Release No. 0380.00

of
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Rich Rominger
3^rd Agricultural Marketing Outreach Workshop
Modesto, California -- October 31, 2000

      "Enrique Figueroa, thank you very much. And thanks to the Agricultural Marketing Service for all the behind-the-scenes work putting together this 3^rd Agricultural Marketing Outreach Conference.

      "This is partnership at its best. We're grateful to California Polytechnic State University for sponsoring this workshop with USDA. With us are ... Bill Lyons, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture ... and Joseph Jen, Dean of the College of Agriculture, California Polytechnic State University. Thanks to both of you for your support.

      "This wouldn't be a workable partnership without the participation of the University of California -Small Farms Programs, University of California-Cooperative Extension Service, Modesto Junior College and Stanislaus County.

       "This workshop is also a model for cooperation within USDA. We don't pull together like this often enough. Agencies across the Department are contributing in all kinds of ways -- funding, know-how, people power -- to target the basic marketing needs of limited resource farmers. This strong cooperative effort speaks more loudly than words that USDA is working for the nation's small farmers, woodlot owners, and ranchers. This is the kind of cooperation Secretary Glickman had in mind last fall when he required USDA agencies to integrate small-farm issues in their work -- the first time small farms have received this stature and attention.

      "This conference is an outgrowth of two previous workshops held in Memphis in the past year-and-a-half. The positive feedback we received from farmers played a strong role in developing the program for this conference.

      "They told us that it's important to have representatives from virtually every segment of the farming community involved. This helps participants identify specific markets for their products and hear from buyers themselves the quality attributes they require for specialty, premium price products. Over the next few days you'll have the chance to exchange success stories. You'll learn how others are setting their products apart and commanding premium prices both here and abroad. And like the folks in Memphis, you'll find that networking opportunities are among the greatest benefits of this conference.

      "Our goal here is a workshop that's practical and hands-on. About 175 small farmers are receiving travel scholarships to attend. Unlike the eastern meetings, we have a greater diversity here and we're providing translation services in Spanish and Hmong to accommodate all participants. Please take some time to visit the computer resource room. It's a great tool for learning how to access information to help market your products. As a special feature - we'll award the five computers to five farmers at the closing session. I also urge you to take advantage of the six tours we've arranged tomorrow.

      "Farmers attending the Memphis workshops stressed that what they need is constant learning. A big part of the battle in farming is to stay up-to-date, ahead of the curve, to learn as much as you can -- and keep on learning.

      "We realize that, and we also realize that in the past USDA hasn't done a good enough job of equipping small farmers to stay competitive. It's bad enough that small farmers, family farmers, good people making responsible decisions, are pushed to the edge by floods, fires, droughts, and crop disease.

      "But for decades now small-scale farmers have been up against odds even tougher than Mother Nature. It's not a matter of cleaning up, replanting and starting over when the odds you're facing are economic ... increasing numbers of factories in the fields ,efficiencies of scale and expensive technology.

      "Two years ago, Secretary Glickman's Small Farms Commission made 146 recommendations to explore questions like: How can we ensure that small and beginning farmers have ready access to new production technologies, business and management skills and market expertise?

      "The Commission has completed its job. And now the Small Farms Advisory Committee is moving forward with the recommendations. Since its start last year, the Committee has met three times, just last August in Sacramento. It has submitted letters with key recommendations to the Secretary. We appreciate the good work of Committee members Ranvr Singh of California and Luz Bazan Gutierrez of Washington state.

      "In addition, USDA's Small Farms Coordinators published a report on "Progress and Achievements on Small Farms" last April. As industrialization has brought about the growth of processors, packagers and marketers, the share of the ag economy going to farmers has dropped from 21 to 5 percent. Small farmers own 94 percent of all farms and ranches, representing 72 percent of all land in production, but they only take in 41 percent of all agricultural receipts.

USDA ACTIONS ON BEHALF OF SMALL FARMERS

      "USDA is working on many fronts to help farmers out. On the most urgent front, we've been getting farmers through recent tough times with emergency payments, more credit, and food donation programs. We ended fiscal year 2000 with a record $28 billion in direct assistance to farmers. Government payments will make up half of total net farm income for the year. Without it, farm income would have hit its lowest level since 1984. In many cases, small family farms would have been forced out of business.

      "The new fiscal 2001 appropriation for agriculture, passed last week by Congress, gives producers $1.6 billion in disaster assistance for crops, including $20 million for grower members of Tri Valley Growers who lost income as a result of the co-op's bankruptcy ... $490 million in assistance for livestock producers affected by bad weather ... and $138 million to apple and potato growers. In addition, USDA will make $650 million available to dairy producers in Dairy Market Loss Assistance payments.

