An Action Alert from the
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

The 2008 Farm Bill handed President Obama and USDA Secretary Vilsack a rare opportunity to close one of the biggest payment limit loopholes in current regulations.  The nation’s largest farms collect unlimited annual production subsidies under rules that permit payments to those who provide only minimal farm management and no active labor.  President Obama and Secretary Vilsack need to hear a loud and clear message from farmers and other citizens who care about the future of farming: The time is now to close the loophole that allows widespread abuse of payment limitation law!

COMMENTS MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE APRIL 6, 2009

Where to Send Your Email or Letter:  There are three easy ways to respond:

• Send an email to Dan McGlynn at USDA at Dan.McGlynn@wdc.usda.gov, or
• Send him a letter by fax to 202-690-2130, or
• Send a letter by mail to Dan McGlynn, Farm Service Agency, USDA, Stop 0517, Room 4754, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250-0517.

Be sure to include at the top of the letter the following:  “Comment on Farm Program Payment Limitation Rule, Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 23, February 5, 2009” Read more »

WHAT:  “HOW TO BECOME A VENDOR AT THE FLINT FARMERS’ MARKET”

WHERE:   FLINT FARMERS MARKET
420 East Boulevard Drive
Flint, MI    48503
(I-475 Exit 8A)

WHEN:    THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
10:00 a.m. – Noon

Interested in exploring the possibility of vending at the Flint Farmers’ Market this summer?  Then join us on March 26 for a short introduction to the market.

Topics include:    Hours, Rules, Safety, Business Skills, Promotion, Display, SNAP, Project Fresh, Health Department Requirements.

No pre-registration necessary.

Questions:    Dave Turk        (turkfarms@yahoo.com)
Dick Ramsdell    (chs_ramsdell@hotmail.com)

The Request for Application for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) is now available for public viewing and download.

Please note that all applications must be submitted electronically.   You will need to be registered ahead of time with grants.gov to submit an application and the registration process can take a few weeks.  More information about submitting applications to CSREES is available at: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/funding/application_info.html

Please find attached links to the Funding Opportunity Announcement, and Grants.Gov Download pages:

(i) CSREES Funding Opportunity:  http://www.csrees.usda.gov/fo/beginningfarmerandrancher.cfm

(ii) Grants.Gov Application Package:  http://apply07.grants.gov/apply/GetGrantFromFedgrants;jsessionid=T6FLJ6vKgQVTJ8yRzVpxRT18SN1MLys7PpQMZSz4sLrLZD5vtvQV!1057178580?opportunity=USDA-CSREES-BFR-002115&agencycode=USDA-CSREE

More information about the BFRDP program and resources for writing grant applications will continue to be developed and made available at:  http://www.csrees.usda.gov/familysmallfarms.cfm

If you need additional information, please contact the National Program Leaders:  Suresh Sureshwaran at ssureshwaran@csrees.usda.gov or Janie Hipp at jhipp@csrees.usda.gov

Dick Ramsdell is the manager of the Flint Farmers’ Market in Fling, MI. The market may be gaining control of a 50,000 sq. ft. warehouse next to the market. (25,000 in a cool basement).

Dick is looking for mushroom producers who might be interested in expanding or starting an indoor mushroom cultivation the east side of the state.

Anyone interested can feel free to contact anytime.

Dick Ramsdell
810.938.4246
chs_ramsdell@hotmail.com

The dilemma of how to regulate food safety in a way that prevents problems caused by industrialized agriculture but doesn’t wipe out small diversified farms is not new and is not easily solved.  And as almost constant food safety problems reveal the dirty truth about the way much of our food is produced, processed and distributed, it’s a dilemma we need to have serious discussion about.

Most consumers never thought they had to worry about peanut butter and this latest food safety scandal has captured public attention for good reason – a CEO who knowingly shipped contaminated food, a plant with holes in the roof and serious pest problems, and years of state and federal regulators failing to intervene.

It’s no surprise that Congress is under pressure to act and multiple food safety bills have been introduced.

Two of the bills are about traceability for food (S.425 and H.R. 814).  These present real issues for small producers who could be forced to bear the cost of expensive tracking technology and recordkeeping.

The other bills address what FDA can do to regulate food.

A lot of attention has been focused on a bill introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (H.R. 875), the Food Safety Modernization Act.  And a lot of what is being said about the bill is misleading.

Here are a few things that H.R. 875 DOES do:

-It addresses the most critical flaw in the structure of FDA by splitting it into 2 new agencies –one devoted to food safety and the other devoted to drugs and medical devices.

-It increases inspection of food processing plants, basing the frequency of inspection on the risk of the product being produced – but it does NOT make plants pay any registration fees or user fees.

-It does extend food safety agency authority to food production on farms, requiring farms to write a food safety plan and consider the critical points on that farm where food safety problems are likely to occur.

-It requires imported food to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

Read more »

As a representative of the Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance Board, I have been selected as a member of the Leonardo Institute’s Committee to draft Sustainable Agriculture Standards for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) which is the sole US representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Yes, I know what many of you are thinking here: why do we need another standard?; Isn’t the Organic standard enough, or isn’t already too weak, and wouldn’t a sustainable agriculture standard simply water it down?

Believe me when I say that I share your concerns. But this is the reason I have agreed to join this committee. I believe that without the participation of small, organic farming advocates, a sustainable standard might simply end up as another greenwashing initiative which allows conventional agriculture to claim that it is sustainable. Despite my reservations about the process, I have agreed to engage in it for several reasons. First, I think it is really important that organic and small farming advocates engage in real dialogue with entities like Farm Bureau, American Corn Growers Association, and other advocates of conventional farming systems in a discussion about sustainability. Read more »

Current trends in American agriculture including the loss of family farms, an aging grower population, global competition, industry consolidation, and increasing distance between the point of production and consumption have led to concerns about food security, the health of rural communities, and economic and environmental sustainability. A concomitant increase in the importance of direct marketing, consumer demand for products with ‘embedded’ characteristics, and the number of small farms on the urban fringe, present an interesting counterpoint to these developments. We believe that the entry and activity of new (first-generation) farmers is important both in countering aspects of this first set of trends, and in the development and cultivation of the latter set. At a time when many existing farms are struggling, the knowledge and resource barriers facing new (first-generation) farmers are particularly acute. Despite these challenges, there remains a contingent of committed individuals choosing to go ‘back to the land’. Read more »