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Oct 11, 2006
National Farm and Rural Coalition Issues New Report Calling for Farm Bill Overhaul to Strengthen Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Communities

Report Card on 2002 Farm Bill Released by Coalition Gives Congress Near Failing Grade While Administration Implementation Efforts Barely Gain Passing Mark

Eugene, OR, Mount Vernon, WA, and Victor, MT—A nationwide coalition representing farm and rural interests today gave Congress and the Administration low marks for key parts of the 2002 Farm Bill and issued a comprehensive reform agenda for the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an alliance of farm, rural and conservation groups, gave Congress a D+ and the Administration a C- for its farm bill efforts on ten key components of the 2002 bill. In its platform for the new farm bill, No Time for Delay, the Coalition calls on Congress to embrace reform and construct new policies and programs that promote economic opportunity, environmental stewardship, and rural prosperity.

"Congress and the Administration have largely failed western farmers, ranchers and rural Americans with implementation of the last farm bill," said Maryon Attwood, Director of the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network, a member of the Coalition and an endorser of the report and Report Card. "The result is an urgent backlog of real, well-funded solutions to the rural economic, agricultural, and environmental problems we face. The next farm bill must make a long-overdue, substantial down payment on a new generation of food and farm policy."

In No Time for Delay, the Coalition urges the federal government to adopt a series of key policies that are urgently needed to help new farmers enter agriculture, promote profitable family farms, enhance the environment, and build healthy, diversified rural community economies. Among these policy recommendations, the most critical for the west include:

"It's time to end the misguided policies and under-funding of good programs. We need farm bill reform now," commented Dick Parrot, farmer and board chair of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. "We can't wait any longer for real rural development and better stewardship of the land. Nothing less than the future of family farming, land stewardship, and rural communities hangs in the balance."

The timing of the report and Report Card coincides with an anticipated election-season break in the debate on the 2007 Farm Bill. That debate is anticipated to accelerate early next year when the new congressional session begins. Both chambers of Congress have already held a series of hearings on the direction of the next farm bill.

"While members of Congress are home for the election recess they should do some soul searching," said Jill Davies of the Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. "The next Congress should return to Washington D.C. ready to break the cycle of business as usual with the next farm bill and set about to do a much better job of aligning policy with public support for family farms and the environment."

In its "Farm Bill Report Card" the Coalition gave failing or low grades to both the Congress and the Administration for their repeated actions to channel the limited funding promised in the 2002 Farm Bill to farmers and rural America for conservation, research and rural development into other, ill-advised uses. Both branches of government were also downgraded for making these cuts while not taking any action to stop the million dollar production subsidy checks to mega farms at the expense of family farmers, taxpayers and the environment.

"The constant starving of promising initiatives is a formula for failure in the rural west" stated Kim Leval, Center for Rural Affairs, Eugene, Oregon. "The majority of farmers and ranchers in the west eagerly await the kinds of reforms recommended in this report. Full-funding a program like the Value Added Producer Grant Program can help change the economic equation on farms and in rural communities in Oregon. Last year, Oregon received $1.25 M. in federal funding for eleven value added grant projects, Leval stated.

The Report Card and an Executive Summary and a Synopsis of Key Recommendations plus the full text of No Time for Delay: A Sustainable Agriculture Agenda for the 2007 Farm Bill are posted at www.msawg.org.

The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition represents grassroots farm, rural, and conservation organizations from across the country that together advocate for federal policies and programs supporting the long term economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources and rural communities.

For More Information:
Kim Leval, Center for Rural Affairs, (541) 687-1490; kimleval~at~qwest.net; www.cfra.org
Maryon Attwood, Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network, (360) 336-9694 x101; mattwood~at~wsffn.org; www.wsffn.org
Jill Davies, Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, (406) 642-3601; rivercare~at~blackfoot.net; www.westernsawg.org

Upcoming event - Farm Bill workshop at the WA Tilth Conference November 10th 7:30 to 9:00 pm see www.tilthproducers.org website for more information or to register.