.jpg) Earlier this week, 4th District Representative David Price hosted his annual farmers’ briefing. Doug O’Brian, Deputy Undersecretary of USDA’s Rural Development was also there to speak with farmers and agribusiness leaders on the Washington perspective of agriculture:
“In terms of what farmers were interested in, from sort of the Washington perspective is, not surprisingly, they’re wondering what federal policy will do in the future to help them deal with the inherent risks in agriculture.”
While not naming names, O’Brien was asked specifically if there could be something done in the future to help producers that are essentially knocked out of business, such as the closing of the Townsend’s Crestwood Farms plants in Siler City and Mocksville:
“Also able to hear some particular concerns from poultry producers, and while things in the last three years, have been, in general, very good for agriculture, but we know very well that agriculture in America is a very diverse sector, and place matters. So, if you have a poultry integrator that all of sudden decides to close down, how does that affect farmers, and is there something that the federal or state government can do to help the shock that hits the community.”
There were also some pointed questions about specialty crops remaining in the next farm bill, according to O’Brien:
“If the farm bill moves forward in regular order, I think it’s a very good chance that specialty crops, those crops non-program crops, will receive some considerable focus.”
And for a couple of reasons…:
“One is that more and more, a lot of the new farmers out there in this country, they’re raising specialty crops, and they’re raising specialty crops for local and regional food systems. And you know, those producers, those farmers that are raising, for those local markets, something that the USDA Economic Research Service recently reported said it’s not just small farmers but medium and some large farms who are participating in these markets. There’s increased interest in specialty crops, there’s increased participation.”
And in addition, O’Brien sees a highly positioned specialty crop ally:
“the other reason is that you have one of the chairs the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Debbie Stabenow, who is from Michigan, and a state that is very interested, very diverse agriculture, a lot of specialty crops, and in the last farm bill she was very active in that, and I think that there’s every reason to believe that she would be active this time, from her recent statements.”
We’ll hear more from Deputy Undersecretary Doug O’Brien tomorrow on Inside Agriculture.
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