When Farm Bill Priorities Are Misplaced, Rural Communities Suffer
Since the House of Representatives passed their 2007 Farm Bill, the Center for Rural Affairs has roundly criticized its flawed provisions – especially regarding payment limits – while praising the good ones. In turn, we have been criticized ourselves for being too “confrontational” and not understanding the need for farm bill “compromise.” Evidently, we’re supposed to put in our two cents early in the farm bill process, and then sit back and be pleased with whatever crumbs our elected representatives feel like tossing our way.
That isn’t going to happen, and I can tell you why – because we live and work in rural America. So do most of our supporters. We see the effects of poorly designed rural policy every day. Our hometown of Lyons, Nebraska suffers because of misplaced priorities and decades of rural policy that has had the effect of decimating rural communities.
Today, I’m eating lunch from the Depot, a local restaurant operated by a retired couple, who are obviously not all that retired. They’ve had a for sale sign in their window for at least a year, since I moved here. They just got a new realtor and a new for sale sign, so perhaps they will close soon, for good.
In the next few weeks, I’ll watch the Senate farm bill proceedings over the Internet. I’m lucky that I can do so. Many rural areas don’t have broadband, and the USDA broadband loan program has spent a whole lot of money subsidizing Internet access in not-so-rural places already being served. Recent news articles detailing how rural broadband money has been sent to suburban areas has generated outrage in Congress – but little discussion of how to make sure every community has access to the most crucial utility of the 21st century.
Many citizens of Lyons are trying to save our Opera House, the most architecturally significant building in Lyons and the visual anchor of our downtown. It has been vacant for more than 20 years, and the roof is falling in. Recently, a large chunk of one of the walls fell in a storm, and we have some barricades around the building to protect passersby.
During our annual community festival (Bluegrass Days) in July, the population of Lyons went up at least 25 percent for a couple days. It was something to see. I’ve only lived here for a little over a year, and for the first time I could envision a thriving, prosperous Lyons. Most of those who came used to live here. Now they don’t, because there are no jobs.
During the House farm bill debate in July, several lawmakers said this farm bill is about supporting rural America. Maybe they really believe it. And several said that this farm bill is a “first step” towards some sort of nebulous reform, so everyone should vote for it.
It appears to me we’ve taken that “first step” many times. When is the last step taken? Farm bills only come around once every five years. How many farm bills do we have to go through to get real payment limits and a serious investment in rural economic development? When will we stop investing in mega-farms and start investing in the future of Lyons, Nebraska?
The Center for Rural Affairs has been fighting for legislation that could help revitalize rural America for decades. We have been fighting to say, once and for all, that the farm bill is about helping small and mid-sized farms and rural communities. Period. You can’t do that while you’re sending million dollar subsidy checks out the door to mega-farms that drive their neighbors out of business.
The farm bill that came out of the House of Representatives will keep those checks flowing, and there are those in the Senate who will fight to keep those checks as well. So don’t tell me about “necessary” compromises, or about “keeping agriculture united.” Of all the constituent groups involved in the farm bill process, rural Americans and family farmers are the ones most often invoked by legislators to justify their actions, yet it appears to me they are the least heard.
This is why we get angry and “emotional.” These legislators get up and talk about how the farm bill is about supporting rural America and family farmers, and there are provisions in the farm bill that do so. But we need more policy designed to support rural communities, and the values they hold. A lot more.
Those rural values are the backbone of this country. But the principle of supporting true family farms and rural communities is lost in the “compromises” that always occur come farm bill time. We will not sit back and be silent while those compromises occur. We are not compromising on our principles. And we never will.
Contact: Dan Owens, dano@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1017 to share your comments and questions. Dan is our rural organizer.
That isn’t going to happen, and I can tell you why – because we live and work in rural America. So do most of our supporters. We see the effects of poorly designed rural policy every day. Our hometown of Lyons, Nebraska suffers because of misplaced priorities and decades of rural policy that has had the effect of decimating rural communities.
Today, I’m eating lunch from the Depot, a local restaurant operated by a retired couple, who are obviously not all that retired. They’ve had a for sale sign in their window for at least a year, since I moved here. They just got a new realtor and a new for sale sign, so perhaps they will close soon, for good.
In the next few weeks, I’ll watch the Senate farm bill proceedings over the Internet. I’m lucky that I can do so. Many rural areas don’t have broadband, and the USDA broadband loan program has spent a whole lot of money subsidizing Internet access in not-so-rural places already being served. Recent news articles detailing how rural broadband money has been sent to suburban areas has generated outrage in Congress – but little discussion of how to make sure every community has access to the most crucial utility of the 21st century.
