AG NEWS 2009/11/23
“Senate Votes to Move to the Health Care Debate”
Saturday night, Senate Ag Committee chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas joined fellow Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana to vote for Cloture on the Senate’s Health Care Bill. The motion passed 60 to 39. The bill, H.R. 3590, is now set for Senate debate. Debate could last weeks. Lincoln and Landrieu say they will press Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada for further changes to the bill before committing to its final passage.
The Democratic caucus remains bitterly divided over a government-run insurance option. The 848-billion dollar Senate version represents the work of two committees and hundreds of hours of hearings and deliberations. Democrats admit their victory represents just the end of the beginning.
The Senate bill would provide coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans by vastly expanding Medicaid and creating insurance “exchanges” for individuals who do not have access to affordable coverage through their employers. For the first time, it would require most people to carry health coverage, although families with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level would receive subsidies to buy policies.
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“NFU Supports Patient Protection and Affordable Care”
The National Farmers Union urging members of the United States Senate to vote in support of health care legislation. In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, NFU President Roger Johnson said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, H.R. 3590, includes provisions that would permit affordable and accessible coverage for all Americans, regardless of health status, employment or financial situation.
The Act includes provisions that would control health care costs for the self-employed farmers, ranchers and small businesses that dominate rural economies. And the community health insurance option will not only dramatically increase the availability of healthcare to producers but also provide competition in underpopulated areas that have been historically dominated by very few private insurers.
Johnson points out that, in addition, the bill includes investments in the health care workforce and incentives for primary care physicians to serve rural areas, prevents insurance companies from discriminating based on pre-existing condition, gender or health status, reforms the Medicare reimbursement system to provide better quality care for seniors, expands tele-medicine services for rural access to specialized care, and expands drug discount programs so rural health facilities can access medicine at lower costs.
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“WTO Panel to Decide if COOL is Cool”
The World Trade Organization has decided it will establish a dispute settlement panel to rule on the legality of the U.S. Country-of-Origin Labeling law. The WTO decision comes after Canada and Mexico filed challenges, saying the U.S. law is hurting their meat exports to the United States. The two countries say the rules are stifling their livestock industries because U.S. meatpackers are choosing to refrain from buying their animals rather than go through the trouble of sorting them and labeling product in accordance with the rules. The U.S. COOL law provides for meat sold in U.S. stores show which country it comes from.
Stockwell Day, Canada’s minister of international trade says, – COOL is having a negative impact on Canadian farmers and livestock producers. We continue to stand up for the rights of Canadian producers during the dispute settlement process and make the case that the U.S. should lift these onerous requirements. The WTO dispute panel will determine whether COOL rules comply with U.S. WTO trade obligations. A report is not expected until next summer or early fall.
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“WTO Looking at EU Poultry Ban”
A World Trade Organization panel will investigate the decade-long European Union ban on imports of U.S. poultry. The panel will look at EU restrictions on poultry processed with the anti-bacterial chemicals chlorine dioxide, acidified sodium chloride, trisodium phosphate and peroxyacids.
The WTO can authorize sanctions against nations that don’t follow its rulings but cannot force countries to comply. A ruling is expected within nine months. The 27-country European bloc ban has been in place since 1997.
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“Proposed Legislation Offers Lifeline to Producers”
Senate Ag Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln has joined Senator Thad Cochran, Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Mississippi Senator Roger wicker in introducing legislation that would provide timely disaster assistance to farmers affected by this fall’s heavy rains, floods and other weather-related disasters. Arkansas Representative Marion Berry plans to introduce companion legislation.
The measure would ensure that producers receive relief in a timely manner by providing an estimated 1.3-billion dollars in direct payment assistance to producers in counties declared “primary” disaster areas by USDA. The Congressional Budget Office has scored the legislation at 2.19-billion dollars. It will be paid for with funds available through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Lincoln says, in these difficult economic times, this measure will help ensure our farmers can continue to meet our food and fiber needs while providing much-needed economic strength to our rural communities. The language also includes 650-million dollars to assist specialty crop producers, 150-million in assistance for livestock producers and 42-million to aid first handlers of cottonseed.
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“Disaster Assistance Proposal has Backing”
Several national commodity organizations, including the National Cotton Council, representing producers, processors and related agri-businesses have offered their strong support for the Lincoln, Cochran and Wicker Disaster Assistance bill. The organizations say this bill can deliver urgently needed disaster assistance by utilizing a delivery mechanism similar to Direct Payments. The payments would be limited to growers in counties with Secretarial disaster declaration. The projected cost of the emergency assistance would be off-set so there is no increase in the budget deficit.
The groups say that although loss estimates are preliminary, they already have reached the hundreds of millions of dollars. They emphasized that many producers need assistance within weeks to repay loans and secure new financing in time for spring planting. The proposed bill has a – delivery mechanism which offers the combination of timely assistance for yield and quality losses that can be delivered with minimal administrative burden on USDA. They note that any alternative means of providing assistance, however well-intentioned, cannot be delivered before late 2010 or early 2011.
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“AMI Supports Interstate Commerce Rules”
The Food Safety and Inspection Service has proposed rule 2008-0039 that would allow inspected establishments to participate in cooperative interstate shipments of meat and poultry products. The American Meat Institute say this rule would in no way impose any added burden upon companies with respect to their existing operations, and by participating, these facilities are, of their own volition, agreeing to the stringent regulatory requirements imposed by the statute.
AMI says the rule adheres to the strict standard set in the enabling statute that state-inspected facilities that wish to ship meat and poultry products in interstate commerce comply with the same regulatory requirements applicable to federally inspected establishments.
