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Power grab threatens agriculture

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan picked an Illinois hog farmer to run the USDA. For the next eight years, John Block was a tireless spokesman for the interests and values of American farmers.
He oversaw a revamping U.S. farm policy from the supply control approach of the 1970s to the market driven approach of the 1985 Farm Bill. He traveled the world promoting US farm products and laid the groundwork for the export market we enjoy today. He understood that farmers want to produce and, with profit potential and less government controls, American agriculture would feed the world and bring profitability of rural communities.

Since leaving federal service, Block has remained in Washington where he has become a keen observer of U.S. farm policy and politics. Today he is alarmed and deeply worried about the direction of U.S. ag policy and the actions of USDA.

Jack, as he prefers to be called, and I became friends as I followed him around the world on his travels, reporting on the export development work. Last week, he and I had the chance to sit down and talk about the current state of the agricultural world.

“There is a real power grab going on in Washington, and agriculture is right in the middle of it,” he said.

He reported the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cast its regulatory eye on production agriculture, “We in agriculture just don’t trust the EPA; we just don’t trust them.” Block said the current belief by those in charge of EPA is that U.S. farmers need to be regulated.

He worries where this will lead, “We don’t want them telling us what we can plant and how we can grow it.” He said that under the guise of climate change regulations farmers would have to start planting trees instead of corn.

He was also critical of the USDA and Secretary Vilsack’s efforts to promote organic food production. “We are being told that commercial agriculture is not a good idea, and we should all go organic,” he said.

Block is not against organic, but says organic food production cannot meet our current and future food needs, “It is not cleaner and it is not safer; and we cannot feed enough people with organic, and we are going to starve the world.”

At a press conference with farm broadcasters last week, Secretary Vilsack defended his organic farming efforts saying he was making up for the fact that the previous administration had ignored organic food production.

Block, however, is not the only one critical of the USDA’s high profile on organic food production. Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts also questioned the Obama Administration’s commitment to commercial agriculture.

“I think the saying is ‘know your farmer, know your food,’ and then they highlight all of the farmer markets. Now that’s fine. Tom Vilsack, who is now our secretary, has really been on the tour to do that,” Roberts said.

“Well, something has to be said about production agriculture producing enough food for this country and a troubled, hungry world. But somehow production agriculture is now a pejorative, and you don’t hear many people writing about it, and if they do it’s very, very critical. I think that’s a very dangerous road to take.”

In Congress there are currently several pieces of legislation under consideration that would increase the regulation of and government control of agriculture. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she plans to propose legislation that would, among other things, create an Office of Humane Slaughter within USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

In a letter to Vilsack, Feinstein lamented the recent Humane Society of the United States video of inhumane treatment of veal calves at Grand Isle, Vermont-based Bushways Packing Co. Feinstein said her planned legislative proposal would authorize new funding to hire additional FSIS inspectors and close any loopholes that allow the slaughter of downed calves. It would also direct USDA to develop standards for treating and transporting calves to be sold as bob veal.

She said creating an Office of Humane Slaughter within would “elevate the important responsibilities of the HMSA (Humane Methods of Slaughter Act) inspectors.” Jack Block responded, “The nanny state is on a roll, and we need to stop them.”

Control of agriculture by the government is not new. What is new, however, is who is holding the other end of the leash. As my friend Jack pointed out, it is the environmentalists, the animal rights activists, and the food police who want to regulate what we produce, how we produce it, and how we sell it.

Left unchecked, mandates, quotas, labels, and penalties will come to dominate every aspect of agriculture. These are dangerous days indeed.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.

11/18/2009