Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

February 20, 2009

Water Update

The Bureau of Reclamation today announced that 2009 water deliveries to Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District and other key districts with water rights will be cut 25% for the 2009 irrigation season. This is consistent with earlier forecasts and is the result of the continuing drought in California. This is the Bureau’s initial allocation based on the February 1 runoff forecast from the California Department of Water Resources.  We expect an update in mid-March based on March 1st forecast data.  The Bureau’s announcement today indicates that water contractors (not settlement or exchange contractors) will get “zero” deliveries this year based on February 1st projections. That would include the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority and those contractors in the San Joaquin Valley.

The irrigation districts with water rights on the east side of the Sacramento Valley including the Joint Water Districts in Butte and Sutter Counties expect to receive 50% of their normal deliveries while the State Water Contractors (in the San Joaquin Valley) will get just 15% of their normal wet year supply.

Again, these initial allocations are based on the February 1st runoff forecast issued by the California Department of Water Resources and will be updated after March 1st.

USA Rice Federation Governmental Affairs Conference

Farmers’ Rice Cooperative Board Officers and Senior Staff attended the USA Rice Federation’s Governmental Affairs Conference last week in Washington, D.C. A highlight of the conference was being able to hear the new Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack describe his view on a number of topics of interest to the rice industry and other commodity groups.

Secretary Vilsack is an interesting individual, a small town attorney, former Governor of Iowa without much knowledge about western agriculture or crops grown in the South.  Clearly, he is a corn, soybean, hog and cattle type individual who needs to broaden his understanding of American agriculture.

He is a big advocate of bio-fuels and ethanol and is preaching “carbon credits” for agriculture as the nation seems poised to move forward in the fight over green house gases. In a speech to the National Cotton Council, Vilsack said “U.S. agriculture should seek a role in mitigating greenhouse gases or it would lose a potential source of income that could go to utilities, large manufactures and others”.  In other comments last week, Vilsack called on farmers “To accept the political reality that U.S. farm program direct payments are under fire both at home and abroad…and therefore farmers should develop other sources of income.”

Notwithstanding the fact that Congress just passed the 2008 Farm Bill providing a safety net for program crop producers, Vilsack seems to be continuing the dialogue that comes out of the two Iowa Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley, both of whom have been critical of the farm program safety net.

In his speech to the USA Rice Federation, Secretary Vilsack virtually said nothing about trade and the importance of trade agreements to the rice industry.  In his comments to the rice industry he listed his priorities for USDA:

• A safe, sufficient, sustainable and nutritious supply of food for all.
• To make sure that USDA is a national leader in the discussion of energy and climate change.
• To have modern rural 21st century communities.
• To modernize the workforce and workplace at USDA….including the need to improve its civil rights performance.

Huffman Observation

Commodity groups such as the rice industry are going to have a lot of work to do to educate Secretary Vilsack. Our friends in Congress (especially in California and the South) will have to keep the pressure on Vilsack to widen his view of American agriculture and build his understanding of modern agriculture production on the scale that we have in our great state. Vilsack keeps talking about the “family farm” and “organic agriculture”.  Clearly he needs to understand that the “family farm” he knows about is different across the country than what he may be used to in Iowa and that while organic agriculture has its place in society today, he will not be able to reach his goal of a “safe, sufficient, sustainable and nutritious supply of food” for America based on strictly organic production. He also needs to understand that agriculture is a big player in America’s balance of trade and that trade is important to most every American commodity group, especially the rice industry.

Thanks for Your Support of the FRC Fund

We would like to thank every FRC member and staff member who has written a check in support of the Farmers’ Rice Cooperative Fund. We are rapidly approaching our goal for this year and sincerely appreciate member and staff support.  If you have not yet contributed, please help us reach our goal. This vital program let’s your Board Officers and staff work effectively with Congress on such issues as trade and Farm Bill matters. 

Progress Payment

We are pleased that the FRC Board of Directors Thursday approved management’s recommendation for an additional $2.00 per hundredweight progress payment for the 2008 crop. Checks will be in the mail shortly.