Kansas Rural Center

Kansas Rural Center Action Alerts

Beginning in the 2011 state legislative session, the Kansas Rural Center offered Weekly E-Reports, with updates and alerts on the development of the 2012 federal farm bill throughout the year.
That service continues in 2012. Paul Johnson, Perry, Ks., farmer and former lobbyist for a consortium of church groups, is staffing this effort, which will monitor the state legislature for decisions affecting food and farming, marketing and food safety, natural resources, and economic issues such as the overall budget process, school finance, and other emerging issues of interest to rural Kansans and anyone interested in a sustainable future for Kansas.

These important updates may be sent by email to those that have specifically opted in to received them.

Services include:

Weekly E-Reports, January-May 2012. Registered as a lobbyist for KRC, Johnson will produce weekly E-Reports, and track and testify on bills and issues related to farm and food policy. He will also be monitoring state budget issues, including Kansas State University programs, Kansas Department of Agriculture activities, and programs impacting water conservation and quality, small meat processors promotion and regulation, farmers markets promotions, and state food policy goals. Other issues may include rBGH milk labeling, defining sustainable agriculture in law, and existing property tax exemptions for commercial wind and 'tar sands' pipelines.
Teleconference Call Updates. In addition to the weekly E-Reports during the session, Paul and KRC staff will host teleconference calls to keep you abreast of legislative happenings. These will offer a short report on status of issues, and a question and answer opportunity for participants. These calls may include updates on federal farm program budgets and program changes as that debate gets underway in Washington, D.C . Call-in information is below.
Updates on Federal Farm Programs and the 2012 Farm Bill (Jan.-Dec.) The Weekly E-Reports also include updates or notices on developments in the next federal farm bill during the session, and special alerts the rest of the year as needed.

You may register to receive the weekly E-Reports on this web page.

For further information, contact:
Mary Fund
Kansas Rural Center
Box 133
Whiting, Ks. 66552
785-873-3431
ksrc@rainbowtel.net

You may contact Paul Johnson at: pdjohnson@centurylink.net

Schedule for KRC's Legislative and Policy Watch Teleconference Calls

As part of the Legislative and Policy Watch Program, KRC will host teleconference calls on legislative issues. Led by Paul Johnson, these calls will give participants an opportunity to get up to date information and analysis of key agriculture, food related and conservation issues .

Much like KRC's monthly Grazing Teleconference Calls which link up farmers and ranchers to hear from experts on forages, grazing and livestock management issues, these calls will provide timely information on happenings in the Statehouse.

The calls are free. Simply follow the call-in information below. The calls are scheduled on an as-needed basis. The Weekly Update will provide information. To receive the Update, contact Mary Fund at ksrc@rainbowtel.net

CALL-IN INFORMATION:
DIAL 1-888-387-8686 at the time scheduled for the call
ENTER ROOM NUMBER 588 898 2# (be sure to include the # symbol at the end)
and wait for moderator.

For more information, contact:
Mary Fund at 785-873-3431 or ksrc@rainbowtel.net
or Paul Johnson at 785-597-5858, or pdjohnson@centurylink.net

Greetings!

Below is the fourth installment of KRC's Weekly 2012 E-Report on the Kansas State Legislature by Paul Johnson. If you have not signed up to receive these by email, please consider doing so.
If you have already signed up - thank you!

These reports and regular teleconference calls (see above) are available to all interested persons at no cost, but a contribution is appreciated.

You may register to receive the weekly E-Reports on this web page.

For more information, contact Mary Fund at 785-873-3431 or ksrc@rainbowtel.net

To see previous E-Reports, click here.

KANSAS RURAL CENTER
WEEKLY E-REPORT #4

JANUARY 27, 2012

by Paul Johnson

In This Issue:
More CAFOs For Western Kansas?
Wind Energy Update
Water Legislation
Fracking Update
2012 Farm Bill: Beginning Farmers and Local Food a Focus in New Bill

WELCOME to KRC's Weekly E-Report on agriculture, local foods
and related topics before the Kansas Legislature!

