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Much More Than Dairy –
The Rest Of The Farm Bill Story For Vermont
WASHINGTON (Wed., May 8) – The new national dairy program in the
farm bill is a big win for Vermont. But Sen. Patrick Leahy says
Vermont also scores well with dozens of other features of the bill,
including a huge boost in conservation funds, hunger and nutrition
program help, organic farming promotion, specialty crop assistance,
and support for home satellite viewers interested in local-into-local
TV service. The bill also promotes broadband and telecommunications
access in Vermont and rural America.
The U.S. Senate Wednesday completes its debate on the final version
of the new farm bill, with a vote expected late in the day. It passed
the House last week. If the Senate approves the bill, it goes to the
desk of President Bush, who has said he will sign it.
Leahy, a Senate conferee on the farm bill and former Agriculture
Committee chairman, led on a wide range of issues important to Vermont
in the bill. He worked to maintain and expand bill language
guaranteeing that Vermont will receive the highest levels of
conservation, specialty crop, rural development and nutrition funding
levels ever included in federal farm legislation.
"The new dairy program is a hard-fought win for Vermont, but we
also got several other major victories on our other priorities," said
Leahy. "It adds up to the best farm bill ever for Vermont. In several
ways, this bill will immensely benefit our farms and communities and
create Vermont jobs. It will bring millions of dollars to Vermont each
year to support our dairy programs, our specialty crops, our farmers’
markets and our low-income nutrition assistance programs. The
conservation programs targeted to our region will mean cleaner
waterways, better soils, help in maintaining open space, and the
preservation of family farm businesses."
Throughout the writing of and debate on the Farm Bill, Leahy, a
founder and leader of a bipartisan alliance of senators from the
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states -- nicknamed the "Eggplant Caucus"
-- worked to ensure that the final Farm Bill contained provisions
ensuring regional equity in the final allocation of agricultural
funds. Leahy is the only senator from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
states on the Senate Agriculture Committee and was one of only a few
Northeastern conferees in the House-Senate conference. During debate
on the Senate version of the Farm Bill earlier this year, Leahy and
the regional caucus held swing votes critical for passage of the
national dairy program and of other key components of the bill.
ATTACHMENTS BELOW: 1) Top Non-Dairy Home Runs For
Vermont In The 2002 Farm Bill
2) (Table) Farm Bill Highlights For Vermont
NEWS BACKGROUNDER –
TOP NON-DAIRY HOME RUNS FOR VERMONT IN THE 2002 FARM
BILL
VERMONT NUTRITION PROGRAMS SAVED --
President Bush has proposed terminating two highly successful and
popular programs which help Vermont farmers, local communities,
seniors and families on the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Program
-- more than 15,000 Vermonters participate in those programs. The new
farm bill overrides those cuts and strengthens Vermont’s nutritional
safety net.
More than one thousand Vermont seniors were going to be denied
participation in the senior farmers' market nutrition program if the
Bush Administration’s plan to terminate the program had survived.
Funded at $15 million per year for seven years under the farm bill,
the program ensures that Vermont’s senior citizens will be able to
continue receiving vouchers to purchase fresh, locally grown farm
products at farmers’ markets in Vermont. The assistance also helps
local farmers by expanding demand for their products and helps
communities by providing incentives to maintain these farmers'
markets.
Also, several thousand Vermont families on the WIC program were
going to be thrown off the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program –
created by Sen. Patrick Leahy in an earlier law, passed in 1989 – that
provides vouchers to purchase fresh Vermont food products for families
on the WIC Program. This program has been a major incentive for
communities throughout Vermont to establish farmers' markets, by
offering an outlet for the coupons while helping Vermont farmers sell
directly to consumers without having to pay a middleman.
In addition, 1,000 Vermont seniors were at risk of being taken off
a food assistance program called the Commodity Supplemental Food
Assistance Program. The farm bill provides a one-time boost in funding
for Vermont so that the state does not have to terminate participation
in this senior meals program. The law also gives Vermont additional
time to build caseloads, allowing Vermonters to fully participate in
this program in future years.
Leahy has long been a leader on nutrition and hunger issues. Leahy
as chairman restored "Nutrition" to the title of the Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and currently chairs the
Nutrition Subcommittee.
MORE THAN $72 MILLION FOR VERMONT CONSERVATION PRIORITIES --
The conservation title of the 2002 Farm Bill includes $17.1 billion
in new funding for national conservation assistance for working farms
and forests -- funds to protect open space, fertile soils, wildlife
habitat, and water and air quality. Though the overall amount is less
than the $21.3 billion championed by Senator Leahy in the Senate
version of the bill, Leahy worked closely with House and Senate
conferees to protect key provisions ensuring record levels of funding
for the Northeast.
