline within this nation that cannot long survive. It
cannot long self-govern if we keep it up.
Each of us has a role to climb back up that moral high
ground. You do it by living a code. I live the Judeo-Christian
model. Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and I try to live
his tenets every single day, and some days I'm better at it
than others, but you have to live a code as well. You have to
be a part of the solution: you, your family, your neighborhood,
your community, your city, state. All of us have those
concentric rings of influence where every day we have to take
on the personal responsibility of reclaiming that moral high
ground because, see, if we don't, then we'll lose the ability
to self-govern and we'll lose this republic. It's a republic,
men and women, if you can keep it.
God bless each one of you, God bless Texas, and God bless
the United States of America. Thank you all for being with us.
We appreciate it.
(Thereupon, the listening session was adjourned at 11:47
a.m., C.D.T.)
FARM BILL LISTENING SESSIONS: CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD
(BOUCK HALL AUDITORIUM, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, COBLESKILL,
COBLESKILL, NY)
----------
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2017
House of Representatives,
Committee on Agriculture,
Cobleskill, NY
The Committee met at 10:00 a.m., E.D.T., at Bouck Hall
Auditorium, State University of New York, Cobleskill,
Cobleskill, NY, Hon. K. Michael Conaway [Chairman of the
Committee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Conaway, Faso, and
Peterson.
Staff present: Chris Heggem, Bart Fischer, Jackie Barber,
Rachel Millard, Paul Balzano, Emily Keener, Jennifer Tiller,
Matt MacKenzie, and Troy Phillips.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM TEXAS
The Chairman. I would ask G.T. Thompson, Vice Chair of the
Committee, to open us with a prayer.
Mr. Thompson. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Heavenly Father, we
just thank you for this glorious morning, Lord. We thank you
for just so apparently being here where we are in New York and
the beautiful surroundings. This morning, Lord, as we gather,
we ask special blessings over those families that work so hard
each and every day to feed us and clothe us and provide us
building materials and energy, Lord. We give thanks for how you
meet our needs and specifically for agriculture this morning.
Now, we'll just ask you to bless those who are in
attendance. We're thankful for your traveling mercies as
they've arrived here. We just ask you to bless these
proceedings as we've had an opportunity, those of us who have
been giving us the honor of serving in agriculture in
Washington, to hear, to listen and to learn from the folks that
are here. We just ask you to bless these proceedings and,
certainly, traveling mercies as everyone here in attendance
returns home. And I pray this in the name of my Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen.
The Chairman. Thank you, G.T. We'd ask Allen Graulich, who
is the President of the FFA Chapter to lead us in the pledge of
allegiance. Please stand.
Mr. Graulich. We pledge of allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the Republic for which it
stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
The Chairman. We'd ask our host Marion Terenzio to come
give us the opening remarks. Let me first off, before Marion
speaks, apologize for the arrangements. This makes the five of
us look like royalty, and we hate that. We would much prefer to
be down at the same level as everybody. But, anyway, please
except our apologies in advance for looking down on you like a
bunch of buzzards. We appreciate that. Marion.
STATEMENT OF MARION TERENZIO, Ph.D., PRESIDENT, STATE
UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, COBLESKILL, COBLESKILL, NY
Dr. Terenzio. Thank you. Well, welcome. Welcome to the
State University of New York, College of Agriculture and
Technology at Cobleskill. On behalf of the college community,
it is my pleasure to welcome the U.S. House of Representatives
of the Committee on Agriculture. Specifically Congressman
Conaway, the Chairman; Congressman Peterson, the Ranking
Member; Congressman Thompson, the Vice Chairman; Congresswoman
Tenney and of course our hometown Congressman, Congressman
Faso.
I would welcome and thank the staff of the Agriculture
Committee for their work in coordinating this listening session
and for Evelyn Davies and our staff who worked very closely
with everyone to make this happen.
We have honored guests in the audience. We have the Dean of
the School of Agriculture at Cornell, Dean Kathryn Boor. We
have Mr. David Fisher, President of the New York State Farm
Bureau; Mr. Leo McAllister, Supervisor of the Town of
Cobleskill; the Cabinet of SUNY Cobleskill thank you for coming
in and of course our neighbors, our friends and our partners.
We are honored to co-host this event and we think it is
particularly fitting that the listening tour is here.
There are three quick reasons I'd like to give for that
reason. SUNY Cobleskill has been preparing future farmers,
policymakers, innovators and advocates for over 100 years with
a clear, consistent and relevant mission. It aligns with many
features of the farm bill and most directly with the non-land-
grant colleges of agriculture designation that began in 2008
and was re-authorized in 2014. It is my pleasure to say that
SUNY Cobleskill was one of the two non-land-grant institutions
to receive the top award of $750,000 this year. And, oh, by the
way, Congressman Conaway, Texas Tech is the other one. Using
applied learning as a framework, we focus on agriculture-
related capacity building, creating renewable resources,
finding production-oriented solutions, and building a
workforce. We have been widely recognized internationally and
nationally. One example is a headline in International Magazine
that called, ``SUNY Cobleskill one of five colleges of
agriculture in the country producing graduates who will
safeguard the future of the world.'' This may sound like a bold
assertion, and it is and it's true.
The second reason, we are preparing future farmers, most of
whom will not be coming from family farms. We've established
education pathways with local districts from which students can
earn high school diplomas and Associate's degrees. Last
semester 1,000 students were enrolled in that program. In
addition we established a partnership to create an ag PTECH
(Pathways in Technology Early College) high school which
focuses solely on agriculture. Next year a group of 50 students
will start attending SUNY Cobleskill. And the third reason,
this year SUNY Cobleskill launched the Institute for Rural
Vitality in collaboration with regional partners with the
purpose to enhance community and economic vitality in rural New
York. The institute addresses the region's most pressing issues
to develop and enact sustainable solutions. Activities range
from research to workforce development, business startups and
community and cultural celebrations. The constant feature in
this work is coalition building among faculty, students, and
community. And one example of the institute is that Albany Law
School is providing legal services in educational programming
and advocacy on behalf of our rural constituents. And so like
you who are crafting the farm bill, we support farms and
farmers. Like you we appreciate programs that open markets to
producers. Like you we use our resources to help farms thrive.
Like you we address issues related to future food supply. Today
we are pleased to assist in the re-authorization process of the
farm bill that will continue to reshape rural America. Thank
you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Marion. I recognize our Ranking
Member, Congressman Collin Peterson, for his remarks.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. COLLIN C. PETERSON, A REPRESENTATIVE
IN CONGRESS FROM MINNESOTA
Mr. Peterson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're glad to be
here today and we look forward to the advice we're going to
get. I'm Collin Peterson. I represent the western half of
Minnesota, all from Canada almost to Iowa. We're one of the
busiest ag districts in the country. We're number one in
sugarbeets, sugar, and turkeys. We're big in corn and soybeans
and we have a lot of dairy farmers. I've been in Congress for a
while, some people say too long. But this is my sixth farm
bill. We're pleased to be here, and we're looking forward to
closing out our listening sessions here in New York and then
getting to work and getting this bill done. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
The Chairman. Collin, thank you. Now we'll turn to the host
Congressman, John Faso.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FASO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM NEW YORK
Mr. Faso. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I very much appreciate
your bringing the Agriculture Committee here and very much
appreciate the work that you're doing on behalf of all of us in
America concerned about agriculture. I very much appreciate our
Vice Chairman, Glenn Thompson from Pennsylvania being here, my
colleague Claudia Tenney from the district just to the west and
Collin Peterson who is a legend in agricultural circles,
especially those focused on the state of the Congress and state
legislators around the country; he's a former Chairman of the
Agriculture Committee and serves our country very admirably as
our Ranking Member on the Committee. It's great to see all of
you here. We look forward to your comments and very much
appreciate the time that you've taken on this Columbus Day to
be with us as we consider the issues that are facing our
country and ag for the 2018 Farm Bill.
So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GLENN THOMPSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA
Mr. Thompson. Once again, good morning, everyone. I'm
Congressman G.T. Thompson, 5th Congressional District. As I was
driving up, my home is in the very center of the state, near
another great land-grant university, Penn State. When I crossed
the New York State-Pennsylvania line I felt very much at home
with the surroundings that we're in. The average size of farms
that you have is largely what I represent and that is 24% of
land mass of Pennsylvania that I represent, I'm appreciative to
the Chairman to have provided me the honor of this term. I'm in
my fifth term, with this term allowing me to serve as Vice
Chair of the full Agriculture Committee. In the past I've
chaired the Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry
(Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry for the
113th Congress) and today I serve as Chairman for the
Subcommittee on Nutrition, because after all farmers feed and
nutrition matters. It's great to be with you today.
The Chairman. All right. Claudia.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CLAUDIA TENNEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN
CONGRESS FROM NEW YORK
Ms. Tenney. Good morning and thank you all for being here.
I'm Claudia Tenney. I represent NY-22, which Mr. Faso had
indicated was to the west. Although, for 4 years I represented
Otsego, Delaware, Orange, Ulster, and Sullivan Counties in my
Assembly district, I didn't quite get to Cobleskill. But coming
down Route 20 today was a really beautiful drive and a reminder
of going past some of the area that I used to represent. I come
from a family that has a lot of dairy farmers and farmers in
it. All those dairy farmers have now closed their farms and
turned to beef and turned to raising crops, unfortunately,
because of the many issues. But NY-22 is one of the top dairy
producers in the region. It's eight counties just to the west.
I'm not actually on the Agriculture Committee. I'm on the
Financial Services Committee. But there are important issues
dealing with credit on Financial Services. Dairy is really
important. Obviously, it's part of my family, but it's part of
my district. And I just wanted to be here to hear what you have
to say when we vote on this very important bill, and some of
the issues will be effected in Financial Services. I really
appreciate you all being here. It's really important that we
hear from you. I just want to thank the Chairman and the
Ranking Member and everyone for being willing to come all the
way out here to Cobleskill where it's really important to hear
from you. And so you get to express your opinions to some of
the most important people making decisions about your industry.
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much.
The Chairman. Claudia, thank you. To each of you in the
audience, thank you very much for sharing this morning with us.
We appreciate that. Marion, thank you again for opening the
school to us, you have a lot of folks working today that would
have otherwise been a holiday. The five of us work most Federal
holidays, but your folks don't. Thank you for having them here
as well. And, again, each one of you who have come to share
with us this morning, we certainly appreciate that. We'll have
Mr. Timothy Moore who will be the moderator this morning. And
Timothy is the Dean of the School of Agriculture and Natural
Resources here at SUNY Cobleskill. I want to thank all of you
for coming. The name of this event is a listening session. We
are going to listen. Unlike a hearing where we bring in experts
and we challenge each other as to who knows most about the
subject matter us, the Member, or the expert, this morning
we're going to listen to the folks who are affected by the
programs and policies we put in place. Thank you for sharing
that with us this morning. We appreciate it. You're living the
hard times that production of agriculture has experienced over
the last 4 years. A 50% drop in farm income during that
timeframe that worsened since the depression.
It's against that backdrop that my colleagues and I will be
trying to craft a farm bill for 2018 that will then set in
place the safety net that's available for production
agriculture and the nutrition program that will provide a very
important SNAP program for our country over that next 5 year
period. This is our sixth listening session around the country.
We've had great responses. Another good crowd this morning. I,
again, appreciate that, y'all coming out. But you're not going
to hear much from us. We're going to listen to what you have to
say. And that's the purpose of this. It's being transcribed.
This will be a part of the record for the Committee and how we
put together the farm bill. And I'm hopeful that we hear about
a wide variety of issues that cover the jurisdiction of the
farm bill. I expect we'll hear, obviously, from dairy folks
which dominate this area, we'll hear from the SNAP people and
food banks, and rural development issues and research issues.
All those issues we need to hear and get your perspective on as
to how we can do a better job of crafting the farm bill with
relatively limited resources to spread around across all of the
various things that we're trying to cope with. Thank you,
you're going to be an integral part of helping us get our job
done properly. And, again, I apologize for looking down on you.
That's not really my style and my colleagues' style. But,
again, thank you and thank you to the school. With that,
Timothy Moore will set the framework and ground rules for how
we're going to run bringing folks up. And we look forward to
hearing from you. Let's be respectful of each other. There may
be some differences of opinion between speakers. Let's listen
respectfully as most folks in rural America respect each
others' differences of opinion without being disrespectful. And
so thank you for that in advance. Timothy.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to just
talk a little bit about the rules we're going to follow today.
For some of you who have already done this, fill out a speaking
card and hand it to the staff in the aisle. As the moderator
I'll call each person to the microphone one at a time. We'd
like you to keep your comments to 2 minutes on farm bill topics
only. At about 15 seconds before your time expires, I'm going
to start giving you a hand signal like this, so please be
courteous and stick to the 2 minutes. If we run out of time
today and you don't have a chance to share all that you wanted
to, additional comments may be e-mailed to the address on the
speaking card, [email protected]. What we're going
to do is, there are two microphones in front, I'm going to call
one speaker up and then I'm also going to call the next speaker
up so that there will always be one person speaking and one
person working their way to the microphone; that way we won't
lose any time waiting for people to come to the microphone. If
we're ready, let's get started. Our first speaker will be David
Fisher. He's the President of New York Farm Bureau. And then,
after Mr. Fisher, we'll have Dean Boor from Cornell University
at the other microphone.
STATEMENT OF DAVID FISHER, PRESIDENT, NEW YORK FARM BUREAU,
MADRID, NY
Mr. Fisher. Good morning. I'd like to thank the Chairman
and Mr. Faso for sponsoring this event and bringing the
Agriculture Committee to New York. As you know, New York is the
second most diverse ag state in our production of different
commodities. And we appreciate your time today. Farm growth has
three overarching goals. One is no further cuts in farm bill
spending to the ag side. Ag and conservation took about $26
billion in cuts in the last farm bill. We'd like to see it not
split between farm and nutrition. Both work together and should
continue to be together. We'd like to have a good farm bill
passed in a timely manner, so we don't have to rely on some of
the expiration potentials as we did with the 2014 Farm Bill.
Being the number three dairy state, we'd like to see some
changes to the Margin Protection Program, if that's possible,
or alternatives. Due to grain cost differences and differences
in basis in the Northeast, sometimes it puts us at a severe
disadvantage. One of the options would be to increase the
capital on the dairy LGM margin, which is an option, or to
continue to look at in the Revenue Protection Program that's
being proposed. Whole Farm Revenue Protection program is a
pilot. It's very helpful for some of our diversified farms. It
still is a little cumbersome and we'd like it to remain as a
pilot so that it would be available for USDA, who has been very
cooperative in working with some of our specialty crops on
insurance programs or needs. Main commodity programs of ARC and
PLC, our crop insurance we support as a foundation for a good
safety net for those areas. And the working land programs of
EQIP and CSP land retirement conservation programs in keeping
farmland in production should be our major goal.