THE FUTURE OF KANSAS AGRICULTURE:
More Corporate Swine and Dairy

Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman is very clear. Kansas is now open for large-scale, industrial agriculture with special emphasis to recruit swine, dairy and poultry operations.

The plan is to double Kansas' agriculture over the next decade. With a world population headed for 9 billion persons by 2050 and hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians moving into the middle class, the demand for more protein can only skyrocket. While Kansas is predominantly a beef state, the size of the cattle herd is at a 70 year low so it will take several years to rebuild. In the meantime, large confined animal feeding operations (CAFO's) for swine and dairy can be constructed in the next few years. For certain Kansas lawmakers, the battle over saving the independent family farmer is lost and the corporate, vertically integrated model is inevitable.

Poultry was the first agribusiness to vertically integrate by corporations shortly after WW II. Today there are just a handful of poultry processors. The chicken farmer does not own the birds but is merely paid to raise the birds to a certain size for minimal returns at best. Today, 98+% of all hogs are either owned by the packers or contracted to particular packers. There is no independent, free market left. In 1980, Kansas had 13,500 hog farms while today Kansas has less than 1,500 hog farms with 310 of these farms accounting for 95% of all hog sales in Kansas.

Kansas had 5,600 dairies in 1980 while today Kansas has just 420 dairies with 20 of these dairies having 65% of the 120,000 dairy cows in Kansas. In the beef industry, 70% of processed cattle are either packer owned or contracted to a certain packer. Four beef packers now account for 80% of all processed cattle. While lawmakers praise the essential role of small businesses in job creation, corporate agriculture continues on concentrating and consolidating.

The corporate agriculture welcome wagon is on the move. HB 2502, introduced early this past week, will ease the process to allow corporate swine facilities. Present law mandates that a county must hold a referendum to allow corporate swine facilities within the county. This bill will force voters to circulate a petition - within 60 days - to 10% of the voters in the last general election to reverse a resolution by the County Commissioners allowing these corporate swine confined animal feeding operations (CAFO's). A county vote would than be scheduled. (Note: independent hog farmers or family farm corporations are not impacted by this restriction on corporate CAFO's.)

HB 2502 was introduced last Monday (January 23), referred to the Kansas House Agriculture & Natural Resources committee on Tuesday the 24th, the public hearing was held on Wednesday the 25th, and probably passed out of committee today - the very definition of fast tracking. If and when passed out of Committee, the bill will go the House floor and if passe, go to the Senate Agriculture Committee. According to supporters, a depopulated Western Kansas will be a perfect sacrifice zone given the wide-open space, low humidity, adequate groundwater and a docile, controllable 'guest worker' work force.

Wind Energy Update:
2012 Wind Energy Expansion in Kansas

2012 will be a stellar year for the expansion of large wind farms in Kansas, according to remarks from Kimberly Svaty, Wind Coalition, to the House Energy and Utilities Committee. Svaty provided an update on wind energy in Kansas to the committee.

Installed wind energy capacity will double this year. Presently Kansas has 10 operating wind farms representing 7% of all installed electric capacity in the state. (Note: 72% of installed capacity is coal, 14% is nuclear.) Kansas has the second best wind resource in the nation primarily due to the constant wind in western Kansas. Kansas ranked 5th in the U.S. in 2010 for percentage of electricity delivered from wind. Much credit must go to former Governor Kathleen Sebelius for developing a renewable energy standard of eventually having 15% of electric power coming from renewable sources. The first wind farm was developed in Gray County in 2001 by Florida Power & Light while the latest wind farm in 2011 was developed in Elk County.

