5/30/02

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1. A Well-Fueled Monopoly?
2. Farm Bill Implementation Update: Grants for Sustainability
3. ACTION: Help Needed by North Carolina Residents
4. Thomas Dorr Developments: Iowa CCI Says "Dump Dorr"

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As global warming, increasing gas prices and domestic security fuel alternative energy development, discussions of the monopolization of ethanol production are igniting again. Now a group of lawmakers are calling on the Justice Department to put the brakes on a proposed merger between ADM and the Minnesota Corn Processors (MCP). 

According to the recent on-line Agribusiness Examiner, the proposed merger sides-swipes competitive markets and , "...could have severe repercussions on the price and supply of ethanol." 

The article adds that "A consolidation between ADM and MCP will move ADM closer to a monopoly in an already dangerous anti-competitive environment." ADM now controls 41% of the ethanol market, and Minnesota Corn Processors controls 6%. In this race-to-concentrate, eight ethanol firms control 71% of the corn fuel market. To add gasoline to this consolidation fire, the Senate energy bill past in April would nearly triple U.S. ethanol use to 5 billion gallons a year by 2012.

2. FARM BILL IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE: VALUE ADDING GRANTS

The 2002 Farm Bill includes $40 million per year for the Value-Added Market Development Grants Program. This program helps farmers and communities add value to their agricultural products and in the past has funded local value-adding projects such as co-op feed mills and micro dairy processing plants. Changes in the bill include language that recognizes sustainable production as a form of value-adding, and the program is also expected to begin including wineries, renewable energy producers and self-employment enterprises for the market development grants. The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition reports that the USDA's Rural Cooperative Business Service plans to begin accepting proposals as early as mid-June. Learn more about the program.

3. ACTION: HELP NEEDED BY NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS

The Land Loss Prevention Project in North Carolina is in danger of falling victim to the state's $1.5 billion budget deficit. The recommendations of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural and Economic Resources has recommended cutting all of the state funds that would go to the LLPP in fiscal year 2002-2003, as well as two months' worth of the current year's (already promised) funding. The Land Loss Prevention Project is one of six state-funded nonprofit groups that form North Carolina's Minority Economic Development Package. Of these groups, the LLPP and one other project are proposed to be cut completely, whereas the other four have been proposed to receive only slight cuts. 

The LLPP is asking that North Carolina residents contact their state officials and remind them that: 1) The Land Loss Prevention Project has has provided legal and technical assistance to more than 20,000 clients since its inception in 1982, including 1,400 limited resource farmers in the last fiscal year alone; 2) 44% of the LLPP's client base are minorities, and many are female and elderly; 3) the LLPP has saved 318 farms that would have been lost due to financial hardship/foreclosure or natural disaster; and 4) the LLPP's caseload cannot be picked up by other nonprofits because of the special nature of agricultural law.

For more information or the addresses of key officials, contact the Land Loss Prevention Project at 919-682-5969.

4. THOMAS DORR DEVELOPMENTS: IOWA CCI SAYS "DUMP DORR."

Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venemann has taken to the pulpit in defense of President Bush's nomination of Thomas Dorr for USDA Undersecretary of Rural Development. Dorr's nomination has been stridently opposed by a chorus of rural advocates who say he is racially insensitive, pro-factory farm, and a bad choice for rural America. In the latest developments, a "full and thorough" investigation by the U.S.Department of Agriculture's inspector general has apparently absolved Dorr of sins leaving Venneman calling him, "a good man, the kind you would expect from Iowa."

Since then, Senator Tom Harkin's staff has pointed out that the inquiry did not investigate from 1988 to 1992, the years when Dorr supposedly misused farm subsidy programs. While Washington critics politely call for confession, A grassroots factory farm organization, the Iowa CCI is calling Dorr is a "cheat." Referencing a tape released to the press they say, "Dorr admitted it. In a tape recorded conversation, he told his brother that he wanted to "avoid a 50,000-dollar payment limitation to Pine Grove Farms" (Dorr's farm) and that government officials would probably "raise hell" with him if they audited his farm program payments." 

They are asking people to call Senator Tom Harkin (202 224-3254) and Senator Tom Daschle (202 224-2321) and tell them to dump Dorr.