Farm Bill Discussion - Question #4

[kimhenry]

What assistance can be provided to help keep young people in rural communities and rural communities to be an even more important part of our nation’s economy and society?

[cwhite]

Ideas developed by the State Officers attending the 2011 State Presidents’ Conference:

• Mentor Programs (easier loans)
• National Database for the program
• Community Building
• Emphasize outreach programs (FFA/USDA)
• Loan forgiveness opportunity for college students

[cwhite]

Ideas developed by the New Century Farmer - Alumni participants attending the 2011 State Conference:

• Less EPA restrictions
• Maintain rural development grants
• Create new jobs
o Jobs for family members, schools, and healthcare accessibility
o Cell phone service, internet providers, health insurance limited in rural areas, monopoly, more options

[cwhite]

Ideas developed by the New Century Farmer participants attending the 2011 State Conference:

• Keep jobs in rural communities through tax incentives on businesses.
• Have a required class that is in some way related to agriculture in the classroom
• Encourage college level educations and make it more affordable to make transition to the farm.
• Make it cheaper to transition through inheritance taxes. Identify agricultural/business assets to allow students more financial aid as well as lower tax rates.
• Insurance reform.
• Consistent programs across the board to be offered by USDA.
• Work on infrastructure in rural America to transport good etc.
• Beginning farmer loans should have quicker and easier access.

[hammysam]

It needs to keep up with the big City . Kids in the country want Facebook and service for their cell phones. Maybe make things closer build a new grocery store of clothing store so they can get all their essentials without driving long country roads to get the simple things in life

[midnightfarmer1]

The farm bill should encourage more businesses in these areas to provide employment. This will give people the reason to stay in these areas. This will also encourage more American made products and will only strengthen our economy. I also agree with the kids wanting facebook and other social websites along with cell phones and service. This is a form of communication among kids and adults, that brings a community closer together. So if the farm bill put up cell phone towers and wifi spots and provided internet and other services to the communities, it would strengthen communication and would only benefit, not just the communities but the farm bill as well.

[farmforfood]

Youth all over the world are also being drawn to rural areas through paid or unpaid internships and volunteer opportunities. The farms drawing people to these rural areas, however, have specific characteristics. They are often smaller scale, growing a diversity of crops, offering manageable working hours, chemical free and overall places where worker's have excellent life quality (as compared to many large-scale conventional farms).

If the USDA can help support these kinds of farms with subsidies, more young people will be more likely to remain in, or even move to, rural areas. There are many people, including myself, in the new generation of farmers who are willing to farm in rural areas. The more people who are able to set up farms, due to government support, the greater the community of farms will be, making farm life in rural areas more appealing.

The market in rural areas is of course less demanding. Fruits and vegetables should be government subsidized so the resident population can afford the vegetables (rather than farmers driving hours to the city to sell the vegetables at double the price). Rural farmers should also have affordable health care so the lower income in rural areas can be more possible.

[GenevieveF]

One of the greatest challenges of rural living is the lack of access to services which are greatly needed. People who wish to stay in rural communities to farm, desperately need better access to health and financial services, as well as services that support mental health and safety concerns for farmers. Few people realize the inherent dangers of farming as an occupation, and even fewer people would wish to enter into such a risky venture without any support.

[Emily Hanson]

The most vibrant rural communities today are ones that have a strong sense of community, an active main street filled with local businesses, and good school systems. The USDA could play a huge role in helping more rural communities move toward this ideal by supporting small, family farmers who produce a variety of foods rather than just large, industrial agriculture.

A single family shouldn't have work thousands of acres in order to make a living in farming. Hardworking people should be able to grow what they need for their families to eat well all year, and sell a bit on the side, with the help of small amounts of appropriate technology and some sweat. But the way that the USDA funnels money into only the pockets of farmers who grow the crops that are already flooding our markets (corn and soy), instead of providing a safety net for small and medium sized farmers who use sustainable practices and steward the land, is robbing our rural communities of wealth. When each farmer has to farm more land to stay afloat, there are fewer people on the land, and rural communities fall apart. The USDA needs to help re-inhabit the countryside with farmers who care for the land by using conservation measures, who preserve biodiversity, who invest in their communities by selling at farmers' markets, to local grocery stores, and through CSAs.

The countryside will never be the big city, and it shouldn't be. We need to reconnect with our roots as an agricultural society and realize that the fast paced, consumer driven lifestyle that so many people in our country live is not sustainable. Our rural communities can be a model for a better way of living.

[C Ross]

There are so many things that could be done...

1. More communication services in rural areas. When TV as we used to know it disappeared and went to HD we lost 90% of our connection to the nation. Now we get sporadic connection to 2 channels. We have no high speed internet available either.
2. Relax County regulations for small farms for food safety needs/seasonal employee living quarters. We have tried to get our farm upgraded to the new regulations on food safety, employee standards etc. but have found that the county laws do not allow for seasonal employee living quarters or a building with a kitchen/bathroom combo on our property. Thus we find it difficult to hire employees because they have to drive so far to get to work - there are no available rentals nearby in our rural community. We can't meet some of the food safety requirements because we can't put up a dedicated building to clean produce or have an employee break room/bathroom facility. This limits our ability to expand the business.
3. Industrial Ag lobbyists dominate the policies of farming in the US. One size regulation does not fit all farms. Small farms need to have a stronger voice in policy setting, but we are so busy farming we don't have time to participate. Is there an organization that could represent small farmers in policy making?
4. Better control/inspection of foreign food coming into US to prevent invasive species, new pests and diseases. A new pest, the Asian Fruit Fly drosophila suzukii, has decimated our fruit production which amounted to 1/3 of our yearly income from our small farm. So far there is no control by organic means....
5. If Americans were willing to pay American wages for American grown food..... Subsidies for commodities are skewing food prices and forcing farmers to work harder with more land to make less than the year before. Small farmers can't necessarily afford more land, have smaller equipment and more manual labor paid with at least minimum wage. Their scales of efficiency makes it harder for a small farmer to earn a living wage when competing with large Industrial Ag. Make a distinct separation between regulations/policy for Industrial Ag and small farms. Create distinct categories for small farm definitions. Some ideas: Hobby farms: 10 acres or less generating $5,000 or less income per year. Mini farm: 11-50 acres generating up to $100,000 income per year. Small Farm: 50-200 acres generating up to $500,000 income per year. ETC... Obviously there could be a lot more added to define those categories more realistically