RESPONSE TO THE ADMINISTRATION’S FARM BILL PROPOSAL
By the FEDERATION OF SOUTHERN COOPERATIVES/LAF
March 4, 2007

(For more information contact the Federation/LAF's Jerry Pennick at 404 765 0991)

The Federation’s interest in the Farm Bill extends far beyond the traditional equity areas. We do not want African-American farms to be pigeonholed or relegated to designated areas and thereby become marginalizes while other sectors receive the elephants share of the resources. African – Americans are key contributors to this country’s agriculture system and must be an integral part of the entire Farm Bill from the commodity programs to vegetable production to trade. In the end, like all farmers, African – American farmers just want a fair price for their product however unlike most other farmers we need a level playing field and equity throughout the system.

Following is our response to the administration’s proposal.  We believe they will  strengthen the proposal, while meeting the unique needs of African – American farmers.

• NRCS has been one of the few bright spots for African – American farmers and we applaud it’s proposal to target a percentage of certain programs to small and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers. History has taught us, however, that lumping Socially Disadvantaged and small farmers together usually spells trouble for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, as most resources will go to “small” usually white farmers.

We therefore propose a 10% targeting of all USDA farm programs to Socially Disadvantaged farmers in those counties where Socially Disadvantaged farmers exceed 5% of all farmers, a five-year graduation requirement for farmers participating, and raising cost share requirements for all relevant USDA programs to 90%.

• A moratorium on all foreclosures of African – American farm with the possibility of an independent board to review any foreclosure actions against Socially Disadvantaged farmers, until the flaws in the Pigford lawsuit can be legislatively remedied. If those flaws are not remedied there will be a tremendous loss of African – American farms over the life of this Farm Bill.

• One hundred million dollars for Section 2501 of the Farm Bill - Original authorization of 2501 called for $10 million annually and the last Farm Bill called for $25 million.   Section 2501 has never received full appropriation.  If it had, over $150 million in outreach and technical assistance would have gone to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and the Pigford, as well as pending lawsuits, could well have been avoided. We also call for a return of 2501 to its original intent (attached is a history of 2501) and giving non-competitive priority to CBO’s and minority serving intuitions with proven track records and a minimum of 10 years of providing services to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers.

• More equitable funding of 1890 and 1994 institutions especially in the areas of small farm research, alternative crop production and bio-energy research where we call for a minimum of 10% of all alternative energy research and production to be targeted to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and minority serving institutions.

• We support restructuring the commodity programs in a way that would accomplish three goals; a) focus on family farmers in a way that would guarantee a fair price, b) move away from corporate and export subsidies and c) elimination of dumping thereby helping to ensure food sovereignty in the developing world.

• We support targeting direct loans to socially disadvantaged farmers, however this effort needs to be accompanied by strict enforcement of Sec 10708 requirements to report UDSA programs and funding action by race, gender and beginning farmer categories for every county.

• Programs for low documentation loans and loans for groups of people in co-ops should be developed.

These are some of our issues and concerns that we hope the administration will give serious consideration as it further develops it’s FARM BILL proposal. We feel that if the administration and Congress truly want a fair and equitable FARM BILL, they will recognize the inequities in past bills and use this opportunity to make sure that African – Americans and other minorities are not only at the table, but are helping to set the table throughout this process.