Rural electric utilities in 18 states are going to receive loan guarantees to make improvements to electric lines, transmission facilities and to reduce peak electric loads by deploying smart grid technologies. U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says maintaining and upgrading rural electric systems improves system reliability, creates jobs and supports economic development. He says a significant portion of the funding will go to smart grid technologies – helping consumers lower their electric bills and reducing peak demand for producers.

Secretary Vilsack has a goal of funding more than 250-million dollars for smart grid technologies. Thursday’s announcement included support for nearly 29-million dollars in smart grid projects. The overall investment is more than 420-million dollars in rural electric infrastructure.

Some House Republicans defended the idea of extending the 2008 Farm Bill for a year by saying USDA would not be able to implement a new five-year farm bill before farmers make plans for the 2013 crop year and start planting. But USDA Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse says the new computer system at USDA’s Farm Service Agency will allow the department to implement the next farm bill much faster than previous bills. Speaking at the International Sweetener Symposium – Scuse called on Congress to finish a new bill before September 30th – stating that they have a responsibility to enact a farm bill in a timely fashion. Passage by the end of September – he says – will mean farmers can get drought aid quicker. Scuse says a delay could result in an erosion of the baseline that determines how much money is available for farm bill programs.

The new system is known as MIDAS – which stands for Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agriculture Systems. It will go live in January following testing in December. According to Scuse – work that previously took weeks and months can be done in a matter of days thanks to the MIDAS project. He said writing the new rules can be done in a very short period of time – with the bill implemented in a reasonable amount of time. Scuse adds that a new acreage crop reporting streamlining initiative known as ACCURACY will also improve implementation of new programs. Under ACCURACY – farmers only need to report acreage once and it will be shared with several USDA agencies.

USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon has announced strategies to further improve program integrity in USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – or SNAP. According to Concannon – USDA has a zero tolerance policy for SNAP fraud. He says the measures announced Thursday include tougher financial sanctions for the small number of retailers that defraud the program – and new requirements and tools for states to ensure benefits go solely to eligible individuals. Concannon believes these additional measures reaffirm the department’s commitment to ensuring SNAP dollars are spent as intended – helping millions of people in need get back on solid economic footing.

Proposed retailer sanctions allow USDA to permanently disqualify a retailer who traffics – and to assess a monetary penalty on top of the disqualification. USDA is not currently able to do both. To ensure the financial punishment more closely fits the crime – the financial penalties would be proportional to the amount of SNAP business the store is conducting. The new requirements for states provide an additional tool to identify cases that may require further investigation and review when an applicant or recipient is found in a Federal database. Concannon says these requirements will improve the identification of potential fraud and abuse before it occurs – and help to hold bad actors more accountable.

During the third quarter of fiscal year 2012 – USDA staff took final actions to impose sanctions – through fines or temporary disqualifications – on more than 574 stores found violating program rules. They also permanently disqualified more than one-thousand stores for trafficking SNAP benefits – for example, exchanging SNAP benefits for cash – or falsifying an application.

When it comes to the issue of gestation-sow stalls – National Pork Producers Council President R.C. Hunt says there’s no evidence that a majority of the populace actually supports their prohibition. He says groups like the Humane Society of the United States are trying to convince people that individual sow housing is inhumane and that the sows in gestation stalls suffer – when the truth is – they don’t. He notes a number of food companies have been coerced into proclaiming they want their pork suppliers to be gestation-stall free. But Hunt says the available supply of pork from housing systems other than stalls doesn’t match the company pronouncements. University of Missouri Ag Economist Ron Plain recently found that only 17.3-percent of the 5.74-million sows in the U.S. were housed in open pens. The majority of those also spent some time in a gestation stall.

Taking it further – Plain said that a segregation and verification system would be needed to track pigs from sow to packer and to track pork from packer to retailer if consumers are to be assured of the production history behind their pork purchases. Hunt wonders if consumers are willing to pay more for their pork chops and bacon so they can know the type of system the sows that birthed the pigs that made the pork were housed in. If producers are forced to convert their barns from stalls to pens – Hunt says prices would rise. The estimated cost to America’s 67-thousand pork producers for converting from stalls to pens – according to Brian Buhr at the University of Minnesota – is between 1.9-billion and 3.2-billion dollars. He adds prices would be further impacted by the loss of production. He points out the United Kingdom abandoned stalls in 1999. Since then – pork production there has dropped by 50-percent and consumers now pay 10 to 20-percent more for pork. Hunt says the price of implementing a segregation and verification system for pork products hasn’t been determined.

But Hunt argues the costs are secondary for most producers – who make the well-being of their animals their top priority. He says gestation stalls are the best housing system for providing care to pregnant sows – adding that was decided after years of working with animals, observing their behaviors and determining what worked best to provide the greatest possible care. Janeen Salak-Johnson at the University of Illinois has found that stalls work and says HSUS isn’t telling the truth about pigs in stalls. At best – she says the jury – scientifically – is still out on the optimum housing system for gestating sows. Each type of housing system has inherent advantages and disadvantages. But Hunt says it’s not the type of housing that ultimately affects animal well-being most. He says it’s the care given to each animal. He says America’s pork producers are committed to producing safe, affordable and healthful foods for consumers by using industry practices that have been designed with input from veterinarians and other animal-care experts. Hunt says providing humane and compassionate care for their pigs at every stage of life is one of the ethical principles to which U.S. hog farmers adhere.