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"Scialabba, Nadia (NRC)" <[log in to unmask]>
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Scialabba, Nadia (NRC)
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The Hagstrom Report<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-7fe0c3e4ae161bb41b75d85cce749c6a-7960f47?pa=25691886524>

Thursday, October 16, 2014 | Volume 4, Number 196

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▪ Merrigan in Rome endorses local, organic, GMO production
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▪ Food Policy Action scores Congress on food and ag


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Former Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan delivers the annual McGovern lecture in Rome on Wednesday, which was World Food Day. At left is David Lane, ambassador to the United Nations food agencies in Rome. (UN Food and Agriculture Organization)



Merrigan in Rome endorses
local, organic, GMO production

Delivering the annual George McGovern Lecture in Rome on World Food Day on Wednesday, former Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan told an audience of ambassadors, policymakers and students that U.S. agriculture includes small, organic farms but that her definition of diversity in agriculture also includes genetic modification.

Merrigan delivered the lecture at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization at the invitation of David Lane, the Obama administration’s ambassador to the U.N. food agencies in Rome. The McCovern lecture is named for the late South Dakota Democratic senator, 1972 presidential candidate and ambassador to the U.N. food agencies during the Clinton administration.

According to a tape of the lecture provided to The Hagstrom Report, Merrigan told an audience of about 160 people including ambassadors, U.N. agency staff and international university students that, while the title of her lecture was “Local, Produce, Local Markets: Fostering Regional Agricultural Systems,” her most important value is “diversity.”

Noting that the latest Census of Agriculture shows more female, Latino and young farmers as well as more organic farmers, Merrigan said, “The United States has not done a good job of showcasing diversity.”

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Kathleen Merrigan


Merrigan, now executive director of sustainability at George Washington University, helped write the Organic Standards Act when she was a Senate aide, She said U.S. agriculture is much more diverse than the world’s image of it as large scale, commodity production.

When she took the job as deputy secretary, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack gave her a “challenge” to make local agriculture a “pillar” of the department’s activities, Merrigan said.

She noted that she had developed the “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” campaign and that USDA has spent millions of dollars to help smaller producers through value-added grants, farmers markets, food hubs, distribution nodes, hoop houses, local production facilities and programs to help schools buy food from local farmers.

Merrigan also noted that her commitments to diversification have included improving the position of women and minorities in agriculture and maintaining the diversity of the world’s seed supply.

She did not bring up the issue of genetic modification of seeds, but when a member of the audience asked whether her definition of diversity including genetic modification, she said, “It does,” because “I don’t want any of our young people to be anti-technology or anti-science.”

But Merrigan also said she regrets the debate has become “so combative” rather than the exchanges that McGovern and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., used to have when they were developing U.S. domestic and international food aid programs.

During the lecture, Merrigan also said:
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▪ “I conflate organic and local because there is a huge overlap” even though “not all organic is local and not all local is organic.”
▪

▪ Greater public interest in food means “people who worked in isolation are coming together.” A plant breeder, she noted, said he had never been asked to achieve any goals but resistance to disease and increase in yields but now is working with chefs who want him to improve taste.
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▪ The United States does not define “local” agriculture in law because the regional views vary so much, from New England where the definition can cross state lines to Texas where it might be unique within the state.
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▪ Determining whether organic farming is as productive as conventional farming is still difficult because “we don’t have all the data I would like to have.” U.S. government data on organic farming goes back only to 2002, but the Rodale Institute has longer term data, she said.
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▪ Organic farmers are resisting certification because the process is too bureaucratic. The issue is more about bureaucracy than money, Merrigan said, because USDA offers cost-share grants to help with the process but the farmers don’t want to do the paper work. “Many have an institutional avoidance of bureaucracy,” she said. “You can’t blame them for that, can you?” She said USDA is trying to simplify the process.
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▪ There can be different roles for government for different sizes of farms, except when it comes to food safety.
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▪ “We have to deal with women and girls if we are going to feed the hungry,” she said, referring to the issue of feeding 9 billion people around the globe by 2050.
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▪ Roof-top gardens and solar panels appear to be in competition with each other.
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▪ Traditional farm subsidies in the United States are “decreasing in importance” as lawmakers address new demands and problems.

Merrigan ended her speech by calling on those in the audience over 35 to become mentors to three people under 35 because they will bring up problems “that we have not thought about.”
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▪ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-a2b6bbd7dfaf32bf211e14e3a16f2378-7960f47?pa=25691886524>
▪

▪ Annual McGovern Lecture — Kathleen Merrigan (Video)<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-e08170502a7f1762c3e4233a95ccb6f0-7960f47?pa=25691886524>


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Food Policy Action scores Congress on food and ag

Food Policy Action, a national nonprofit organization started by Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook, today release its annual scorecard on how members of Congress voted on food and agriculture policy.

The group announced that 71 members of Congress – 54 in the House of Representatives, 17 in the Senate — have received perfect scores on the National Food Policy Scorecard and 35 members who received a score of zero. (See link for details.)

“This scorecard is food policy to go,” Cook said in a news release. “Use it to find out which elected officials have catered to the food lobby, and which ones have served you, your family and your neighborhood well.”

Food Policy Action has made Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., its No. 1 candidate for defeat, and Tom Colicchio, a chef who is a key member of the organization, has been campaigning against the election of Rep. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to the Senate.

Food Policy Action bases its scores on a wide variety of food and agriculture issues.

Senators were graded on a combination of six votes and support of eight bills and House members on 18 votes and support of 12 bills related to hunger, food aid, labeling, farm subsidies and sustainable farming. Although 136 members’ scores have improved, another 275 members received lower scores than in 2012, including 82 Democrats, and 193 Republicans, the group said.
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▪ Food Policy Action — National Food Policy Scorecard (PDF)<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-f31346595339a19aa5a7c677b1e9d6d0-7960f47?pa=25691886524>
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▪ — Senate scorecard — Perfect scores at top<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-5c8c3b9332aa5862af537c8c53812546-7960f47?pa=25691886524>
▪

▪ — House scorecard — Perfect scores at top<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-d7719d684cea80e44dd9eab71d442671-7960f47?pa=25691886524>
▪

▪ — House Votes 113th Congress<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-d0ea450f9ab33465aa44040d726a3520-7960f47?pa=25691886524>
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▪ — Senate Votes 113th Congress<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1413483500-386572b33381019f091a0e4b5c8d5532-7960f47?pa=25691886524>







© 2011 - 2014 The Hagstrom Report, LLC | PO Box 58183 | Washington, DC 20037-9997




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