There are times when in the Northeast some of the set aside
programs pay more rent than what is competitive in our area, so
it has put farmers at a disadvantage to the government, and we
don't like to see that. We continue to support a large number
of rural development research and commodity specific benefits
in the farm bill, especially our ag education extension and
research programs. We value our land-grant institution in New
York, and it has put us at the forefront of a lot of the
research and projects that put New York agriculture at the
forefront of a lot of different commodities. Thank you for your
time.
The Chairman. Dean, just a second. You're going to have 2
minutes to talk. Trust us, we feel thanked. Don't waste any of
your time thanking us for being here. We're on your payroll for
doing our work. And so you don't need to thank us. Collectively
we feel thanked. Spend your time talking to us about what's
going on.
Mr. Moore. Before Dean Boor starts, I'd like to ask Neal
Rae from Agri-Mark to come down. Dean Boor.
STATEMENT OF KATHRYN J. BOOR, Ph.D., RONALD P. LYNCH DEAN,
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY,
ITHACA, NY
Dr. Boor. I'm Kathryn Boor. I'm Dean of the College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University and a third
generation from a farm family in New York southern tier. I am
here this morning to speak about the importance of agricultural
research for innovation and prosperity in rural America, and
for the role of research in striving towards food security for
all of our citizens. Central to our mission in the College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences is to provide our state's and our
nation's farmers with research-based information and tools to
be innovative, to be efficient and importantly to be
economically viable, thereby ensuring that our nation has an
adequate, a safe, affordable and wholesome supply. Agriculture
research has a foundation role in spurring innovation and
prosperity for rural America. A 2010 University of California,
Davis report showed that $1 spent by the USDA on agricultural
research and development returned over $33 in economic impact.
That's an amazing return on investment: $1 investment, $33 in
economic impact and return with the greatest benefit focused on
ensuring that our communities have access to healthy food.
Right here in the State of New York research at Cornell's
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences returns dollars
straight to our farmer's pockets. For example, our research
creates new technologies and new plant varieties that are
ideally suited for the growing conditions right here in New
York. That includes, for example, the grape known as Cayuga
White, which alone generates $26 million annually for our
state's grape growers.
But that long-standing bargain between the land-grant
system and Cornell as the land-grant institution for the State
of New York and our Federal Government has become frayed. USDA
annual research expenditures has stagnated for the past 2
decades at roughly $2 billion annually. But at the same time
the pace of technological change, global competition has left
our farmers seeking financial sustainability. We already talked
about that drop in farm income. Meanwhile we've seen the
National Institutes of Health, research expenditures grow by
135%. USDA research dollars have had a relative decline of 25%
over these last 2 decades. Even if Congress maintains our 2014
Farm Bill levels of research funding, the U.S. has already
slipped from our position as the world leader in food and
agricultural research. China has outpaced us in public support
for agriculture research and development since 2009. Brazil and
Argentina now outspend us on agricultural R&D entirely. Our New
York and U.S. farmers are now at a competitive disadvantage in
a rapidly changing world. In fact, capacity funds for research
extension, in addition to competitive ag R&D funding in the
research title of the last farm bill were less than 2% of the
total expenditures of the entire farm bill program. If our
farmers are to meet our nation's and our world's looming food
security challenges that is feeding nine billion or more people
in this century and to ensure, and this is so important for the
people in this room, that farming is a financially viable way
of life, our next farm bill must increase its commitment to
capacity funds and to the research title. We also need new
pathways to fill funding gaps. One innovation in the 2014 Farm
Bill was the formation of the Foundation for Food and
Agriculture Research, acronym FFAR, but pronounced FFAR. That
foundation is required to match everyone of its public dollars
with non-Federal funding, and this way FFAR is building unique
public-private partnerships to bring more resources to critical
research needs in agriculture. I urge you to ensure that
funding for FFAR is included in the next farm bill. Now in
summary, please recall that our current investment in capacity
and research funds is less than 2% of the current farm bill
appropriation. If we double research expenditures in the next
farm bill, we'll still be at less than 4%. I urge you to
consider that. Such an increase is essential to the innovation
that our farm families need and deserve to continue feeding our
nation in the years to come. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Up next will be Eric Ooms. And now the
microphone is to Mr. Rae.
STATEMENT OF NEAL REA, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF
DIRECTORS, AGRI-MARK, INC.; CO-OWNER, REAFIELD FARM, CAMBRIDGE,
NY
Mr. Rea. Good morning. Thank you. I am here today with my
wife Carol. She's my friend and confidant. But to our business
she's our CFO. We milk 250 Holsteins in Washington County,
which is the 21st district, which is Elise Stefanik's district.
We've been in the dairy business quite a while. Our children
are seventh generation. A daughter and a son in-law are
graduates of Cobleskill, and another son is with us in the
business. I'm Board Chairman of Agri-Mark. We have about 1,000
members in New York and Vermont, all dairy producers, proud
owners of the famous Cabot brand. I've also been elected as a
director to the NMPF and serve as an officer of National Milk
Producers Federation. And with that I was chosen to be on the
Economic Policy Committee which oversees the direction that we
would like the Committee to take with MPP. We have several
options that we'd like you to consider. Certainly one is to
restore the 10% that we lost when we got the first farm bill
in; it would make a big difference on our feed cost. We also
would like to see improved participation with lower premiums.
You may know or you may not, in 2015 we had over 50%
participation in New York. This past year we had 3%. In Vermont
over 50% in 2015; this past year 2%. We need to have this
provision to work for dairy farmers. Also a possibility of
monthly statements, rather than bimonthly determinations in a
fourth quarter sign up.
I also briefly would like to mention trade. I know the
Committee met with Canadian dairy farmers. We at National Milk,
as officers, met with Canadian dairy farmers last Monday. Dairy
farmers, no matter who they are, I find them to be pleasant
people. But the fact is, due to unfair tactics by the Canadian
farmers, all of the dairy farmers in this room were adversely
affected when milk NPCs came back into New York. We would like
to urge the Committee to recommend fair trade practices with
the Canadians. Also one other brief comment I would like to
make is about immigration and how important it is to the dairy
producers in New York and throughout the United States. We pay
money in annually, monthly, Social Security and so on; I would
like to see a provision that, maybe, would make our people that
we have employed legal for a while until we can find better
ways of treating them. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Rae. Before Mr. Ooms goes, I
would like to ask Laurie Griffen from Saratoga Sod Farm to be
on deck. Mr. Ooms.
STATEMENT OF ERIC OOMS, VICE PRESIDENT, NEW YORK FARM BUREAU,
OLD CHATHAM, NY
Mr. Ooms. Thank you. My name is Eric Ooms. My family and I
have a dairy farm in Kinderhook, New York where I partner with
my father and two brothers. We're also Farm Credit customers,
which is a very important part of your bill and our lender. I
would just speak to MPP. I'm also the Vice President of the New
York Farm Bureau as well, so I'll hit a couple of areas real
quickly. As far as MPP is concerned, I hope that we can reform
that, because the concepts are good; however, I'm afraid
farmers won't buy into it. Those farmers that I know, that
purchased into LGM have all had relatively positive
experiences, so if there is a way to steer in that direction,
that will be fine. Either way we need an answer on the dairy
question. From my neighbors that have fruits and vegetables, we
had a Specialty Crop Block Grant in the farm bill; that is all
the support that specialty crops get, and that is so crucial to
fund research. And as Dean Boor mentioned before, we need all
of the research money we can get for that. As far as the
conservation title, there are many, many good programs in the
conservation title. But, as a dairy farmer, and it's not just
dairy, EQIP is probably the most subscribed program. And I know
on my farm, EQIP as been critically important. Last, I can't be
up here and not talk about immigration reform; you need to find
a solution on that, even though I know that's hard.
Congratulations, you're in Congress, you can fix it. We didn't
start the problem, but we have to fix it. And then last I am
going to say thank you for your trip to Ottawa, because it just
speaks to the importance that Representatives in our government
are placing on the practices that Canada, and it's not just
been what it's been doing to my farm and my neighbors' farms,
but some of the things that they are doing are setting horrible
precedence for the world over, and if we're going to live in a
worldwide market, which is where we are, we can't have that
happening. I appreciate your attention to that. And thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Ooms. Before Ms. Griffen speaks,
I'd like to ask Liana Hoodes from, NOFA, New York to be on
deck. Ms. Griffen.
STATEMENT OF LAURIE GRIFFEN, CO-OWNER/OPERATOR, SARATOGA SOD
FARM; MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, FARM CREDIT EAST, ACA,
SCHUYLERVILLE, NY
Ms. Griffen. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Members
of the Committee. My name is Laurie Griffen. My husband and I
own and operate Saratoga Sod Farm, which is just north of here
in Saratoga County, where we grow about 600 acres of sod and
other (inaudible), 500 acres of corn and soybeans. I am also
director of Farm Credit East. And as part of the Farm Credit
System, it's a cooperative providing credit and financial
services to more than 14,000 members here in the Northeast and
is the largest provider of credit to farmers and ranchers here
in the Northeast and New York. We appreciate the support of the
House Agriculture Committee for Farm Credit System.
And I have three issues that I'd like to ask for your
consideration today. First being crop insurance. Crop insurance
is a critical risk management tool for our Northeast producers.
We support ourselves on our farm crops that we raise; as we do
encourage Congress to maintain a robust program for crop
insurance in the farm bill. In the Northeast there's a wide
range of livestock products and crops, so we do encourage
Congress to provide USDA the flexibility to make crop insurance
available and workable for more producers in our region.
Second, the USDA loan guarantees. As Farm Credit director, I
know our association works very closely with the USDA in a
number of areas. Loan guarantees from the Farm Service Agency
are an important tool for lenders to work with our customers;
customers who may be having financial stress, but are making
changes needed to be viable for the long-term, I ask the
Committee to raise the limit of loan guarantees from its
current level. With high land values in many parts of the
Northeast, lenders sometimes run up against the current cap
when working with producers. And last, while not part of the
immediate farm bill discussions, I want to mention one other
thing, which is the ag labor we've heard previously. Our farm
currently is able to use the program, while it's not perfect,
we do make it work. However, many farms, such as dairy farmers
you've already heard from, are not able to do that. We
appreciate the current efforts in Congress to address these
issues. But the bottom line is that agriculture needs to have
an effective guestworker program to make legal adjustments for
our current workforce. Thank you very much for being here.
Thank you for your time.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Griffen. I'd like to ask Tracey
Martin from the Regional Food Bank of NENY to be on deck. And
this is Liana Hoodes from NOFA, New York.
STATEMENT OF LIANA HOODES, POLICY ADVISOR,
NORTHEAST ORGANIC FARMING ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK, PINE BUSH, NY
Ms. Hoodes. Good morning. I'm Liana Hoodes from the
Northeast Organic Farm Association of New York. Composed of
farmers, gardeners, consumers and businesses NOFA, New York has
been serving the organic and sustainable food and farm
community since 1983. Through education, outreach and advocacy,
we promote land stewardship, organic food production, and local
distribution in marketing and we are the New York's largest
USDA accredited organic certifier of over 1,000 operations.
Organic sales and demand have been growing in an annual, nearly
double digit rate for over a decade and New York has
consistently ranked in the top three to four in the nation in
organic, yet U.S. farmers are not able to meet this demand and
are losing ground to offshore supply. Our Federal policies need
to support U.S. organic farmers supplying the U.S. organic
demand. A few of our farm bill priorities: Organic
certification cost-share assistance is crucial to increase the
number of U.S. organic farmers to meet this demand. The Local
FARMS Act, H.R. 3941, which was just introduced, includes
certification cost-share. The Organic Agriculture Act, H.R.
2436, provides research support of $50 million to OREI to
address production constraints faced by organic farmers.
Organic research at USDA is under 4% and has been stagnant for
years. On average, for instance, only about .2% of AFRI funding
goes towards organic research. The Organic Farmer and Consumer
Protection Act of 2017, H.R. 3871, thank you, Representative
Faso, for this bill. This bill will help to prevent the
importation of fraudulent organic products from overseas to
stricter enforcement of organic entering the U.S. and much
more. Seeds and breeds: Farmers need seeds and animal breeds
that are ideally suited to their local growing conditions,
change in climates and farming systems. USDA should prioritize
this work by using existing research programs to dedicate funds
to public plant and animal breeding efforts with a focus on
regionally adapted cultivators. Thank you very much.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Hoodes. I'd like to ask Chris
Tauzel from New York State Agricultural Mediation Program to be
on deck. This is Tracey Martin from the Regional Food Bank of
NENY.
STATEMENT OF TRACEY MARTIN, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
REGIONAL FOOD BANK OF NORTHEASTERN NEW YORK, LATHAM, NY
Ms. Martin. As you just said, my name is Tracey Martin. I'm
from the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. We serve
23 counties in Upstate New York. We're a member of Feeding
America, the national food bank network and a member of the
Food Bank Association of New York State with nine other food
banks in the state. We provide food and other basic need items
to a network of 1,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and other
charitable feeding programs. And last year we distributed more
than 36 million pounds of donated items to this network and it
helped feed 300,000 different people. We believe that food is
medicine and it's a cornerstone of health. That's why we work
hard to provide people with nutritious food and help them make
healthy food choices at grocery stores. We operate a farm
ourselves, growing fresh produce and operate food bank farm
stands in areas without grocery stores, known as food deserts,
so that people in mostly urban areas can have access to healthy
food, even when grocery stores are far away and transportation
is limited. We also provide nutrition education classes to
people who visit food pantries to help them make the most of
their resources. We cover topics like menu planning, shopping
on a budget, reading food labels, avoiding sugar-sweetened
drinks because we know that there's a lot of thought about
people, when they use their food stamps, using them to make
healthy food choices, and that's what we try to encourage them
to do on their own. And some of the people that we serve, just
to give a face to the face of hunger, are working parents and
children, senior citizens, veterans and people with medical
issues and disabilities. We asked our food pantries to contact
the people that they serve and those who are willing to share
some stories. I just wanted to read a few of those to you here.
``My husband and I both work full-time and make too much to
qualify for public assistance. But after monthly rent, gas, and
utilities, we wind up at the end of each month with not enough
food to feed our three kids. We are so appreciative of the food
that we receive from the pantry. It's such a load off my mind
to know that we will have enough to not have to skimp on meals
at the end of the month.''
