Policy Updates and Issue News September 2022

Farmland Purchase Reporting by Foreign Entities Lags

USDA tracking of foreign land ownership relies on investors to report acquisitions.  When this does not occur, UDSA is supposed to take enforcement action according to the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978. The law requires foreign investors to file the buyer’s country of origin, number of acres acquired, county where purchased, and intended use of the land.  However, the number of investors fined for nonreporting has fallen dramatically since 2010.  Is this because of increased compliance or a shift in Farm Service Agency priorities?  Since the number of parcels acquired by foreign investors has skyrocketed since 2016, Congress may seek some answers as it writes a new farm bill next year.  An existing body, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), is tasked with screening foreign investments in U.S. companies or property for threats to national security but agriculture has not been included in the definition of “critical infrastructure”.  A group of bipartisan lawmakers have introduced bills to add the Secretary of Agriculture as a permanent member of CFIUS and to include agriculture in the committee’s definition of critical infrastructure.

USDA Equity Panel Seeks Changes in County Committee Structure

The commission appointed to study discrimination at USDA has recommended that Secretary Vilsack conduct an analysis aimed at eliminating the county committee system and designing a more equitable alternative for all farmers.  The commission also recommends USDA appoint a voting member to the county committee in areas of high proportion of minority farmers without representation.

Food Banks and School Meals Get Boost

USDA has announced it will target nearly $2 billion in additional funding to food banks and school meal programs.  Nearly $500 million will go to expand cooperative agreements through which states, tribes and territories purchase local foods.

White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health

In late September the White House hosted a conference on hunger, nutrition, and health, the first such conference since one held in 1969 by the Nixon administration. The conference solicited feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders throughout the food supply chain, including agriculture and rural groups like the National Grange, before releasing a national strategy and policy platform at the conference in September.

The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health consisted of the following five pillars: improving food access and affordability, integrating nutrition and health, empowering all consumers to make and have access to healthy choices, supporting physical activity for all, and enhancing nutrition and food security research. Each pillar included a variety of immediate and long term regulatory and legislative goals, ranging from adjustments to FDA food labeling requirements to expansions of the free school lunch program, supplemental nutrition assistance, and other food-focused welfare programs. While agriculture was not a major focus of the strategy, important agriculture related components included investing more into local and regional food systems, funding for research into healthier food options, and expansion of US Department of Agriculture capacity for administering nutrition programs.

Beyond government actions, the strategy also called for serious private sector commitments and was accompanied by the announcement of $8 billion in private commitments to address hunger and nutrition challenges. The immediate impact of the conference will likely be focused in relatively minor regulatory changes, but in the long-term Democrats will likely seek to prioritize many components of the final strategy in future legislative agendas.

Broadband Mapping Data Available Soon

The Federal Communications Commission says the first draft of its new broadband mapping data will be available as early as November.  Why is this important?  The FCC has collected extensive location-by-location data on precisely where broadband is available.  This data will be used to develop new broadband maps showing where broadband service is and is not available and determine where new broadband deployment funds will be distributed.  State, local and tribal governments, broadband providers, and other interested parties are encouraged to submit challenges and corrections to the location data.  A second draft of the map is expected in December.  Accurate broadband mapping of rural areas has been a priority for the National Grange.

Rail Strike Avoided

A crippling nationwide supply chain rail strike was averted in mid-September when a tentative agreement was reached between government officials, rail companies and rail unions.  The National Grange had worked for months with the Agriculture Transportation Working Group to prevent such a catastrophe.  Letters were sent to the Hill, President Biden, Cabinet secretaries, and appropriate government officials.  The working group asked Congress to intervene if negotiations failed.  A strike could have idled more than 7,000 trains, essentially halting the movement of grain during harvest season.

Support Voiced for Rail Service Bill

The National Grange and a core group of agriculture and union groups supported the introduction of the Reliable Rail Service Act by Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).  The legislation would better define the common carrier obligation of Class 1 rail carriers.  This is in response to testimony before the Surface Transportation Board that laid out in stark terms the unacceptable level of rail service throughout the country.

Welcome News for Mississippi River Shippers

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress allocated funds to renovate Lock 22 near Silvertooth, Missouri and Lock 25 near Alton, Illinois.  These projects were authorized by Congress in 2007 but never fully funded so construction stopped.  These projects will create additional shipping capacity without additional barges and tow boats.

Hill Hearing Targets Right to Repair

Representatives of farmers and private third-party repair shops clashed with equipment manufacturers at a House subcommittee hearing in mid-September.  The lawmakers are considering measures that would require machinery manufacturers to provide software, parts and tools to customers who want to repair their own equipment.  Equipment manufacturers are concerned that giving ordinary people access to internal software inside their equipment would endanger safety measures, environmental controls and intellectual property rights.  Independent repair proponents say they just want to obtain parts and programs to do repairs themselves.  National Grange has long standing policy to support right to repair.

Rural Students in Vogue

Recently, the term “rural” has become a buzzword among the college admissions community…even at highly selective universities like Yale which has a 5% acceptance rate.  Elite college recruiters report finding that rural applicants are different from those in the rest of their recruiting territory.  Students may have grown up on a farm or ranch, they may have driven an hour or more to high school, they may have operated expensive high-tech machinery, and they may have become strong leaders through FFA, 4-H, Grange or other rural youth programs.  The elite college community apparently finds this unusual, interesting and exciting.

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree”.  ~  Emily Bronte

“Wild is the music of the autumn winds amongst the faded woods”.  ~  William Wordsworth

“Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature”.  ~  Friedrich Nietzsche