Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act introduced Today

Lyons, NE - Lyons, NE - The Center for Rural Affairs praised the Senate introduction today of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2011, a cross-cutting initiative aimed at helping the next generation of farmers and ranchers enter into agriculture and take advantage of emerging markets. The bill is sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and nine other Senators. A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Representative Tim Walz (D-MN) several weeks ago.

"I am proud of the initiatives we have previously enacted to help beginning farmers and ranchers create and pursue opportunities and realize their goals and dreams," said Senator Harkin as he concluded his floor speech introducing the bill. "By building on the success of the existing programs, this legislation will lend more help to beginning farmers and ranchers and in doing so strengthen American agriculture, our rural communities, and our nation as a whole.  I am grateful to the cosponsors of this bill and urge all of my colleagues to support it." 

"We commend Senator Harkin and the other sponsors for introducing this bill. Their legislation is smart, cost-effective public policy that will create jobs and invest in the future of rural America," said Traci Bruckner, Assistant Director for Rural Policy of the Center for Rural Affairs. "It addresses obstacles that often prevent beginning farmers and ranchers from getting their operation started."

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act contains several key elements, including:

• Reauthorizing the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, a beginning farmer and rancher training and support initiative. It would increase mandatory funding from $75 million to $125 million over the next 5 years to help meet growing demand for the program, and include a new priority on agricultural rehabilitation and vocational training programs for military veterans.

• $30 million in annual funding for the Value Added Producer Grants Program and will retain the priority for projects benefiting beginning farmers and ranchers as well as a set-aside of program funding for these projects.

• Creating savings and enhancing lending provisions that help beginning farmers and ranchers access credit and establish a pattern of savings.

• Providing conservation incentives to assist beginning farmers and ranchers and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers to establish conservation practices and sustainable systems on their farms and ranches.

Senator Harkin is joined by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), Senator Robert Casey (D-PA), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) as original co-sponsors of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2011.

"When you compare the numbers from the 2007 and 2002 Census of Agriculture, you see a big drop in the number of younger farmers in agriculture as their primary occupation. The revitalization of rural America depends, in large part, on reversing that trend," explained Bruckner.

"It can be difficult to get started in the world of agriculture," said Garrett Dwyer, a beginning rancher and former Marine infantryman from Bartlett, NE. "Skyrocketing costs of buying or renting land make entry into farming and ranching a daunting task." Dwyer traveled to D.C. in June to participate in a nationwide fly-in called, "Sound Investments to ensure the Next Generation of Beginning Farmers and Ranchers."

According to Dwyer, more beginning farmers and ranchers are needed because without a new generation of beginners, the land will concentrate in large farms. "And that will cause the permanent loss of opportunity for family farms, ranches, and rural communities and squander the chance to shift to a more sustainable system of agriculture," explained Dwyer.

Bruckner explained that the introduction of these bills in both the House and the Senate is a crucial step in focusing more of the public investment in the 2012 farm bill on the next generation of farmers and ranchers. Congressional investment in beginning farmers and ranchers is an investment, by all Americans, in the future of rural America.  

"And it is money well spent," continued Bruckner.

ST. LOUIS (November 7, 2011) - U.S. soybean farmers will receive a helping hand to spread the word about the positive benefits of soy biodiesel and Bioheat®. For the fourth year, the United Soybean Board (USB) and the soybean checkoff will partner with U.S. Department of Energy-affiliated (DOE) Clean Cities to build demand for soy biodiesel and Bioheat in major urban areas.

The checkoff continues to promote theses homegrown, green sources of energy by working with municipalities that participate in the DOE Clean Cities chapters to increase the availability and use of soy biodiesel and the heating oil alternative known as Bioheat.

"USB's Clean Cities program multiplies our opportunity for outreach," says Mike Beard, USB director and soybean farmer from Frankfort, Ind. "These Clean Cities chapters do a tremendous job of communicating the benefits of soy biodiesel and Bioheat to the public."

