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| MARCH 2002 |
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Grange Members Bring Environment
and Energy Issues to Congress
On March 11 and 12, seven grassroots Grange
leaders joined with nearly 50 other grassroots leaders of major farm and rural
organizations to travel to Washington DC in order to participate in the Fifth
Annual Energy and Environment Conference sponsored by the Alliance for Rural America.
The five State Grange Legislative Directors (Toni McKinley, WA; Gordon Gibson,
CT; Jim Tetreault, NH; Lisa Tharp, OH; and George Dupray, CA) and two State Grange
Presidents (Bruce Croucher, NY and Jay Pfeiffer, TX) participated in an intensive
educational and advocacy program designed to keep agriculture and rural leaders
fully informed about key energy and environment issues that affect rural America.
The first day
of the conference featured speakers from Congress, state and federal regulatory
agencies and the private sector. Topics included: "Shaping Federal Energy Policy
with the Small Consumer in Mind", "National Energy Policy", "Energy Issues and
the Consumer Interest", "Home Grown Energy" and "Perspectives on New Clean Air
Laws". The high level presenters at the conference included representatives from
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; the USEPA Office of Air and Radiation;
the U.S. Department of Energy; the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission; the
US Senate Committee on Agriculture; the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce;
the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; the Nebraska Ethanol
Board; and the Edison Electric Institute. The
second day of the conference involved Capitol Hill meetings for the conference
participants. The seven Grange representatives attended more than 30 individual
meetings with US Senators and US Representatives from their respective states.
These meetings were especially effective because the US Senate had just begun
debate on national energy security legislation. In between those meetings, some
of Grange participants filled their time with sightseeing, an informal "dutch
treat" lunch at the US Supreme Court cafeteria, and a courtesy visit to the offices
of the National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition. The
Alliance for Rural America is a coalition of national farm and rural groups that
is working together to educate and inform farmers and rural Americans about environmental
and energy issues as well as provide a unified rural voice on key policy issues.
Formed in 1998, the Alliance for Rural America member organizations include the
American Agriculture Movement, the American Corn Growers Association, the Federation
of Southern Cooperatives, the National Association of Farmer Elected Committees;
the National Farmers Organization, the National Grange and Women Involved in Farm
Economics. top
Justice Department Responds to Grange Letter
In a letter sent in February to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division,
the National Grange expressed its strong opposition to the proposed merger of
EchoStar Communications Inc and Hughes Electronics Corporation. In early March,
the Justice Department sent a response to National Grange Master Kermit W. Richardson.
As background,
the February Grange letter explained that many parts of rural America lack access
to cable television or other terrestrial multichannel video programming distribution
(MVPD) services. For these consumers, direct broadcast satellite services are
currently the only means to receive a full range of MVPD services at an affordable
cost. At present there are only two major direct broadcast services-EchoStar's
Dish Network and Hughes'DirecTV. Each company offers a competitive satellite TV
and high speed satellite Internet service for rural consumers. The EchoStar/DirecTV
merger would therefore, create a monopoly in these two vital advanced communications
technology services. "We believe that such a monopoly will lead to higher prices
and less innovative services for consumers in rural areas," the Grange letter
stated. In response,
Ketan Jhaveri, a trial attorney with the Telecommunications & Media Enforcement
Section of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, thanked the National
Grange for expressing its views and acknowledged that the Antitrust Division is
currently reviewing the implications of the proposed merger. "Developments in
the communications industry, such as the proposed Echostar/DirecTV merger, are
of great interest to the Antitrust Division," Mr. Jhaveri wrote, "because of their
immense impact on consumers nationwide. As part of each investigation the Division
analyzes the transaction on its own merits to assess its ultimate impact on competition."
Mr. Jhaveri went on to write, "Please be assured that the Division will conduct
a through and fair review of the Echostar/DirecTV merger, taking into consideration
the concerns regarding the merger's impact on prices and programming choices available
to consumers that you raised in your letter, and at the close of our investigation,
will act in the best interest of competition and consumers." top
Farm Bill Conference Continues
The Congress and
the Bush Administration are trying to forge compromise legislation that will direct
federal farm program for the next five years. The House passed H.R. 2646 and the
Senate passed S. 1731. These two bills must be reconciled into a single piece
of legislation before it can be sent to President Bush for his signature. One
unexpected problem arose in mid March. The Congressional Budget Office announced
that the cost estimates for the Senate version of the Farm Bill exceeded the budget
allotment by more than $6 billion. Before proceeding, the House/Senate Conference
Committee had to decide how to reallocate financial resources so that the final
legislation would remain within the budget allotted. Those negotiations forced
a post postponement of further substantive discussions until after the Easter
Recess. The National
Grange remains active in keeping Conference Committee Members informed regarding
Grange supported provisions in both bills that should be part of the final legislation.
