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Maine’s farms shape the state’s landscape and constitute a critical part of the economy. Crates of apples from orchards, potatoes and blueberries from fields, and bottles of fresh milk from dairies fill farmers markets in Maine and supermarkets across New England. Rep. Tom Allen believes federal agricultural policy should support a robust, competitive, and diverse farm economy like Maine’s.
Legislation
The 2008 Farm Bill
The bill authorizes an unprecedented $10.4 billion for nutrition programs to help 38 million American families afford healthy food. The measure also takes the first step toward much needed reform of agricultural subsidies. Although the Farm Bill reduces wasteful subsidies that were in the previous law, Rep. Allen is disappointed that the bill does not eliminate or cut the subsidy cap for adjusted farm and non-farm income even more drastically. Commodity subsidies make up less than 13 percent of the Farm Bill’s total budget. On balance this Farm Bill is a big win for Maine.
The nutrition title in the bill substantially increases funding for food stamps and other nutrition programs. The Farm Bill includes $466 million in mandatory funding for the specialty crop block grant program to help states support projects in research, marketing, education, pest and disease management, production, and food safety. The Farm Bill increases the minimum benefit for food stamp recipients, which is especially crucial for senior citizens. It authorizes $32 million for the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program and $22 million to assist farmers with organic certification. After many years of opposition from President Bush and his allies in Congress, the bill makes Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for all fresh meats, produce, and seafood mandatory so that consumers will know where their food comes from.
Small and medium-sized dairy farms are extremely valuable and important to the Maine farming community. The Farm Bill extends the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program until 2012. MILC helps small and medium-sized milk producers (farms with no more than 100-200 cows) stay in business.
The Farm Bill contains an historic $7.7 billion dollars for conservation programs. It strengthens and increases funding by $3.3 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). EQIP offers financial and technical help to assist farmers and ranchers install and implement conservation practices to protect water, air and soil quality as well as wildlife habitat. The bill allocates $50 million for an Open Fields Program to provide incentives to state governments and Indian tribes to provide public access to private land for hunting and fishing. It doubles the funding to $773 million for the Farm Production Program which reduces development on farmland.
The Farm Bill also has several critical energy-related components. First, it contains legislation to “Close the Enron Loophole” and crack down on energy speculators who are artificially inflating the price of oil. These shady traders, many of whom are employed by the oil companies themselves, are able to manipulate the market for oil without any oversight by the government. The Farm Bill changes this by giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the power to oversee oil speculators. Once fully implemented, this regulatory system could drop the price of a barrel of oil by $20 to $30.
The Farm Bill also contains historic levels of funding, more than $1 billion, for research into biofuels and cellulosic ethanol. Specifically, the bill provides grants and loan guarantees for construction and retrofitting of biorefineries to produce cellulosic ethanol. It provides more than $188 million to encourage the production of feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol and $60 million to create a program to address the specific issues facing the use of wood biomass for bioenergy production. This is particularly helpful to Maine, as the University of Maine has been collaborating for several years with the forest products industry to develop technologies to derive energy from woody biomass.
Rep. Allen voted for the 2008 Farm Bill and it was enacted into law over the President’s veto. The bill contains funding increases and reforms that will provide economic assistance to farmers and reward them for environmental stewardship, promote healthy forestlands, and improve health and nutrition for all Maine’s citizens.
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Sign up to receive email updates on Agriculture
Maine’s farms shape the state’s landscape and constitute a critical part of the economy. Crates of apples from orchards, potatoes and blueberries from fields, and bottles of fresh milk from dairies fill farmers markets in Maine and supermarkets across New England. Rep. Tom Allen believes federal agricultural policy should support a robust, competitive, and diverse farm economy like Maine’s.
Legislation
The 2008 Farm Bill
The 2008 Farm Bill reauthorization process created a rare opportunity to enact reforms that will reward more farmers and ranchers when they take steps to give consumers healthier food choices, meet environmental challenges, promote more energy development on farms, ranches and forest lands, and sustain small-scale independent farmers and organic production. Rep. Allen worked throughout the year with the House Committee on Agriculture and with other colleagues in Congress to incorporate Maine’s priorities into the bill.
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| Rep. Allen discusses orchard management with Peter Lambert of the U.S. Forest Service at the SWOAM Forestry Fair. |
The nutrition title in the bill substantially increases funding for food stamps and other nutrition programs. The Farm Bill includes $466 million in mandatory funding for the specialty crop block grant program to help states support projects in research, marketing, education, pest and disease management, production, and food safety. The Farm Bill increases the minimum benefit for food stamp recipients, which is especially crucial for senior citizens. It authorizes $32 million for the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program and $22 million to assist farmers with organic certification. After many years of opposition from President Bush and his allies in Congress, the bill makes Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for all fresh meats, produce, and seafood mandatory so that consumers will know where their food comes from.
Small and medium-sized dairy farms are extremely valuable and important to the Maine farming community. The Farm Bill extends the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program until 2012. MILC helps small and medium-sized milk producers (farms with no more than 100-200 cows) stay in business.
The Farm Bill contains an historic $7.7 billion dollars for conservation programs. It strengthens and increases funding by $3.3 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). EQIP offers financial and technical help to assist farmers and ranchers install and implement conservation practices to protect water, air and soil quality as well as wildlife habitat. The bill allocates $50 million for an Open Fields Program to provide incentives to state governments and Indian tribes to provide public access to private land for hunting and fishing. It doubles the funding to $773 million for the Farm Production Program which reduces development on farmland.
The Farm Bill also has several critical energy-related components. First, it contains legislation to “Close the Enron Loophole” and crack down on energy speculators who are artificially inflating the price of oil. These shady traders, many of whom are employed by the oil companies themselves, are able to manipulate the market for oil without any oversight by the government. The Farm Bill changes this by giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the power to oversee oil speculators. Once fully implemented, this regulatory system could drop the price of a barrel of oil by $20 to $30.
The Farm Bill also contains historic levels of funding, more than $1 billion, for research into biofuels and cellulosic ethanol. Specifically, the bill provides grants and loan guarantees for construction and retrofitting of biorefineries to produce cellulosic ethanol. It provides more than $188 million to encourage the production of feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol and $60 million to create a program to address the specific issues facing the use of wood biomass for bioenergy production. This is particularly helpful to Maine, as the University of Maine has been collaborating for several years with the forest products industry to develop technologies to derive energy from woody biomass.
Rep. Allen voted for the 2008 Farm Bill and it was enacted into law over the President’s veto. The bill contains funding increases and reforms that will provide economic assistance to farmers and reward them for environmental stewardship, promote healthy forestlands, and improve health and nutrition for all Maine’s citizens.
Press Releases
Articles
Documents and Links
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