President-elect Barack Obama launched his campaign in Iowa with a promise to create genuine opportunity for rural people and family farmers. Obama proposed changing the failed rural policy of Washington by capping payments to megafarms and enforcing rules against unfair practices by meat packers to strengthen family farms. To revitalize rural communities, he proposed investing in small business development and value added agriculture.
Now, Obama has announced he will appoint former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Vilsack must embrace the goals set forth during the campaign.
Now, you can urge Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to carry through on the policies Obama campaigned on. Sign this grassroots letter to Secretary Vilsack and add your own comment about the change you want to see in farm, food and rural community policy. We will deliver your signatures to Secretary Vilsack early in 2009.
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
Congratulations on your selection to lead the Department of Agriculture. We offer our support, assistance and advice. The President-elect has already provided a compelling mission to guide your efforts in his platform, Real Leadership for Rural America.
Please consider these recommendations as you launch your efforts to achieve the goals he laid out.
Support grassroots entrepreneurship – The best development results from rural people creating their own jobs through small business, value-added agriculture, and other owner-operated ventures. It’s responsible for most of the new jobs in rural America. Grassroots entrepreneurship puts profits into local wallets of those who work. And it keeps control of the community’s future in the hands of its members.
But too often, rural entrepreneurs struggle to earn middle class incomes. Federal policy can give them a hand up. Good programs are already in place. The Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program funds loans, training and technical assistance for owner-operated businesses with 10 or fewer employees, the backbone of rural Main Streets.
The Value Added Producer Grant Program helps farmers and ranchers fund the feasibility studies, market research and business plans to launch value-added enterprises. USDA provides beginning farmer loans. The Farmers Market Promotion Program and Community Food Projects Grant Program create new opportunities for small farmers in local markets, while improving the diets of Americans.
But these are at the back of the line for funding. The new microentrepreneur program gets less funding each year to serve the whole nation than one mega farm got in some recent years. You can fix that by ensuring that legislation to jump start the economy with new federal spending supports each of these entrepreneurship programs.
We also need your leadership in developing a plan to get affordable high-speed internet service to every rural business and home. It’s essential to entrepreneurship.
The federal government stepped in to provide rural America access to mail, phone and electrical service so we could truly be part of America. In the 21st century, high-speed internet service is just as essential. Bring in the best experts to help you select the most promising approach among an array of emerging technologies. Money won’t solve the problem if you don’t have the right strategy.
Ensure that renewable energy builds wealth and opportunity in rural America – Rural America will provide an increasing share of America’s energy needs in coming decades. A recent Department of Energy study says it’s entirely practical for wind to provide 1/5 of the nation’s electricity by 2030, with Plains states providing the lion’s share. The plan calls for Nebraska, for example, to produce more wind electricity for export to other states by 2030 than we produce from all sources today.
The Department of Agriculture should help communities build lasting opportunities and wealth from the resulting boom. Develop policies to support local ownership of wind turbines by farmers and ranchers, communities, and the rural workers who maintain wind turbines.
Owner operation of farms and business made rural life better and rural communities stronger over the last century. Let’s take the same approach for the next century by enabling those who work in the new energy economy to share in the benefits of ownership.
Communities also need your help in building lasting wealth and businesses during the construction stage of wind energy development. Boom-bust cycles are good for no one. Communities with wind resources will need your support in transitioning their economies from the boom phase to lasting vitality.
Finally, help us find the right approach to biofuels. They can make climate change worse if we go too far in stripping crop residues from the land and thereby release soil organic matter as carbon dioxide. If we build the biofuels industry using a flawed approach, it will not serve America, and eventually the rug will be pulled out from under us.
As Secretary, you control the scientific resources to analyze the alternatives and develop strategies that make sense. You can help us avoid the economic pain that will be visited on rural America if we make the wrong choices.
Make federal policy work for family-size farms – No need is more obvious, or more politically difficult. But you have the backing of a president with a mandate for change. Seize it and move quickly.
Start by doing the things you can do on your own without action by Congress. Close farm payment limitation loopholes by requiring that payment recipients work and manage the farm or share rent it to someone who does. That will stop mega farmers from forming phony partnerships with 20 paper partners to receive 20 times the legal limit.
Use your authority under the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act to level the playing field in livestock markets. Adopt regulations that prohibit packers from imposing an unfair competitive disadvantage on small producers by offering big volume premiums to mega producers.
Finally, move quickly with Congress by proposing legislation to impose a total cap of $250,000 on farm payments, and make the nominal $40,000 limit on direct payments a real limit. (Direct payments are the payments made every year regardless of commodity prices.) Work with Southerners to calibrate the policy so cotton, rice, and peanut producers reach the limits on comparable acreages to producers of Midwestern commodities and don’t take disproportionate cuts. We need payment limitations to strengthen family farms and save money, not to favor one region at the expense of another.
