Meet the New [USDA] BossLast Friday's American Progress Report gives us a summary of some of the policies pursued by Mike Johanns,an Iowa
native and current Nebraska governor who was nominated as the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, replacing outgoing Ann Veneman.
In
a victory for corporate agribusiness and a defeat for family farmers,
Bush nominated Nebraska Gov Mike Johanns to become the next
Secretary of Agriculture. Announcing Johanns's nomination
yesterday, Bush
called the governor “a faithful
friend of America's farmers and ranchers”. But as governor,
Johanns worked persistently to undermine a law passed by a citizen
initiative in 1982 that protects family farmers in Nebraska by banning
most corporate agriculture. Johanns used $300,000 from the Bush administration to fund a biased study of
the law – called I-300 – produced by a Texas consulting
firm. Predictably, the study recommended making it “easier for
agribusiness to gobble up traditional family farm agriculture” in
Nebraska. Johanns's study also suggested “more taxpayer financed
corporate welfare by 'incenting' the outside corporations that would be
gobbling up individual owned farm and rural businesses”. As his
next step in
undermining the law, Johanns pushed a bill in the Nebraska legislature
which would “establish a 20-member task force to lookat the pros and
cons of I-300” (Johanns was to appoint 18 of the 20 members). The
legislature understood the purpose of the task force was “to weaken the state's anti-corporate farm law” and, thankfully, it was defeated.
But if Johanns is put in control of federal agriculture policy, his
corporate agenda will be much more difficult for the nation's small
farmers to overcome.
JOHANNS PROPOSES SCHOOL FUNDING CUTS TO PRESERVE CORPORATE WELFARE:
In the face of a multi-million dollar budget shortfall, Johanns
adamantly defended Nebraska's massive corporate welfare program The
state has given away $13 billion on the program since 1988 for giant
corporations like IBP, ConAgra and Union Pacific Corporations profited
to the tune of $148 million in 2001 alone. Each year, Nebraska spends three times as much on corporate welfare as on the entire University of Nebraska school system. Instead of trimming back corporate giveaways, Johanns “called for 10 percent cuts to higher education and K-12 school aid”
JOHANNS FAVORS LOWER WAGES FOR WORKERS AT SUBSIDIZED COMPANIES:
A bill was introduced in the Nebraska legislature that would require
workers at companies receiving subsidies from Nebraska to be “paid at
least $870 per hour if they have health insurance, and $957 for those
without”. Johanns supported an alternative proposal that would pay
workers at taxpayer subsidized corporations lower wages, with no increase if the company didn't provide health care.
JOHANNS FAVORS WITHHOLDING MAD COW INFORMATION FROM THE PUBLIC: With Johanns in charge,you'll likely know a lot less about the safety of the food you eat. As governor,Johanns has expressed opposition to the Department of Agriculture's policy of informing the public when the nation's beef supply may be contaminated.
Johanns asked the Department of Agriculture to reconsider their policy
of announcing when initial tests of cattle show they may be infected
with Mad Cow disease, also known as BSE. Johanns's position runs counter
to the conclusions of the USDA inspector general, which found the agency
isn't doing enough to protect the public from Mad Cow contamination.
The
American Progress Report gave us an idea of what types of experience
Mr. Johanns has in agricultural policy. Columnist Alan Guebert
gives us an idea of what issues Mr. Johanns will have to face in the
next four years:
LETTER FROM AMERICA:
NEW USDA BOSS FACES TROUBLE
WITH CONGRESS AND FARMERS
ALAN GUEBERT, AG COMM:
To hear George W. Bush tell it, Michael Johanns, Bush's
nominee to succeed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, is an
accomplished trade negotiator, ardent defender of American farmers,
ranchers and biofuels and a proven leader with “executive skill.”
Moreover,
explained Bush December 2, Johanns, governor of the nation's fourth
largest farm state, Nebraska, and now in line to lead nation's fourth
largest government agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “grew up
close to the land.”
Right,
as U.S. farmers are fond of reminding politicians who boast they grew
up on a farm, “So did every mule and hog in America.”
