I spent my morning at the Department of Agriculture's Outlook forum, an event for people who work in the agricultural industry to connect and learn about the lawmaking and policy-making priorities going forward.
But, if priorities are to be determined by the way Secretary Tom Vilsack and Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow spoke to the crowd, those include continuing to help farmers manage risk -- i.e., crop insurance -- and to push exports. There was a lot of talk about keeping the growing world fed while ensuring prosperity for America's farmers; a lot of talk about "sensible" enforcement of Environmental Protection Agency regulations in ways that wouldn't hurt farmers (measuring dust to follow ambient air-quality rules was a big concern); and a lot of quotations from Harry Truman who was, during an important time in history, the country's "first farmer." Stabenow mentioned focusing on sensible programs that "work well," and both she and Vilsack alluded to budgetary constraints, but no one said "we're cutting wasteful crop subsidies to Big Ag," and no one is likely to any time soon.
Former President Bill Clinton was there and was the first speaker to punch a hole, however small, in what he called the "happy talk" so prevalent at all these meetings. Most of the initial speakers focused on the positive stuff and how to secure economic stability for farmers. Clinton reminded the crowd that the policy and action should focus on short-term income and long-term stability, which includes dealing with climate change, conserving water, land, and energy, and promoting sustainable agriculture in the developing world. It also included reconciling our food system with the increasing incidence of diabetes -- as a true Southerner, of course, he said "dia-BEED-us" -- though he was careful, in all of these reminders, not to point fingers at all of those sitting in the room.
His major concern, and the concern beneath the surface in just about every speech, was the growing wealth gap, which affects small-time farmers as much as any other worker in the country. Stabenow said the 2012 farm bill, which Congress will start to tackle shortly, should be called a jobs bill; 1 in 4 jobs in her home state, Michigan, comes from its diversified agricultural sector. And the wealth gap greatly affects the possibility of the kind of turmoil we're seeing in poor countries now, Clinton pointed out. Another presenter showed that, in emerging markets like India and China, commodities account for about half of all consumption. Rising food and fuel prices, which everyone expects, are often good for American farmers but bad for the rest of the world. But Clinton told everyone not to worry; all of these goals were reconcilable. "There's going to be plenty for American farmers to do," he said.
