I did a post recently about the economic stimulus package, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's coverage of it. Here is another comparison they put together for the Senate vs. House funding support. It's a good way to look at what is on the table for rural america, farmers, and healthy food matters:

Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - $50 million (Senate) vs. $0 (House)

Rural Energy for America Program - $50 million (Senate) vs. $0 (House)

Business & Industry Guaranteed Loans - $3 billion (Senate) vs. $2 billion (House)

Rural Business Enterprise Program - $20 million (Senate) vs. $13 million (House)

Biorefinery Assistance Program - $200 million (Senate) vs. $0 (House)

School Lunch Equipment - $100 million (Senate) vs. $0 (House)

Small Watershed Dam Rehabilitation - $65 million (Senate) vs. $50 million (House)

Crop and Aquaculture Disaster Assistance - $752 million (Senate) vs. $0 (House)


Programs House Funds Higher than Senate

Food Stamps (SNAP) - $20.7 billion (House) vs. $16.6 billion (Senate)

Emergency Watershed and Flood Prevention Program - $350 million (House) vs. $275 million (Senate)

Rural Community Facility Grants - $137 million (House) vs. $50 million (Senate)

Agricultural Research Service and other USDA Building and Facilities Rehab - $253 million (House) vs. $200 million (Senate)
'
Farm Service Agency computers and IT – $245 million (House) vs. $54 million (Senate)


If these bills pass, do they pertain to you? Will you be able to take advantage of any of these initiatives or will they affect you directly?

FRANNY,

Now that the stimulus package has passed, I'd be very curious how the programs identified by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition have fared in the final bill.

I don't believe that these bills will make a big difference, since we live in an era in which governments don't have the individuals in their agenda but only a mass of people without a name or face.

Some survived, and some did not. Personally, I think the bill could have done more for farmers, even if a small percentage of people in this country still live on farms. Being able to economically grow good food is an important job that we can't shove to the side.

I made a blog post few days ago on these numbers that made the final conference report:

FARM SERVICE AGENCY
$50 million to maintain and modernize the information technology system (Salaries and Expenses).

USDA BUILDINGS & FACILITIES
$24 million for construction, repair and improvement of the USDA buildings and facilities

USDA RESEARCH SERVICE
$176 million for maintenance of the USDA’s laboratory and research infrastructure

NUTRITION PROGRAMS
$100 million for the National School Lunch Program equipment assistance
$500 million for Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); $400 million to be placed in reserves
$150 million for emergency food assistance program

CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE
$193.807 million for farm operating loan program
$50 million for aquaculture producers to accommodate for losses associated with high feed input costs during 2008

NRCS (National Resources Conservation Service)
$290 million for Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations
$50 million for the Watershed Rehabilitation Program

BLM
$125 million for management of lands and resources, including deferred maintenance, abandoned mine and well site remediation, road and trail maintenance, watershed improvement, and high priority habitat restoration

FOREST SERVICE
$500 million for wildland fire management

RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE
$150 million to support $3.010 billion in rural business loans and grants

y8RFYK <a href="uioffbbvqtgs.com/">uioffbbvqtgs</a>, gdjlousygkda, [link=http://wrkmbmzigkhz.com/]wrkmbmzigkhz[/link], crjuncfltbpz.com/

z0pPGm <a href="wnhiyqaseyng.com/">wnhiyqaseyng</a>, ehwkswsryamq, [link=http://czdbelnlpvqn.com/]czdbelnlpvqn[/link], geoipulfojzu.com/