Policy Updates and Issue News February 2020

In keeping with Grange tradition, the National Grange Fly-In this year was to New Hampshire to experience the “First in the Nation” Presidential Primary. The excursion included thirty Grangers from eight states and the District of Columbia, who worked on the various campaigns of their choice, watched a candidates’ debate, marveled at the vastness of worldwide media coverage, learned about the early days of New Hampshire statehood, enjoyed breakfast at the New Hampshire State Grange Building compliments of president Chris Heath, and ate seafood at the local favorite. We appreciate the planning and hard work of Grange members Bob Haefner and Tara Sad and their team of New Hampshire Grangers. Bob and Tara are former long-time Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the New Hampshire House Agriculture Committee.

On the campaign trail since then, Democratic presidential candidates have touched on agriculture and rural issues occasionally. Joe Biden makes the case for rebuilding ports, locks and dams, roads, bridges and the electric grid. Amy Klobuchar wants to improve high-speed internet connectivity across rural America and proposes to target $650 billion for infrastructure projects. Pete Buttigieg wants to create a clean energy bank by partnering with farmers to capture carbon in the soil. On the Republican trail, President Trump is touting his $1 trillion “Revitalizing Rural America” infrastructure initiative for broadband and numerous other rural projects.

Changing Dairy Landscape

It’s no secret that the dairy segment has long experienced falling prices, processor consolidation, rising small farmer bankruptcies and plant-based product competition. Most recently, dairy food giant Dean Foods Company filed for bankruptcy and agreed to sell its assets to dairy cooperative Dairy Farmers of America signaling further industry consolidation. A bit of good news however is the fact that consumers are actually buying more dairy foods overall, including sizable increases in butter and cheese.

USDA: Cut Environmental Footprint in Half

USDA wants agriculture to halve its environmental footprint by 2050 with climate friendly farming. Targets include increasing productivity by 40% while reducing nutrient loss by 30%. Proven techniques to capture atmospheric carbon include good time-proven management practices that include cover crops, no-till planting and incorporating organic material back into the soil. In the meantime, production agriculture groups are initiating coalition efforts around sustainability. Producers are focusing efforts first on information-gathering and dissemination to ensure decisionmakers and the public at large are not misled by misinformation accusing agriculture of contributing more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere than the facts support.

Grange Weighs in on Gene Editing

Altering the genetic code of animals has the potential of leap-frogging several generations of natural selection to improve disease resistance, enhance animal wellbeing and increase the quantity and quality of food produced according to a statement released by National Grange president Betsy Huber. She urged FDA to move quickly to approve these techniques in food producing animals while assuring such techniques do not introduce unintended harmful consequences. In many cases, more confirming research may be necessary. To better navigate the animal biotechnology landscape, the national Grange is supportive of USDA and FDA splitting regulatory oversight of geneedited animals.

Safer Leafy Greens?

Food safety may be one force pushing the adoption of indoor farming. The potential deadly E.coli 0157:H7 has been responsible for numerous leafy green recalls in recent years. Pathogen contamination can be introduced from the soil, irrigation water, rinse water, feral animals, facility surfaces and worker hands. Hydroponically and greenhousegrown leafy greens in controlled environments are much less susceptible to pathogen contamination. These production units also have locally-grown and year-round appeal. Hemp Production is Still a Roller Coaster Several times over the past year the National Grange has advised members to be judicious when considering growing hemp. This was primarily due to the shortage of processing facilities and lack of approval from FDA for human use. As a result of these barriers, hemp product prices in nearly all categories have dropped as much as 80%.

“Sustainability” is More than a Marketing Gimmick

Farmers, ranchers, landowners and rural neighbors take pride in their long-standing reputation as America’s original conservationists and good stewards of the land, water, air, animals, natural resources and environment in which they live and work. They have been doing things right for generations just to survive. They know what sustainability really means because it wasn’t just spoken, it was practiced. It meant you put back more than you took out so you could become more sustainable with each passing year. Without this commitment by the folks down country roads, America could not have become the breadbasket to the world. The next time we see a corporation, food processor, fast food chain or politician tout their “sustainability” record , maybe we should invite them to come on over and partner with the original sustainability experts, the grassroots food producer.

Beware of Fake Drugs

The National Grange is leading a coalition of patient groups to raise awareness of the dangers of imported drugs that may be ineffective and even dangerous. Most recently, the National Grange joined the Oklahoma State Grange and sixteen patient and veterans groups on a letter to the Oklahoma Legislature which is considering a bill to allow imported prescription drugs. The letter cautioned that the assumption these medicines from Canada and certain European countries are safe is not correct. As an example, Canada allows drugs manufactured in a third country to be transshipped through Canada with absolutely no oversight as to the drug’s safety or effectiveness. A drug mixed in a third world country may be a worthless placebo, the wrong formulation, a different concentration or it may contain ingredients that are actually harmful to the patient’s health.

Better Access to Drugs

The Department of Health and Human Services is taking steps to lower prescription drug prices. Their goal is to increase competition among generic and biosimilar drugs. In addition, these drugs should become available to Medicare plans more quickly. The National Grange remains concerned that even when drug prices fall, heath insurance companies sometimes prefer the original higher priced product if they can negotiate a larger rebate payment from the manufacturer and then apply the rebate to reduce insurance premiums for all policy holders with little benefit to the prescription-holder at the pharmacy counter.

The National Grange has joined with the Reserve Officers Association of the United States to support H.R. 801, The Reserve Component Employer Incentive, Compensation and Relief Act of 2019. The bill, introduced by Representative Tim Ryan (D-13, OH), would allow employers who hire military reserve members to claim a tax credit up to $11,000 per employee.

The Digital Divide is Closing

Rural broadband deployment has been a top priority of the National Grange for over a decade. Early progress was slow, but Granger efforts are coming to fruition with a large uptick in efforts to reach families, farms, schools, businesses and more in the “last mile”. Federal Communications Commission data show great progress has been made over the past two years resulting in:

• 74% reduction in the number of Americans without access to 250/25 mbps internet service
• 30% reduction in the number of citizens without access to 25/3 mbps internet service
• 52% increase in the number of rural families with access to two or more 25/3 mbps option

TV White Space Cleared for Broadband.

The Federal Communications Commission will remove longstanding regulatory barriers and clear the way for unlicensed white space devices to deliver wireless broadband services in rural areas. The so-called TV white space devices operate in portions of the broadcast television bands and spectrum not currently being used. It appears to be wellsuited to reach the “last mile” in rural areas with low population density and challenging topographies. National Grange president Betsy Huber released a statement applauding the announcement by FCC Chairman Pai.

More Devices than Humans

The latest Cisco Annual Internet Report forecast projects that by 2023 there will be three times more networked devices on Earth than humans. About half the global connections will be machine-to-machine connections. Around 70% of the global population will have mobile-network-based connectivity by 2023. Of those, about 10% will be 5G connections.