Another pantry person had this to say: ``I am a single
mother with three children, and although I have a job, all my
expenses leave little money for enough food to last a month
after my food stamps are gone. Before I started going to the
pantry, I often didn't eat much the last 4 or 5 days of the
month so that I'd have food for my kids. I don't know what we
would do without the food we get from the pantry.'' Shirley is
a senior citizen who lives in senior housing, the food pantry
helps to supplement her SNAP benefits and ensures she has
resources for medication and other important needs. Food banks,
food pantries and soup kitchens provide critical food
assistance to people like Shirley, but we cannot do it alone. I
encourage you to support SNAP and keep TEFAP in the farm bill.
They are just so important to the local economy. TEFAP supports
farmers, SNAP supports retail grocers. And all together we can
help people have a better future.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Martin. I'd like to ask Sherry
Tomasky to be on deck. And this is Chris Tauzel of New York
State Agriculture Mediation Program.
STATEMENT OF CHRISTINE TAUZEL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, NEW YORK STATE
AGRICULTURE MEDIATION PROGRAM,
ALBANY, NY
Ms. Tauzel. Good morning. I'm speaking with you today as
the Program Director of the New York State Agriculture
Mediation Program. And part of my participation and my belief
in the agriculture mediation comes from growing up on farms in
New York and currently being an active part of our family farm.
I appreciate the opportunity to highlight and share with you in
broad terms the working needs of 40 certified agriculture
mediation programs. Briefly, through the Agricultural Credit
Act of 1987 Congress created and funded a program for the USDA
to certify agriculture mediation programs. These programs
provide critical mediation services that enable producers,
lenders, creditors, USDA agencies and other members of the
agricultural community to resolve problems before they become
more complicated and costly. Today, 30 years later, farmers and
ranchers continue to face enormous challenges. Mediation
continues to increase in value as an effective means to address
these challenges. From our experience, producers, landowners
and homeowners value the voluntary, confidential, and problem
solving framework of mediation. It is very important to them to
discuss their concerns in person and create the solutions that
meet their needs. Originally, mediation was limited to USDA
Farm Service Agency and Farm Credit System loans. When there
was success in resolving issues between FSA and producers that
led to Congressional action, expanding the scope of the program
in 1994 and 2000.
During the deliberation and design of the next farm bill,
you have the opportunity to secure and position agricultural
mediation programs of the future as robust, productive, cost
effective channels for resolving issues faced by the
agricultural community. The Coalition of Agriculture Mediation
Programs offers the following suggestions for your
consideration in modernizing the Agriculture Mediation Program
in the new farm bill. We suggest re-authorizing timely and
adequate funding and designating the USDA Agriculture Mediation
Program for mandatory funding. We offer suggestions for
expanding the scope of the program to allow funds to be used
for issues such as lease disputes, family farm transitions, and
farmer-neighbor disputes. And one suggestion in addition is
designating the Secretary of Agriculture in each state with
authority to add case types appropriate to that state. Part of
the work that my colleague Claudia Tenney and I do, in addition
to our work coordinating the agriculture mediations, is often
to present workshops or suggestions on ways to improve
communication for more effective family and business
relationships. We always include the importance of active
listening. Thank you for your presence, your mindfulness, and
your skilled listening.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Tauzel. On deck we'll have
Stephen Wilson. And this is Sherry Tomasky, Hunger Solutions of
New York.
STATEMENT OF SHERRY TOMASKY, DIRECTOR, PUBLIC AFFAIRS, HUNGER
SOLUTIONS OF NEW YORK, ALBANY, NY
Ms. Tomasky. Thank you. I'm here today representing Hunger
Solutions of New York. We're a statewide nonprofit organization
focused on maximizing participation in Federal nutrition
programs for all who are eligible. We are glad to be here today
to share our perspective on the value of the SNAP program in
New York State. More than 2.8 million New Yorkers rely on SNAP
to feed themselves and their families. When we look a little
deeper at that population, you'll see that about 1.1 million
SNAP recipients are children under the age of 18, over 600,000
are seniors, and according to the most recent research, about
71,000 are veterans. We also know that 465,000 families use
SNAP, and in those families 74% had at least one member working
over the past 12 months. We also know that SNAP helps those in
rural communities, just as much as it does in urban and
suburban communities. About 15% of those living in rural
communities across New York State rely on SNAP, which is the
equivalent of the percentage that is utilizing SNAP in large
cities and urban areas. We know that this is an important and
necessary program for people who live right here in the
Schoharie Valley and all across Upstate New York. And we know
that you're aware of many of these facts, but we also want to
use this opportunity to point out that there's still an unmet
need in New York.
The USDA just recently released its Food and Security Data,
and New York showed that 12.5% of the population is still
struggling with food insecurity. There are 1.6 million public
school students who qualify for free and reduced priced meals
in this state, demonstrating that a majority of our children
are still living in households below 200% of the poverty level.
And New York is also in the top four states in the country with
a senior SNAP gap, meaning that about 500,000 seniors who may
be eligible for SNAP are not participating, so we definitely
have a ways to go to meet the nutritional needs of those in our
state. And so with that we would like to urge you to protect
the SNAP program, to keep it intact, to reject any efforts to
turn it into anything other than the entitlement program that
it is. We'd like to see benefits in eligibility levels
protected for all New Yorkers. And we'd like SNAP to maintain
its flexibility to be responsive in times of disaster or
unexpected financial need for individuals and families. And
we'd also like to share with you that while we agree that a
declining SNAP roll is something that we all aspire to, we want
it to happen for all of the right reasons and not for people to
be artificially pushed deeper into poverty. Thank you for this
chance to share our thoughts about the SNAP program in New
York.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Tomasky. On deck we're going to
have Kim Doyle. And this is Stephen Wilson, Empire State Honey
Producers Association.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN O. WILSON, CHAIRMAN,
LEGISLATIVE POLICY COMMITTEE, EMPIRE STATE HONEY PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION, ALTAMONT, NY
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Gentlemen. I'm going to address six
of the major issues which we face as beekeepers. I'm speaking
for the beekeepers of the State of New York and as the Chairman
of the Policy Committee of the Empire State Honey Producers
Association. First on our list is continued and enhanced
support for the ARS Beltsville, Maryland Honey Bee Testing and
Research Labs and very much needed, very strong support for
research and application of Varroa destructor mite control
eradication. The mite is the major threat which we face today
in order to sustain our industry and our hives. Second, Federal
support for the means of controlling applications of glyphosate
and certain Neonicotinoids. A great variety of pesticides,
which I'm sure you are aware, have been fingered by researchers
both in this country, in province Ontario, and throughout
Europe as a threat to bees. Third, continuation of the NASS
Honey Bee Health Surveys, the USDA APHIS program, support for
the development in order to understand the potential impacts of
launching ubiquitous, biological controls of spotted knapweed,
Japanese knotweed, purple loosestrife, among the invasives
which bees find to be tremendously more than as critical late-
season honey bee forage plants; the continued close monitoring
and enforcement for foreign importation of contaminated honeys.
And, last, continued funding for the Emergency Livestock
Assistance Program, ELAP insurance program. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. On deck we're going to
have Brian Shapiro. And speaking now is Kim Doyle, New York
State FFA.
STATEMENT OF KIM DOYLE, REPORTER, NEW YORK STATE FFA
ASSOCIATION, NEVERSINK, NY
Ms. Doyle. Hello and thank you all for being here. Chairman
Conaway, earlier this morning, at a breakfast with several
other FFA members, you had mentioned that you would like to
deputize FFA members so that they can share the agriculture
story. Well, here I am. My name is Kim Doyle and I come from
Neversink, New York. I'm currently attending SUNY Sullivan and
am representing New York this year as the New York State FFA
Reporter. I serve over 4,500 FFA members. The New York FFA
Association is part of the national FFA organization which
boasts over 649,355 FFA members from all 50 states, Puerto
Rico, and the Virgin Islands. I've been a part of this
organization since as young as I can remember and it is what
has pushed me towards pursuing a career as an agriculture
educator. But according to the National Institute of Food and
Agriculture at the United States Department of Agriculture, an
estimated 57,900 high-skilled jobs will open annually over the
next 5 years, but there will be an annual shortfall of 22,500
agricultural professionals available to take those positions.
Now more than ever we need sound legislation that is concerned
about the future of agriculture as much as it's concerned about
the need for safety nets and nutrition programs. We need policy
that pushes students to return to the farm and take advantage
of those opportunities to pursue careers in agriculture, while
also supporting them in doing so. The next version of the farm
bill can do so by heightening the youth profile in food and
agriculture in establishing an agricultural youth coordinator
in the Secretary of Agriculture's office who can communicate
the area of match between the delivery needs of the USDA and
youth organizations like the national FFA, a person who can
connect the dots for students like myself, who wish to pursue a
career in agriculture. As the 115th Congress works to advance
agricultural priorities and your bodies work to re-
authorization the farm bill, we hope that you continue to
consider us, ``The Future of Agriculture.'' Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Doyle. On deck we're going to ask
Arden Tewksbury to come forward. And this is Brian Shapiro, New
York State Director of the Humane Society.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN SHAPIRO, NEW YORK STATE
DIRECTOR, HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES, HIGH FALLS, NY
Mr. Shapiro. Hi. Good morning. My name is Brian Shapiro,
New York State Director for the Humane Society of the United
States. It's an honor to speak before the Committee and also
before my own Representative, Congressman Faso. Thank you. The
Humane Society of the United States opposes the inclusion of
Representative King's H.R. 3599 and Representative
Sensenbrenner's H.R. 2887 in the farm bill, their continuation
of Representative King's highly controversial amendment that
almost sank the farm bill 4 years ago, before it was wisely
omitted from the final package. These bills would undercut
voters and harm agriculture and economic interests. They take a
lowest common denominator approach. If any one state in the
nation permits the production or sale of a particular
agricultural product, no matter how hazardous the product may
be or acceptable production process, every other state could
have to sell it as well. This runs contrary, of course, to the
10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protecting the
sovereignty of state rights. These bills could also nullify
hundreds of state laws designed to protect public health and
welfare across a wide range of concerns from labeling of seeds
and promotion of local sustainable agriculture, to child labor
and puppy mills. Virtually any state or local law regarding
agriculture, as it's broadly defined, could be wiped out by
H.R. 3599, and any state or local law that is remotely related
to interstate commerce could be wiped out by H.R. 2887. No one
even knows the full extent of state laws that could be
undermined and it may very well create a Constitutional crisis
that could trigger extreme uncertainty in agriculture and
investment markets. We urge you to reject these bills, with all
due respect and any similar, drastic Federal overreach that
would undermined states' abilities to protect their citizens
and local businesses and reflect the public will. With that
said, I just also want to add for many years I was a county
legislator and vice chair of soil water conservation district,
so I truly appreciate the work that you do every day and this
opportunity to present. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Shapiro. On deck we're going to
have Jim Davenport to come forward. And this is Arden
Tewksbury, Progressive Ag.
STATEMENT OF ARDEN TEWKSBURY, MANAGER,
PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION, MESHOPPEN, PA
Mr. Tewksbury. Congressman G.T. Thompson, if I knew you
were going to be here, I would have ridden up with you; we're
in the same state. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you
for a few minutes. Chairman Conaway, I was one of the people
that was in the audience of the big hearing you had in
Washington about 3 or 4 months ago, where Dr. Dykes talked and
Jim Mulhern from National Milk. And with all due respect to the
two gentlemen, I don't think they really related to you how bad
it is on our dairy farms. And something must be done. But the
fact that they didn't do a good job, I will say that Members of
your Committee I thought did a real good job in recognizing
something has to be done with our school lunch program and
especially getting whole milk back in our schools, both whole
chocolate milk, flavored milk and white milk, and you guys can
do it and we're depending on you to do it. And, G.T., we talked
about this many times, and I know you're involved in it, this
year let's get it done. Anybody can walk in to any store and
get any milk they want to, but we're depriving our kids in
school from having the best milk that is out there. I've been
on the school board for 57 years in Pennsylvania, I know what's
going on in our schools, so we're depending on you guys to do
something about it. Okay? And I also want to say that we take a
different position on margin insurance. I wrote several
editorials when it came out; I said it would not do the job for
dairy farmers. I called it an ill-conceived fiasco. And when it
first came out, they only got about 13,000 farmers that signed
up. The Secretary had to open up the enrollment two or three
times to get it up a little bit higher, then scare tactics went
out to save all the prices going down; you finally got the
24,000 dairy farmers into it and now its way down below those
now.
We need something different for dairy farmers. We don't
need margin insurance. We need a new pricing formula for dairy
farmers that's going to allow dairy farmers to cover their cost
of production. Right now the dairy farmers cost on a national
average is running about $4 or $5 more than what they are
receiving for their milk. There's no reason not to have it
happen. I would urge all you gentlemen and ladies to look up
the Federal Milk Improvement Act, G.T. knows what I'm talking
about, and look at that bill and see if we can't pull some
things out of that bill to get a better price for our dairy
farmers, to get the real milk back out to our consumers and get
the whole milk back in to schools for our kids. And if we get
these things done, we can help this girl over here with a
nutrition program. We should not be dumping milk in lagoons, we
should not be throwing milk away. We should be manufacturing
that milk into products and getting whole milk into these
nutrition programs, instead of dumping it away and spoiling it.
I hope you ladies and gentlemen will get our message, something
has to be done out on our farms. I testified recently in front
of the Pennsylvania Milk Market Board, and they now will have
continued their $1.50 hundredweight premium on fluid milk in
Pennsylvania, and it's going to continue that way. That is not
the answer, but it helps a little bit. What we need is a new
pricing formula for these dairy farmers all across the United
States. It's possible. We know what the cost of production is
and it can be done. We're going to depend on you gentlemen to
get it done. Get the right pricing formula for dairy farmers
and get whole milk back in the schools. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Tewksbury. Our next person on
deck will be Joel Berg. And this is Jim Davenport from the
Hudson Valley.
Mr. Thompson. I just want to give a real quick update.
Arden, as always you've packed in a lot. And one thing I wanted
to talk about, just briefly update, it is one of most important
things we can do in terms of increase in the market with the
school lunch program, this is not just lunch, it's breakfast
and lunch. I, personally, have a Congressional district so
rural and poverty so high, they feed them dinner before they
send them home. But the fact is that back in March we did
include in legislation and then Secretary Perdue did it
administratively, allowing our schools to seek a waiver to be
able to serve and sell milk with fat in it. Now it's 1% to
start with. Not only dairy farmers, but also everyone knows fat
is where the nutrition is and fat is where the flavor is. And
we're dropping a bill this coming week that takes it from a
waiver process, which right now I don't know the statistics in
New York, I apologize, but in Pennsylvania only about \1/3\ of
our school districts have pursued that waiver to do that. The
new legislation will take it from a waiver program to make it
permanent, which means we take all of the paperwork and the
bureaucracy out of it, I just wanted to give an update that
schools can now petition to do that. And we're hoping to make
that process even simpler in the future. And you're absolutely
right, there's no reason why we shouldn't work that out, the
first school is 1%, next school is 2%. The jurisdiction on that
is Education and the Workforce. But, you can seek that waiver
as a school board.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Davenport.
