CONTACT: Paul Sobocinski, LSP, 507-342-2323; 507-430-1509 (cell)
FARM BROADCASTERS: For an MP3 file featuring audio of
Paul Sobocinski, contact Brian DeVore at 612-729-6294
or bdevore@landstewardshipproject.org
7/21/06
MARSHALL, Minn.—The 2007 Farm Bill should emphasize a bigger and better Conservation Security Program (CSP), support beginning farmers as well as farmers growing for local communities and regional markets, and include commodity reform, according to Paul Sobocinski, a southwest Minnesota farmer and organizer for the Land Stewardship Project (LSP). Sobocinski will testify July
22 during a field hearing of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall. Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, who serves on the Agriculture Committee, is hosting the hearing.
“We need reforms now. Farmers continue to struggle, taxpayers are fed up with huge subsidies going to mega-farms and big ag corporations, and important conservation programs that are meant to protect our nation’s soil and natural resources are under-funded,” said Sobocinski, who raises crops and livestock near Wabasso.
A top priority of the 2007 Farm Bill should be to expand and adequately fund CSP, one of the most innovative conservation initiatives to ever come out of Washington, said Sobocinski. CSP, which was launched by the 2002 Farm Bill, rewards farmers for taking care of the land, and hundreds of producers in Minnesota and thousands across the country have taken advantage of it already. But the
program is woefully underfunded and needs to be strengthened to realize its full potential, said Sobocinski.
“CSP is the bridge to the nation’s taxpayers,” said Sobocinski. “Citizens support the idea of rewarding farmers for increasing their stewardship and enhancing our nation’s landscape for our children’s future.”
The general public is also looking for ways to support stewardship-minded, independent farmers with their food dollar, he said. That’s why the “New Farm Initiative” being proposed by LSP should be a key part of the 2007 Farm Bill, Sobocinski added. This initiative is a package of policies to support the increasing number of farms that grow food for local communities and
regional markets, as well as beginning farmers and ranchers getting started on the land.
LSP’s Farm Beginnings training program, which will enter its 10th year in 2007, has shown that there are many young and mid-career people out there who want to farm and are willing to learn innovative production and marketing techniques, said Sobocinski. Mandatory farm bill funding of the USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program is just one way to provide the next generation
of producers a viable foot in the door, he said.
“The face of American agriculture is changing, and its future depends on the ability of new family farmers and ranchers to enter agriculture,” said Sobocinski. “Providing such opportunities will not only benefit the farmers themselves, but rural communities, the land and every taxpaying American.”
Sobocinski said that the commodity title is “broken,” and basically benefits large agribusiness corporations at the expense of independent family farmers. He called for reform of the current commodity title so it costs less, works better for farmers and curtails provisions that in effect produce a subsidy of cheap grain for large-scale industrialized livestock operations and
multinational grain companies.
Founded in 1982, LSP is a nonprofit membership organization that is working to get more farmers on the land successfully raising crops and livestock. It has offices in the Minnesota communities of Montevideo and Lewiston, as well as the Twin Cities.
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NOTE: A full text of Paul Sobocinski’s testimony before the U.S. House Agriculture Committee is available at http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/pr/06/newsr_060722.htm.
