Foodlinks America - July 20, 2007
Foodlinks America - July 20, 2007
In this issue:
• Farm Bill Renewal Faces Many Barriers
• Fiscal Year 2008 Appropriations Move Forward
• Barter Plan May Increase Emergency Food Supplies
• Child Nutrition News and Notes
• Proposed Legislation
• Consumer Preference for Farmers’ Markets Growing
• Reports from the Field
• Small Bites
Foodlinks America is published 24 times a year by California Emergency Foodlink in Sacramento, CA and distributed by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 6412 CR 116, Burnet, TX 78611; Zy Weinberg and Barbara Vauthier, Editors; email: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.
Foodlinks America is not copyrighted, so the information can be freely shared with colleagues and friends, though attribution for reprinted articles is appreciated. For archived issues of Foodlinks America, go to: www.tefapalliance.org. To request a free subscription to the newsletter or to submit story ideas, contact Barbara Vauthier at: bvauthier@tefapalliance.org.
Farm Bill Renewal Faces Many Barriers
Although House and Senate Agriculture Committees are eager to reauthorize the Farm Bill in 2007, numerous complications have arisen that make renewal before the September 30 deadline increasingly unlikely. Points of contention on the bill itself include funding for new initiatives, international pressures for agricultural reform, and the term of the new law. Outside factors affecting the Farm Bill debate also include competing legislation and the time crunch of the legislative schedule.
Funding remains the biggest unresolved issue. The House Agriculture Committee has tentatively approved over $17 billion in new spending for nutrition assistance, conservation programs, land stewardship, and biofuels. But these changes are contingent on finding offsets within Farm Bill programs or approving new revenues. The Committee has shown reluctance to tamper with existing commodity price support payments, considered by many the most likely place for cuts. The Committee agreed on July 18 to cap payouts to millionaires, but the action only generates $226 million in savings over five years. “This proposal unfortunately fails the laugh test for payment limitation reform,†commented Ferd Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in Washington, D.C.
A reduction of American commodity subsidies is not only being sought by some in Congress, but also by other nations. Brazil, which won a World Trade Organization (WTO) case concerning cotton price supports in 2005, recently filed another complaint over the extent of U.S. agricultural subsidies. The latest challenge will be carried forward even though negotiations for new trade agreements under the WTO have collapsed and are currently in abeyance.
Although the House Agriculture Committee completed its work on a five-year Farm Bill reauthorization on July 19, Senate Agriculture Committee chair Tom Harkin (D-IA) is now calling for a longer-term bill to provide the additional funding he seeks. Harkin has proposed a six- or seven-year bill in order to scour budget savings from the 2013-2017 period to support his initiatives. “I am going to do this,†said Harkin. “It is going to be a minimum of six years.â€
The Agriculture Committees may be concentrating on Farm Bill reauthorization, but the issue has not yet caught the attention of the rest of the Congress, due to other pressing business. “For the moment, Congress as a whole only rarely thinks about the Farm Bill,†commented Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, a moderate Republican and Agriculture Committee member. “That’s not because people are myopic or indifferent. It’s just simply the controversies surrounding the Iraq war and other foreign policy decisions†are consuming Congress’ attention.
Both Harkin and House Agriculture Committee chair Collin Peterson (D-MN) are still committed to completing a new Farm Bill by the end of September, but meeting that deadline is increasingly unlikely. Harkin has not yet scheduled a Committee mark-up session and time for floor debate is rapidly diminishing. Congress begins its traditional summer recess on August 3 and will not reconvene for a full month. Factoring in several Jewish holidays in September, there are only about 10 legislative days available that month for finalization of the bill. “Things are just backing up around here,†Harkin noted recently, saying he will not be rushed and is not opposed to a short-term extension of current law to maintain Farm Bill programs.