STATEMENT OF JIM DAVENPORT, CO-OWNER, TOLLGATE FARM; PRESIDENT,
COLUMBIA COUNTY FARM BUREAU, ANCRAMDALE, NY
Mr. Davenport. Hi. I'm Jim Davenport, dairy farmer in
Representative Faso's district, right by Connecticut and
Massachusetts. I bought some milk here, hoping that milk before
it all goes. But anyway what I'd really like to talk about, I'm
a product of land-grant universities; I did get a degree, and I
firmly believe that America is the greatest country in the
world. There's room to increase our greatness, but we are the
greatest, and part of the reason is because the business I'm in
is agriculture. And because of the land-grant university,
applied science, science in general we've been able to produce
way more food than we can possibly use and do it in our safe
fashion. Our food is the best and most nutritious in the world,
as far as I'm concerned. And what I want to make sure is that
we are able to not hinder trade. Trade is critical. If we
didn't have foreign trade with dairy, we would be absolutely
dead right now with the amount of milk we're able to make in a
high cost environment. And hopefully we can make sure that we
don't ruin trade. The other thing I would just like to touch
on, being that it was just brought up, all milk tastes better
with fat in it. That's the bottom line. Some processors may not
do as good a job as they should be doing in bringing bulk milk
to schools, but their high fat milk always taste better than
low fat. And the nutritional package in milk is critical to
make sure that the kids drink something that's good for them,
that's going to help them develop into thinking people who
contribute to the society, thinking members of the public. And
the last thing I wanted to touch on, I am still using a lot of
money to farm and it's all Farm Credit money. And one thing
that I would just like to remind people with Farm Credit, they
will not give you a 30 year mortgage to pay off the credit card
bill of the groceries you bought last month. Farm Credit,
basically their funding comes through a bond system and we're
always very close, T-Bills is the best, we're always second.
There's a reason for that, because we manage our money properly
and we loan money to people who have good ideas, that can make
money with it. At any time that the Farm Credit System is under
attack, I'm one small borrower that's a firm believer in it.
Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Davenport. On deck we'll have
Brian Grubb. And this is Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.
STATEMENT OF JOEL BERG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, HUNGER FREE
AMERICA, NEW YORK, NY
Mr. Berg. Hello. I'm Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.
We're a nationwide direct service and advocacy group. I am
going to thank the Committee for your public service, meeting
on a holiday. But I'm going to thank you even more after you
take the lead in ending hunger in America, building on the long
bipartisan tradition in Congress, including key Republicans
like the late Bill Emerson, Robert Doyle, Richard Lugar, and
even Richard Nixon. Here in mostly rural Schoharie County, one
and ten people in this very county rely on the SNAP program to
feed their families. That's five times as many people who rely
on the farm programs. My message to everyone today is farmers
cannot succeed as long as 41 million Americans, including 13
million American children, live in homes that can't afford
enough food. That costs our society $167 billion a year,
because hungry children can't learn, hungry workers can't work,
and hungry seniors can't stay independent. Now, I've calculated
we can end hunger in America with $20 billion more Federal
spending. Not just on SNAP, but to increase jobs, raise wages
through jobs programs, including a food jobs program I outlined
in the written testimony I provided to the Committee staff and
increase SNAP funding. Now, if you're going to say we can't
afford it, I would respectfully suggest if you just authorized
$1 trillion in tax cuts for the very rich, you can afford to
spend $20 billion to solve $167 billion program. We can afford
it, we must do it, it's in our self-interest. I note that this
Committee hearing, our listening session opened with a prayer.
As you know, in Matthew 25, Christ instructs that we must end
hunger. It's in the Old Testament. It's in every other
religious and ethical tradition on the planet. And I close with
this: If there are going to be reforms in SNAP, and I've also
proposed to the Committee many ways to modify and modernize the
program, to put more money in people's pockets while saving
money by stripping away tens of thousands of workers around the
country who are filling out paperwork and allowing low-income
people to apply for these benefits. But if you're going to cut
benefits, cut benefits which are $1.40 per meal now and use it
as an excuse, as a fig leaf that you're cutting waste, fraud
and abuse, please don't. Let's just have an honest conversation
with the American people. If you cut another penny from this
program, over $10 billion already cut out of the previous farm
bill and the previous child nutrition bill, please understand
you will be increasing hunger in America. And the vast majority
of people who rely on this program, as you know, are children,
senior citizens, people with disabilities, and veterans.
The easy stuff, they're taking lottery winners out of
program, that's been done. Another penny out of this program
will increase hunger in America. That's why I urge you to do
what makes sense. In the republican tradition of enforcing a
society where everyone can succeed based on their abilities, we
need people to have the nutrition to do that. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Berg. On deck we're going to have
Dave Hardy. And this is Brian Grubb, National Bison
Association.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN GRUBB, CO-OWNER, BISON ISLAND; MEMBER, BOARD
OF DIRECTORS, REGION 7, NATIONAL BISON ASSOCIATION, SHARON
SPRINGS, NY
Mr. Grubb. That's a tough act to follow there. I'm Brian
Grubb. I'm a bison producer about 10 miles north of here. We
run a herd of a 125 calves. We're kind of a small- to medium-
sized operation. Last year, if any of you voted for the Bill
last year that designated bison as our National Mammal, I want
to thank you for that. After that happened the National Bison
Association got together and said ``Well, what's the next
step?'' We were able, along with the Intertribal Buffalo
Council, we were able to get bison designated as the National
Mammal. We thought, maybe, the next step is to try to get one
million bison in North America. Right now there are about
450,000. And since we started and put our heads together, think
about what it would take to get one million bison in North
America, the bison industry is probably one of the few bright
spots in agriculture these days. I talked with a friend of mine
down in Pennsylvania the other day and he took a load of beef
cows to market and got $1.25 a pound hot hanging rate.
Currently bison are trading at $4.85 a pound and we've seen 15
straight years of increased pricing. But there are some things
that will help our industry and help us get to one million, and
that is to continue with the ELAP programs, the livestock
programming, the EQIP program is good for our producers,
because fencing is our biggest cost. And then continue to
include bison as you didn't believe livestock for all
conservation programs, continue the Consolidated Farm and Rural
Development Act Farm Ownership and operating loans at current
levels and direct offices to consider alternative livestock
enterprises as eligible applicants for those loans, assure that
bison producers are eligible for all livestock programs,
provide $25 million annually for the Beginning Farmer and
Rancher Development Program that will enhance the
sustainability of the next generation of farmers, because most
people that go into the bison production business are not
existing farmers or ranchers; they're usually new producers.
And then continue to support the $30 million a year for
Farmers' Market Promotion Program, because the health of our
industry is based upon the last 15 years of the producers going
to farmers' markets every Saturday and selling the product
direct to the customer. We built our success on the backs of
those local farmers. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Grubb. On deck we're going to ask
Ruth Moore to come forward. This is Dave Hardy from Organic
Valley.
STATEMENT OF DAVID HARDY, CO-OWNER, HARDY FAMILY FARM; MEMBER,
ORGANIC VALLEY FARMS, MOHAWK, NY
Mr. Hardy. I'm Dave Hardy from Mohawk, New York. I'm a
first generation organic dairy farmer. My wife and I started
shipping organic milk 18 years ago when our children were very
young. Organic farming has given our oldest son an opportunity
to join the business and he sees a positive future for organic
dairy farming here in New York State. I also sit on the board
of directors for the cooperative, better known as Organic
Valley. As you know, organic continues to grow: $50 billion in
sales in 2016 and $7.6 billion at the farm gate. It's a choice
for farmers, businesses and consumers, an integral part of the
organic landscape. And Organic Valley Cooperative works with
over 160 farmers here in New York State and over 2,000
nationwide. We have two priorities for you to consider in the
farm bill. As a farmer and a co-op board member, we strongly
support the Organic Farmer and Consumer Protection Act
introduced by Representative Faso. And we hope that we can make
it into the farm bill to ensure the USDA NOP has greater
resources and latitude to crack down on organic products,
especially in an international space. I work hard to follow the
organic standards and so should everyone else selling organic
products. We also support the Organic Agriculture Research Act.
This initiative helps fund agronomic organic research which can
help farmers address production challenges with increased
knowledge from research and can help farmers become profitable.
Organics has made a big difference for myself and my family and
I know it's made a difference for thousands of other organic
farm families across this country. We hope you can continue to
support this voluntary market-driven sector in the next farm
bill. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Hardy. On deck we'll have Suzanne
Graulich come forward. And this is Ruth Moore, Executive
Director Cornell Cooperative Extension in Dutchess County.
STATEMENT OF RUTH A. MOORE, J.D., EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CORNELL
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, DUTCHESS COUNTY, MILLBROOK, NY
Ms. Moore. Good morning. I'm going to be speaking this
morning about farm bill capacity funding for cooperative
extension activities in our communities. Smith-Lever and Hatch
funds provide critical support for the work that our extension
associations do in every county in New York State. Importantly
these funds position us to leverage state, county and other
funds to address local agricultural needs. For example, here in
the Hudson Valley, Cornell's eastern New York commercial
horticulture program delivered the latest research technology
and practical education to our fruit and vegetable growers: 17
extension associations up and down the valley partner with the
Department of Agriculture and Life Sciences on campus to fund
the team which offers specialized expertise to our growers that
individual associations just can't provide on their own.
Federal capacity funds have been a critical piece of the puzzle
in leveraging millions of state, county and other dollars to
these programs. In the last year alone the commercial work
program received $165,000 in Smith-Lever funding, but it
leveraged $914,000 in funds from county-based funding and other
sources. I also want to mention briefly the SNAP program,
because we deliver nutrition education to low-income households
through SNAP. Recent research underscores that children who
receive SNAP benefits are healthier, do better in school and
are more likely to focus and behave in class, and 18% more
likely to graduate from high school. Another study showed that
participation in the SNAP program results in lower healthcare
costs to those SNAP participants. I urge you to consider these
positive impacts as you draft the farm bill. And finally the
farm bill funds create capacity through Cornell Extension
Disaster Education Network (EDEN) to reduce impacts from
natural disasters in our communities. Recently EDEN helped to
coordinate local extension actions in the Hudson Valley to
assist a farmer-led initiative to donate and transport food and
supplies to hurricane victims, in particular hay, truckloads of
it to Texas to feed livestock. We depend on capacity funding to
support these efforts and we respectfully request your help in
continuing with this important work. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Moore. On deck we'll have Holly
Rippon-Butler come forward. And this is Suzanne Graulich, a
dairy producer from Cobleskill.
STATEMENT OF SUZANNE H. GRAULICH, ATTORNEY, SUZANNE HAYNER
GRAULICH, ESQ., COBLESKILL, NY; ON BEHALF OF SCHOHARIE DAIRY
COOPERATIVE
Ms. Graulich. Hi. My name is Suzanne Graulich and I am here
from Cobleskill to represent a small voice of a dairy producer
here in Schoharie County. My husband is a third generation
dairy farmer. I have a son who is intending to also pursue this
field as a fourth generation dairy farmer and applying right
now to dairy science programs across the nation. My concern
that I want to bring to you is the prospect, and specifically I
want you to understand what the impact is when you have to have
the way you are paid be governed by a milk price. In January
the minimum wage for agricultural workers in our area increased
to $9.70, and this is on an increasing scale; it will increase
by 70 per year until the wage meets $15 per hour. You may or
may not be aware that in our area in particular it is difficult
to find qualified, good workers, and so we have to compete for
them. What that means is we have to pay well above the minimum
wage. And as there is an increase, we also increase. In the
past year we've increased approximately $2 per hour, in the
past month it's been $1.40 just to make sure that we have good
labor working with us. And I will tell you that the dairy
industry has a very good relationship with their employees, and
we want to be able to do that. But these type of increases,
these type of increases cannot be passed on to the consumer
because of the way that we're paid. And so any kind of
increase, minimum wage, it could be any type of mandated change
in the way we do business, such as building structures for
environmental protection, anything that we do cannot be passed
on, so it becomes a penalty to the farmer. I don't know your
bill and I don't know where you can help, but I'm hoping this
perspective will give you an opportunity, as you go through the
bill, to look for opportunities to make sure that we're
compensated in a manner that we can continue to do business.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Moore. Thank you Ms. Graulich. On deck we'll ask Trevor
Bentley to come forward. And this is Holly Rippon-Butler,
National Young Farmers Coalition.
STATEMENT OF HOLLY RIPPON-BUTLER, LAND ACCESS
PROGRAM DIRECTOR, NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS
COALITION, HUDSON, NY
Ms. Rippon-Butler. Good morning. Thank you all for being
here. I am Holly Rippon-Butler. I am the Program Director with
the National Young Farmers Coalition. We're a grassroots
network of young farmers and ranchers around the country, with
37 chapters in 26 states. I am here to talk to you about land
access today. I grew up on a dairy farm, third generation dairy
outside of Saratoga, in Upstate New York and I would like to
return to that farm one day. My dad is home milking cows right
now. But I'm here talking about land access, because I don't
want to return to that farm as the only young farmer in my
area. There are so many young farmers in and around the country
who need help and want to get started, but land access is the
biggest barrier that they face. When my grandparents bought
this farm, they had come from generations of dairy farmers
before them, but wanted to buy this farm to start their own
business, they were able to do that; they had second jobs, my
grandmother worked nights in a hospital cleaning toilets, those
kind of things, but they were able to save the money to access
credit to buy the farm, build infrastructure and pass it on to
my dad. I don't see that being possible for many young farmers
today, because the context has changed. Land prices have
doubled in the last decade. We are seeing competition from
second home buyers, from developers that are making farmland
unaffordable on a farm income to a degree that has never been
seen in history. Currently a dollar in value of farm real
estate is worth the least that it has ever been in farm
production, so we're seeing an increasing divide between what
farm prices cost and what you can actually produce on that
land. In addition, we're at kind of a critical moment in our
country with our natural resources. Land is incredibly
important, and as I say they're not making more of it,
resource, so we need to do something now to address the amount
of land that is transitioning.
