GROUP XIV GOES TO WASHINGTON, D.C.

Small group working on presentation

Divided into four study groups, Domestic Ag Policy, Global Food Systems, Consumer Issues in Food and Health, and Food and Natural Resources Conservation, we met throughout the week with high level agricultural policy makers representing diverse perspectives on the issues. By the end of the week it was apparent there were no easy answers to many questions in our national farm policy.

Are subsidies essential in the dairy industry, but could they be replaced by crop insurance in crop farming?  Does our current structure of agriculture supports and vertical concentration in the food industry contribute to the obesity epidemic in our country? Does our US foreign food aid primarily benefit US farmers to the detriment of building food security abroad?  How can settling immigration policy become a higher priority since the majority of farming in the US is now dependant upon immigrant labor?  How can we cut Farm Bill funding when 74% of it actually goes to domestic food assistance such as WIC, SNAP and school lunch and daycare food programs, not to farm programs, and poverty is rising in the US?  What is the future of genetically modified foods, and is the heavy reliance on antibiotics in our meat production creating a danger of deadly “super bacteria”?

USDA Deputy Secretary Kathy Merrigan

Helping us to try to arrive at some answers to these issues were such USDA officials as the Deputy Secretary Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, Robert Post, Deputy Director for the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, Roger Claassen, an Ag Economist with the USDA Economic Research Services, and Roger Morales, the Assistant Deputy Administrator for Foreign Ag Service.  Also educating us in how agricultural policy gets formulated into national law were Galen Fountain, Chief of Staff for the Senate Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations and Todd Batta, Senator Kohl’s Legislative Assistant in charge of agricultural policy. 

However, to grasp the real drama of national policy making we met with our Congresspersons directly, sat in on some Congressional hearings, and listened to floor debate in the House of Representatives and the Senate.  We also had a fascinating time visiting fifteen diverse lobbying groups such as the Animal Agriculture Alliance, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Milk Producers Federation, the Heritage Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. We left with a genuine appreciation for how many competing interests our elected representatives have to contest with to craft legislation.  The role of money in this consensus building process was all too clear, and seemed unavoidable.  As one of the lobbyists confessed “If we do not put money on the table, we do not get heard”. 

Small group visiting with Congressman Ron Kind

Finally, our trip was also designed so skillfully that we all became comfortable whizzing around town on the Metro, meeting for meals in various parts of town, and getting such “once in a lifetime opportunities” as a White House tour, a visit to our national monuments at night, time in our magnificent national museums, and even some Nation’s Capital “pubbing” for St. Patrick’s Day. 

One of our speakers oriented us to nutrition and health safety issues.  He shared with us the startling statistic that now 1 in 3 people in the US is obese, placing costly strain on our health care system and affecting our productivity. Many of us learned for the first time that 74% of the US Farm Bill funding goes to US nutrition assistance programs such as WIC, SNAP, and school lunch and daycare food programs.  He shared how efforts are being made to address obesity in all of these programs.

We also heard itemize for us a number of agriculture-environmental protection programs that are part of the Farm Bill such as the Conservation Reserve Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and the Conservation Stewardship Program.  It was interesting for us to hear that much of the implementation and monitoring of these programs efforts relied upon state/national collaboration.