One example is a recent letter supporting payment limitation provisions contained
in the US Senate version of the Farm Bill that was signed by a coalition of twelve
farm and religious affiliated organizations, including the National Grange. The
Senate proposal, the coalition letter explained, would cap direct, counter cyclical,
and loan deficiency payments as well as marketing loan gains at a total of $275,000
annually per farm. But as important as the dollar limits, the letter also explained
that under the Senate proposal "Large farms could no longer avoid limits by subdividing
operations among several legal entities that are not legitimate producers. All
payments would count toward a person's limit, whether received directly or through
a corporation."
Under the Senate plan, in order to receive farm program payments, each individual
would need to personally qualify by providing direct supervision and direction
of their farming activities. Exceptions to this requirement would allow tenants
who provide 1000 hours of farm labor, crop-share landlords, disabled land owners,
widows and retirees who rely on family members to over see their farms to continue
to qualify for federal payments. The goal is to tie the payments to an actual
farm operator and discourage arrangements that shift program payments to non-farm
operators in order to circumvent payment limitation laws. The letter also addressed the concerns raised by producers of commodities that
generate high per acre payments but that also have high per acre production costs,
such as cotton, rice, sugar, and peanuts. "We support adjustments (to the payment
limitation provisions) to address those concerns that do not encourage regional
production shifts or discriminate against specific crops or regions," the coalition
letter said. "It
is inappropriate for taxpayers to fully shelter large farms from the risk of expansion
if an object of farm programs is to reduce concentration," the coalition letter
stated. "Nor is it appropriate for farm programs to operate on the basis of the
bigger you get the more money you get, if the objective is to increase the incomes
of all farm operators. When the farm program operates on that basis," the coalition
letter concluded, "the end result is the farm program does not fully benefit farm
operators." top Ohio
State Grange Responds to Agriterrorist Break-In
When WBNS-TV (Channel
10) in Columbus, OH recently ran an "animal rescue" story that included a home
video of local animal rights activists illegally breaking into two local egg farms,
Ohio State Grange President Laddie Marous quickly responded by writing to newspapers
and the TV station to express the Grange's ". extreme concern about the fact that
Channel 10 chose to exploit illegal entry on to private property..[in order for
a local activist group to] promote its own agenda: a vegan lifestyle." "Not
only does this illegal entry into private property represent a violation," Marous
argued, "but gaining illegal entry onto any type of livestock farm poses a serious
threat to humans and the animals that cross their paths." "With agriterrorism
a serious concern in America, groups such as those used on Channel 10 are putting
all of our food sources and us at risk with their hero antics," the Ohio Grange
leader complained. "These groups obviously pay no attention to biosecurity measures,
therefore risking not only the 'rescued' animals but also healthy animals and
humans alike. This is all the more reason to develop strong biosecurity measures
to protect Americans," Marous concluded. top "Where
is My Tax Cut?" Dairy Compact Critic Asks
The National Grange has long
been a strong advocated for the adoption of regional dairy programs. Since the
enactment of the Northeast Dairy Compact in 1996, prices for milk in New England
have been stable, consumers have benefited from locally produced milk, and food
assistance programs have been unaffected. The key to this success was a process
that brought representatives of farmers, consumers, handlers, processors and state
governments together to determine the appropriate price that should be paid to
farmers for fluid milk in the New England region based on locally driven supply
and demand conditions. On
October 1, 2001, Congress allowed the Northeast Dairy compact to expire, in part
because of complaints by critics that the program "raised prices" to consumers.