About \2/3\ of our ag land in this country is set to need a
new farmer in the next couple of decades, and in the next 5
years alone about 10% or nearly 100 million acres of our land
will change hands. This is a critical moment to act to address
the challenges that young farmers are facing of affordability
on a farm income, and of being able to compete in the
marketplace. We're seeing 25 million acres of our land is in
foreign hands, so it's not just from local, second homeowners,
and real estate developers, it's also foreign ownership that we
need to pay attention to. Young farmers need your help. They
need the help of this farm bill to address this critical
challenge. In particular some areas where you have the power to
help them are through the USDA Direct Farm Ownership Loan; we
need to increase the loan cap on that to take advantage or to
recognize the actual prices of land and peg that to regional
inflation values. We need to increase funding and priority for
conservation easement. This is a tool that is working in
communities to help bring farm values back to what farmers can
afford. We need to make sure we prioritize easement within that
program that actually protects land for working farmers. And we
need to increase availability of appropriate capital. We need
to streamline the process for accessing capital through the FSA
and get those loan applications online to make it easier for
farmers to access it. There are many more things that I'm sure
some other young farmers in the audience will talk to you
about, but land is the basis of this conversation we're having
today, and I urge you to take action to address this at the
critical moment we're at.
Mr. Moore. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Rippon-Butler. On deck
we'll ask Mark Schneider to come forward. And this is Trevor
Bentley from Ducks Unlimited.
STATEMENT OF TREVOR BENTLEY, MEMBER, SUNY COBLESKILL CHAPTER,
DUCKS UNLIMITED, COBLESKILL, NY
Mr. Bentley. Mr. Chairman, Congressman Peterson and
Congressman Faso, thank you for coming to SUNY Cobleskill. I'm
a sixth generation of my family farm and I'm also an active
member of Ducks Unlimited for the SUNY Cobleskill Chapter.
Nationwide we have one million members, and in the greater
State of New York we have over 16,000, so we have a pretty
strong voice. DU is part of a partner with USDA in delivering
different conservation programs to farmers, ranchers and
landowners. We understand that passage of farm bills requires
trust, compromises and consensus among broad groups and
regions. The farm bill represents the largest investment in
private land conservation that we make as a country and is,
therefore, critically important to sportsmen and women who
depend on healthy wildlife populations to pursue and harvest.
Each year hunters and anglers spend nearly $5 billion in New
York and support 56,000 jobs statewide. Conservation is in high
demand across the country, especially here in New York. Ducks
Unlimited supports strong wetland and grassland conservation
for the benefit of soil and water quality, as well as fish and
wildlife habitat. We support strong funding for important land
programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program,
Conservation Stewardship Program and the Conservation Reserve
Program. We also support a robust Agriculture Conservation
Easement Program, including wetland easement. As a future
farmer and conservationist, I hope that Congress will work hard
to keep conservation programs strong in the 2018 Farm Bill so
that landowners can continue their conservation legacy, whether
that's creating wildlife habitat, protecting clean water
sources, or protecting soil quality across America to allow the
next generation an opportunity to enjoy a profitable and
healthy agricultural landscape. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you Mr. Bentley. On deck we're going to
ask Christopher Novak to come forward. This is Mark Schneider,
Delaware County Electric Cooperative.
STATEMENT OF MARK SCHNEIDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER AND GENERAL MANAGER, DELAWARE COUNTY ELECTRIC
COOPERATIVE, DELHI, NY
Mr. Schneider. Good morning. My name is Mark Schneider and
I work for the Delaware County Electric Cooperative. We're an
electric cooperative, not-for-profit electric providers owned
by our customer-members and they're governed by the member-
elected board of directors. The Delaware County Electric
Cooperative serves 5,300 member locations in Delaware, Otsego,
Chenango, and Schoharie Counties. In addition to providing
electricity and other products and services to our member
consumers, electric co-ops have a proud tradition of community
service. Co-op members and employees participate in economic
development efforts that contribute to a good quality of life
in the communities that we serve. That's why the farm bill is
so important to us; it contains many of the tools electric
cooperatives use not just to maintain the grid, but to invest
in the communities we serve. As an example, RUS, the Rural
Utilities Service, has been a very successful, public-private
partnership that helps us build, maintain and modernize
infrastructure in rural America. The REDLG, Rural Economic
Development Loan and Grant program, is another tool that aids
rural economic and community development activities. REDLG is a
USDA program funded by the fees and interest paid by co-ops. We
relend that money for projects in our communities that support
the local economy, like expanding a hospital or building
essential infrastructure to attract a business. That money can
often leverage other forms of financing and it is reliably
repaid. It's an all around win for the community and the
taxpayer. We need to support rural America because we still
grow most of the food and make most of the goods our country
consumes. The Agriculture Committee is a great defender of
rural America. We ask you to continue supporting these and
other important programs that support electric cooperatives and
the members we serve. Thank you for listening and good luck
with your discernment.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Schneider. On deck we'll ask
James Fitzpatrick to come forward. This is Christopher Novak,
the Town of Palatine Councilman.
STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER C. NOVAK, COUNCILMAN, TOWN OF
PALATINE; MANAGER, ABUNDANCE ACRES FARM, FORT PLAIN, NY
Mr. Novak. Thank you. Hey, thanks for stopping by,
everybody. We really appreciate it. I once heard President
Reagan say that be leery of anyone who says, ``I'm here from
the government and I'm here to help.'' I hope you guys can help
us. I'm a town councilman in the Town of Palatine, which is in
Montgomery County, about 10, 15 miles north of here. Besides a
few retail businesses, the number one industry in our town is
agriculture. We have over 50 Amish and English farms in our
community. Only two of them are over 500 acres, including
myself; I run an organic diversified farm in the town. Most of
my farmers really don't benefit from the farm bill because they
don't understand the details that they can benefit from the
farm bill. We had a meeting recently on the Agricultural
Protection Plan for our state. I had 40 farmers in a room, not
one bad word broke out, which I was very surprised; but in
addition what they said is the three overwhelming factors that
hurt them are government regulation and overreach, high and
oppressive taxes for their farmlands that they pay and all of
the other taxes that they pay on top of it. Most are cases they
will pay their entire farm's worth off in less time than
they'll pay their mortgage off. The third one was access to
markets and the last one was traffic. I can only help with
traffic; we put up a couple of speed signs. The rest of it is
up to you. But the government regulations and overreach, that
the bloated bureaucracy that someone tries to go through when
they want to access some programs is just horrible.
I'll give you a prime example very quickly. I, myself,
wanted to get a Hoop House Grant that NRCS has, one of the
agencies we have; I waited like 13 months for this grant; we
had to fill out paperwork, we had to show what we wanted to
buy. In the meantime we funded a Crowd Source Loan, got the
money in 48 hours at zero percent interest and paid back our
friends, neighbors and customers the exact money. If you want
to do something, get somebody on the ground that can help us
small farmers wade through all of the stuff that we need to, to
access some of these funds so we can be better farmers and get
some money going. I mean, it's great to be big or go home, but
in our case we're little and tiny and we want to stay here, and
we're the people that are going to stay here when everybody
else is done. Thank you so much for your time.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Novak. On deck we'll ask Jeanne
Darling to come forward. This is James Fitzpatrick from Arthur
Carroll Insurance Agency.
STATEMENT OF JAMES FITZPATRICK, AGENT, ARTHUR CARROLL INSURANCE
AGENCY, THOMASTON, CT
Mr. Fitzpatrick. Hello. My name is James Fitzpatrick. I'm a
crop insurance agent with Arthur Carroll Insurance Agency. We
cover all of New England and New York. I want to just say that
the multi-crop insurance, it's been simple and effective, it
has really helped farmers in their time of need with things
they can't control, adverse weather conditions. We like how
these policies are based on the producers production and that
they have guarantees. We feel that the whole farm policy should
stay in the pilot. It still needs some work. It's meant for
wholesale growers and diverse growers in this area that are
more direct market, it doesn't work as well for them and there
are some changes that need to be made in order for that to
happen. Also, there has been some changes in the apple policy
that we think are detrimental to some of these farmers, and you
should reconsider and maybe sit down with some more apple
growers and get their thoughts. Also, just remember, with the
cuts that have been talked about for the farm bill for crop
insurance, that it's these people's livelihoods. I mean, they
have no control over the weather and they need the safety net.
It's not just farms, it's families, and we're protecting our
country's food supply. That's all I want to say about that.
Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Fitzpatrick. On deck we'll ask
Erika Tebbens to come forward. This is Jeanne Darling; she's
the Cornell Cooperative Extension Executive Director in
Delaware County.
STATEMENT OF JEANNE M. DARLING, M.S., C.L.C., EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR, CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION,
DELAWARE COUNTY, HAMDEN, NY
Ms. Darling. Good morning. I'm testifying on behalf of
today, and thank you for your support of continued Federal
funding for, the land-grant university extension system. As you
know, it's funded through Smith-Lever and Hatch funding
streams. The Federal funds in concert with state and local
funding provide an essential foundation that ensures that
Cornell Cooperative Extension has the capacity to address
critical local, community needs and challenges. In Delaware
County, Cornell Cooperative Extension had a strong partnership
with Cornell University for the past 20 years in addressing
environmental management on farms in the New York City
watershed where we work with farmers and our local partners to
ensure clean drinking water every day for the nine million
consumers of water in New York City. This partnership has
brought sound research and university expertise to bear on the
implementation of agricultural environmental management in the
New York City Watershed Agriculture Program, including research
on minimizing drinking water pathogens, implementing improved
farm manure nutrient management, and developing methods of
precision feed management on dairy farms to reduce nutrient
accumulation and issues on the farms. These partnerships have
benefited the Chesapeake Bay watershed as we work with farms in
this watershed as well and our methods and tools have been
adopted statewide. Our extension agricultural field staff are
also assisting farms regularly in implementing safe and
effective pest management on their farms, and they rely heavily
on partnerships with Cornell's pest management researchers and
specialists who develop weed disease and animal pest management
recommendations tailored to our New York conditions and
regulations. The fruits of this collaboration are productive
farms and a safe food supply. Cornell Cooperative Extension
supports agriculture in Delaware County through development,
food safety, nutrition education, sponsoring farmers' markets,
farm succession and transition planning, farmland protection,
and education for profitable and environmental sustainable
practice on local farms.
In conclusion, on behalf of Cornell Cooperative Extension,
our farmers and the consumers of food and water from their
farms, I urge USDA to continue to invest strongly through
Smith-Lever and Hatch Act Funding and the effect of Federal,
state and local partnerships represented in the cooperative
extension system. The cooperative extension system would not
have existed for over 100 years if it had not been a cost
effective, a productive partnership worth maintaining. We urge
you to continue supporting this important Federal, state and
local partnership. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Darling. On deck we'll ask Andrew
Dugan to come forward. This is Erika Tebbens, a business owner
and a veteran spouse from Ballston Spa.
STATEMENT OF ERIKA TEBBENS, VETERAN SPOUSE AND OWNER, ERIKA
TEBBENS CONSULTING, BALLSTON SPA, NY
Ms. Tebbens. My name is Erika Tebbens and a year and a half
ago I testified before you, Chairman Conaway, about my time as
a military spouse receiving WIC benefits. I also explained how
we were shut out of SNAP benefits since that program includes
the housing allowance as income, while the WIC program does
not.
The IRS specifically excludes the housing allowance as
income when determining eligibility for the Earned Income Tax
Credit, Child Tax Credit, Head Start and other Federal
assistance programs, as you know.
Currently about 22,000 active duty military families
receive SNAP benefits. Many more could if the housing allowance
was excluded as income. Having lived as a military spouse for 8
years, I am proud of our family's sacrifice, but feel ashamed
that too many American military families face the silent shame
of food insecurity.
As a military family, it's challenging for spouses to find
steady employment while raising kids without family around and
having to move every 2 to 3 years. Because of this, many
military family's only source of income is their military
paycheck. These are people who looked to the military for a
better life in many cases and suddenly have to deal with
deployments and difficult schedules and also putting food on
the table. This simply should not be.
I thought you had pledged to help us make this right, but I
understand that you stood in the way of consideration of an
amendment on this issue in the most recent NDAA markup, and as
a result nothing was amended.
How much longer must struggling military families wait to
get the support that they need and deserve from SNAP? If this
provision is not included in the farm bill or this farm bill
gets delayed, will you commit to working on this in the next
NDAA or through another vehicle to get this resolved as soon as
possible?
Families who sacrifice so much for their country shouldn't
also worry about how to feed themselves and their kids. How can
we be expected to have the greatest military when so many of
its own are struggling with the basics? This is a nonpartisan
issue and I implore you to amend SNAP to omit housing allowance
as income. And since you didn't want us to thank you, I'll
thank the veterans and spouses in this room who continue to
serve through agriculture and advocacy. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Tebbens. On deck we'll ask Denise
Lloyd to come forward. Speaking now is Andrew Dugan, Northeast
Agribusiness and Feed Alliance.
STATEMENT OF ANDREW DUGAN, PRESIDENT, NORTHEAST AGRIBUSINESS
AND FEED ALLIANCE, SANGERFIELD, NY
Mr. Dugan. Good morning. Chairman Conaway; I enjoyed your
comments last night in Cooperstown. I am testifying on behalf
of the Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance. This is a
trade (inaudible) association with every single feed
manufacturing company in New York and New England, as well as
numerous suppliers to the feed industry. And I also run a feed
business with four feed mills and 80 employees. I'm going to
touch on two things, ag trade and research in our university
system. First, thank you for your trip to Ottawa. That was a
great step. And we certainly support NAFTA free and fair trade,
and I know you guys were addressing some of the challenges with
the fair part of our trade with Canada or their trade with us.
Specifically, I really want to hone in on ag research. One of
the primary goals of the Federal Government as it pertains to
our ag industry is to invest in basic research through our
land-grant universities. The next farm bill should prioritize
ag research. Federal investment in contrast to private-sector
investment is crucial to maintaining the competitive edge that
we currently enjoy. Our population continues to grow and we
need to figure out the best way to feed our ever growing
population. Cornell University in specific, but the SUNY system
also has received less funding for the research they tried to
do and, therefore, that translates into less researchers, less
professors at the universities. The Northeast Agribusiness and
Feed Alliance launched a private fundraiser and we came up with
$1 million of private money that we donated to Cornell
University to fund two research positions. That's how strongly
we felt that this was lacking. The first position has been
filled just this summer, 4th of July, I believe and the second
position is in the interview phase and will be filled, I'm
sure, by the end of the year. I thank you very much for coming
here and listening, and I believe that we will again have a
successful farm bill, going forward. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Dugan. We'll ask Harold Hovel to
come forward and be on deck. And speaking now is Denise Lloyd,
a dairy farmer from Middleburgh, New York.
