Policy Update from NFFC

[familyfar...@gmail.com]

Thank you for joining the National Family Farm Coalition's new mailing
list. We would like to keep our supporters up to date on important and
relevant policy issues, so we will be sending out brief policy updates
to our list. Updates will likely be sent out every 2 or 4 weeks,
depending on how active Congress is at the time. Thanks for your
support!


State of the Farm Economy

The House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and
Risk Management held a hearing April 1 to review the state of the farm
economy. Chairman Boswell highlighted declining commodity prices and
high input costs, crashing dairy prices, the consolidation of farms,
and decreasing diversity in his opening remarks as the major
challenges facing America’s farmers today. Joe Glauber, chief
economist for the USDA, spoke of decreasing income and increasing debt
farmers are facing. Jason Henderson of the Federal Reserve Bank of
Kansas City discussed the tightening farm credit market which is
disproportionately hurting new and beginning farmers. Professor Neil
Harl from Iowa State University said how the global financial crisis
has mostly bypassed the agriculture sector, but that if problems
continue, farmers, ranchers, and rural communities will be victims of
the more serious and far-reaching effects.

Full testimonies to the subcommittee can be found here:

http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/statements.html

Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Now Accepting
Applications

The 2008 Farm Bill has made $17.2 million available in FY 2009 to fund
the
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. Collaborative,
state, tribal, local, or regional networks or partnerships of public
or private entities are eligible for funding to be focused on
education, training, outreach and mentoring of beginning farmers and
ranchers. USDA recently held a webinar to discuss the grant
application process, which can be found here:

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/ag_systems/in_focus/bfrdp_workshop_09.html

The Right to Food & Food Sovereignty

The President of the UN General Assembly held a discussion on the
Global Food Crisis and the Right to Food on April 6, 2009. The first
panel, moderated by Brother Dave Andrews, entitled Policy Choices and
the Right to Food in the Context of the Global Food Crisis, featured:
Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for the
United Nations; Professor Sanjay Reddy, Professor Daniel De La Torre
Ugarte and Congressman Jim McGovern. The second panel, Answering to
the Poor: Right to Food and Sustainable Models of Agriculture, was
moderated by Barbara Ekwall and featured: Henri Saragih; Molly
Anderson, Dr. Judi Wakhungu and Miguel Altieri.

Farmer voices were presented by Henry Saragih, General Coordinator of
La Via Campesina, who discussed the state and international
community’s obligation to protect the right to food, food sovereignty
and the right to sustainable food production.

Professor De Schutter made two presentations the following day in
Washington D.C. to help increase policymakers and non-governmental
organizations’ understanding of these issues.

Statements from all panelists can be read here:

http://www.un.org/ga/president/63/interactive/programmeglobalfoodcrisis.shtml

Thanks for your support!

Eric
National Family Farm Coalition