One of the most frequent critics of the Northeast Dairy Compact was the Boston
Globe. But recently the Globe printed an editorial by columnist Steve Bailey in
which Mr. Bailey noted that the end of the Compact has resulted in no price reductions
being passed on to consumers. Mr. Bailey pointed out that a gallon of whole milk
cost $2.99 in the stores in Boston a year ago, with the Compact in full effect,
and costs the same amount today without the Compact. "My
free market bones have never been comfortable with price-setting schemes like
the dairy compact.," Mr. Bailey wrote. "But watching what has happened since the
compact died on Oct.1 makes a very bad joke of all that whining that came from
dairy processors and retailers about the raw deal the poor consumer was getting
from farmers," Mr. Bailey commented. He went on to note that a year ago, under
the Compact, farmers were being paid $1.46 a gallon for their milk, while last
month they were getting paid just $131 a gallon, a fifteen cents per gallon price
cut. "Why am I still paying the same $2.99 for my milk?" and "Where's my tax cut?" the Boston Globe columnist demanded to know. Where indeed? The
National Grange believes that as part of the current Farm Bill negotiations, Congress
should reauthorize the Northeast Dairy Compact, and authorize additional regional
dairy compacts. Congress should also authorize a direct, permanent financial assistance
program targeted at moderate sized, family owned dairy operations during times
of low prices. top National
Grange and PhRMA Host Meeting to Address Bioterrorism
Recently the National
Grange teamed up with the Pharmaceutical Researcher and Manufacturers Association
(PhRMA), the national trade association for the nation's life science companies,
to sponsor a meeting of representatives of farm and agribusiness organizations
in Washington DC regarding potential private sector as well as public/private
initiatives to address the bioterrorism threat to US agriculture and rural America.
Moderating the open and informal discussion was Dr. Michael Friedman, former head
of the US Food and Drug Association, who is now the Chief Medical Officer for
Biomedical Preparedness at PhRMA. "We have two major bioterrorism threats", Dr. Friedman explained in his opening
remarks: "threats to people and threats to infrastructure, such as agriculture."
Keying in on the potential psychological as well as economic impact of a possible
bioterrorist assault on US agriculture, Dr. Friedman acknowledged that "Agriculture
is important to the self image of the United States." He further went on to define
where he saw the various responsibilities for addressing this challenge including
defining risks (government); identify treatment and intervention (public health
and research community); manufacture of medical responses and treatments (pharmaceutical
industry) and deploying the responses effectively (public health, animal health
and private industry groups). The
group then worked to identify several policy areas where the two industries could
work together including preserving existing antibiotics registrations for animal
agriculture, developing appropriate quarantine guidelines, researching new methods
to prevent or mitigate the deliberate spread of disease or pathogens, stronger
laws to protect commercial and agricultural property from trespass and break in,
and better means to inform the public about risk management steps being taken
before an incident occurs as well as inform the public about corrective action
being taken to address a bioterrorist assault on of food supply. "This is just
the lull before the storm" one of the meeting participants commented. One
tool that was discussed at the meeting to assist with the public informational
challenges identified with preparing for additional bioterrorist assaults is a
new website being funded by PhRMA member companies called Homelandhealth.com.
It is designed as a comprehensive, one-stop information source about bioterrorism
threats and the steps to address them. It includes information from a wide range
of sources including government agencies, health care professionals, media and
private industry. Currently it is geared toward general consumers, but the PhRMA
representatives are eager to include agriculture specific information to enhance
the value of the site as an information source. "The key to making a project like
this work," said National Grange Legislative Director Leroy Watson, "is to find
ways to convince groups and industries that often don't work together closely
to now come together and share information and resources for our common protection."
"Meetings like this one are the best way to develop the personal confidence and
trust that is necessary to make that happen," the Grange Legislative Director
told the group. top Still
Time to Register for Fly In 2002
The National Grange is preparing for
the 5th Annual National Grange Legislative Fly-In. This year, Fly-In 2002 will
take place from June 9 through June 11, at the National Grange headquarters in
Washington DC. Grange members interested in attending Fly In 2002 must have their
registrations in to the National Grange Legislative Department no later than Friday
May 3, 2002 to guarantee their hotel room. Grange members interested in attending
National Grange Fly In 2002 can contact their State Grange Master or Legislative
Director, or contact the National Grange Legislative Department by phone (202)
628-3507 ext 101, fax (202) 347-1091, or by e-mail swilkins@nationalgrange.org,
or lwatson@nationalgrange.org
for more details. |