STATEMENT OF DENISE LLOYD, PARTNER, MAPLE DOWNS FARMS II, LLC,
MIDDLEBURGH, NY
Ms. Lloyd. My name is Denise Lloyd. My husband and my two
sons and I own and operate a small dairy farm about 10 miles
south of here, in fertile Schoharie Valley. We milk about 150
cows and are growing all of our forages and some of our grain.
We have diversified our operation of commercial milk sales by
growing additional hay and corn and custom work in
merchandising genetics through the sale of embryos and
livestock. We pride ourselves in producing quality milk, crops
and genetics to maximize our income that is used to supplement
our milk sales. We ship our milk to Agri-Mark Cooperative. We
are involved with the co-op; my husband David as a voting
representative; our younger son, Greg, as a young cooperator
and myself on Agri-Mark Legislation and Education Committee. We
feel it is important to be proactive in shaping our destiny, so
to speak, or in as much as we can control.
When the 2014 Farm Bill was legislated, we took part in the
Margin Protection Program for dairy. We understood that this
was a voluntary risk management program that would offer
protection to us when the difference between the all-milk price
and the average feed cost margin falls below a certain dollar
amount selected by the farmer. This program is similar to
another form of risk management, crop insurance, which we
understand and participate in. After much research, including
utilizing projections done by Agri-Mark's economist Bob
Wellington, we decided to purchase a higher coverage level of
$7.50 per hundredweight. In a tight year, low milk price, we
chose to purchase the insurance; we paid $7,000 in premium, to
provide the safety net should milk prices drop even further. In
2015 the milk price continued to drop and the MPP triggered
payment to those of us who purchased the insurance. Had the
program worked as we were led to believe, we would have had
considerably more dollars added to our bottom line. I feel very
much duped by the Federal Government. Thinking that we were
being proactive and hedging our losses by participating in a
program, instead we just paid out more money and increased our
loss in our dairy business. We feel that the government should
have paid out monies to the producers and adjusted the program
indicators the following year. We actually are required to
follow all guidelines with strings attached to participate in
any Federal program, but are left with no recourse when the
government misleads the farmer. How do we create a program for
dairy?
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Lloyd. On deck we're going to ask
Paul Molesky to come forward. This is Harold Hovel, from
Katonah, New York.
STATEMENT OF HAROLD HOVEL, Ph.D., MEMBER, BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
NEW YORK STATE HUMANE ASSOCIATION, KATONAH, NY
Dr. Hovel. My name is Harold Hovel. I'm here to speak in
favor of the Pet and Women Safety Act, H.R. 909, which is under
consideration for inclusion in the farm bill. This bill will
not only protect many women by altering a prevalence of
domestic violence, but would also protect many children. Every
day three women are killed by an intimate partner and over
9,000 experience severe violence. Every day five children are
killed by domestic abusers and more than 7,000 are severely
mistreated. If there are animals present in the home, they are
very likely being battered as well, which is one method abusers
use to terrorize woman and children. Even worse domestic
violence is a training ground for future violence. In \1/3\ of
these domestic violence situations, the children learn to harm
or kill animals also, following the example set by the abuser
and are in danger of becoming batterers and child abusers
themselves as adults. It is this negative pattern of domestic
and future domestic violence that the Paws Act, H.R. 909 has a
significant chance of altering. To break the cycle of abuse and
safeguard both women and children, it is vital that they be
able to escape these dangerous situations. However, nearly \1/
2\ of battered women remain in dangerous situations out of fear
for the safety of their pets. Most battered women's shelters do
not allow the victim to bring their pets with them, giving the
woman a Sophie's Choice of abandoning her pets to possible
torture and death or staying behind to protect them as best as
possible. Today perhaps 5% of shelters allow pets. The rest do
not. The Paws Act would help the situation by encouraging
shelters to accept pets by providing grant money to defray the
costs that are involved. The grants could total up to $3
billion a year, a small price to pay for saving women's and
children's lives, and helping to break the cycle of domestic
violence. The bill would also encourage legal entities to
include pets in protective restraining orders and provides
penalties for interstate violations of existing protective
orders involving pets, as well as providing penalties for
stalking violations involving pets. By safeguarding the lives
and safety of women and children, as well as pets, the Paws Act
could be a significant weapon against domestic violence, and I
urge you to give it favorable consideration. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Dr. Hovel. We're going to ask Sophie
Ackoff to come forward and be on deck. And speaking now is Paul
Molesky, Jr., from New York Farm Bureau.
STATEMENT OF PAUL MOLESKY, Jr., VICE PRESIDENT AND YOUNG FARMER
AND RANCHER CO-CHAIR, RENSSELAER COUNTY FARM BUREAU,
SCHAGHTICOKE, NY; ON BEHALF OF NEW YORK FARM BUREAU
Mr. Molesky. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and the rest of
the Agriculture Committee. My name is Paul Molesky and I am a
dairy farmer. As a farmer it is my daily mission to produce
food, but another unfortunate daily occurrence is that one and
eight individuals in America struggle with food security. Even
more disheartening is that one and six households with children
face food insecurity. Now, there are many organizations in the
private-sector, charities, nonprofits and religious groups that
work tirelessly, day in and day out to provide relief, but many
of these organizations are stretching their resources thin and
are only able to provide a fraction of what the hungry in our
communities need. Farmers across America are extremely generous
as well and have a habit of donating farm fresh food products
to organizations in their communities. Sometimes, however,
these measures cannot cover the entire need. The SNAP program
is an important safety net. Hunger is a complex issue that
requires collaboration between many interested parties,
nonprofits and government and, yes, of course farmers. The farm
bill contains two major parts, SNAP and the other farm
programs. Now, the American farmer is one of the most
productive and efficient in the world, and the farm programs
contained in the farm bill work to improve the efficiency of
production and safety of the food chain, all while keeping the
cost of food affordable. This is an integral part of combating
food insecurity. Let's face it, it's impossible to solve our
nation's hunger problems if we neglect the farmers. Farmers are
an essential part of the solution. For this reason the farm
bill must include both SNAP and the farm programs together in
one bill. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Molesky. We're going to ask Brian
Gilchrist to be on deck, to come forward. This is Sophie Ackoff
from the National Young Farmers Coalition.
STATEMENT OF SOPHIE ACKOFF, NATIONAL FIELD
DIRECTOR, NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS COALITION,
HUDSON, NY
Ms. Ackoff. Hello. I'm Sophie Ackoff with the National
Young Farmers Coalition. I'm the National Field Director. We
have a grassroots network of young farmers all across the
country, with 36 chapters, 26 states, and four of our chapters
have sent farmers here today. I am a young farmer myself. I'm
working to start an organic vegetable operation in Kingston,
New York with two business partners, and finding affordable
farmland has been our biggest challenge, and it's the greatest
challenge that the National Young Farmers Coalition sees across
the country. Land in the Hudson Valley sells for much more than
working farmers can afford. New York City residents come here
looking for second homes and estate properties and can easily
outbid farmers like myself for land. USDA provides critical
loans for young farmers, including Direct Farm Ownership Loans,
but changes must be made to ensure working farmers have a
chance to compete for farmland. As my colleague Holly
mentioned, the current $300,000 limit for these loans makes
them insufficient for many farmers in areas of high
competitiveness and real estate prices like the Hudson Valley.
NYFC recommends raising this limit to $500,000 and pegging it
to regional farmland inflation rates. This will also help meet
realities of farm real estate prices. Congress should also
ensure that target participation rates are being met across all
FSA loan programs, particularly as demand outpaces supply.
After years of searching for farmland, 8 months in particular,
we are really lucky to have found a piece of land that is being
sold at its agricultural value. It's in a flood plain, so that
helps. It's going around $3,500 an acre, which is what we can
afford, as opposed to $20,000 or more per acre, which is what
we've been seeing across the Hudson Valley.
Because so much farmland is at risk of development or being
sold to non-farmers, conservation easements are an important
tool for making sure farmland stays affordable in the hands of
working farmers. I urge the Committee to increase funding for
working farm easements through the NRCS Agricultural
Conservation Easement Program, ACEP, and prioritize funding for
easement projects that incorporate affordability provisions and
ensure that protected farmland stays in the hands of working
farmers. Fortunately, my partners and I can use FSA loans to
purchase our dream farm, but in competitive real estate markets
like ours, the FSA loan making process often takes too long for
farmers. Non-farmers with pre-approved mortgages or cash bids
can easily outbid working farmers for farmland. The current
application process can take longer than 30 days and funds may
not be available for months. Likewise, the current process
requires farmers to turn in application forms in person. To
address these barriers, the USDA must modernize the way it
conducts business by moving its application and servicing
systems online, streamline the application process, and create
a system for pre-approval for farm loans. Secretary Perdue has
made clear his intention to modernize USDA's customer service,
and Congress should use this farm bill to provide him with
funding and statute to do so. Thank you for this opportunity.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Ackoff. On deck we'll ask Barb
Damin to come forward. This is Brian Gilchrist. He's the
Executive Director of Cornell Cooperative Extension of
Washington, Fulton, and Montgomery Counties.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN GILCHRIST, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CORNELL
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, WASHINGTON,
FULTON, AND MONTGOMERY COUNTIES, FORT EDWARD, NY
Mr. Gilchrist. Good morning, Chairman Conaway and Members
of the Committee. I'm Brian Gilchrist, Executive Director of
Cornell Cooperative Extension in Washington, Fulton, and
Montgomery Counties. I'm a third generation beef farmer. In New
York State we are lucky to have a strong and vibrant
cooperative extension system. The strength of the system is
rooted in the $12 million Federal Smith-Lever funding, which
then leverages an additional $77 million in county funding and
grants and contracts. Together these capacity funds support an
extension system that branches out into every county of New
York State and New York City allowing local educators to serve
as boots-on-the-ground, bringing relevant research-based
information and education to all residents. In many areas of
New York State this means working with both ag producers and
with consumers. Cornell Cooperative Extension educators are
providing locally tailored research-based information, programs
and technical assistance to dairy, livestock, field crops,
vegetables and food producers. Educators collaborate with
Cornell faculty, agribusiness professionals, agencies, and
farmers to address issues impacting their industry. Together
with producers, cooperative extension contributes to viability
and profitability of farms, the economic well-being of New York
State and a safe, secured food system for all. Recognizing that
a strong ag and food system depends on consumers, cooperative
extension works to help consumers better understand
agriculture. Educators provide programs and information that
help consumers understand issues like food labeling, ag
production methods and practices, and where to purchase local
foods. Information like this helps people make informed choices
for themselves and their families.
Last, cooperative extension recognizes that a strong
agriculture economy depends on individuals interested in
pursuing agricultural careers. Youth development educators work
with teachers to deliver classroom-based ag education lessons
that meet learning standards and provide opportunities in which
hundreds of New York State youths become more aware of ag
career opportunities, learn about academic requirements for
professional positions available in various ag businesses, and
purchase pay seminars and guided tours of ag facilities. While
not every American will be a farmer, every American eats and
is, therefore, connected to agriculture. America must have
farmers that are efficient, profitable, able to embrace and
adopt new technologies and to cope with changing markets,
weather and climate, and we must have consumers well informed
about the ag and food system. Cornell Cooperative Extension is
working towards this goal, but we need the capacity funds to do
so. We urge you to make sure that the next farm bill maintains
or increases Federal Smith-Lever funds to extensions so that we
may continue our work. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Gilchrist. On deck we'll ask Bob
Haefner to come forward. This is Barb Damin, owner of Damin
Farm in St. Johnsville, New York.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA DAMIN, CO-OWNER, DAMIN FARM, ST.
JOHNSVILLE, NY
Ms. Damin. Good morning, hope you can hear me, Members of
the House Agriculture Committee, and Chairman Conaway. Glad
you're here. I am owner, with my husband of Damin Farms, which
is comprised of 640 acres of prime New York real estate along
the Mohawk River, located in Montgomery County. In prior years
I was able to call myself a dairy farmer, and it changed this
year. The processor Elmhurst we had been shipping our milk to
for over 17 years decided to downsize and cut us off. We
received a letter this spring that said they would not be
extending our contract and that they would cease picking up our
milk when our contract expires September 1st. From the time we
received that letter this past spring, until this current date,
I have called milk plants, the market administrator in Boston,
as well as Albany and my current Congressman to no avail. We
were forced to sell our milking herd August 30th. It was one of
saddest days of my life. Can you believe it, you would think I
would be relieved. The milk our cows produced was high quality
and our cows were healthy, still we were not able to find a
market. It seems to be a common knowledge whose farms out there
whose milk is not good quality, yet they continue to be part of
the milk supply. How does that happen when there are checks and
balances in place to make sure every farm in New York follows
clean and wholesome guidelines?
I am angry and disheartened with the last farm bill. The
new farm bill needs to present a strong foundation to truly
support the dairy farmer in this country. The milk prices since
January 2015 have been unsatisfactory, unprofitable and
unrealistic. The entire milk pricing system needs a reset. In
this day and age I cannot name any other company that has paid
this month for last month's profit. The main point I want to
leave with you is that I need a milk market. Cows are cheap
right now, so I can buy some more cows if I need to. And I have
current obligations like a mortgage, like Farm Credit, school
taxes and county taxes. And contrary to my appearance, I'm not
quite ready to retire yet. Thank you for your time.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Damin. On deck we'll ask Rebecca
Lare to come forward. This is Bob Haefner from the Council of
State Governments.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT ``BOB'' HAEFNER,
AGRICULTURAL POLICY CONSULTANT, COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS/
EASTERN REGIONAL CONFERENCE,
HUDSON, NH
Mr. Haefner. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I am
Bob Haefner. I am here with my consulting partner, Tara Sad,
and we're both former New Hampshire legislators and both former
chairs of the New Hampshire House Agriculture Committee. But
we're here today representing the Eastern Region of the Council
of State Governments. Tara and I are the ag policy consultants
to the Council of State Governments in the East. Our membership
represents the 11 Northeastern states from Maryland to Maine,
also the two territories down in the Caribbean which just had
their agriculture industry wiped out. We, this year, held
several conference calls with our membership. Now the
membership are generally state legislators, or on our committee
they are agriculture legislators; they're the agriculture
policymakers for their states and we had conference calls to
determine what we'd, in the Northeast as a region, to like to
see in the next farm bill, and we've done that, we've got a
resolution that we're going to pass to you today that covers
several things. I would also say in August, at our annual
meeting, we had a staffer from the U.S. Senate Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry Committee come up and speak to us about
the farm bill, so we got some new information at that time. But
things that are important to us, we have our small farms here
in the Northeast, and specialty crops are especially important
to us, dairy is very important to us, conservation programs are
important to us, and I'm leaving out a bunch of others. But I
guess my message to the Agriculture Committee is please don't
forget our small farmers in the Northeast. What's in that farm
bill is important to us as much as the big guys out West. Thank
you very much.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Haefner. On deck we'll ask
Gretchen Maine to come forward. This is Rebecca Lare from the
Food Bank of Central New York.
