Farm Bill provisions high priority for Maryland State Grange
Originally published October 29, 2007
By Ike Wilson
News-Post Staff
Maryland State Grange Youth Director Richard Stonebraker, left, presented the first-ever Youth Award to Brandon Reese, of the Linganore Grange.
The Maryland State Grange exists to deliberate upon and devise means for the welfare of the country, of mankind and the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. That’s a vague purpose to someone looking in from the outside. But to Grange members, there’s nothing unclear about what they do. Some of the Grange’s priorities were highlighted at their recent 133rd Annual Session in Frederick, including stipulations of the 2007 Farm Bill being discussed by the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Farm bill
Discussion of the five-year, $284 billion bill took up a lot of time at the three-day event, said Alan Stiles, the Grange’s agriculture and legislative committee chairman.
“Until you sit down and study it, you don’t realize how complicated the thing is,” Stiles said. “The current bill right now is not bad, it just needs to be improved.”
Stiles said the committee members have a problem with the bill’s commodities program. If the price for corn, wheat or soybeans drops too low, he said, the bill offers money to compensate farmers for losses.
“Due to the drought this year, there’s nothing to sell so the farm program doesn’t help us there,” Stiles said.
Discussion also focused on an eligibility cap for financial assistance.
Stiles said a farm that grosses $2.5 million is not eligible for financial assistance in the current bill, but he questions what happens if the farm has $2.6 million in expenses.
Stiles said farm prices have been good this year but he said operating costs for fuel, fertilizer and corn and wheat for feed, even crop insurance, have also been higher.
“One thing the public doesn’t realize is that the biggest part of the Farm Bill is for nutrition,” Stiles said.
He said about 75 percent of the bill or more is spent on school breakfasts and lunches, the WIC (Women and Children) program and food stamps.
“Yes, farmers will benefit if someone is eating, but we sure don’t get rich off it,” Stiles said.
Country of origin
Stiles said the farm bill’s Country of Origin provision is wrongly placed in the document’s “miscellaneous” section.
“With all the problems we’re having with things coming in the country,” Country of Origin requirement is too important to be designated a miscellaneous item, Stiles said.
Maryland State Grange Master Roger Troxell refused to drink apple juice that was given to him in the hospital. The bottle’s label indicated the apples were grown in China, Stiles said.
“You’re not sure what pesticides are being used in other countries,” Stiles said. “We’re dependent on other countries for oil. We don’t need to be dependent on them for our food.”
Regarding taxes, Stiles said the Grange believes that government should live within its means.
“Reduce growth and spending instead of increasing taxes,” he said. “Living within our own means is what we have to do as individuals, why not the country?”
Resolutions
The Grange approved these resolutions:
Support for crop insurance; Ag land preservation; sale of raw milk with proper permits; production and sale of some hard cheeses by Maryland dairy farmers; adequate funding of extension programs and University of Maryland Agriculture programs; a comprehensive immigration policy.
Opposition to increasing taxes and use of eminent domain for economic purposes.
Opposition to distribution of contraceptives to middle school students.
Implementation of stricter rules by the Board of Education to ensure the safety of young children on school buses due to more frequent accidents and children being put off buses without supervision.
Ensuring the safety of food products by adequate funding of programs and inspections.
More public education of good health practices due to the increase of serious infections and communicable diseases.
Transportation funds to be used for road and bridge construction or repair and not for pork-barrel earmarks, and for reasonable, yet aggressive fuel economy standards within each vehicle class.
The Grange and farming tradition The Grange is the nation’s oldest national agricultural organization and Frederick County Pomona Grange is Maryland’s largest Grange organization.
It consists of community Granges from Ballenger Creek, Braddock Heights, Adamstown, Walkersville, Jefferson, Unionville, Middletown, New Market and Thurmont.
Troxell, who lives in Thurmont, said the Grange, like other groups, is competing for young people’s time and interest. It’s unfortunate, but the Grange is seen as a group for older people, he said.
“But we’re constantly working to change that,” Troxell said. “We’re a contemporary organization as well.”
John L. Thompson Sr., Master of the Frederick County Pomona Grange, said the organization speaks for agriculture and speaks out on agricultural legislative matters.
“We also work to bring the farm producer and the consumer into the most direct and friendly relationship possible,” Thompson said.
In his report to the conference, Troxell called for redoubling efforts to increase membership in state Granges.
Troxell said Dodie Mullen, the Grange’s new family activities chairwoman, is gung-ho about increasing participation.