Rural Tour Blog (Comments)

Re:

In the Shadow of Scottsbluff

Patrick Peterson — Thu, 1 Oct 2009 08:53:37 -0500

I chose not to attend the tour session in scottsbluff because I wasn't sure the 7 hour round trip was worth an hour and forty five minute forum where it was highly unlikely I would have the chance to compete. I have a lot of complaints, sometimes it seems like the USDA is more intent on putting us out of business. In truth, very little of the farm bill has much to do with agriculture anyways. Instead it has drifted torwards urban development programs and an ever increasing army of beurocrats. Today's small operator is challenged enough, Input costs have increased at a rate far greater than our yeilds and farm prices. Looking back over the last ten years nearly all of our production costs have at least doubles, some have tripled If adjusted for inflation, farm prices have declined in the last fifty years. There has been little interest in pursuing anti trust legislation in the last century. Now we are increasingly squeezed between the consolidation of our input suppliers (agrium, Monsanto, CNH, AGco, Deere) and those who purchase our produce....(ADM, Swift, JBS, Tyson....) Even the elevators have consolidated. 10 years ago there were 5 elevator within 60 miles one could take their grain to. We had a rail line. Today there are two grain elevators and had enough clout to get the rail line ripped out in an effort to drive the other elevators out of business. Now we have basis that often runs in excess of a dollar and forced to ship grain on trucks. A process far less efficient than by rail. The railraods haven't helped. A recent attempt to build a nearby biodesiel plant fell under because BNSF refused to deliver even 100 car hopper units to the facility until the local feed base was built. Our young people are leaving because we have few jobs or opportunities to offer. 1/3 of the houses in our town sit empty, the rural homesteads are at about 50% occupation. How does a young farmer compete with the large corporations...let alone a government that is paying 150% of reasonable land rent for CRP ground? So the old farmers put the ground in CRP, then pass away, and the payements go to their children in the city. Like I said I have a few complaints. I would like toleave with one last thought. Our society seems to be embracing organic farming and recently grain based ethanol has lost it's popularity in favor of cellulosic ethanol I would like to give one word of caution. a hundred years ago our forebearers came was to find a land of rich soil. They put a plow to it and for fifty years we experienced a wealth of abundance. But each time we turned the soil over we lost organic matter. In the fifties it was beginning to get the point it was hard to get a crop with out use of the fertilizer..so they dug deeper and used the fertilizer and now the hillsides are covered with white knobs where the soil blew or washed away. Then the feedyards consolidated and so instead of feeding livestock on the farm we sent the cattle and all of our crops hundreds of miles away where neither the manure nor the nutrients it contained ever came back to our land but instead became a problem on the land near the feed lots where they have to worry about high nitrate levels and phos blooms. When In the fifties when our soil surveys were taken the average organic matter for our counties soils were 1.5 to 1.7%. After another half century of farming essentially "organic" we are down to county average of .7 to .9 %. We are subject to drought and nearly dependent on fertilizer. This trend is reversible..but will take nearly as long to fix as it did to create. We need to quit turning the soil over (no-till) we need to feed our cattle locally (unappealing as the cattle industry faces ever increasing regulation) We need to leave our organic matter on the land it came from. Although grain based ethanol has lost favor in washington at least we left residue in the fields and had livestock feed as a byproduct. If there is a shift to cellosic ethanol and we bale up all of our residue to ship off to some ethanol plant, the effects on our land will be every bit as devastating as the consolidation of the feeding industry. If we really care about the ability to feed ourselves 50 years from now, 100 years from now, we need to start caring about preserving our ag land.

Re:

Renewing America’s Promise: USDA Makes Connections In Person, and Online

brian lehman — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:09:24 -0500

Today you addressed H1N1 on a global scale, but what about the damage the media has done on the contined use of the name swine flu.As the chief spoksman for US agriculture I would like you to address this. I am from Morgan county in central Missouri, I farm and my wife is a teacher. We would like to expand our farming operation, but the intovation that you speak of, is almost impossible because of all the regulations, lawsuits and fear of harder econmical times because of Cap and trade. Thanks for your time today,and appricated your comments.

Re: Strengthening Rural Communities: USDA Kicks Off the Rural Tour

Stephen P Walls — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:39:08 -0500

We need to start expanding mass transit systems in our cities and to develop Bicycle only lanes. More people would commute on bicycles if the lanes were available and safe. We need to start conserving our fuel for our farmers and the trucking industries. At some point we have to decide if we want to eat or continue to drive our own vehicles. The time to act is now, President Obama is very open minded and serious about this and we need to all get behind these efforts!!!!