STATEMENT OF REBECCA LARE, ADVOCACY RESOURCE
MANAGER, FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL NEW YORK, SYRACUSE, NY
Ms. Lare. Good morning. Thank you for hosting this
listening session and giving us the opportunity to share our
stories with you. My name is Becky Lare and I work at the Food
Bank of Central New York which serves 11 counties throughout
central and northern New York. We provide 32,000 meals a day
with our network of 364 partner agencies. We've been asking
those individuals and families turning to our network and
receiving those meals I just mentioned to write messages that
we can share with our Members of Congress. I'd like to take a
moment today to share those stories and a few messages with
you. Emily from Union Springs wrote: ``I never thought I would
be in a situation where food pantries would help me. I've
always donated, but never used. With work trouble and a newborn
life has been tough. I can't tell you how much it means to me
that I have somewhere that allows me to feed my family. Thank
you.'' The last message is from Don who lives in the Auburn
area. ``The hardest thing in the world is to look your children
in the eye and tell them `I don't have any food.' Been there,
done that.'' It's critical to keep individuals like Don and
Emily in mind while we discuss the next farm bill and the
programs within the nutrition title giving them a hand up, such
as SNAP and TEFAP. While SNAP is a critical component for many
families in making ends meet, we know that benefits typically
last less than 2\1/2\ weeks and not all of the food-insecure
households accessing our network are eligible for SNAP. We've
also heard from these individuals that when their SNAP benefits
are cut or eliminated, they have to turn to their local food
pantry more frequently.
Our network is already stretched meeting the current need.
The prospect of additional cuts to SNAP is, frankly,
terrifying. Another program essential to accomplishing our food
bank's mission is TEFAP. TEFAP provides highly nutritious foods
that our food bank pairs with items you purchase, along with
donated product, industry network of partner agencies. We
distributed over 3\1/2\ million pounds of TEFAP commodities
during our most recent fiscal year, helping to prevent empty
shelves and to ensure no one is ever turned away due to the
lack of food. Through our retail partnership program we keep
millions of pounds of fresh, nutritious foods out of the waste
stream and provide it to our friends and neighbors in need. The
farm bill must protect and strengthen the national commitment
to reducing hunger. We urge you to invest in and protect
programs such as TEFAP, SNAP and funding to strengthen food
donation programs to reduce food waste. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Lare. On deck we ask Susan Kayne
to come forward. This is Gretchen Maine, a dairy farmer from
Waterville, New York.
STATEMENT OF GRETCHEN MAINE, FORMER DAIRY PRODUCER, WATERVILLE,
NY
Ms. Maine. I'm actually a semi-retired dairy farmer. Our
cows went 2 years ago. I was the other half of the workforce,
became ill, spent 23 days in Albany Medical. We probably still
would have kept the cows, but we knew the price of milk was
going to crash again and we took that ride in 2009 and did not
want to do it again. In regards to the 2018 Farm Bill things
need to be changed. Obviously, the so-called insurance safety
net was nothing but a scam the farmers paid into and received
nothing in return. Most of their insurance money went straight
to the Federal Government's checking account. What we need is a
milk pricing system that controls overproduction and yet let's
a dairy farmer make a living. We simply cannot survive on $15
milk that cost us $23 to produce, and we must stop the
overproduction of the large, mega-farms that just keep getting
bigger and bigger and putting the small family farmer out of
business. There's a farm about 40 miles from us that's milking
3,000 cows and expects to be milking 7,000 by spring. These are
the farms that put my friends, relatives and neighbors out of
business. I urge you to take another look at the Federal Milk
Market Improvement Act which addresses overproduction, imports
and cost of production. It would be totally funded by farmers
with no cost to the Federal Government. If it had been passed
in 2014, we would not have the huge surpluses that we have
today. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Maine. On deck we have Carol
Sullivan, and I'll ask her to come forward. This is Susan
Kayne, Unbridled Thoroughbred Foundation.
STATEMENT OF SUSAN KAYNE, CO-FOUNDER, UNBRIDLED THOROUGHBRED
FOUNDATION, KINDERHOOK, NY
Ms. Kayne. Good morning. My name is Susan Kayne. I'm a
humane educator. I'm a former thoroughbred race horse breeder
and owner and the founder of the Unbridled Thoroughbred
Foundation, and I'm here to express my concern and prospective
on the slaughter of horses. Currently, approximately 130,000
domestically bred, purposefully used American equine are
exported across borders for slaughter primarily for human
consumption. These horses are laden with drugs throughout their
lifetime that are currently prohibited in farm animals who are
also raised for human consumption. And I would like to query
the Committee as to why horses are exempt from being regulated
as food animals when we know they contain controlled substances
that are known to be toxic in the human food chain. We're
shipping them to Canada because of the lax labeling laws in
Canada, they are processed in Canada and shipped to the
European Union labeled as products of Canada. I can tell you as
a former thoroughbred breeder and owner that horses off of the
race track, loaded with Clenbuterol, Phenbuterol, among the
most notable drugs, are loaded onto kill trucks, go across our
borders straight to being slaughtered, butchered and shipped to
tables in the European Union and they are also being found back
in the American food chain. This information is well
documented. I would urge you to consider in the bill, going
forward, that you regulate horses as food animals, that their
drug records from the day they are born are mandated to be
verifiable, to be transparent and to be used to determine their
eligibility for slaughter. If they're not eligible for
slaughter, there are many options to euthanize horses. And I do
not understand how a room full of people who follow the rules
and the regulations to raise wholesome and safe food, that we
exempt horses from regulation. It seems like unfair competition
to the farmer. And furthermore, with the knowledge we have
about horses being consumed by people, what does it say about
our standards of food safety? And what does it say to the
farmers who do raise wholesome and safe food and follow the
rules and regulations?
I thank you for listening to me and urge you to consider
that, going forward.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Kayne. On deck we ask Kathie
Arnold to come forward. This is Carol Sullivan, Pro-Ag
secretary.
STATEMENT OF CAROL SULLIVAN, SECRETARY, PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE
ORGANIZATION, MESHOPPEN, PA
Ms. Sullivan. Congressmen and women, I'd like to yield my 2
minutes to a dairy farmer of New York State, Robin Fitch,
please.
STATEMENT OF ROBIN FITCH, CO-OWNER, SWISS HILL FARM, WEST
WINFIELD, NY
Ms. Fitch. Thank you, Carol, and thank you for being here
today. Many times we have tried to speak to you and many times
we have been shut down as the small farmers, so I do appreciate
this opportunity today. I'd also like to say we like the
opportunity when we call your offices, even though we may not
be in your district, as I am in Congresswoman Tenney's
district, to please take our calls, because agriculture is
statewide. It's not a district. Please take our calls and have
your ag aides speak to us when we do call, please. I work with
farmers across this country. They call me and say ``What do we
do? We cannot feed our own families. We cannot pay our bills.''
There are tears on the other end of these phone calls and
nobody is hearing their voices. The small farmer, the big
farmer, we all need a fair price for our milk. Everything else
is great, all the other programs and assistance, but unless we
get a fair price for our milk, nothing else matters. You're
shutting our family farms down by giving us a 40% pay decrease.
What are we supposed to do? I can't call Farm Credit and say,
``Well, guess what, I lost 40% of my milk check this month, so
you're going to get 40% less on my mortgage payment,'' or my
feed company, who happens to be here and spoke today, and call
them and say, ``Hey, you're taking 40% less today, because I
got 40% less.'' My costs continue to go up, feed goes up, fuel
goes up; and, ``Oh, well, it doesn't matter. My milk prices
don't go up.'' How do people justify this? You can give this to
an elementary school and explain the situation, and they'd say,
``That doesn't make sense.'' Why doesn't it make sense in
Washington D.C.? Why is it falling on deaf ears that we need a
fair price for our milk? And, yes, I do support the Federal
Milk Market Improvement Act, because it is something that takes
care of overproduction and gives me a fair price for my milk.
And I know that it may cost me more than it might cost Joe
Blow, and so cost of production isn't the same for everybody,
but at least it gives us a fair chance.
I have a 26 year old son who would love to be the next
generation, and I have a daughter who is 14, I have eight
grandkids that live right there on the farm and we have the
opportunity for this next generation who knows what it's like
to work 16 to 18 hours, doesn't matter, 365 days a year, the
kid has taken 4 days off with never a paycheck. Over all these
years you ask how many college kids are willing to do that? How
many 26 year olds? Not many. You need your family farm kids to
be your next generation. You need that workforce to feed this
country safe food. You look across the table at your kids and
you tell them, ``Guess what, we can't afford to pay the bills.
And if it keeps on going this way, we're going to close the
doors,'' you look at the white face that just drops over the
son who has worked day and night----
Mr. Moore. Time. Can you conclude your comments, please?
Ms. Fitch. Yes, I can, and see the tears in your kid's
eyes, because you know what, they're not the local car dealer,
``Well, mom and dad's business is going under.'' We still have
a home. Guess what, we lose it all. I urge you, please, to
really consider paying us a fair price for our milk. We're
willing to do the work and give you a safe product. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. On deck we ask Robin Fitch to come forward.
Ms. Fitch. That was just me that spoke.
Mr. Moore. Okay. We ask Patricia Valusek to come forward
and be on deck. This is Kathie Arnold from the Northeast
Organic Dairy Producers Association.
STATEMENT OF KATHIE ARNOLD, CHAIR, POLICY
COMMITTEE, NORTHEAST ORGANIC DAIRY PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION; CO-OWNER AND OPERATOR, TWIN OAKS DAIRY LLC,
TRUXTON, NY
Ms. Arnold. Thank you. I'm an organic dairy farmer and the
Policy Committee Chair for the Northeast Organic Dairy
Producers Association, otherwise known as NODPA, that
represents organic farmers from Maine to Pennsylvania. I want
to highlight two areas that are driving the current surplus of
organic milk and the resulting loss of access to markets and
the very significant drop in pay price. Because of a formatting
error OFPA, which was the organic authorizing law and the
subsequent interpretation by the National Organic Program, some
operations in the West have been allowed to continuously
transition conventional young stock rather than raise young
stock organically from the last third of gestation as the rest
of us must do. This loophole has allowed rapid expansion of
very large organic herds. NODPA urges the deletions of the
transition allowance for dairy herds from OFPA through farm
bill language. Your organic dairy industry has reached a
maturity that it can supply all of the replacement livestock
needed to meet the projected expansion of the organic dairy
market and we no longer need to allow this transition of
conventional livestock. NODPA's sister organizations in the
Midwest and West also support this position.
The other area is the lack of enforcement of the pasture
rule, which requires a minimum intake from pasture over the
grazing season. Multi-thousand cow operations in the West show
on paper that their cows make the minimum intake, but those of
us who practice grazing knows that there is no way with
operations with thousands of cows in one location can actually
be achieving the required pasture intake. In order to help
rectify this breach, NODPA urges the establishment of a
professional license for organic certification inspectors and
staff. Organic dairy operations with over 500 cows must then be
restricted to approved certifiers that use inspectors and
certification staff for license in certifying organic dairies
to USDA regulations. Perhaps this is something that can be
considered in the farm bill. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Arnold. On deck is Elizabeth
Pickard. This is Patricia Valusek, retired Federal employee.
STATEMENT OF PATRICIA VALUSEK, PRESIDENT, NEW YORK STATE HUMANE
ASSOCIATION; FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEE (RET.), PORT EWEN, NY
Ms. Valusek. Good morning. I'm Patricia Valusek. I'm a
retired Federal employee having worked for Congressman Hinchey,
who is a champion for companion animals at both the state and
Federal levels. I have reviewed and fully support H.R. 1406,
which was referred to the Agriculture Committee. It amends the
Animal Welfare Act to prohibit the domestic slaughter, trade
and import and export of dogs and cats for human consumption. I
have discussed this bill with numerous friends and relatives
and they fully support it as well, as I am sure the majority of
Americans would. The people I've talked to were horrified when
they saw pictures of foreign markets where dogs were jammed
into cages, waiting for slaughter. And to add to the horror
some were actually tortured before being killed for meat. We
never want that sickening scenario to occur in this country.
Sadly and shockingly, according to my research, 44 states
actually do allow for slaughter of cats and dogs for human
consumption. It is not clear that there are any entities that
actually engage in such activities, but such behaviors must be
outlawed federally so the possibility is precluded. This bill
would establish Federal penalties for any violations of this
Act. Violators would be subject to imprisonment for up to a
year or could be fined up to $2,500 or both. Hopefully that
would be a deterrent that would prevent the involvement of
individuals with such odious acts. I and numerous other
Americans urge the Committee to approve H.R. 1406 in the larger
farm bill. We would also like to thank and acknowledge our
Representative, John Faso, as a cosponsor of this legislation
and express our appreciation for his support. Thank you for
your kind attention.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Valusek. On deck will be Anita
Paley. This is Elizabeth Pickard, a farmworker at Twin Oaks
Dairy.
STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH PICKARD, FARMWORKER, TWIN OAKS DAIRY
LLC; MEMBER, NATIONAL YOUNG FARMERS
COALITION, TRUXTON, NY
Ms. Pickard. Good morning. My name is Elizabeth Pickard.
I'm a member of the National Young Farmers Coalition. I'm a
farmworker. I work at Twin Oaks Dairy in Truxton, New York
where we milk 120 certified organic cows and farm about 740
acres of pasture hay and small amount of cropland. I'm also one
of the first enrollees in the whole state of the Dairy Grazing
Apprenticeship Program, the nation's first and only
apprenticeship in agriculture to be registered with the
Department of Labor. I'm a first generation farmer. I did not
grow up on a farm, but when I was a young adult, I was lucky to
know myself well enough to know that I wanted a job outside,
that was 12 years ago and I've been working on farms since
then, building the skills and knowledge that I need to some day
run my own operation. Recently, I spoke with a loan officer at
Farm Credit where I was informed that due to my student loan
debt and lack of capital, I did not qualify to receive funding.
Meanwhile, the cost living goes up and farmland around me gets
more and more expensive, more heavily developed and continually
consolidated into the hands of fewer and larger farms. I am
asking that the 2018 Farm Bill support the young farmers'
agenda, especially reducing the burden of student debt and
increasing access to land and capital through, for example,
matched funding, IDA savings programs and I'd also ask for your
support in adding farming to the list of public service
occupations. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Pickard. On deck would be
MacKenzie Waro. This is Anita Paley, from the Food Bank
Association of New York State.