For 2012, 7 wind farms will be developed thus doubling the output from wind. There will be $2.7 Billion in new capital investment. Kansas will be in the top 5 states of wind energy investment in 2012. The largest project called Flat Ridge 2 is in Barber, Kingman, Harper and Sumner counties and involves a $1 billion investment. About one-third of the total wind energy production is committed to out of state markets. Kansas now has 5 wind component manufacturing plants in Hutchinson, Newton, Ottawa, Wichita and Junction City. New power lines are being constructed in western Kansas and the capacity is adequate for the proposed wind farms. Further expansion of wind farms will require more lines.

There is now a federal production tax credit for each 'kilowatt/hour' (kwh) of wind electricity. This credit amounts to 2.1 cents per kwh. The actual cost per kwh of new wind electricity is 5.1 cents/kwh. This tax credit ends in 2012. Right now there are no new orders for wind turbines in 2013. The wind energy association is lobbying for a one-year full renewal of this tax credit than a three-year phase out of the credit. The cost of the credit to the United States Treasury started at $1.5 Billion and has grown to over $4 Billion. Kansas passed a law exempting these large wind farms from paying property taxes. The wind farm owners and counties with the wind farms must develop their own fee arrangement and most agreements are not public record. The annual wind farm fee to Elk County will be $1 million. Today Elk County has a budget of $2.4 million before the fee. Most of Kansas' wind farms were financed by foreign or out-of-state investors so most of the profits leave Kansas. Smaller scale 'community' wind projects that could be financed by local investors or municipalities have made little progress in Kansas although the new wind manufacturer in Newton is producing 20kW and 60kW turbines that can be used by office buildings, casino's, retailers, etc.

For more info, click on "Wind Farm Map" under Quick Links on the KCC website..

WATER ISSUES

Senate Bill 272 voluntarily allows water right holders the option to apply for a five-year flex account from the Chief Engineer at the Kansas Department of Agriculture. For a water right holder, each county has a determined amount of groundwater that can be withdrawn annually. This new flex account would determine a five year block of water for a given water right holder so this holder could regulate their water use over this five year period. 2011 was the hottest and driest year on record in southwest Kansas. 2,200 water right holders requested special drought permits to be able to use their 2012 water appropriation in 2011. SB 272 develops a multi-year plan going forward.

The Upper Arkansas River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a voluntary, incentive-based program allowing producers to enroll targeted, eligible areas for 14-15 year contracts with the United States Department of Agriculture. This program permanently retires the associated state water rights on the enrolled acres, and establishes an approved land cover (typically a native grass) on the same acreage. The producer receives an upfront incentive payment from the Kansas Department of Agriculture and an annual rental payment from USDA. While 10 southwestern Kansas counties are enrolled, the primary three participating counties are Kearny, Gray and Finney totaling 11,013 acres saving 22,245 acre-feet of annual water appropriations from 95 wells. 4,370 acres have been added after September 30, 2011 for a total of 15,535 acres enrolled. The majority of these irrigated acres are on highly erodible sand hill soils that are unsuitable for dryland farming. The goal is to sign up 28,000 acres. For 2013 there is some uncertainty if funding can be found in the Governor's budget.

Sedimentation of Reservoirs. There is real concern over the future of the John Redmond Reservoir. It is one of the shallowest reservoirs in Kansas and the sediment flow into this reservoir is severe. The Kansas Water Office owns the water rights in this reservoir. The primary water user is the Wolfcreek Nuclear power plant. Three proposals have been discussed. One is to build a new reservoir if a site and funding can be found. A second proposal is to start dredging John Redmond. To dredge the entire reservoir could cost $500 million but it might be possible for Kansas to buy one or two dredges and stabilize the sediment flow. The third and most controversial proposal is to pipe water in from the Kansas River watershed. Legislation has been introduced to develop reservoir basin districts where the water users pay fees to fund improvements and repairs to the reservoir.

FRACKING UPDATE

Legislation has been requested by the Kansas Corporation Commission and the Kansas Department of Health & Environment to allow oil and natural gas producers - who are using hydrological fracturing - the permission to dump up to 2 million gallons of sludge at the site of the well. The toxic, polluted water coming from the well would be hauled away and disposed of in deep injection wells but the toxic, radioactive mud, rock and sand could be left on site. Wonder what a severe Kansas thunderstorm could do to wash away this pollution?