Re:

St. John's Parish hosts four Obama Cabinet members on Rural Tour

biprgriff — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:22:50 -0500

We attended this Rural Tour in Reserve, LA. The large turnout was overwhelming composed of Louisiana Citizens who disapprove and are quite unhappy with the administration's policies. For anyone in attendance, including the esteemed panel, the mood of the room was plain and clear. There is a sense that our country is hurtling toward socialism at breakneck pace, spending money we don't have, mortgaging our children's future and force feeding policy we don't want. When HHS Secretary Sebelius was asked if she and congress would be joining the citizens in the administration's health care plan the secretary could not organize a coherent answer that essentially amounted to "Heck No!, we're above all that because we're the government".

Re:

St. John's Parish hosts four Obama Cabinet members on Rural Tour

Billy R. Lynn — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:35:33 -0500

Great! Just what we need, a forum for discussing health care for Americas Rural Veterans turned into a forum on jobs, housing, ect. Stick to the issue at hand folks! and that is health care, these other issues can be answered by visiting your local County or Parish VA Representive.

Re: Strengthening Rural Communities: USDA Kicks Off the Rural Tour

James A. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:00:48 -0500

Hello I would like to know on the Transportation Home Front,Why Most Companies Here in our Unites States,Are telling Returning Civilians and Returning Military Folk That Trucking Companies here in the states will not accept our credentials and Time Served while we were all Defending our Country!That is so wrong and needs to be addressed by the Transportation Department!Because they way it is being put by alot of Trucking Companies,Is That if we had Trucking experience and we stayed overseas for a long duration!Our Experience is no longer Valid!And That we have To Basically Start All Over!

Re:

Food Safety and Farming Lead Conversation in Charlotte

Steve Bemis — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:53:15 -0500

It was good to see interest in the farm situation "on the ground" by the Secretary. More focus on small farmers is needed, however, as the last few questions illustrate with criticism of the current "food safety" bill HR 2749: http://www.sustainablefarmer.com

Re: Pennsylvania a Successful Kickoff to the Tour

Jane — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:39:45 -0500

Please tell us when you will visit rural Alaska. There are many problems that need to be addressed before another harsh winter causes people to choose between feeding their families and heating their homes. The salmon run is so bad they will not have enough cash to do both - AGAIN!!

Re: Pennsylvania a Successful Kickoff to the Tour

Jane — Tue, 7 Jul 2009 14:37:59 -0500

When will The Rural Tour be visiting rural Alaska? I hope you will be traveling with Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke when it does. He can see for himself the hardship Salmon bycatch in the Pollock fishery is bringing to Native Peoples in rural Alaska.

Along the Yukon River, First People who live a traditional subsistence lifestyle are once again facing subsistence fishery closures due to a poor Salmon run and treaty obligations with Canada.

In some villages they are struggling to preserve enough fish for their family's winter pantry. Normally they sell excess catch to buy winter fuel but not enough is being taken this year to ensure that there will be any to sell.

This same situation occurred last year and, by January, people were choosing whether to buy food for their families or fuel to heat their homes with the little cash they had. One man, Nicholas Tucker, from Emmonack spoke out to let people know how the people in his village were struggling.

Part of the reason the Salmon aren't returning is because floating factory ships catch tens of thousands of Salmon as bycatch while trawling for Pollock in the Bering Sea and throw them back dead.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council's met in April to put a cap on the number of Salmon that can be wasted before the Pollock fishery is closed. Despite rural Alaskans speaking up for a cap of 32,500, the limit was set at 60,000. Native corporations carry more weight on the NPFMC than Native People. This needs to be addressed.

The 60,000 limit must be accepted by Secretary Locke before the cap takes effect in 2010. I hope your tour will include a number of stops along the Yukon to listen to the hardships people are living with because of Salmon bycatch.

Please make multiple visits to Alaska’s rural villages a high priority on the Rural Tour. This is only one of a number of unique issues you will find there.

Thank you!
Jane

Does this blog allow the inclusion of links?

Re: Strengthening Rural Communities: USDA Kicks Off the Rural Tour

Kathy Means — Thu, 2 Jul 2009 13:50:49 -0500

It would be great if there were information on ruraltour.gov about the location/times of the events and how one might participate or attend.

Re: Strengthening Rural Communities: USDA Kicks Off the Rural Tour

Amanda Eamich, USDA — Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:03:08 -0500

Hi Mr. Lafuria - Thanks for your comment. We will post video content on this site from Rural Tour events on demand (will not be live feed). You can sign up for RSS feeds to make sure you know when new content is available - Stay tuned!

Re: Strengthening Rural Communities: USDA Kicks Off the Rural Tour

David LaFuria — Wed, 1 Jul 2009 10:56:17 -0500

It would be great if a live video feed were made available for the rural tour events. If it is available, it is not apparent on whitehouse.gov or the department's web site.