Many citizens of Lyons are trying to save our Opera House, the most architecturally significant building in Lyons and the visual anchor of our downtown. It has been vacant for more than 20 years, and the roof is falling in. Recently, a large chunk of one of the walls fell in a storm, and we have some barricades around the building to protect passersby.
During our annual community festival (Bluegrass Days) in July, the population of Lyons went up at least 25 percent for a couple days. It was something to see. I’ve only lived here for a little over a year, and for the first time I could envision a thriving, prosperous Lyons. Most of those who came used to live here. Now they don’t, because there are no jobs.
During the House farm bill debate in July, several lawmakers said this farm bill is about supporting rural America. Maybe they really believe it. And several said that this farm bill is a “first step” towards some sort of nebulous reform, so everyone should vote for it.
It appears to me we’ve taken that “first step” many times. When is the last step taken? Farm bills only come around once every five years. How many farm bills do we have to go through to get real payment limits and a serious investment in rural economic development? When will we stop investing in mega-farms and start investing in the future of Lyons, Nebraska?
The Center for Rural Affairs has been fighting for legislation that could help revitalize rural America for decades. We have been fighting to say, once and for all, that the farm bill is about helping small and mid-sized farms and rural communities. Period. You can’t do that while you’re sending million dollar subsidy checks out the door to mega-farms that drive their neighbors out of business.
The farm bill that came out of the House of Representatives will keep those checks flowing, and there are those in the Senate who will fight to keep those checks as well. So don’t tell me about “necessary” compromises, or about “keeping agriculture united.” Of all the constituent groups involved in the farm bill process, rural Americans and family farmers are the ones most often invoked by legislators to justify their actions, yet it appears to me they are the least heard.
This is why we get angry and “emotional.” These legislators get up and talk about how the farm bill is about supporting rural America and family farmers, and there are provisions in the farm bill that do so. But we need more policy designed to support rural communities, and the values they hold. A lot more.
Those rural values are the backbone of this country. But the principle of supporting true family farms and rural communities is lost in the “compromises” that always occur come farm bill time. We will not sit back and be silent while those compromises occur. We are not compromising on our principles. And we never will.
Contact: Dan Owens, dano@cfra.org or 402.687.2103 x 1017 to share your comments and questions. Dan is our rural organizer.
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Small Town Economic Stability
Simple concept isn't it? We all want cheaper (elect.) energy. We all would prefer to buy clean energy if it were available. And, most of us would prefer to buy from a local supplier (especially if the main grid goes down). Why is this concept so "radical" that no politician wants to touch it with a ten foot pole? Just what is really going on here? Isn't the local utility just an ISP, that both you (the content supplier), and your neighbor (the content customer), pay to, for the right of connection?
If you can show (on an annual inspection) that the energy you generate (on a small farm say) is clean, (or actually -removes- carbon from the atmosphere), with today's technology for phase regulation, and line safety, then the only price regulation concerning the local utility should be the size of the transformer and wire coming into your source required to feed your electricity to the grid, and your connection fee
be adjusted accordingly. Who cares how it is generated; ethanol fuel cell auto, LP fuel cell home kit, solar, wind,... pig spit (!), as long as it meets the standard for the carbon load to the utility. How many new business would this technology generate?
The arguments being presented by the utilities are a "tobacco up" mentality that has -never- shown a benefit to any of those involved. The currently existing equipment is similar to the phone system was being operated before the Internet; -mostly unused-. If a transformer is rated to drain 2 HP (constant) into a residence, then it can just as easily handle 2 HP being pumped into the grid without any effect to any equipment. Additionally, the 60 Hz phase would be strengthened, not corrupted because of the current technology used to regulate this kind and range of power. There is -much- less power line loss with this type of local consumption. The power companies don't have to build or maintain any new generation locations or expensive high power lines, they only need maintain the local "NET".
Even though an argument can be made for the "ISP" perspective, this needs to be actually presented in a court case for the rights of free trade in this issue. Not only will the advertisement move clean free trade in energy in this country, it will be adopted by the rest of the planet (proved profitable). "Germany does it." At that point a lot of things change, potentially irreversibly ... as some potential examples:
said energy sale, with possibly enough left over to provide for food and medical. This would be a $50,000 home (to start), paid in 15(?) years, not the "requiring a credit rating, for bank that charges you $300,000, -over thirty years-, for a place to live, that kills the planet"). What if we (in the US in particular) did that, with energy equipment (in a loan program with the excuse of "terra formation") "to "fix the planet"? What kind of response would that get for us, to prove we can improve our living conditions -so substantially-, by helping so many others on the planet, that no terrorist involvement can never find -effective- support, again?
A bit over the top I guess, but if you follow somewhat the direction I suggest here, at least you won't have to deal with the heat during the next grid brown out. ...without sending people to go die in "coal holes"...
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