But long-term continuation of the status quo, particularly for food stamps and other food assistance programs in the Farm Bill, will not satisfy Senator Harkin, who is adamant in his advocacy for hungry Americans. “They will have to carry me out feet first†if there is not adequate funding for nutrition, Harkin has stated. “There are more parties to this Farm Bill than people representing a few large growers of certain commodities. I won’t let a bill go through that does not answer the needs of poor people in this country. I will fight against taking money from poor people and giving it to others,†Harkin insisted. “I may get rolled, but I will fight.â€
Fiscal Year 2008 Appropriations Move Forward
Federal spending decisions for nutrition assistance in the upcoming fiscal year that begins October 1 have begun to take shape, as the full House and Senate Appropriations Committees passed bills for agriculture programs on July 19, 2007. The House Appropriations Committee boosted overall discretionary spending by more than a billion dollars over last year, including some expansions in food assistance programs.
The House bill provides $39.8 billion for the Food Stamp Program, an increase of $1.7 billion over 2007, to meet expected increases in participation. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a similar figure. The Committees rejected Bush Administration calls for restricting the eligibility of certain needy families and voted to exclude special pay for military personnel deployed to Iraq and other combat zones when determining eligibility for food stamps.
Appropriators not only ignored the President’s request to terminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), but significantly increased funding for the program. The House Committee provides $150 million next year, an increase of $43 million above current levels, and an action that will allow five new states to join the program. The Senate Committee pegged funding at $128 million. The CSFP provides a monthly package of commodities to approximately 485,000 elderly people and women and children.
The Committees’ support for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC Program) also exceeded the Administration’s request. The House Committee allocated a total of $5.6 billion for WIC in fiscal year 2008, $416 million above current spending. The Senate Committee provided an even higher figure – $5.72 billion – for WIC next year. Additional funds were also provided in the House bill for expanding the simplified Summer Food Service Program to all states, enlarging the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program in schools, and modestly increasing the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.
Also on July 19, 2007, the House Appropriations Committee endorsed a fiscal year 2008 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. That bill increased funding for congregate and home-delivered meals for seniors under the Nutrition Program for the Elderly by $23.5 million over current levels. However, funding for the Community Food and Nutrition Program (CFNP), which last received an appropriation in fiscal year 2005, was not part of the legislative package.
Barter Plan May Increase Emergency Food Supplies
A unique arrangement under which the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will trade bulk commodities to food manufacturers for processed agricultural products is expected to provide a badly-needed infusion of more than $50 million in foodstuffs for domestic and international food assistance programs later this year, according to a USDA news release issued on July 6, 2007.
For growers of select commodities – notably corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, and cotton – the government establishes a target price based on the cost of production, and when prices drop below the target level, the farmer has the option of taking a government loan (using his crop as collateral) to store the crop until prices rise. Once prices go up, the crop may be sold and the farmer pays back the loan. However, if prices remain low, the farmer has the option of selling the crop to the government and keeping the loan funds.
USDA currently holds some $52 million worth of uncommitted commodities that have been acquired through forfeiture under the Marketing Assistance Loan Program. In order to save storage and administrative costs, these commodities are being offered to food manufacturers in exchange for finished products. Although USDA has done some trading in the past (e.g. raw corn for processed cornmeal), this is the first time that bartering will be done under an “open architecture†situation, Kent Politsch, a spokesman for USDA’s Farm Service Agency, told Foodlinks America. “This time, canned turkey meat could be traded for corn by a turkey processor,†said Politsch, “and the corn could be used as feed for more turkeys.â€
USDA has stated that 80 percent of the proceeds from the bartering will go to domestic food assistance programs administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and 20 percent for international food relief. However, additional details are unavailable, as the barter arrangement is still in the planning stages, according to USDA officials on July 18, 2007, leaving a number of unanswered questions.
What products USDA will receive under the barter program are unknown, as invitations to bid have only recently gone out to manufacturers. However, USDA has noted that in the past, the Department has bought canned meats, poultry, and vegetables from a number of vendors. “Industry is learning from FNS specifically what items their programs need,†commented Politsch. How much of the bartered items will go for hunger interventions such as The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) versus school nutrition programs also has not been decided. Nor have distribution logistics been determined; it is uncertain whether USDA will make bartered items available as they do other bonus commodities.
