U.S. House Ag Chair Peterson Discusses
Beginning Farmers, Livestock Competition,
Conservation & Local Food Systems with
the Land Stewardship Project

Rep. Peterson Vows to Push for Full Implementation &
Funding of 2008 Farm Bill Initiatives

CONTACT: Adam Warthesen, LSP, 612-722-6377

AUDIO FILES AVAILABLE: To download an MP3 audio file featuring Collin Peterson (31 seconds), click here.
For audio of Matthew Plaetz (19 seconds), click here.
For audio of Leon Plaetz (51 seconds) click here.

PHOTO AVAILABLE: To download a digital photo of Rep. Collin Peterson meeting with farmers at the Plaetz farm, click here.

8/21/08
WABASSO, Minn. — During a special on-farm meeting Wednesday with members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP),the Chair of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee pledged to push for full implementation and funding of 2008 Farm Bill initiatives related to beginning farmers, livestock issues, conservation and local food systems.

“You’ve got my support 100 percent,” Rep. Collin Peterson told the crowd of two-dozen farmers who gathered at the Wabasso dairy farm of Bruce and Sherry Plaetz. Peterson added that he appreciated the work groups like LSP did to help push through positive changes in the agriculture law, which was passed earlier this year. “You guys really stepped up to the plate and made a difference. You were practical in your proposals and I appreciate that. The Farm Bill’s not perfect but we made some small, positive changes and got it moved in the right direction.”

One of the practical proposals pushed by LSP that made it into the final Farm Bill was the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), an initiative aimed at supporting community-based organizations and networks that provide beginning farmer training, education, mentoring and assistance. BFRDP received $75 million in mandatory funding in the new bill and will help create community-based beginning farmer training programs across the country. 

During the meeting at the Plaetz farm, Congressman Peterson and participants heard an update on LSP’s Farm Beginnings Program, which over the past decade has trained over 350 people in Minnesota alone, 60 percent of which are actively farming, according to class data. In recent years, Farm Beginnings classes have been launched in Illinois, Nebraska and North Dakota. Beginning this fall, Farm Beginnings will be expanded to the Duluth-Superior area.

The Plaetzs’ son, Matthew, recently graduated from a Farm Beginnings course held in Marshall. While working on the family dairy farm, he is raising chickens, vegetables and plants for direct sale to consumers. He said that Farm Beginnings helped him develop a good business plan for creating a viable enterprise, and that the creation of BFRDP provides an important morale boost for young farmers like himself who feel farming can be a good way to make a living and contribute to the rural economy while producing food consumers want.

“It makes you feel good that somebody’s out there willing to help you,” said Plaetz, 21.

Peterson said BFRDP was a priority for him in the 2008 Farm Bill because of all the opportunities he sees in agriculture today in such areas as producing food for local markets.

“We have a lot of young people now that see an opportunity that maybe this will work,” said Peterson. “People feel right now that the marketplace has changed, that there’s been a paradigm change, the opportunity is going to be there for the long term…so what we were trying to do is for the ones that want to come back [to the farm] give them a tool to help them do that.”

Plaetz said he’s certainly seeing opportunities in farming these days. He can’t keep up with the consumer demand for his products and he feels positive about his future in agriculture.

“So far, so good. The chickens have been great. Next year I’ll be expanding my operation,” he said. “The business plan is going good.”

Matthew’s uncle, Leon Plaetz, who raises crops and beef cattle near Wabasso, said he appreciated the fact that Rep. Peterson and other drafters of the Farm Bill are beginning to take steps to deal with issues related to fair market access for livestock producers. LSP supports a Farm Bill initiative that directs USDA to establish criteria for an undue or unreasonable preference or advantage violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act. If implemented correctly, the provision will allow farmers to challenge instances where a large industrial livestock operation receives a different price than a family farm livestock producer who markets an equal or better product to the packer or processor.

“We live in a world where initially the packers just wanted first a truckload, then a semi-load [of livestock]. Now it’s several semi-loads, so the quantities keep getting larger and larger, so a small producer just has a very difficult time,” said Plaetz. “He can be the best producer in the world, but if you don’t have access to the market what good does it do you?”

Wabasso area crop farmer Jim Guetter told Peterson that it’s important the new Farm Bill strengthened working lands conservation programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program. Support for farmers trying to use environmentally friendly crop rotations such as alfalfa is particularly key at a time when corn and soybean prices are at record levels, he said.

“We’re so tempted to tear out the alfalfa and the trees and plant fencerow to fencerow,” Guetter said. “But I hate to do that because I see the difference good rotations make in reducing erosion and improving soil quality. Our farm programs have to look at farming as a system for raising food so the next generation can raise food, and not just a commodity system that’s moving us toward a monoculture.”

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