By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Supporters of a proposed task force to promote and accommodate the demand for locally grown Kansas foods said they are pleased the Legislature is still considering the idea but that they are concerned the panel – as modified by a Senate committee – might not include enough voices of the small farmers the panel was meant to benefit.

The Senate Agriculture Committee endorsed Senate Bill 380, the task force proposal, just before the Legislature adjourned for its brief, mid-session break. But the committee also rewrote the bill so that the Local Food and Farm Task Force would have only seven members instead of the 18 originally proposed; Gov. Sam Brownback would appoint three of the seven.

The smaller task force also would include a member appointed by the secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture and one named by the dean of the College of Agriculture at Kansas State University. Two legislators of different political parties would be appointed by the chairs of the House and Senate agriculture committees.

Paul Johnson, a lobbyist for the nonprofit Kansas Rural Center, which is one of the bill’s lead backers, said his worry was that the membership changes would leave out of the process the small farmers and others who are “working on the front lines” to build local food systems. The task force, he said, was intended specifically to help them.

“We feel like those folks needed to be at the table as voting members to develop a really comprehensive, actionable plan,” Johnson said.

The Kansas Rural Center, based in Whiting, promotes sustainable, smaller-scale farming.

The original bill would have included on the task force representatives of the rural center, the Kansas Farmers Union and the state agency that oversees safety-net programs for children and families. In addition, the secretary of agriculture also would appoint two members to represent farmers’ markets.

Despite the committee’s changes to the bill, Johnson said, the backers are pleased the proposal is still alive heading into the second half of the legislative session.

“We need this task force to go forward. We need this discussion of how much more we can do with local food in Kansas,” he said.

Sen. Tom Hawk, a Manhattan Democrat, is the chief sponsor of the task force bill. He said he introduced it after learning that only a fraction of the more than $760 million in produce purchased each year by Kansas consumers is grown by local farmers.

“We really only produce 4 or 5 percent of the fruits and vegetables that are consumed by Kansans and I thought that would be a great market for small, to medium maybe even some larger farmers in Kansas,” Hawk said.

The bill would charge the task force with developing a plan for “expanding and supporting local food systems” across the state. The plan would be submitted to the agriculture committees of the House and Senate at the start of the 2016 session.

Representatives of large “conventional agriculture” organizations have said they aren’t opposed to the task force but warned against setting it up in a way that pits the interests of small producers against those of large farmers, ranchers and meat producers.

“There are a lot of hard-working Kansas farmers and ranchers that have decided to adopt a conventional view of agriculture to not just feed their neighbors but the entire world and we shouldn’t criticize them to promote local (agriculture),” said Aaron Popelka, vice-president for legal and governmental affairs for the Kansas Livestock Association.

 

By Jake Carter, chair of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee.

Change can be tough. Especially for farmers.

I come from a long line of Georgia farmers who faced both ups and downs throughout the generations, but that’s par for the course with farming. It takes a special breed of person to farm thanks to the many challenges that Mother Nature, the markets and public opinion throw our way. It’s how we navigate those bumps in the road that shows what farmers are made of. It’s how we adapt to change.

I am the fifth generation of my family to farm our land. We started out as a dairy, which lasted for four generations. But, right around the time that I returned home from college to take over the family farm, urban sprawl began taking over our neck of the woods. Our farm, which had been in our family since 1938, was on the verge of being taken for development.

I knew that one of my first decisions as entrepreneur of our farm would be my toughest. I was being forced to either hang it up or to change. But for me, not farming was never an option. Like many farmers, I grew up knowing there was no other career for me. I studied business at the University of Georgia so I could return home and be the best farmer I could be. Farming is a business and I wanted to treat it that way.

So, when it came time for me to make a tough decision about selling the farm, the businessman in me—the farmer in me—instead took it as an opportunity to go in a new direction. My wife and I turned our dairy farm into an educational opportunity for suburban and city kids to learn what farming is all about. Through school tours and agri-tourism, we are putting a face on farming. We turned the dairy from production agriculture to educational agriculture and added a u-pick fruit operation.

As the old cliché goes, we took lemons and made lemonade.

Our Southern Belle Farm, a 320-acre agri-tourism destination, offers u-pick strawberries, blueberries and blackberries, a fall corn maze and educational school tours year-round. Most importantly, it offers kids hands-on experiences with agriculture.

I wholeheartedly believe that farmers need to put a face on farming and show people what we do, how we do what we do, and also why we do certain things. I consider myself lucky that I can make that connection in person with the people who visit our farm. I also realize that in-person farm visits are not an option for most farmers and ranchers. But there are always other ways to connect with consumers, such as through social media. It doesn’t matter how we make those connections, just that we do.

Times are definitely changing, especially for agriculture. My advice to both young and older farmers is that instead of being afraid of change, we should embrace it. You never know, it can lead to wonderful things. In my case, it definitely led to lemonade.

Georgia farmer Jake Carter is chair of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee.

 

–

Stewart Truelsen is a regular contributor to the Focus on Agriculture series and is the author of a book marking the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 90th anniversary, Forward Farm Bureau.

 

By Todd Hays, Missouri Farm Bureau

San Antonio recently hosted some 7,000 Farm Bureau farmers and ranchers for the organization’s 95th annual meeting. More than 350 voting delegates, representing all 50 states, discussed and debated policies ranging from animal care to farm programs. In a process mirrored in every state, delegates crafted a comprehensive roadmap for the coming year.

Regulation continues to be at the forefront of farmers’ minds. The Secretary of the Interior’s recent announcement the National Blueways System is being dissolved was welcome news. Aside from poor policy, the proposal could have been featured in a reality series called “What Not to Do.” The Department of Interior advanced a proposal to expand the system but failed to seek input from landowners who would be affected. The breakdown in communication made Obamacare look like a model program, and the lack of information sealed the proposal’s fate.

The National Park Service is proposing management changes in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways system. Unlike their bureaucratic cousins, National Park Service employees have put the management options out for public review and comment. Public meetings have been held and written comments can be filed at www.nps.gov/ozar/parkmgmt/publicinvolvement.htm. It’s too soon to say what the outcome will be, and many people have been vocal in their opposition to additional restrictions, but the discussion is taking place in public and, presumably, the final rule will take into account comments made by those locally who are most directly affected.

By contrast, in his State of the Union address, President Obama signaled his intent to bypass both Congress and the regulatory process by using something called Executive Orders. This isn’t a new tactic, but it is still unnerving given the President appears poised to simply use a pen to implement his agenda.

Farmers and ranchers are reluctant participants in the regulatory arena but have learned that sitting on the sideline isn’t an option. Whether we are dealing with issues such as water quality, farm labor, private property rights, endangered species or renewable fuels it is important to have a well-defined process that includes public input.