New on Agri-Pulse this week:
Congressman Steve King is an outspoken conservative member of the House Agriculture Committee. He is in line to be the chairman when the next farm bill comes up in 2018. King put through an egg amendment that may keep states from imposing standards that restrict commerce with other states. He also wants to cut the cost of SNAP and reduce other expenditures as well.
Listen to the Agri-Pulse Open Mic interview with Rep. King here.
With the Senate Agriculture Committee set to start writing a new farm bill on Tuesday and the House Agriculture Committee ready to follow a day later, Congressman Collin Peterson offers his views on how a new farm bill can hopefully get passed by both chambers this year. As the ranking Democrat, he talks about the compromises he’s worked out with Chairman Frank Lucas on a host of issues and with Speaker John Boehner regarding dairy policy. Peterson also expresses confidence about a compromise on nutrition spending – even though the level of cuts in the House Agriculture Committee’s draft bill are significantly higher than the Senate version.
Listen to the Agri-Pulse Open Mic interview with Peterson here.
A guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant
When lawmakers talk about reducing “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal programs, they usually target the food stamp program, more recently called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
In fact, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., introduced legislation recently that he said would “restore integrity” to the SNAP program, while saving $36 billion in taxpayer dollars. He’s supported by fellow Republican Senators Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and John Thune, R-SD.
“Times are tough right now for millions of Americans and government spending is out of control.” Roberts said. “This bill is a package of straightforward, commonsense reforms that have garnered bipartisan support in the past to address, waste, fraud and abuse.
But a recent report issued by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) provides fresh fodder for those convinced that USDA must do more to cut wasteful spending in other areas -while still delivering $144 billion in public services through more than 300 USDA programs.
The OIG found that seven of the 29 component agencies and offices administer “high-risk” programs that are vulnerable to significant improper payments. The seven agencies affected include the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Rural Development (RD), Forest Service (FS), and the Risk Management Agency (RMA).
USDA estimated that these agencies’ 16 total high-risk programs made $5.5 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2012, a 5.11 percent error rate. That’s an improvement compared to a 5.37 percent error rate in 2011. However, at least one agency has programs with improper payments exceeding 25 percent, explained OIG.
According to OIG, an improper payments are those that “should not have been made or that were made in an incorrect amount.” Improper payments also include those made to ineligible recipients, those made for “goods or services not received,” and those that lack “sufficient documentation.”
The OIG found that, for the second consecutive year, USDA failed to comply with the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA), which requires that agencies meet seven specific requirements, including publishing improper payment estimates for all applicable high-risk programs; meeting a gross improper payment rate of less than 10 percent for each program; and publishing and meeting annual reduction targets. Continue reading
How about some Farm to Fork Politics? That’s what we got to kick off 2013 National Ag Day activities in Washington, DC. Here are the panelists for the session that was sponsored by Agri-Pulse just prior to their annual reception. Seated l-r are Dr. Keith Collins, former USDA Chief Economist, B. Hudson Riehle, Senior VP of the Research & Information Services Division for the National Restaurant Association and Dr. J. B. Penn, John Deere. These gentlemen gave us opening remarks before taking questions from the audience.
You can listen to the session here: Farm to Fork Politics Session
Before we got started I spoke with each of our panelists to ask them to tell me what they planned to tell us.
Let’s start with Dr. J.B. Penn. He had a “generally positive” message but chose to look back at recent years as a guideline for the outlook for the future. So he looks back at the last ten years to see how we “got here today.” He mentions something that is a common thread of the comments of all our panelists and that is uncertainty and volatile markets.
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Penn here: Interview with Dr. J.B. Penn
Next up is Hudson Riehle. He says that “despite a host of challenges the restaurant industry will post record sales this year of $660 billion dollars.” That’s up 3.8% over 2012. He says it’s the fourth straight year of sales growth but that the increase this year is much more modest than it has been.
You can listen to my interview with Hudson here: Interview with B. Hudson Riehle
We also heard from Dr. Keith Collins who said his first focus would be on three things, liquidity, solvency and economic growth. Then his second focus is corn because it accounts for so much of the value of crop production. He says we’re very dependent on having a good crop in 2013. Finally, he talks about where the farm bill may be headed. When it comes to the current Congress Dr. Collins is on the one hand depressed about what he see in politics but at on the other hand seeing that the glass is half full.
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Collins here: Interview with Dr. Keith Collins
2013 National Ag Day Activities Photo Album
Coverage of the National AgDay Activities is sponsored by the BCS think tank and American Seed Trade Association
The first in the series of 2013 National Ag Day activities is an Agri-Pulse sponsored session titled, “Farm to Fork Politics: An Insider’s look at the year ahead for food and agriculture”
Join us for this panel discussion moderated by Sara Wyant of Agri-Pulse and featuring J.B. Penn of John Deere, former USDA Chief Economist, Dr. Keith Collins and B. Hudson Riehle, the Senior Vice President of the Research and Information Services Division for the National Restaurant Association.
I spoke with Sara before we got started tonight and asked about her perspective of what the year ahead will hold. Sara is very optimistic about agriculture and food. She sees heightened interest in these subjects here on Capitol Hill. She says it’s a time of fiscal austerity with budget cutting and a need to figure out what’s best to maintain a sustainable ag industry and work to feed a growing population.
We’ve got a big crowd here tonight. There were over 330 pre-registered and we’re expecting House and Senate leadership to join us for the reception following this session.
You can listen to my interview with Sara here: Interview with Sara Wyant
I’ll be saving a lot of photos to my online photo album: 2013 National Ag Day Activities Photo Album
Coverage of the National AgDay Activities is sponsored by the BCS think tank and American Seed Trade AssociationA guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant
A proposed definition of the term “rural” submitted by the Department of Agriculture to Congress last month could have broad implications for small towns across America and not everyone is happy about it. The report, delivered two and one half years late after it was required by Congress to be delivered by June 18, 2010, was expected to assess how the various definitions in rural development programs are working and to make recommendations on ways to better target funds.
