Utah’s Ag Leaders Want Stimulus Funds to Bail Out Meat Producers, Feed Hungry
10.02.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler
(KCPW News) Utah’s Department of Agriculture and Food is joining agriculture leaders across the nation to ask for $900 million in federal stimulus funds to bail out struggling meat and dairy producers and help feed the hungry. Utah Food Bank executive director Jim Pugh says the program would provide high-quality food at a time of unprecedented need.
“To have a program like this where we can make sure that nutritious product is available for families that are struggling, to make sure that we can get high protein items, which for our organization are often times some of the most difficult items for us to get in bulk, to make sure those items get out to families that are struggling is critical,” Pugh says.
If adopted, the “Meat the Need” program would allow the USDA to purchase hundreds of millions of pounds of pork, turkey and cheese to distribute to food assistance programs, foreign aid groups and school lunch programs. It would also increase food stamp allocations for families to purchase turkey, pork and dairy products. Utah’s Agriculture Commissioner Leonard Blackham says the program would remove “extra” products from the market and keep local agriculture producers from folding in the economic downturn. The downside to the plan is that it could drive up grocery prices for consumers. But Blackham says this slight increase is much better than the alternative.
“The alternative is if it’s not done and the natural bankruptcy procedure is followed that you’ll see prices go up even more,” Blackham says. “And so, yes, there definitely is an increased impact to the consumer. But right now, we have three sectors that are basically going broke, and going broke very quickly.”
Blackham and others affiliated with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture are urging Congress and the Obama Administration to adopt the plan now. It also has the support of the Utah Farm Bureau.
No no no…meat & dairy are not healthy…but vegetables are.
Please oppose this stimulus. The government is already heavily subsidizing the animal ag industries. They’ve been lobbying the government for the better part of a century now just so they can make as much money as possible.
[...] let your representatives support this $900 million stimulus plan. As Chris G. points out, the government is already heavily subsidizing [...]
This is insane. If we’re giving these businesses money, we should just run around and give everyone free money! But, I do understand how a bunch of people want some free money, who doesn’t? By the way, there is sh!t in the meat.
I’d like to know how you think animal agriculture is subsidized by the gov’t? If it’s because they graze on federal land, then sure. But technically then, all of us are subsidized by the taxes of the rich, and land that is “managed” by the feds. Using the term “bailout” is not quite fair, in how it relates to the auto industry. They got in the mess they’re in through bad guesses in products by consumers, and playing in the finance/insurance lottery. Producers are having a hard time because of rising costs of energy, feed, etc. They are the sounding board of what the gov’t has already done to the economy.
Second, a balanced diet that includes protein-rich meats is quite good for you, so sorry, vegan & vegetarian advocates. You can’t get that nutrition just from plants.
This comment is directly to Matt. How is animal agriculture subsidized by the government? Well, a quick stroll through the Farm Bill (you know US Congress puts this out every five years, do you get your news anywhere besides Fox?) shows DIRECT PAYMENTS to producers and this is not directly tied to actual production shortfalls, thus highly successful (-read- large and rich) farmers are getting paid on top of successful harvests. Further, with steep imports on crops from other countries effectively subsidizes and gives a very unfair market advantage to US farmers (if we are all just dang good ol’ free market capitalists, then say it ain’t so). FURTHER and of special importance for western states, the federal government through the Bureau of Reclamation, heavily subsidizes water to support intensive agricultural production in a desert. The water is actually FREE! And further, us tax payers PAY for infrastructure improvements of which farmers are the main beneficiary. Your ignorance is vast. And please tell me how the average American is both OBESE and eats over twice the RDA of protein. The RDA is 56 grams for a mixed plant-animal diet and most Americans eat 75 grams/day. So let us please continue to keep animal producers rich and not responsible for the environmental degradation caused by CAFOs, keep Americans sluggish and fat, and keep thinking that we are justified in eating excessive quantities of meat because the lord put the cow down here for no other reason than to help us revel in our anthropocentric inability to manage even ourselves, let alone our planet.