The Clean Cities program serves as a government-industry partnership sponsored by DOE and has more than 90 local chapters across the United States. These chapters work in their local areas to reduce petroleum consumption. USB asks that Clean Cities applicants develop programs that communicate the benefits of soy biodiesel through education, demonstrations and promotional activities in suburban and urban areas to help improve availability and use of soy biodiesel.

"Hopefully we'll see more applications for programs that reach out to potential biofuel users in the commercial area, such as heavy trucks and contractor fleets," adds Beard. "We also want to continue to reach those who make decisions in municipal governments."

The checkoff has opened the biodiesel reimbursement application process and encourages Clean Cities chapters to partner with Qualified State Soybean Boards for this project. The application period will close November 14. Participating chapters will be selected by USB farmer-leaders. USB has provided up to $150,000 to use toward the funding of these soy biodiesel and Bioheat® communications programs. Selected participants in this reimbursement program will be announced in mid-December.

In addition, USB has a second reimbursement program opened for Clean Cities. This will focus on creating demand for soy-based products, many developed with the help of the soybean checkoff. This program will award three reimbursements for up to $10,000 and four reimbursements for up to $5,000. Find more information about both programs by clicking here.


USB is made up of 69 farmer-directors who oversee the investments of the soybean checkoff on behalf of all U.S. soybean farmers. Checkoff funds are invested in the areas of animal utilization, human utilization, industrial utilization, industry relations, market access and supply. As stipulated in the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service has oversight responsibilities for USB and the soybean checkoff.

For more information on the United Soybean Board, visit www.unitedsoybean.org
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Rural development program has great potential for rural job creation nationally

Lyons, Nebraska -  A Center for Rural Affairs report released today examines USDA's Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP), which was the only new rural development initiative to receive mandatory funding in the 2008 Farm Bill, and the extent to which grant recipient organizations provide microenterprise development services on a national scale.

"Congress should reauthorize RMAP and continue mandatory funding," said Jon Bailey, Center for Rural Affairs Director of Rural Research and Analysis and author of the report. "RMAP has had barely a year to demonstrate its merit. Excluding it from the next Farm Bill would destroy a promising and needed strategy in its infancy."

According to Bailey, RMAP is designed to provide funding to development organizations in the form of loans to relend to rural small businesses and grants to provide training and technical assistance to those small business borrowers or potential borrowers, with the goals to create jobs in and strengthen America's rural communities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency overseeing RMAP, has announced three rounds of RMAP grant awards (October 28, 2010, March 9, 2011, and June 30, 2011, and a total of 89 awards were made to the same number of entities representing all or parts of 39 states.

The Center for Rural Affairs report, which can be viewed in full or downloaded here -- http://files.cfra.org/pdf/rmap-2011.pdf -- also maps the location of all RMAP awardees and their service areas.

"The economic future of rural places will be done a disservice by the next Farm Bill if initiatives such as RMAP that create rural jobs and opportunities for economic growth are not afforded time to prove their long-term worth," Bailey explained. "In the current budgetary climate, we know that Farm Bill funding faces serious cuts. But we have maintained for years that real reform of farm programs and crop insurance, with effective subsidy limits and closure of payment limit loopholes, can save money to be reinvested in initiatives like RMAP as well as deficit reduction."

According to Bailey's report, self-employment and small business is the core of the rural economy, and the real job creators in rural areas. For example, since 1969, the number of self-employed workers in rural areas has grown by over 240 percent (by comparison, rural wage and salary workers witnessed only a 61 percent growth over the same period). RMAP represents the largest ever expansion of rural microenterprise business development resources, an investment intended to tap into the obvious potential of rural entrepreneurial development.

Other key findings in Bailey's report include :

• the total service area population of the RMAP awardees is 115.1 million people, about 37 percent of the total population of the United States (based on the 2010 Census);
• a total of 32.7 million rural residents in RMAP awardee service areas, about two-thirds of the total U.S. rural population;
• 324 counties in RMAP service areas are also counties that have suffered high levels of outmigration and declining population.

"This is a rural development program that has demonstrated real potential for creating jobs and economic opportunities in rural communities across the country, and even in the current budgetary climate, is a worthy investment in America's future," concluded Bailey.