At issue is the definition’s new population limit for “rural,” now raised up to 50,000. Currently, each USDA RD program has its own population limit to correspond to its specific function. For example, USDA now has a 10,000 population limit for rural water/wastewater programs and 20,000 for community facility programs. USDA believes a new across-the-board limit “would remove confusion over what constitutes a rural area and would encourage more multi-jurisdictional collaboration,” according to the official proposal.
Critics, including House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and ranking member Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., are concerned that the new definition will crowd out smaller communities. “We are disappointed in USDA’s proposals to shift funding away from the most rural areas by inflating the definition across the board,” Lucas and Peterson said in a joint statement. “This will result in smaller communities competing with larger and more urban areas for funding.”
The new definition would force the department’s Rural Development (USDA-RD) program to “spend money in a way that’s perhaps not the best for the United States,” said Duane Ischer, former Rural Development senior advisor, in an interview with Agri-Pulse. The federal government “needs to keep (the definition) as simple as possible and probably let the states define (rural) to the extent that they can within their own state,” he said.
The report’s authors say the change would streamline funding procedures and provide “a more transparent process for accessing financial and technical assistance from the Mission Area.
Read the rest of Sara’s story here.
A guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant
Current high rates of obesity in the United States and frequent discussions about eating healthy have many people counting their calories. But researchers say cooking and processing food can make a significant difference in the number of calories consumed – making current nutrition labels systematically misleading.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held a conference in Boston this month to discuss “Why a Calorie Is Not a Calorie and Why It Matters for Human Diets.”
During the discussions, Harvard University’s Rachel Carmody described research in which she and her colleagues found significant contributions from cooking to human energy budgets. Their results “also illuminate a weakness in current food labeling practices, which systematically overestimate the caloric potential of poorly processed foods,” and “take inadequate account of food processing.”
Highly processed foods are given similar caloric labels as the same foods in an unprocessed state, which does not accurately reflect the biological processes of the human body that impact caloric intake. So, according to these researchers, a Snickers bar label actually underestimates the amount of calories gained, while raw foods are contributing fewer calories than current food tables suggest.
“For example, raw foods are systematically less energy-producing than the same foods cooked,” said Harvard University’s Richard Wrangham. But USDA displays data for the public indicating that cooking foods does not consistently make a difference in their energy value. “The public is thus misled,” he said.
For more than a century, the energy value of foods has been assessed using the Atwater Convention. Wrangham suggested that the Atwater Convention conveys realistic values for foods that are highly digestible, such as white bread.
Agri-Pulse Communications Inc. has named Aarian Marshall to serve as Associate Editor, based in Washington, D.C.
“Aarian initially joined us as an intern last fall to assist with our election coverage, but she has quickly grasped a wide variety of the farm, food and rural issues that we cover. We are delighted to have her join our growing team of reporters on Capitol Hill,” explained Editor Sara Wyant.
Prior to joining Agri-Pulse, she served as communications intern for Faith in Public Life, a faith advocacy group in Washington, DC, and as an editorial intern for Moment Magazine, a publication focusing on Jewish culture, politics and religion. Marshall graduated from Princeton University in 2012 with concentrations in Religion and Urban Studies. While at Princeton, Marshall won a number of awards for her writing.
![derrickcain[1]](http://agwired.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/derrickcain1-247x300.jpg)
Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc. announced that Derrick Cain has joined the company to serve as Senior Editor.
Cain brings more than eight years of experience, reporting about news from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and agriculture-related legislation in the U.S. Congress, including detailed coverage of the 2002 and 2008 farm bills.
As a congressional reporter for more than 12 years who most recently worked for Bloomberg BNA, Cain reported on hundreds of congressional hearings and mark-ups, bills, and floor debates in both chambers. He covered several federal departments and agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Postal Service, and Amtrak.
In addition to his daily reporting duties, Cain has appeared on C-SPAN and the National Public Radio’s Diane Rehm Show, providing insight on current policy-related issues. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
A poll for election day shows way more farmers say they are voting Romney over Obama for president.
According to the Agri-Pulse Farm and Rural Poll released today, 78 percent of farmers polled are voting for Mitt Romney in the presidential election and a majority blame Democrats for failure to pass a new farm bill.
“We wanted to see not only how farmers viewed the presidential election, but how the failure to pass a new farm bill might impact their votes on a wide variety of races,” explained Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant. “We also wanted to see how those men and women view some of the most challenging issues confronting their operations.”
On November 1, 2012, Pulse Opinion Research conducted a telephone survey of 319 farmers and ranchers who are likely voters. Questions covered the presidential election, farm bill priorities, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s job performance rating, the Renewable Fuels Standard, and other topics. The telephone survey found that 71 percent of respondents strongly disapprove of President Obama’s job performance while 12 percent strongly approve. Of all farmers polled, 51 percent labeled themselves Republican, 26 percent Democrat.
It may not be surprising that 92 percent of self-identified Republican respondents picked Romney as their presidential vote, but more than half (53 percent) of the self-identified Democrat respondents also picked Romney. Additionally, 74 percent of farmers who identified themselves as “other” in party affiliation expressed preference for Romney.
Asked whether Republicans or Democrats are to blame for the failure to pass a new farm bill, 46 percent answered Democrats while 28 percent said both parties are equally responsible. Nineteen percent blamed Republicans. Interestingly, 35 percent of self-identified Democrats blamed their own party, while only 7 percent of self-identified Republicans blamed theirs.