One of the most important provisions is language making Vermont and
other low-population states eligible to have first priority to receive
at least $12 million in conservation assistance each year – a level of
funding more than twelve times the current Vermont allocation, which
will greatly aid the state to address a conservation assistance
backlog estimated at over $16 million.
Leahy also successfully doubled funding for a flexible conservation
and risk management assistance program he had created for Vermont and
14 other states in the 2001 crop insurance bill. Last year, Vermont
received $500,000 from this program.
Also within the package of conservation programs lies an historic
increase in Leahy’s Farmland Protection Program – a working farmland
conservation program he authored in the 1996 Farm Bill. Previously
funded at $35 million and hugely oversubscribed by interested farmers,
the Farmland Protection Program (FPP) now will be funded at almost $1
billion over the next 10 years. Last year, when Leahy inserted $17.5
million in farmland protection funds into the crop insurance bill,
Vermont received $3.3 million. Since 1996, the FPP program in Vermont
has protected more than 80,000 acres of Vermont’s most precious
farmland.
Other programs already popular in Vermont include the Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), increased in the new farm bill from
$200 million a year to more than $9 billion over 10 years, and the
Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, increased from $50 million a year
to $700 million over 10 years. EQIP has been used extensively by
Vermonters in the Lake Champlain basin to protect water quality and,
prior to this new funding, was critically oversubscribed with
applications for assistance outstripping available funds by over
five-to-one.
Senator Leahy also supported establishing the new Conservation
Security Program, a program that could send thousands of dollars a
year in direct payments to Vermont farmers practicing strong
conservation programs on their working lands. Finally, Leahy worked
closely with House and Senate conferees to create a new $100 million
conservation forestry program in the bill that will provide needed
assistance to private forestland owners throughout Vermont.
NEW HELP AND NEW MARKETS FOR VERMONT SPECIALTY CROPS AND ORGANICS
--
The Vermont delegation worked to add $94 million to the bill for
direct aid for apple growers who have suffered crop losses in recent
years. National apple growers, including several orchards in Vermont,
have sustained losses totaling $1.5 billion over the past five years,
including an estimated $500 million during the past year.
Senator Leahy, the "father" of the national organic standards
program (which was included in the 1990 farm bill and will be fully
implemented this October), championed several provisions that will
greatly benefit Vermont’s organic farmers. Included in the farm bill
is $15 million for organic research and extension initiatives, as well
as $5 million for a national organic certification cost-share program
which will provide assistance to farms becoming certified under the
national organic standards program.
Also, certified organic farmers who produce and market only organic
products will be exempted from paying assessments collected under
commodity promotion laws. Vermont has been a leader in the organic
industry: In 1997 nearly a quarter of the state’s vegetable acreage
was in organic production, and the number of certified organic farms
in Vermont has quadrupled in the past decade.
Vermont farmers and small businesses will also get a boost from
$240 million included for Value-Added Agricultural Market Development
Grants in the bill. Modeled after the successful pilot program
currently run by USDA, this program will give Vermonters access to
grants of up to $500,000 to develop, promote and market value-added
goods throughout the state and the nation. Leahy also ensured that the
final bill includes authorization of a new program to encourage and
sustain local farmers’ markets – a program originally introduced in a
bill authored by Leahy and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), which they
introduced last fall.
UNPRECEDENTED ASSISTANCE FOR VERMONT’S RURAL COMMUNITIES –
The final bill contains an unprecedented $1 billion in mandatory
funds to assist rural areas in improving rural infrastructure,
attracting jobs and improving high-speed internet access to businesses
and homes, as well as improved satellite TV programming offering all
local network television stations (in addition to the whole range of
superstations, premier channels and other choices) to those with
satellite dishes. These provisions are part of Leahy’s ongoing work to
bring local TV stations to rural America for satellite home viewers
and is related to the earlier Hatch-Leahy Satellite Home Viewer Act
and the Burns-Leahy Local TV Act.
The bill provides $360 million to close the backlog of pending
rural development water and waste disposal loans and grants. It also
includes two new programs to help promote economic development and
create wealth and job opportunities in the most economically
challenged regions: Modeled after the Small Business Investment
Program, a new $100 million Rural Business Investment Program will
help provide equity investment for businesses in underserved areas,
and another $100 million will go to the Rural Strategic Investment
Program, a pilot program to assist communities in developing and
implementing comprehensive development strategies.
A new broadband program will offer low-interest loans to improve
broadband access in communities with populations of 20,000 or fewer.
