Rural development a big part of farm bill

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 12:00 p.m., June 9, 2007

Minnesota Seventh District U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, has been given the unenviable task of providing the necessary leadership in crafting a new five-year farm bill that will take effect Jan. 1, 2008. That bill will affect Otter Tail County and all regions of the United States.

The farm bill will be, when completed, a huge document covering such things as federal farm support, food assistance, agricultural trade, marketing and rural development.

Most legislative analysts call Peterson’s job unenviable because of the need to satisfy environmentalists, big agriculture, nutrition advocates, southerners, northerners and an army of other constituents.

“To his credit, he (Peterson) seems to be running the committee in a democratic yet orderly manner,” editors of the Washington Post said. “He’s unlike his predecessors who lacked the necessary organizational skills that come with heading the House Agriculture Committee.”

“Rural development is indeed a big part of the five-year Congressional farm bill,” Fergus Falls Economic Improvement Commission Director Harold Stanislawski said. “For instance, Title VI of the 2002 bill that ends this year authorizes mandatory and discretionary funding for a variety of new and existing programs.”

Stanislawski believes rural economic development grants and loans need to be included in the new farm bill.

“These (grants and loans) are very helpful in starting new value-added ag ventures, as well as providing capital for rural projects,” he said. “Renewable energy will continue to have a significant role in our national economy and security.”

Included are value-added agricultural market development grants, rural broadcast and broadband services, rural and regional planning, water and sewer applications, the Rural Business Investment Program, and Rural Strategic Investment Program.

“Congressman Peterson is well aware of the challenges that come with crafting a bill to help the various entities along with providing the dollars needed to support those programs,” Stanislawski said.

Stanislawski said the current Farm Bill has a lot of support from many groups, including the non-ag sector.

“That’s largely because of the conservation provisions in the bill,” Stanislawski said. “I believe Congressman Peterson has a good template to work from, and the current farm bill in the end will be tweaked but not drastically restructured.”

The omnibus, multi-year farm bill provides an opportunity for policymakers to address agricultural and food issues more comprehensively. Key issues this year include income and commodity price supports.

If the next bill follows the pattern of the last six omnibus farm bills, dating back to 1977, it will contain titles on commodity price support, conservation, trade, food stamps, and research. Past bills sometimes included specific provisions for grain inspection, crop insurance, disaster assistance, organic certification, global climate change, forestry and energy.

“At issue,” Stanislawski said, “is whether the budget resolution will, in effect, keep spending at its projected baseline which is approximately $3.7 billion per year less than spent in the prior six years.”

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