FYI on an editorial that ran
earlier in the week, thought it might be of interest.
Have a great weekend,
Justin DeJong
Press Secretary
USDA Office of Communications
1400 Independence Ave, SW, Room 403A
Washington, DC 20250
justin.dejong@xxxxxxxx
http://www.theprairiestar.com/articles/2010/10/19/ag_news/opinion/edit1.txt
Ag Secretary Vilsack
encourages ag unity
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:29 PM MDT
Our Views
One message came out loud and clear during USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack’s
visit to the Big Iron Farm Show last month - all aspects of farming and
ranching must work together, since agriculture represents such a small part of
the nation’s population.
Referring to the often time heated debates that pop up between biotech and
organic farming camps, grain farmers versus livestock producers, and family
farmers against the corporate farmers, to name just a few, he said they all
need to work together to convey a positive message for agriculture.
“We’re less than one percent of the country’s population and
there isn’t enough of us to be fighting each other,” he told those
gathered for his remarks.
How true.
At a time when our farming base continues to shrink there seems to be more
division within our ranks. Just about every edition of a major newspaper will
contain some article telling of one farming group challenging another in either
a court of law or the court of public opinion - and in either case, agriculture
comes out on the losing side.
An example of the
taking our disagreements to court is apparent in the recent court action
involving Roundup Ready sugarbeets, where a small handful of vegetable growers in
Oregon have the potential of bringing a major ag commodity to its knees with a
court injunction they requested.
And remember two years ago when the great “food versus fuel” debate
was taking place in the public? This issue even brought about verbal sparring
between livestock and grain producing groups.
And, of course, the urban press was there to pick up every little detail, which
isn’t a condemnation of the press, but rather the fact that these
disagreements between the two factions were being aired in the public.
With this in mind, Vilsack told his audience that we need to find a strategy
that will allow all the different factions in agriculture to co-exist, and in
some cases, such as the biotech disputes, find a way to compensate those whose
crops are contaminated through no fault of anyone. He claimed the main argument
of those filing these lawsuits is the fact that they have no other remedy at
the present time.
“We have to create another alternative and I think USDA can be involved
in the formation of such a program,” he said.
This is a critical time for agriculture to pull together as discussion starts
on the 2012 Farm Bill.
The new Congress will probably have even less rural representation than the
current one, so it’s important that agriculture has a united front at
this time. The point needs to be driven home, as Vilsack said, that a farm bill
isn’t just about farmers and ranchers, but rather it’s important to
every consumer in this country.
The Ag Secretary bristled, when someone pointed out that only about 16 percent
of the total price of the farm bill actually goes to farmers and ranchers, with
the rest going for nutritional programs.
He said that kind of dialogue does little to enhance agriculture’s image
with the public, and then asked why anyone associated with agriculture
wouldn’t be happy with a bill that spends that much on nutrition
programs, since that means purchasing commodities that are produced by the ag
industry.
Vilsack’s comments make a lot of sense.
When you are a small minority, as production agriculture is, there is a
pressing need to put our small disagreements aside and present a united front,
otherwise eventually all of these segments will be picked off, like birds lined
up on a fence.
There’s been numerous occasions lately where different individuals have
called for agriculture to come together at this critical time - but whether
that happens or not is up to those of you reading this.
Will we continue with our bickering? Or will we put up a united front that will
not only benefit agriculture, but in the long run, the entire country?