The bill also includes $50 million to help train firefighters and
emergency medical personnel in rural areas.
The bill also authorizes a $60 million grant program to promote
e-commerce initiatives in rural areas, a program championed by Leahy
and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.); up to $1.5 billion annually in
funding for rural water and waste disposal systems, including targeted
spending to small systems; $5 million annually for grants to build
rural broadcasting systems; and $10 million annually for the National
Rural Development Partnership.
# # # # #
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Farm Bill Highlights
for Vermont |
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Dairy |
ü
National Dairy
Program:
providing payments comparable to the Northeast Dairy Compact
whenever the price for fluid milk falls below $16.94 per
hundredweight on up to 2.4 million pounds of milk annually per
producer. Payments will be made retroactively to December 1,
2001, and continue through September 2005.
ü
Milk price support
program:
reauthorized through 2007 at $9.90 per hundredweight.
ü
Dairy Research and
Promotion:
requires importers of dairy products to pay their fair share.
ü
Dairy Export
Incentives Program:
(DEIP) reauthorized to boost U.S. milk product exports.
ü
Johnes disease
research initiative:
Authorizes a new program to address problems associated with this
chronic wasting disease. |
Vermont dairy farmers
will receive an estimated $9 million this year, and $46 million
through 2005. |
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Specialty
Crops |
ü
Honey:
Establishes a new marketing assistance loan for honey producers.
ü
Apples:
provides $94 million in payments to compensate for market losses
due to low prices in 2000.
ü
USDA Purchases:
Requires USDA to purchase at least $200 million worth of fruits,
vegetables, and other specialty crops annually for school lunch
and food assistance programs.
ü
Exports:
Increases Market Access
Program to promote high-value products to $200 million annually by
2006 and provides exporter assistance to address barriers that
restrict U.S. specialty crop exports. |
Nationally, apple
growers, including several orchards in Vermont, have sustained
losses totaling $1.5 billion over the past five years, including
an estimated $500 million during the past year.
This program is used to promote exports of Vermont agricultural
products. |
|
Corn, Soybeans&
Others |
ü
Boosts payments to corn,
soybean producers and others under traditional farm programs.
Creates a new counter-cyclical target price program. Allows
producers to update yields. |
Vermont produces nearly 100,000 acres of corn each year. |
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Conservation |
The conservation title of the Farm Bill
includes $38.5 billion, including $17.1 billion in new funding for
national conservation assistance for working farms and forests --
funds to protect open space, fertile soils, wildlife habitat, and
water and air quality.
ü
Farmland Protection
(FPP):
Created by Senator Leahy in the 1990 Farm Bill and made a national
program in 1996, FPP will receive $985 million over 10 years to
help farmers purchase permanent agricultural easements on farmland
threatened by sprawl. The program now includes authorization for
new “farm viability” grants to farmers.
ü
Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP):
Provides $9 billion over 10 years to address water quality
problems associated with crops, dairy, and other livestock
production.
ü
$150 million
targeted to VT and 14 other States:
Created by Senator Leahy in crop insurance legislation of 2001,
the Agriculture Management Assistance program receives an
additional $50 million.
ü
Priority for
Under-Served States:
Gives priority for annual funding of conservation programs to
states that have not received at least $12 million in cumulative
conservation funding in that fiscal year.
ü
Provides $2 billion in
new mandatory funding for a Conservation Security Program
that makes incentive payments of up to $50,000 per farm to those
adopting and expanding natural resource stewardship practices.
ü
Forest
Lands Enhancement Program:
Creates a new $100
million program to provide needed assistance to private forestland
owners adopting good conservation practices on their land. |
Since 1996, the FPP program in Vermont has protected more than
80,000 acres of the state’s most precious farmland.
EQIP has been used extensively in VT to protect water quality
throughout the state, particularly in the Lake Champlain Basin.
Vermont received
$500,000 under this program last year.
This level of funding is
10 to 12 times Vermont’s current funding allocation. The state’s
conservation backlog is estimated to be over $16 million.
Vermont has almost 4 million acres of privately owned, eligible
forest land. |
|
Organics |
ü
Promotion:
Exempts farmers who produce and market 100 percent organic
products from paying assessments under commodity promotion laws.
ü
Certification:
Provides $5 million to help
pay producers’ costs (up to $500 per farmer) of becoming a
certified organic producer.
ü
Research:
Provides $15 million for the Organic Agriculture Research and
Extension Initiative and directs USDA to facilitate access to
organic research conducted outside of the United States.
