September 10, 2010 09:24 PM UTC

Bennet Staffer: "Agriculture Department is broken"

• 4 Comments
• by: CoalCreekWildfire

Katherine Ferguson, legislative aide to Michael Bennett, said the Agriculture Department is broken.

Ms. Ferguson was on the panel at yesterday’s Agriculture, Conservation and Rural Development Forum in Greeley. There were 48 attendees; four were farmers (harvest time).

One farmer complained that his disaster payments (SURE) were more than a year behind. Jonathan Coppess, an administrator with the Farm Service Agency, explained that reimbursements are based on that year’s crop prices, normally delaying reimbursements 12 to 18 months.

Another farmer complained that Federal loan programs are so inflexible that she prefers to work with private banks. The private bank her sons had worked with collapsed and the rest have less money to lend and stricter criteria; despite a strong application her sons could not borrow money.

An unidentified woman stood to tell the farmers to quit their bellyaching. The rest of the audience quietly agreed.

A Colorado Farm Bureau representative asked if Markey and Bennett will push for repeal of inheritance taxes, repeating the claim that this was chasing the children of farmers off the land. Nobody on the panel was willing to answer the question.

There were general complaints about the cost of environmental legislation. A local politician described the crisis of having to build new infrastructure to comply with stricter laws with fewer tax dollars and uncertain Federal funds.

The panel described the loan and subsidy programs intended to attract people to farming. One farmer said the programs are oriented towards organic and alternative farming, are useless to traditional commodity growers, and do not address the real problems that are driving people off the land.

Ms. Ferguson’s claim that the Agriculture Department is broken was in response to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson’s warning

“farmers to expect ‘fundamental changes’ in the next farm bill because of ‘budgetary pressures’ and public unhappiness with farm programs” [FarmPolicy.com]

She believes that overhauling the Agriculture Department will allow them to do far more with a reduced budget. Would the overhaul increase the already high level of uncertainty that is paralyzing banks and farmers? Maybe.

The farmers broadly agreed that they can afford to stay in farming by selling water and leasing land to oil and gas producers. Two had tried conservation and alternative energy; both had failed.

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