Embrace land and water stewardship and use it to create economic opportunity – The Conservation Stewardship Program will prove more valuable than farm programs to many farmers. Farm payments are tied to the number of acres farmed, so they get bid into higher land costs and often benefit the landlord more than the farmer.
But the Conservation Stewardship Program instead pays farmers according to how intensively they manage their farm to protect the environment. That makes the payments less likely to be bid into cash rents by high-flying mega farms.
There are also new opportunities to help communities use nature as a development asset. For example, the new Cooperative Conservation Partnerships Initiative can be used to beef up conservation program payments to entice groups of landowners to participate in area-wide projects that offer people access to restored natural areas.
Conservation, public access and entrepreneurship go hand in hand. New ecotourism businesses are sprouting in some of the nation’s most rural areas such as the Nebraska Sandhills. Access to natural space can draw customers to a range of businesses including guide services, wildlife viewing, and bed and breakfasts. And the quality of life it provides can draw new families to live in rural communities.
Harness the power of research to create a better rural future – The most powerful tool you have to create a better future in rural America may be the two billion dollar research program at the Department of Agriculture. One change in the way it is managed could make an enormous difference.
Begin awarding funding to scientists based in part on the potential of the projects they propose to improve economic opportunity in rural America; revitalize rural communities; support owner-operated family farms and businesses; and enable us to meet our food, fiber, and energy needs in an environmentally responsible manner.
Nothing would more quickly focus the attention of agricultural scientists and land grant colleges on solving the most pressing problems of America and its rural communities.
Please consider these priorities for rural America, as you also address the equally critical responsibility of meeting the nutrition needs of the poor in America and beyond.
Rural Americans and our supporters are counting on you!
Sincerely,
Add your signature below!
This petition has a goal of 5000 signatures
1-25 of 2108 signatures
Number
Date
Name
Location
What change do you want to ...
2108
Fri Jan 16 18:06:18 EST 2009
Timothy Voss
Greenbank, WA
As the son and grandson of small family farmers, I never had a chance to continue on in the farming industry as the policies of the late 70's and early 80's supported the corporate farm. I am supporting you and this administration in the hopes of real change to our governments policy making when it comes to supporting the small family farmer.
2107
Fri Jan 16 12:51:35 EST 2009
Julie Fischer
Cedar Falls, IA
We need more families raising backyard gardens, providing their own vegetables and teaching their children skills of survival and good nutrition. We can do this.
2106
Fri Jan 16 12:47:47 EST 2009
Kathryn Buck
New York, NY
See platform and letter.
2105
Fri Jan 16 11:32:03 EST 2009
Susan Hassler
Sutton, NE
no NAIS unless the beef and pork exporters want it imposed only on them and only at their expense.
2104
Fri Jan 16 11:14:19 EST 2009
Wendy Rish
Mason City, IA
2103
Fri Jan 16 10:51:52 EST 2009
Martin Mills
, TX
Introduce measures to support farms transitioning to organic methods.
2102
Fri Jan 16 10:05:16 EST 2009
John Radosevich
, WY
The environmentalists are having the government install rules and regulations that are forcing the farmers and ranchers out of business,. this must stop
2101
Fri Jan 16 09:21:09 EST 2009
Anonymous
Madison, WI
Please support small organic family farms. Thank you.
2100
Fri Jan 16 07:36:42 EST 2009
Shannon McBride
Athens, GA
2099
Fri Jan 16 06:29:43 EST 2009
Carol Horvath
Brownsville, PA
2098
Fri Jan 16 02:47:47 EST 2009
Valerie Rodriguez
, CA
Limit the impact of Monsanto on small farmers. Their political influence is unparalleled. Their corporate police are thugs that intimidate family farmers. The Ag Dept. must implement a policy reversal from accepting business as usual with Monsanto and shift the emphasis to supporting the family farmer, allowing more people the opportunity to participate in providing food for our nation. Also, the budget must be significantly increased for food safety inspectors so Americans don't continue to have concerns about the produce and packaged foods we eat.
2097
Fri Jan 16 02:46:27 EST 2009
Valerie Rodriguez
, CA
Limit the impact of Monsanto on small farmers. Their political influence is unparalleled. Their corporate police are thugs that intimidate family farmers. The Ag Dept. must implement a policy reversal from accepting business as usual with Monsanto and shift the emphasis to supporting the family farmer, allowing more people the opportunity to participate in providing food for our nation. Also, the budget must be significantly increased for food safety inspectors so Americans don't continue to have concerns about the produce and packaged foods we eat.