2012 Federal Farm Bill Update:
Beginning Farmers and Local Food a Focus in New Bills
By Mary Fund

Now that the fall's Super Committee efforts to not only come up with a deficit reduction plan but to come up with a complete Farm Bill are more or less history, it is back to the usual format of Farm Bill development-- that is if anything in Congress these days can be characterized as business as usual., or if business as usual gets anything done.

The chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee (Sen. Stabenow, D-Michigan) claimed earlier this month that she hopes to have a farm bill ready by mid-year. This week there were rumblings of hearings on specific pieces of the bill to begin in February. Since the Farm Bill contains 15 titles on topics ranging from commodity and conservation, to nutrition to credit to livestock to research, it is a mammoth task undertaken only every four or five years.

Earlier this week, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) held its semi-annual member meeting near Reisterstown, Maryland. Every winter, NSAC members discuss, debate, and vote on the coalition's priorities for the year. This year they voted on their 2012 priority farm bill issues, which include:

* Working lands conservation and conservation partnerships;
* Local and regional food systems development;
* Support for beginning farmers:
* Sustainable agriculture research:
* and Fair and effective food safety rules.

Work on the Farm Bill never begins completely from scratch. There are of course the current and historic programs. Then there are marker bills. These contain a set of specific proposals to reform one or more Titles, and are deliberated on by the appropriations committees. They typically get introduced to Congress but are not discussed on the floor right away but their content becomes part of the larger debate during the hearings and discussions.

Two important marker bills for the 2012 farm bill were introduced last fall related to beginning farmers and local food and farms: The Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act. Well over 150 organizations and interested groups, including the Kansas Rural Center, have registered their support by signing onto letters to Congress for these two bills.

The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act, sponsored by Representative Chellie Pingree and Senator Sherrod Brown, will improve federal farm bill programs that support local and regional farm and food systems. This legislation will help farmers and ranchers engaged in local and regional agriculture by addressing production, aggregation, processing, marketing, and distribution needs and will also assist consumers by improving access to healthy food and direct and retail markets. The legislation will also provide more secure funding for critically important programs that support family farms, expand new farming opportunities, and invest in the local agriculture economy.

Local and regional agriculture is a major economic driver in the farm economy. There are now more than 7,000 farmers markets throughout the United States-a 150 percent increase since 2000, direct to consumer sales have accounted for more than $1.2 billion in annual revenues. Now, on the heels of that expansion, we are witnessing the rapid growth of local and regional food markets that have scaled up beyond direct marketing. Together these markets represent important new job growth and economic development. To learn more about the provisions in the bill, visit the NSAC bill summary page.

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2011 [H.R. 3236 / S.1850] is a comprehensive bill intended for inclusion in the 2012 Farm Bill that highlights federal programs that help support economic opportunities for young and beginning farmers and ranchers. It addresses many of the barriers that new agriculture entrepreneurs face such as limited access to land and markets, hyper land price inflation, high input costs, and a lack of sufficient support networks.

The Act is a bipartisan and bicameral bill introduced in the House by Representatives Tim Walz (D-MN-1) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE-1), and in the Senate by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), along with nine original co-sponsors. The bill is a result of strategic collaboration among many individuals and farmer advocacy organizations, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and many NSAC member groups, including Land Stewardship Project, Center for Rural Affairs, National Young Farmers' Coalition, California FarmLink, and Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance, among others.

Read more about the bill at the NSAC website.

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On behalf of the board and staff of the Kansas Rural Center, I want to thank those who have contributed to this project. We look forward to working with you in 2012 to help build a food and farming system that cares for the land and people. Your participation and your donation in support of KRC's 2012 Legislative and Policy Watch Program will make this possible.

Please join us today!

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