But the bottom line is that additional food will be provided to programs serving the hungry at no additional cost to the government. “This is a win for all parties, especially low-income, needy people in this country and around the world who receive U.S. food assistance,” said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. “Bartering government-owned corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat for processed products like vegetable oil and flour as well as meat products, will help us meet an increasing demand for food assistance.”
For additional details, see the USDA news release at:
Child Nutrition News and Notes
Nutrition education efforts deemed ineffective: A media review of scientific studies analyzing the results of 57 federally-funded nutrition education projects found all but a handful to be failures with little or no effect on childhood obesity. Programs that give free fruits and vegetables to schoolchildren, promote increased physical exercise, and teach food preparation were, for the most part, found to be ineffective in changing eating habits and body weight, according to the Associated Press in a July 4, 2007 story.
“Any person looking at the published literature about these programs would have to conclude that they generally are not working,†said Dr. Tom Baranowski, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Obstacles to success include parents who negatively influence children’s eating choices, household poverty that limits healthy food purchases, and advertising, with thousands of television ads per year bombarding children with the promotion of high-sugar and high fat products. Even school teachers who spend hours on nutrition education have minimal impact on students.
The factors that make kids fat “are really strong and hard to fight with just a program in school,†commented Dr. Phillip Zeitler, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital in Denver, CO. “If Mom can’t find tomatoes in her local grocery store, nothing is going to change,†he concluded.
Direct verification can ease paperwork requirements: School districts insure the integrity of their nutrition programs by annually sampling household applications for free or reduced price meals, contacting the household, and verifying eligibility. Direct verification (DV) uses information collected by other means-tested programs to verify the eligibility without contacting applicants. Results of a new four-state pilot study of DV projects using Medicaid data have found that: DV using Medicaid is technically feasible; school districts can verify a hefty percentage of their applications that way; several different variations on the system work effectively; food stamp data can also be used for DV purposes; and school districts that tried DV plan to use it again. For additional information on the pilot project, go to:
http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/MENU/Published/CNP/FILES/DirectVerificationYear1_Summary.pdf.
School meal reimbursements raised: National average payment rates and maximum reimbursement rates for the National School Lunch, Special Milk, and School Breakfast Programs received their annual inflation adjustment earlier this month. Revised rates for the period of July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008, reflecting a 3.27 percent increase in the consumer price index, were published in the Federal Register of July 10, 2007, which may be viewed at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/07-3365.pdf.
CACFP payment rates adjusted: National average payment rates for meals and snacks served in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) have been revised to account for inflation. Administrative reimbursement rates for sponsoring organizations that help day care homes under the program have also been adjusted. The new rates are in effect for the period of July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. The updated rates were published in the July 10, 2007 Federal Register and may be found at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/07-3366.pdf.
Proposed Legislation
Among bills recently introduced in the 110th session of the U.S. Congress are the following:
House Resolution (H.R.) 2968: Introduced by Representative Todd Platts (R-PA), the Summer Food Service Rural Expansion Act would amend the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) to make permanent the administrative efficiencies of the pilot project for rural areas of Pennsylvania and apply it to rural areas of every state.
H.R. 3030: Introduced by Representative Darlene Hooley (D-OR), the Summer Food Service Program Improvement Act would improve the SFSP by lowering area eligibility requirements, increasing program payments, and offering start-up grants.
Senate (S.) 1755: Introduced by Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Summer Food Service Rural Expansion Act would amend the SFSP to make permanent the administrative efficiencies of the pilot project for rural areas of Pennsylvania and apply it to rural areas of every state. This bill is a companion bill to H.R. 2968.
For bill summary and status information, along with the text of legislation, visit: http://thomas.loc.gov and enter the bill number.
Consumer Preference for Farmers’ Markets Growing
Up to 30 percent of U.S. consumers prefer to buy their fresh produce from farmers’ markets or direct from the farmer, a nationwide survey conducted last year has found. That preference has driven a significant growth in farmers’ markets, with the number more than doubling nationally between 1994 and 2006, according to government figures. Moreover, those who purchase directly are willing to pay a premium price – between seven and 23 percent more – for produce that is differentiated by being organic, local, or nutritionally superior, said researchers at Colorado State University (CSU).