      "As Secretary Glickman said, "The troubles plaguing agriculture continue, and dairy is no exception. For the third consecutive year, milk prices continue to decline ... This Administration is committed to support the hard working families that are the backbone of this country's dairy industry."

       "We've also been reaching out to underserved communities. Our Farm Service Agency has tailored many of its programs to underserved groups, including Native Americans, Latin Americans, Hmong producers and other Asian-American populations. These groups face language and other barriers to full participation. We've held outreach meetings with Hmong community leaders and farmers. We've hired a loan packager fluent in Hmong, and bought airtime on Hmong language radio programs to get out the message about FSA programs in the Fresno area. "Over 30 percent of FSA loans in California this year have gone to socially disadvantaged farmers, and almost 100 percent of California's County Committees have minority advisors - these are positive steps.

      "This Administration has also made applying for small farm loans easier. For the past two years, our Business and Industry loan program has set aside $200 million to finance projects that involve farmer-owned value-added co-ops and farmers' purchase of stock in startup cooperatives. We've funded 21 Rural Cooperative Development Grants, including the University of California Center for Cooperatives, which received a grant of $225,000 in August.

      "We have a strong market development effort. Our $1 million-plus Federal State Marketing Improvement Program is matched with state funds aimed at small farms. And Congress has authorized mandatory price reporting for livestock, which we're now in the process of implementing.

      "USDA has set up an Advisory Committee on Beginning Farmers. The average age of farmers in this country is 57. As a farmer myself, with three sons running the family farm, and grandchildren coming along, I regard this issue as critical. But these young farmers, like all small farmers, need the benefit of outreach through training and education workshops like this to better manage risk, gain access to technical assistance, and keep abreast of marketing strategies. Last October, USDA and Lincoln University co-hosted the Second National Conference on Small Farms, in St. Louis -- a great success.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR CREATIVE THINKING

      "But for all our actions, what we're on the lookout for, first and foremost, are fresh ideas and innovation. We know at USDA that small and limited resource farmers are some of our finest sustainable farmers. But we also know that the marketplace is changing at lightning speed. To preserve the family farm, we need to preserve long-term profitability.

      "With farmers' margins squeezed more than ever by low crop prices, the need is greater than ever to capture more of the retail dollar. Small farmers need to be creative on the marketing end. Here's what we're doing.

      "Right now, for the first time, USDA is offering grants to encourage producers to try innovative ways to market their products and boost incomes -- like farmers markets, or direct marketing to restaurants and institutions, or pick-your-own farms.

      "This is a cooperative effort within USDA. We're putting up half a million dollars to spur some bold thinking and claim a larger share of the consumer dollar.

      "This past summer, USDA kicked off its fifth farmers market season right at our headquarters on the Smithsonian Mall. Nationwide, farmers markets have increased 56 percent in the past five years. We're proud of that.

      "With depressed prices and changing government policies, the time is right to take a hard look at the new opportunities offered by farmer-owned co-ops. They're called "new generation" or "new wave" cooperatives ... co-ops that offer ways to keep farmers where they belong -- in farming -- and to help rural communities through sustainable agriculture.

      "Through financial and technical help, USDA is committed to new cooperatives and farmer-owned enterprises that generate more income by linking producers to processing.

      " Organic agriculture is another example of a great opportunity for small producers to build a solid niche for themselves and expand their profit margins. Demand for organic products is soaring. The Secretary announced the revised proposed rule for the national organic standard in March, and we received more than 40,000 comments - after having received 270,000 comments on the original proposal. How's that for citizen participation? We expect to publish a final rule by the end of the year ... a rule that will give an economic boost to a rapidly growing sector of American agriculture dominated by smaller, family-sized producers.

CONCLUSION

      "The organic rule is just one more example of USDA's commitment to the economic betterment of the nation's small farmers. But we're also doing things that have less to do with economics than with reminding this nation that our family farms are living chronicles of American history.

      "To honor families whose farms have contributed continuously to the nation for a hundred years or more ... to say thanks ... with great pride, we published a year 2000 calendar that celebrates the nation's century farms. They represent all areas of the country, all kinds of crops and production, and every possible story of survival, hardship, and pride in working the land.

      "They're farms like Shikuma Brothers Incorporated in Watsonville, California. Unosuke Shikuma left his native Japan for the fertile fields of California in the 1890s.

      " He began working as a laborer, then a sharecropper. Because of Alien Land Laws, the family couldn't acquire its homeranch until the 1930s, when their status changed to landowners. Larry Shikuma still owns and manages the family land and attributes his success to his father and grandfather who taught him an appreciation for an enduring connection with the land.

      "These farms are a window on the history and diversity of American agriculture. They're integral to our heritage and vital to our future. It's important that the nation knows this. And it's important that we continue with solid, practical workshops to provide the economics needed to keep our small and limited resource farmers in farming. Thank you."

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