AMI also supports the proposed enforcement provisions that would require selected establishments to provide FSIS officials with “access to all establishment records required under the Act and the implementing regulations in this chapter.
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“Blender Pump Tax Fix Sought”
Growth Energy, the coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters, is asking top Congressional tax writers to fix a program that is intended to promote the installation of pumps that dispense mid- and high-level ethanol blends. The problem is an IRS interpretation that retailers are only allowed to take credit for a portion of the new pump – instead of the entire pump.
In letters to the chairmen and ranking members of both the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis said the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit should allow fuel vendors to recapture up to 50-thousand dollars or 50 percent, of the total cost of installing alternative fuel dispensing systems such as ethanol blender pumps.
Buis says Growth Energy’s position is that a simple technical correction would go a long way to clarifying the intent of Congress, and clear the way so that retailers can have the tax credits they’ve been promised to help build out the infrastructure we need to delivery alternative fuels like ethanol.
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“Growth Energy Wants California’s Public Comment Period Reopened”
Growth Energy has called on the California Air Resources Board to allow the public to comment on all documents pertaining to their low-carbon fuel standard rulemaking that were not disclosed and should influence the final rule. Through a public records request, Growth Energy uncovered numerous previously undisclosed documents and comments from ARB consultants that cast doubt on ARB conclusions and others that appeared to influence ARB’s assumptions. Documents in question come from organization such as: the Renewable Fuels Association and the New Fuels Alliance.
Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis says – the public records request confirmed what we suspected that significant portions of the ARB staff’s environmental and economic analyses appeared to be based on assumptions, rather than technical analyses available to the public. Even more disturbing, according to Buis, is the omitted comments from ARB’s consultants that contradict the conclusions reached by ARB staff regarding the carbon intensity of ethanol.
Buis says, – we are only one-third of the way through our public records request and have discovered scores of comments and documents not disclosed to the public that prejudiced the final Low-Carbon Fuel Standard rule.
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“Lull in Climate Change Action Time to Look Again”
The 25X’25 Carbon Work Group has identified two core concerns it has with climate change bills now under consideration. First, since the vast majority of farm and forestry-sourced support for a national cap and trade system emanates from practice changes delivering biological sequestration through an offset title, the legislative details must explicitly describe such a program. CWG says an offset program needs to be both operationally efficient and environmentally stringent to provide optimal returns.
The second major concern of the CWG focuses on the problems with overly restrictive legislative language that limits the opportunity to produce and deliver sustainably produced renewable biomass, and the allied biomass-biofuels conundrum around how and when it could be reasonable to measure and incorporate the effects of land use change into the biofuels lifecycle carbon accounting equations.
The Carbon Work Group challenges stakeholders in this debate to use the additional time provided by the delay in Congressional action to ratchet up their exploration of the policy options under consideration and the ramifications of those policies. At a time of tremendous policy uncertainty and competing demands on our farm and forest resources, CWG says it is important to know that viable solutions are available and are increasingly within reach of proposed federal legislation.
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“Scientists: CO2 Affects Delayed for Years”
If you look closely at past individual plant species’ responses, you may find that the largest effects of high carbon dioxide levels occurred decades ago. Agricultural Research Service scientists say that is when the botanical structure of the world’s grasslands changed dramatically, offering clues to the future.
For years, Wayne Polley and Philip Fay, ecologists at the ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple, Texas, studied plant reactions to a gradient of CO2 levels, from the Ice Age–13,000 to 18,000 B.C.–to the year 2050 A.D. Among their recent findings is that grasses respond to higher CO2 levels by using water more efficiently.
The researchers also report that efficient water use by prairie grasses sounds like a good thing, but weedy shrubs and grasses also benefit from increased water use efficiency. They believe this may help weeds outcompete desirable forage plants. But the cumulative effects of these individual species’ responses on plant communities won’t be obvious for years.
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“Farm City Week Declaration Signed”
During National Farm-City Week, we express gratitude for the contributions of our Nation’s farmers and ranchers, and we rededicate ourselves to providing all Americans with access to healthy food, and thus, a healthy future. Those are the sentiments of President Barack Obama in his formal declaration of Farm-city Week… November 20th through 26th, 2009.
The President continued, this Thanksgiving season, we celebrate farms of every size that produce fruits, vegetables, dairy, and livestock indispensable to the health of our families. We also recognize the vital ties between our urban and suburban communities and their local farmers through regional food systems, farmers markets, and community gardens.
Mr. Obama concluded with, I call on Americans as they gather with their families and friends to reflect on the accomplishments of all who dedicate their lives to promoting our Nation’s agricultural abundance and environmental stewardship.
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“Merrigan Has Side Discussions During World Meeting”
During the 36th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Ministerial Conference in Rome, Italy, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan met with Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Program. Merrigan said, – this meeting was an opportunity for me to thank the WFP on behalf of USDA and the entire U.S. government and reiterate how much the United States values its partnership with this important organization.
The World Food Program works tirelessly to fight hunger and food insecurity around the world. As the United States finalizes its global hunger and food security strategy, it will rely on the WFP’s resources and expertise in safety nets, storage, transportation and logistics to ensure its efforts have the most impact in developing countries.
Merrigan also met with Iraq’s Acting Minister of Agriculture. Merrigan said, – we discussed the numerous initiatives being implemented by USDA’s Provincial Reconstruction Team’s agricultural advisors to revitalize Iraq’s agricultural sector and the various USDA programs and activities helping to strengthen the Iraqi government in the areas of rebuilding agricultural markets and improving management of natural resources.