“I think everyone knew that farmers’ markets are popular because we see them around,†said Dawn Thilmany, a CSU agricultural economics professor and lead author of the report, “but the good news is, it’s kind of mainstream.†Direct sales clearly trumped other venues in the CSU Study. “It is encouraging news for direct marketing producers that up to 30 percent of consumers prefer to buy from farmers’ markets and direct from producers, while just 10 percent and two percent prefer to purchase fresh produce primarily from supercenters and specialty/healthfood stores, respectively,†she added.
However, direct marketers can increase their clientele still further by reaching out to underserved groups. The study found that the typical farmers’ market customer tends to be older, live in mid-sized markets (from 50,000 to 500,000 population), be upper-middle income, and spend more on fresh produce. “Perhaps the greatest challenge to direct market producers is to keep local food system supporters happy while exploiting opportunities to grow the number and share of purchases among more occasional direct-from-producer shoppers,†concluded Thilmany.
To review the study’s results, go to:
http://dare.agsci.colostate.edu/csuagecon/extension/docs/agbusmarketing/ABMR-MAY%2007-03.pdf.
Reports from the Field
Hunger is rampant in portions of the West Coast, as noted in this article from the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, CA, published on June 14, 2007:
Roughly 2.5 million low-income adults in California can’t afford to adequately feed their families, resulting in health problems and household stress, according to a UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles] report released this week. The report measures food insecurity, which can range from reduced quality or variety of diet to skipping meals because of costs.
In 2005, 30 percent of low-income adults statewide reported choosing between food and other basic needs, according to data from the California Health Interview Study. Among them, nine percent experienced a disruption in eating habits or skipped meals. The study did not include the homeless. In Orange County, the UCLA report says an estimated 190,000 low-income adults struggle to buy food, and about 36,000 people sometimes go hungry. The numbers don’t include children.
“The math is simple,” said Mark Lowry, food bank director for Community Action Partnership in Garden Grove. “People working full-time in service industry jobs can’t earn enough to pay for rent, least of all those other basic needs like food.” The non-profit works with more than 300 food pantries and charities to give 17 million pounds of food annually, enough to feed 800,000 people. Most who seek help are seniors on fixed incomes and working families in low-wage jobs.
The report by the university’s Center for Health Policy Research notes: “Food expenditures are the most flexible item in household budgets and are frequently squeezed when income dips or unemployment strikes.” According to the research, children living in households without a sufficient food supply miss more school and experience more emotional problems. Adults are more likely to feel anxious or depressed. Additionally, families are more likely to forgo medical care and filling prescriptions, which affects their overall health.
While it may seem counterintuitive, adults living in households with a shortage of quality food were more likely to be overweight, according to the brief. As a solution, the report recommends helping households receive federally funded help, such as food stamps and child nutrition programs.
Blacks and Latinos had the highest rate of food insecurity. Adults without jobs and undocumented immigrants were at highest risk for food shortage, the report found. Lowry said his food bank relies on donations from the food industry and food drives. “The food bank is not like a supermarket where people can pick what it is they need,” he said. “We have to distribute whatever people gave us. Unfortunately, you’ll find more crackers, cookies and juices and sodas than meats and fruits and vegetables.”
Small Bites
Drinking up profits: Fast food companies make more profit on soft drinks than on the food they sell.
McDonalds mania: More than 90 percent of U.S. children eat at McDonalds every month.
Playing with their food: McDonalds is the largest owner of private playgrounds in North America.
A chip off the old spud: Within a two-week period, 46 percent of Americans will eat potato chips.
Red chemistry: A typical strawberry milkshake combines some 50 artificial ingredients to deliver a “strawberry†taste.
Green chemistry: Researchers at the University of Maine have made plastics out of potatoes. Biobased plastics, made from plant starch rather than petroleum products, are non-toxic, biodegradable, and recyclable.
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