So why tweak Cultivate Illinois?  Rutherford says their goal is to give Illinois farmers the opportunity to pay less interest in operating expenses.  He adds along with increasing the amount producers can now borrow – the Illinois Treasurer’s office has made the loan process less cumbersome for lenders and farmers.  By reducing the paperwork and tedious questions they are able to streamline the lending process.

The changes made to Ag Invest are key for Illinois Farmers.  Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson says, “Farming is a capital intensive industry and having access to capital is important to farmers.” He adds this is a positive step the Illinois is taking to assist its largest industry.

I visited with Tonya Wible, Program Director for the project. She says that when they asked children where their food came from it wasn’t just the inner city but also in suburban and even rural areas. So they created this program which now has six mobile labs place across the state. The trailer can accommodate a full size class. It’s a mobile agriculture education science lab, complete with all supplies and a certified teacher, that travels to a different elementary or middle school in Pennsylvania each week. The lab is designed to target grades K through 8.

You can listen to my interview with Tonya here: Interview With Tonya Wible

2011 AFBF Annual Meeting Photo Album

“I know there’s people in the press who have said, ‘Oh gosh, [incoming Speaker of the House Republican] John Boehner’s gonna kill farm programs.’ I think that’s far from the truth. He’s a very smart guy, and he’s going to recognize a lot of the new people coming in are rural Republicans, and the Farm Bill’s going to mean a lot to those folks,” Mary Kay Thatcher, Director of Public Policy at AFBF, told our own Cindy Zimmerman during the Trade Talk session at the recent National Association of Farm Broadcasters meeting in Kansas City. While she believes farm programs will take some cuts, it won’t be more than what other programs are asked to give up.

She says members of Congress during the lame duck session will kick the budget to the next Congress coming in after the first of the year by passing a continuing resolution and will at least temporarily extend some of the Bush tax cuts before they expire on January 1st. But she’s not as optimistic that the ethanol and biodiesel tax breaks will be extended. Thatcher says they could be renewed on a temporary basis, but she’s not sure after that.

“It’ll be short term … six months, maybe a year … and then the new Congress will have to figure out where do you get the money to pay for that stuff.”

Thatcher says new advocacy groups, such as the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), will be very important to keep the voice of the American farmer alive, despite there being fewer and fewer farmers and fewer and fewer farmers represented in Congress each year.

“I think we’ve got to do everything to try to put that simple message about what farmers do out there. Make sure people know you don’t get milk from a grocery store; you get it from a cow. We’ve probably got to do some advertising, [which] we didn’t have to do in the past,” says Thatcher.

Thatcher says the Farm Bill and biofuels tax credits will be big topics of discussion when the AFBF holds its 92nd Annual Meeting, Jan. 9-12, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia … just as the new Congress comes into session in Washington. She admits the ethanol tax credit could end up taking a hit from some of the new fiscal hawks elected this year. Thatcher does believe that farmers will be helped by the fact that Republicans have taken control of Congress, and thus, taken control of the purse strings of the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies that have put up roadblocks. And that could ease some of the restrictions the government has put on the agribusiness sector in the past few years.

Listen to more of Cindy’s interview with Mary Kay here: Mary Kay Thatcher, AFBF

AFBF has teamed up with the Agriculture Department’s National Agricultural Library to create the National Curriculum and Training Clearinghouse for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. The program will help those who have decided to pursue a career in agriculture and will help support Farm Bureau’s commitment to rural development.

“This is a great opportunity for Farm Bureau to provide information to beginning farmers on how to start and stay in farming and ranching,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “We are providing in-kind support to the National Ag Library with outreach, publicity, educational seminars and our annual conference where other project grants will be highlighted.”

The clearinghouse will use the grant money to develop a Web site and databases to serve beginning farmers and ranchers, with particular focus on those categorized as underserved. The clearinghouse will provide education, training, outreach and mentoring materials to beginning farmers and ranchers across the United States. AFBF will serve as a conduit for distribution of the information.

Read more here.

The American Farm Bureau Federation isn’t buying it.

“America’s farmers and ranchers did not fare that well in the House-passed climate change bill and they fare even worse in the Senate bill,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman. “There are few benefits and even greater costs to agriculture and the American public.”

Stallman says the 20 percent target, which is higher than the House bill by three percent, is unrealistic and will lead to higher energy bills for all consumers. “The Waxman-Markey bill, passed narrowly by the House this summer, did at least include credits to farmers for carbon-storing or carbon management practices. The Senate bill does not guarantee any benefits to agriculture for carbon sequestration,” Stallman said.