STATEMENT OF ANITA PALEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FOOD BANK
ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE, ALBANY, NY
Ms. Paley. Good afternoon. On behalf of 5,000 member
agencies of the 2.5 million hungry in New York State that we
regularly support with emergency food each year, the Food Bank
Association of New York State would like to go on record as
opposing the House Budget Committee's 2018 budget resolution.
To impose this budget, containing at least $203 billion in
required cuts to mandatory programs like SNAP, TEFAP, all of
which who provide crucial benefits to children, seniors,
military and veteran families, the underemployed and the
unemployed. Specifically we oppose the call for $10 billion in
required cuts for the agriculture budget, with an additional
$150 billion in cuts secured by block granting the SNAP
program. Giving control of SNAP to the states will not keep
SNAP responsive. SNAP currently reacts off the need. Right now
SNAP is responding to disasters as it did in Hurricane Sandy,
and if those funds are handed over to the states, the funds
become rigid and less effective. In addition to losing
responsiveness from SNAP, New York State will see a reduction
in meals, complete loss of benefits for many already struggling
New Yorkers, and over the next 10 years this budget plan could
slash more than 4.5 billion meals. The program moved $4.9
billion in food benefits to New York, generating $8.3 billion
in economic activity. SNAP expenditures are estimated to
increase economic activity by $1.79 billion. Locally this
equates to every $5 in SNAP benefits generating as much as
$9.00 of economic activity. In 2017 New York is missing 448
million meals and this would add more to the equation moving
New York State to increasing missing meals.
Block granting would clearly hurt the hard working, already
stressed charitable organizations, and we are hoping that
TEFAP, the commodity purchasing program, which affords the food
banks the opportunity to distribute American grown food to low-
income Americans will stay stabilized. Nearly 20% of the 176
million pounds of food distributed through our member network
comes from TEFAP. We are hoping that you will continue to
support SNAP, not move SNAP to being block granted to the
states. And we thank you for the opportunity for our voice to
be heard.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Paley. On deck is Sarah Simon.
Speaking now is MacKenzie Waro, the Harvest Program Coordinator
for Cornell Cooperative Extension.
STATEMENT OF MacKenzie WARO, LIVESTOCK PROCESSING & MARKETING
SPECIALIST, HARVEST NEW YORK, CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION,
COOPERSTOWN, NY
Ms. Waro. Good afternoon. Again, I'm MacKenzie. I'm with
Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest New York team. I'd like
to talk to you guys about the Smith-Lever funding. Harvest New
York is a team of regional extension specialists working to
expand and enhance Cornell Cooperative Extension regional
agricultural programs to spur agricultural economic development
in New York. Smith-Lever funds provide critical support for the
work that our extension associations do in every county of New
York State and even New York City. Due to Smith-Lever dollars
Harvest New York was able to hire two new specialists, today
was the announcement, to move to working with urban agriculture
in New York City. We appreciate the amount of funds that Smith-
Lever has contributed to these positions. There's agriculture
in New York City? What? No, there really is. We have regional
agriculture production specialists throughout the state. We've
always searched for an agricultural economic connection to the
city. And here's our way to do it. Our specialists will be able
to help with agricultural sector, agricultural goods, getting
agricultural goods to the largest food market on the East
Coast. Food must be safe for our consumers. Extension has the
opportunity to work with producers and processors on food
safety training and becoming compliant with Federal laws and
regulations. Due to the vast knowledge of the extension's
specialists, producers can ensure a safe local food product for
all of our consumers. We at extension are proud of what we do.
We work hard to bring safe food to consumers. We work with all
producers in all communities. Smith-Lever funding helps us
towards our goals of a stronger economic future, especially in
agriculture. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Waro. On deck we ask Anne Rogan
to come forward. This is Sarah Simon speaking now. She's the
Farm Director at Common Ground Farm.
STATEMENT OF SARAH SIMON, FARM DIRECTOR, COMMON GROUND FARM;
MEMBER, HUDSON VALLEY YOUNG
FARMERS COALITION, BEACON, NY
Ms. Simon. Good afternoon. I'm the Farm Director of Common
Ground Farm in the Hudson Valley, in Beacon, New York. I'm also
a member of the Hudson Valley Young Farmers Coalition, a
Chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition. My farm is
part of the nonprofit organization that focuses on food access
and education, including running two farmers' markets in the
mid-Hudson region and partnering with public schools and farm-
to-school efforts. We grow mixed vegetables on 7 acres, and to
fulfill the mission of food access, we donate \1/2\ of what we
grow to emergency food outlets, and sell discounted produce in
mobile markets in Beacon and Newburgh. In terms of food access,
we have seen the value of SNAP not only for low-income
families, but for farmers at our markets where we accept SNAP
thanks to New York State's free EBT equipment programs. We need
SNAP to feed our low-income families and people, many whom are
dealing with disabilities or job loss. But also it is important
to recognize the value the SNAP program can return to market
farmers not only Wal-Mart, especially in major cities like the
green markets in New York City.
As a young farmer, I want to urge the Committee to protect
farmland for the next generation by strengthening conservation
easement programs. Here in the Hudson Valley, I see many of my
peers struggle to find quality, affordable land near their
markets. The only way that my farm can exist 10 minutes from
the City of Beacon is because it is on protected land. And I
want to see opportunities like this continue to be possible for
the new generation. Student loan debt is another major issue
facing young people in our country, and it is particularly
challenging for young people hoping to enter farming given the
low wages, steep learning curve and capital needs for people
not born into family farms. This fall I had an employee leave
the farm and leave her season early to take a job at a literary
agency, and the reason she gave was that she could not consider
a career in farming with the amount of student loans that she
has to pay off. As we know farming is a valuable, rewarding
profession, and it is important to address some of the barriers
in order to keep young people in agriculture by allowing
farmers to refinance their loans with the USDA or creating
repayment programs for young farmers. Thank you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Ms. Simon. On deck we'll ask Don
Smyers to come forward. Presently speaking is Dr. Anne Rogan
representing SNAP.
STATEMENT OF ANNE C. ROGAN, Ph.D., PROFESSOR,
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT, STATE UNIVERSITY OF
NEW YORK, COBLESKILL, COBLESKILL, NY
Dr. Rogan. Thank you and good afternoon. The 2018 Farm Bill
offers Congress the opportunity to improve the diets and health
of Americans by changing the foods that can be purchased with
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. The
changes that are required will improve the diets of the most
vulnerable Americans by closely aligning their food choices to
recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and the MyPlate
recommendations. Both the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and the
MyPlate address the needs for Americans to consume more fruits
and vegetables, more whole and less processed grains and
cereals and less processed meat and dairy. Moreover modifying
the foods available in SNAP can boost local rural economies by
incentivizing the purchase from local farms which can improve
the economic well-being of farm communities throughout the
United States. In 2008 the USDA announced the Healthy
Incentives Pilot Programs which encouraged the purchase of
fruit and vegetables through financial incentives.
Evidence from the Massachusetts HIP showed that
incentivizing the purchase of fruits and vegetables increased
consumption by 26%. This increase in fruit and vegetable
consumption adopted for a lifetime reduces healthcare costs by
decreasing the incidents of Type 2 diabetes and stroke.
Expanding the HIP pilots to all states, with an emphasis on
foods purchased at farmers' markets without added sugar, would
strengthen the focus of SNAP, as would be including
domestically grown fresh or canned fruits and vegetables
purchases at supermarkets. Similarly, foods made with 100%
whole grain can be identified in and incentivized to provide
and encourage the consumption of these foods. Milk and meat,
the seeds and nuts all regionally produced should be included
in an incentive program for SNAP to encourage the growth of
small regional foods for low-income and children. The WIC
program already provides a model which can be used as the basis
for the change of the SNAP benefits. Structuring the 2018 Farm
Bill to support local farm economies through changes in SNAP
benefits will result in improved health of SNAP participants,
in decreased taxpayer resentment of SNAP entitlements. Good
food is not a cost, but it's an investment in our health. Thank
you.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Dr. Rogan. Mr. Chairman, our final
speaker today is Don Smyers. Mr. Smyers is the Executive
Director for Cornell Cooperative Extension for Schoharie and
Otsego Counties.
STATEMENT OF DON SMYERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, SCHOHARIE AND
OTSEGO COUNTIES, COBLESKILL, NY
Mr. Smyers. Chairman Conaway and honored guests, we
appreciate your presence here today. I am the Executive
Director, as Tim Moore has said, or Cornell Cooperative
Extension of Schoharie and Otsego Counties, which includes this
county and the county immediately to the west of us, Otsego.
Primarily both counties historically have been major dairy
producers. I don't want to repeat what my colleagues have said
about the absolute necessity for the Smith-Lever capacity
funding, which is why I'm here today to speak. Smith-Lever does
a lot for cooperative extension. Beyond the teams which provide
the technical expertise that we need for a changing New York
agriculture, this is, yet, another reason why extension and
Smith-Lever funding is ever so critical. If we are going to
sustain a rural New York which has opportunities for
employment, we need a strong agriculture. And to that end, it
would be logical to say that we have to maintain a strong
presence educationally to provide sometimes highly technical
information and assistance to producers. To that end, I'm going
to ask that you would continue to support Smith-Lever funding
in the farm bill. Thank you very much.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Smyers. And for those of you who
didn't have a chance to share your comments today, I just want
to remind that you our Committee certainly want to hear your
comments and the address is [email protected].
Thank you. Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Tim. I appreciate you moderating
our listening session today. We started this listening session
asking you to give us your comments, and I want to thank each
and every one of the folks who did. Thank you for being blunt
and respectful, though, in your positions. I hope it wasn't
lost on you that there was not one speaker who requested a cut
in a program. Most all of the speakers asked for more money and
many asked for flat funding, but no one asked for less money,
and so my colleagues and I have a difficult path ahead of us to
try to meet all of the legitimate needs that were expressed
this morning, very heartfelt, and thank you for sharing those
stories. The current farm bill is always a work in progress. We
put it in place for 5 years and we try to decide what's
working, what's not working.
We use listening sessions to hear from you what didn't
work. Obviously dairy has not worked in the last farm. My
colleagues and I are committed to addressing that and
addressing the other things in the 2014 Farm Bill that didn't
work as well as they did. But the current farm bill, the
current scheme, you can love it or hate it, but based
principally on the hard work, sweat, equity, risk taking of the
American producer, and, yes, they are reliant on a safety net
that provides the American consumer the most abundant and
safest and affordable food and fiber supplied of any nation in
the world, that's not an accident. That comes by a lot of hard
work. As we approach this next farm bill, the family that I'm
going to be thinking the most of is a study I saw recently
where almost 50% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; that's
the family I'm going to be thinking about as we move forward.
The top 20% of the wage earners in this country spend more on
food than the bottom 20% makes in disposable income. As we look
at all these programs, the first one to my mind is what will
this do to the cost of food? Why are we doing it? Will it help
with those consumers out there who every time they go to the
grocery store, every time they go to a restaurant, they pay
less for their food than anybody else in the world? They don't
know that and they certainly don't know why. And so everyone in
this room that eats ought to be an advocate for a strong farm
policy, a strong farm bill that allows us to continue to do the
things we've done. Every SNAP voice out there said they need
more money or they certainly didn't want the cost of food to go
up to make those SNAP benefits go even shorter than they
already do. And so these are the struggles that we're going to
have as we look forward to the next step, the next farm bill.
We're committed to getting it done on time.
The previous examples where the farm bill expires, we have
short-term extensions, we have threats of permanent law, all of
that drama is totally unnecessary. My colleagues and I are
committed to getting this thing done before the current one
expires, so that right, wrong or indifferent producers will
know what they'll have to deal with for the next 5 years. And
the bankers and the lenders and producers themselves will know
the program. With respect to SNAP, we will make meaningful work
requirement changes, but none of us intend to cut SNAP. That
was not the position we have taken for the last 2 years and 9
months. G.T. leads that Subcommittee right now. We've done over
18 hearings on SNAP to decide what's working, what's not
working, and not in one of those hearings did any of us talk
about saving money or not spending money that shouldn't be
spent. We spent the entire time talking about: ``Let's get the
policy right.'' If we understand what the right policy is, then
we can see whether they can afford it or not. But the first
step is to get that policy right, and that's what we've been
trying to do.
And under G.T.'s leadership that's where we're going to be
headed with this next farm bill. We appreciate all of you
coming this morning. Last month we celebrated the 230th
anniversary of the Constitution. A document was put together by
a good man who came to Philadelphia with the idea of fine
tuning the (inaudible) in the Confederation. James Madison and
some others had a different idea, and after extensive behind-
closed-doors work, they came up with the current Constitution
that we have. Benjamin Franklin was asked, when he emerged from
that, ``What have you given us, Good Doctor, a monarchy or
republic?'' And he looked the lady in the eye and said ``A
republic, Madam, if you can keep it.'' That's a pretty
evocative phrase. It is an ongoing challenge to each and every
one of us to keep this republic. Self-governing people keep
republics.
John Adams wrote that only morally religious people can
self-govern, because amoral and immoral people can't self-
govern; they have to have a different scheme. If we're going to
be among those continuing keepers of the republic, if we're
going to be able to keep it, then we have to be those morally
religious people. As I look at our country, I'm deeply
concerned that we are losing that moral high ground, that moral
authority to be able to self-govern, and each of us have to
take up the challenge of reclaiming it.
These gentlemen and I and Claudia have taken an oath of
office, every 2 years several us have taken the oath where we
join the military to defend and protect this Constitution
against all enemies foreign and domestic. I'm going to ask each
one of you to decide for yourself what are you willing to do to
protect this republic? What are you willing to do to defend
this Constitution? We've got good men and women in uniform
today who have put their lives behind that particular oath that
I'm proud to have taken and my colleagues are proud to have
taken. I'm going to ask you to think about what are you willing
to risk to defend it? Will you risk the ridicule and the issues
that come along, now, with being able to stand up for those
values and truths that built this country and sustain this
country.
I live a code, a Christian model, Jesus Christ is my
personal savior. I try to live that code every day. Some days
are better than others. But you have to live a code as well.
You have to be among that group that stands up and says I will
be a morally religious person that can self-govern, that will
provide the necessary backdrop in order to defend this republic
and protect it, going forward, for the future generations of
America. Inherent in all of that is the people who are fed and
fed healthily and production of agriculture in rural America
that backstops all of those work. Think about it from time to
time, what is it you're willing to risk to defend the republic?
Because, after all, ``It is a republic, Madam, if you can keep
it.'' God bless each one of you. God bless Texas and God bless
the United States of America. Good to be with you this morning.
(Thereupon, the listening session was adjourned at 12:40
p.m., E.D.T.)