Down on the farm: ag policy and Obama stimulus measures

The Barn, an ag radio program syndicated  the NAFB, interviewed Congressman Walz in Representative Tim Walz Happy to be Returned to the Ag Committee. The audio clip by reporter Brian Allmer, is available at the link. They discuss implementing the Farm Bill and the common purpose legislators from both sides of the aisle share in making sure that rural America gets a share of the stimulus dollar.

In Where will ag spend Obama billions?, ag columnist Alan Guebert looks at House Ag Chair Collin Peterson's wish list:

House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson pieced together his modest, $2.2 billion wish list for House appropriators a week before Inauguration Day. It included $1 billion in rural development money for “rural water and waste water treatment systems,” Peterson noted in a telephone interview.

Peterson also asked for $1 billion in loan guarantees “for community banks and Farm Credit members to make sure farmers get operating loans” this spring.

Tom Buis, president of National Farmers Union, pushed the latter idea when ag bankers, themselves getting squeezed, began squeezing producers whose lines of operating credit were established before the meltdown last year.

“Everybody is nervous,” explains Buis, “so using some of the stimulus money to reassure lenders is wise.”

Peterson also asked for a $200 million loan to CoBank, the old Bank for Cooperatives, to help fund a dairy program already in place (called Cooperatives Working Together) to stem burgeoning losses to dairy farmers.

Guebert himself makes another idea, for a project that's under the authority of a different committee. We think it's a great suggestion for a project that would create jobs while providing long-term infrastructure and environmental rewards:

How about the lock and dam upgrades on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers?

The long-planned project--talk of it began in 1972--should be a slam dunk under the Obama stimulus package. Congress authorized the work in late 2007 but never provided the $1.9 billion for the locks and dams (five on the Mississippi, two on the Illinois) and $1.7 billion for ecosystem preservation.

The columnist also discusses spending up to $1 million to develop a strategic plan for 21st American agriculture. He writes:

One of the wisest uses of the stimulus money would be to study, then chart, our food and fiber future. In fact, it might be one of the few good things we still can leave our grandchildren.

Having attended sevel of Congressman Walz's economic summits in the first, we think this is a pretty good idea. The range of expertise just within one intensely agricultural district is impressive; a national discussion by rural Americans would likely present some great ideas.

Image: "Ploughed Fields" by New Ulm native Wanda Gag.

Disclosure: In our non-bovine blogging, real world life, we'e an active member of the Minnesota Farmers Union.