Truth
is, nothing in Johanns' background has prepared him for the challenges
he now faces in what he somewhat romantically calls his “dream job,”
running the $82 billion, 113,000-employee USDA.
After
a rapid and certain confirmation by the U.S. Senate in January, nothing
about leading USDA will be romantic. Johanns' will face domestic and
foreign farm fires immediately — if not sooner.
First,
America's ballooning federal debt, an all-time record $413 billion in
2004, guarantees USDA farm programs will go under the knife in Congress
in 2005. Already, rumors suggest the White House has alerted all
federal agencies to expect heavy budget cuts; maybe two to four percent
below 2004 levels.
For
USDA that means the fiscal conservatives in Congress who won sweeping
election victories in the Republican “red” heartland last month could
slice as much as $3 billion from food aid and farm support programs.
That
will be a tough diet because Congress, with Bush's blessing, already
made the easy cuts in 2003 and 2004. For example, in the last two
fiscal years Congress lopped more than $1 billion from 2002 Farm Bill
soil and water conservation programs.
As
such, any new cuts will dismantle many rural development programs,
slice deeper into conservation and begin paring farm price support
programs.
Current
ideas center on cutting annual “base” payments guaranteed grain and
cotton producers under the 2002 Farm Bill as well as lowering Farm
Bill-pegged commodity prices that deliver greater government support as
commodity prices fall.
Johanns'
job in the budget fight will be two-fold. First must position himself
and [Bush] as a defenders of farmers so rural congressman and
senators have political cover with their constituents when cuts are
made.
The
operative line Johanns must learn is “Congress wanted deeper cuts, but
[Bush] and I limited the damage.” It may pinch the truth, but,
hey, this is politics.
The
second job will be far harder — convincing farmers and ranchers that
less money for American agriculture is good for them and the country.
The
supporting line for that argument is plain: America must reform (read
that cut) most of farm price support programs to complete world trade
talks.
That
script was a better seller before November 22, the day USDA announced
that for the first time in nearly 50 years the U.S. will not run and
farm trade surplus in 2005. The news shocked American farmers who have
long warmed themselves with the thought that “America feeds the world.”
Not
anymore. According to USDA's latest estimates, U.S. farm exports in
2005 will be $56 billion, nearly $7 billion under 2004's. More
importantly, 2005 ag imports will be (in a curious coincidence) an
identical $56 billion, $9 billion more than as recently as 2003.
That
means in just four short years White House economic and trade policies
have taken the US farm trade surplus from $13.6 billion in 2001 to zero
in 2005.
Gov.
Johanns will be looked to by farmers to stop that freefall. While Bush
touts Johanns' trade experience, the governor's actual experience is
mostly as a salesman. Over the past six years he has led nearly a dozen
one-and two-day Nebraska trade junkets to the Far East and South
American.
If
that makes Johanns a trade expert, then anyone who has watched a
baseball game at New York's hallowed Yankee Stadium is Babe Ruth.
Johanns'
best links to agriculture came as a politician; he has not farmed since
childhood in Iowa. As Nebraska governor, though, he served as chairman
of the National Governor's Association Biotechnology Partnership with
American business.
Johanns'
ties to agribusiness were tested last January when he led an effort to
undermine a Nebraska law called Initiative-300, the toughest
anti-corporate farming law in America. It was a raw political move to
open the nation's biggest red meat-producing state to corporate
livestock integrator-meatpackers.
The
effort quickly backfired, however, and Johanns was soundly rebuked by
Nebraska farmers and ranchers who cherish their independence almost as
much as their cherish their guns.
It
is a lesson Johanns may endure again as he prepares to battle for Bush
farm policy initiatives–budget cuts and more free trade — in the
U.S. and abroad. Both will be met with worry and anguish on the farms
and ranches of America.
Bottom
line for Secretary-to-be Johanns? He's Ann Veneman with a firmer
handshake and a quicker smile. The problems he faces, however, are the
not only the same as Veneman's, they are bigger, too.
Mr. Guebert's column is excerpted from A.V. Kreb's Agribusiness Examiner #383.
Alan Guebert is the author of the weekly column Farm and Food File, as
well as this weekly column written for European and Asian newspapers.
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