2096
Fri Jan 16 01:46:12 EST 2009
Stan Allen
Emerson, IA
2095
Fri Jan 16 00:06:58 EST 2009
Cristine Ayers
Ventura, IA
Mr. Sec Vilsack, thank you in advance for your work to advance the people of the United States, as a small business owner and daughter of a small family farmer I understand the urgency of adopting the thoughts and ideas of this campaign, as a fellow Iowan I know you do also. Many small businesses and farms are falling by the wayside.. they simply cannot compete against the 'big' money, please do not let the classes seperate any further than they have. Good luck and thank you for serving us.
2094
Thu Jan 15 22:38:37 EST 2009
Jennifer Sukup
Airmont, NY
2093
Thu Jan 15 22:23:31 EST 2009
Margaret Henke
North Tustin, CA
Corporations are destroying soils, communities, small farmers and are commiting terrible abuse against helpless animals in the name of "profit". Farm policies need to be changed so that small farmers again have a chance. They are much better stewards of the land and the animals, and if we are thinking about the future of our children and grandchildren, we need to consider this.
2092
Thu Jan 15 22:15:30 EST 2009
kris stanton
phelan, CA
please help the rual farmers, locally grown produce sold at the farmers markets gives the public a chance to experiance fresh and naturaly grown food.
2091
Thu Jan 15 21:57:37 EST 2009
Faith Bushby
, WA
2090
Thu Jan 15 20:23:05 EST 2009
Mary Anne Flournoy
Athens, OH
I live in a community with a thriving local food community. Through initiatives led by our creative non-profit community, our growers have learned to better market their produce and local restaurants and educational institutions as well as citizens in general have learned how much better locally grown, fresh produce tastes. I strongly believe that many local food economies that reward small farmers are the way to being good stewards of our precious soils and water as well as assuring that we can feed our people sustainably. Please see that these considerations are given due attention in the new administration.
2089
Thu Jan 15 19:58:27 EST 2009
Sarah Atkinson
Otis Orchards, WA
Environmental protection is critical to our future as humans. I expect less chemicals and more protection!
2088
Thu Jan 15 19:55:38 EST 2009
Anonymous
Randall, IA
Tom,
As a fellow Iowan, I'm sure that you've noticed that since the Great Depression when over 50% of us were farmers, there are now only 2% of the population left working the land. Therefore, I was so pleased to see a friend of mine start a Catholic Workers Farm north of Ames last year. Despite challenges in finding land, she was encouraged since she sold all the "shares" of fresh produce that they would grow before they even planted the first crops. Each share owner received fresh, fantastic food each week and surplus produce was taken to local shelters and nonprofit organizations. There were even e-mails sent out saying that there was an overabundance of certain fruits and vegetables and that we ought to come harvest some and take them for free. Their first year at the farm has seen such great success, I hope that this means that many other Iowans can move back to the land in similar ways in the coming years.
I would like to see policy focus on paving the way to allow more and more Iowans to get back into farming and continue their family traditions. If we can get most of our food from our friends locally, we wouldn't be paying our money out for foreign food shipped with foreign oil, and we would be helping our neighbors earn a living besides.
Please do all that you can to spark meaningful change on behalf of small farmers so that many can profit from the fruits of the land, rather than just a few.
Thank you for your efforts,
Sara Vouthilak
2087
Thu Jan 15 19:09:58 EST 2009
Karen Gieralach
San Francisco, CA
Restore the soil, damaged by too many chemical fertilizers, through biodynamic and organic farming practices. The demand for healthy food grown in living soil is ever growing. Help farms transition to healthier and more sustainable practices, as is done in many European countries. Thank you for your consideration.
2086
Thu Jan 15 18:29:16 EST 2009
Aaron Pardieck
Peoria, IL
2085
Thu Jan 15 17:33:28 EST 2009
Sarah Buck
Forest Citty, IA
I want to see an acknowledgment that the health of our society is dependent on the nutritional quality of the food we eat, which in turn is dependent on the health of the soil. I want it to be acknowledged that ethanol is not a feasible and sustainable clean energy, as it consumes far more to produce it, and it strips the land of all crop residue. I want the importance on natural habitat ecosystems in the agricultural states embraced and supported with continued monetary support programs through the NRCS. Thank you for your time.
2084
Thu Jan 15 16:22:30 EST 2009
Christine Kilianek
, FL
Mandate cloned meat be labeled on every label for consumers to be aware. ALso mandate that geneticaly enginered foods are labeled as these foods and products are compromising our food supply and causing cellular damage and cellular degeneration of our generations to come.