ü
Data Collection:
Requires USDA to collect segregated data on the production and
marketing of organic agricultural products. |
Organic
farming is among the fastest growing segments of agriculture.
Leahy, “father” of the national organic standards, led on the
organic provisions of this bill.
Vermont currently
has more than 200 organic farmers.
This program was first authorized in 1990 but never before
received funding.
This could help in the development of special programs and
products targeted to organic producers, such as crop insurance.
|
|
Nutrition
|
ü
WIC & Seniors
Farmers’ Markets Programs:
Provides $15 million annually for a program to assist low-income
seniors in buying fresh produce at farmers markets and extends WIC
farmers markets program one additional year.
ü
Commodity
Supplemental Food Program:
Provide a one-time boost in funding for Vermont to prevent the
state having to terminate participation in this senior meals
program. The law also gives Vermont additional time to build
caseloads, allowing Vermonters to fully participate in this
program in future years.
ü
Food Banks:
Increases funding for the purchase of fruits, vegetables, and
other commodities to be distributed through State programs and
food banks.
ü
Food Stamps:
Reauthorizes all expiring food stamp authorities through FY2007,
increases benefits for working families, and broadens eligibility
for children, the disabled, and legal immigrants.
|
Several thousand
Vermonters participate in these programs, created by Leahy, which
the Bush Administration planned to terminate.
1,000 Vermont
seniors were at risk of losing food assistance through CSFP.
Vermonters could receive
over $1 million per year in additional nutrition benefits. |
|
Rural Economic
Development
|
The
bill contains an unprecedented $1 billion in mandatory funds to
assist rural areas in improving the rural infrastructure,
attracting jobs, and improving high-speed internet access to
businesses and homes, as well as assistance to finance improved
satellite TV programming which will offer all local network
television stations to those with satellite dishes.
ü
Water & Waste Water
Grants:
$1.5 billion annually in
funding for rural water and waste disposal systems,
including targeted spending to small systems, plus $360
million additional funding for this year to address the backlog of
pending requests for funding.
ü
Value-added grants:
Provides $40 million per year for new value-added agriculture
market development grants.
ü
National Rural
Development Partnership:
authorizes this successful program for up to $10 million per year
which provides funds for rural development councils throughout 40
states.
ü
Local-to-Local
Television: The
provision provides $80 million in federal funding to further
implement the LOCAL TV Act sponsored by Senator Leahy and enacted
in 2000. The new law is likely to finance the construction of two
satellites designed to offer local network television to
satellite dish owners in addition to offering all of the other
programming packages.
ü
Rural Broadband:
A
new broadband program will provide $100 million for low-interest
loans to improve broadband access in rural communities.
ü
Firefighters:
$50 million will be spent to help train firefighters and emergency
medical personnel in rural areas.
ü
Rural Business
Investment Program:
Modeled after the Small Business Investment Company Program, $100
million will be administered jointly by USDA and SBA to help
attract private equity in rural areas.
ü
Rural Strategic
Investment Program:
$100 million for this new pilot programs to assist rural areas
between 50,000 – 150,000 in developing and implementing
comprehensive development strategies.
ü
E-Commerce:
Authorizes a $60 million grant program to promote e-commerce in
rural areas.
|
Vermont
applications for water and waste water grants and loans still
pending at the end of this fiscal year will be eligible for these
funds.
Originally
a pilot program last year, the Farm Bill increases funds available
and redrafts the language to better work for Vermont’s producers.
Shores up long term viability for the Vermont Council on Rural
Development
Right now, for most of Vermont, local residents without access to
cable cannot watch local network television stations such as WCAX,
WNNE, FOX, WPTZ, WVNY, or other local stations.
|
|
Farm Credit |
ü
Reauthorizes USDA farm
lending programs and provides greater access to USDA farm credit
programs for beginning farmers and ranchers. |
|
|
Disaster Assistance |
ü
Emergency
Assistance for Livestock Producers:
Authorizes a new program to provide assistance to dairy and other
livestock producers to cover economic losses due to natural
disasters.
ü
Emergency Haying
and Grazing:
Establishes more flexible rules for haying and grazing on land
enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program.
ü
Tree Assistance
Program (TAP)
Establishes a new program to provide assistance to eligible
orchardists that planted trees for commercial purposes but lost
such trees as a result of a natural disaster. |
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Other Provisions |
ü
Renewable energy
and energy efficiency:
Establishes a loan, loan guarantee and grant program to assist
farmers in purchasing renewable energy systems and making energy
efficiency improvements, funded at $115 million.
ü
Historic Barn
Preservation:
Authorizes USDA to make grants to
farmers to help protect historic barns that are at least 50 years
old.
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