Another major concern for Farm Bureau is that the Boxer-Kerry bill would not prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from continuing to move forward to fully regulate all greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The bill also does nothing to provide alternative sources of energy to fill the energy deficit left by the reduction in fossil fuels, nor does it prevent the EPA from using controversial indirect land use principles that penalize ethanol, according to Stallman.

“Both the Senate and House bills would bring higher fuel and fertilizer costs to American farmers and ranchers, which puts us at a competitive disadvantage in international markets with other countries that do not have similar carbon emission restrictions,” Stallman said. “For the future prosperity of the U.S. economy and American agriculture, climate change legislation must be defeated by Congress.”

The new chairman of the ag committee is Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who has served on the committee since 1998. “As a seventh-generation Arkansan and farmer’s daughter, I know my father is smiling down on me today,” Lincoln said. “I thank Senator Harkin for his tremendous leadership. As Chairman, I will work with my colleagues to build upon the Committee’s strong record and devote my full energy to producing forward-looking, balanced priorities on behalf of all families and communities. I will continue to fight for the hardworking farm families and rural communities who provide the safest, most abundant and affordable supply of food and fiber in the world.” Lincoln is the first woman ever to chair the committee.

American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman commented on the committee chair changes in a statement. “Sen. Lincoln has been a long-time friend of Farm Bureau. She received the Golden Plow Award in 2008, the highest honor the American Farm Bureau Federation presents to members of Congress, for her steadfast support of America’s farmers and ranchers,” said Stallman. “Farm Bureau is also pleased that Sen. Harkin has agreed to continue to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Sen. Harkin has always been deeply committed to the nation’s farmers and ranchers, and we are confident he will continue to represent and hear the concerns of agriculture as he helps set the tone for important issues such as healthcare, education and labor in his new chairmanship.”

Bob says, “We’ve always been involved in the public domain. We’ve always tried to make our case to citizens and the public. Communications mechanisms have changed. It’s become very evident that this new concept and implementation of social media is going to influence people and that’s our goal, to influence people so we have to be involved. Now it does involve changing a lot of old mindset but it’s clear that we have to be engaged.” In my interview with Bob I also got an update on their current priorities which include regulation and in particular those surrounding the climate.

You can listen to my interview with Bob here: afbf-stallman-6-8-09.mp3

Earlier today I solicited some comments from the Twitterverse with the request, “If anybody has anything they’d like #AFBF Council of Presidents to know today please use the hashtag in your tweet. Thanks.” Thank you to everyone who has already posted a comment. You can find them by searching the #AFBF hashtag. Here are a few of them:

skinnyhorse: @AgriBlogger I found it helpful to follow people like lobbyists at the State Cap. for breaking news on legislation, amendments etc. #AFBF

whitwallace: @AgriBlogger SM is influencing perceptions as we speak. When we aren’t part of the convo, our story is told for us, minus the facts. #AFBF

This request and response from a widespread audience is a perfect example of the power of a social media channel like Twitter. Literally within moments of my posting that request, responses were coming in and as I post this I’m seeing more pop up so please feel free to see how today’s Twitter “chat” turns out.

Right at the outset, Stallman stressed the American farmers’ commitment to making sure that not only people in the U.S. are fed but that the entire world has enough to eat.

“Any hungry person should be great cause for concern to all of us.”

Stallman says agriculture needs to figure out how it will feed the 9 billion people who will live on the planet by the year 2050… on basically the same amount of land used to feed about 6 billion today (including the nearly 3 billion who now don’t get enough to eat). But, he says global hunger has less to do with production than it does with infrastructure and politics. “Hunger in the world today is not a lack of calories. It’s a problem of distribution,” he said.

Stallman says policies, in particular, the trade protections that too many developing countries insist upon, are some of the political decisions that are having a tremendous impact on world food supplies. He also defended biofuels, which had been a bit maligned during this session, as not being to blame for the spike in food prices the world has seen. Stallman pointed out that American farmers are getting better at sustainability practices.

Stallman tells the group in St. Louis that there are some solutions to the daunting tasks world agriculture will face over the next couple of decades.

“We must continue to seek out new production technology, adapt new production technology and not fear new production technology. Those countries that choose to turn their backs on tech will be left behind.”

Stallman says open borders and open trade are also part of the solution to how to feed those 9 billion people by 2050.

You can hear more of Bob’s comments during the session here: Stallman1.mp3

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
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