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California Association of Wheat Growers (CAWG)

June 1, 2007

FARM BILL.  NOW IS THE TIME.  NAWG has established an internet site to painlessly send a letter to your Congressional representatives regarding the Farm Bill, specifically regarding direct payments.  Please take a look at the previous CAWG Update (4/30/07) for detail on the direct payment.  If you have an internet connection, the NAWG site provides a quick method to send a message to your Representative and Senators.  Go to:  http://capwiz.com/wheatworld/home/. 

DISASTER ASSISTANCE APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT.  President Bush signed the combined war funding/domestic spending bill that includes agricultural disaster assistance provisions.  The legislation passed by Congress last week will provide crop production loss assistance for losses of more than 35 percent in either 2005, 2006 or 2007, with the losses for 2007 crops covered only if the crop subject to the loss was planted prior to Feb. 28. Only producers with crop insurance coverage will be eligible for assistance. Payments are to be made within 60 days of a producer’s application.  We’re working now with FSA’s California office regarding the details of the program and will get information out to you as soon as it’s available. 

WILLIAMSON ACT ELIMINATION.  As reported previously, Governor Schwarzenegger in his “May Budget Revise” proposed to eliminate the Williamson Act subvention to local government.  The elimination of the $40 million subvention to local government would basically shut the program down.  A large number of agricultural and conservation interests have mobilized to oppose the cut.  CAWG’s representatives continue to monitor the issue, but it appears that there is strong support in the legislature to maintain the program.  We’ll update you as the budget world turns.               

U.C. SMALL GRAIN SPECIALIST.  We learned earlier this month that Dr. Lee Jackson is contemplating retirement in the near future.  Good news for Dr. Jackson, but a big concern for California wheat growers.  As most of you know, Dr. Jackson’s work is critical to our success in many areas, most importantly as the conduit that introduces new wheat varieties to growers produced by U.C.’s breeding program directed by Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky.  Long story short, we can’t take for granted that the university will refill Dr. Jackson’s position. 

Ian Anderson, President of CAWG has sent a letter in support of refilling the grain specialist position and met yesterday with Dr. Chris van Kessel, Department Chair of UC Davis’ Department of Plant Sciences.  Our meeting was very productive and Dr. van Kessel understands the importance of the position to wheat growers of the state.  A process of prioritization will be used to determine what extension specialist positions will be filled, beginning with Dr. van Kessel, then the Dean of the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and ultimately the U.C. Office of the President.  We will be watching the process closely and engaging our friends in support. 

BUILDING NEW RELATIONSHIPS.  Speaking of new friends, Western United Dairymen (WUD) graciously offered and has sent a letter of support regarding retaining and refilling the U.C. Small Grain Specialist position.   WUD’s members represent more than 60% of the milk produced in California.  It may not be news to everyone, but a large majority of the wheat grown in the San Joaquin Valley is green chopped to feed dairy cattle.  We will be working to build a stronger relationship with the dairy industry so we can work collaboratively on issues of mutual concern, e.g. the grain specialist position, research, and disease management. 

Word on Wheat: Helping the Environment and Bottom Lines
Mike Sullivan
NAWG Environment and Renewable Resources Committee Chairman

 People are also now looking to agricultural producers to do something that, well, they have always done – sequester carbon while they grow their crops.  To participate in a carbon sequestration program, growers would sign up with an aggregator that would keep track of the amount of carbon sequestered by their land, depending on acreage, crops planted and farming practices. Those carbon “credits” are then sold on a market to industries that emit carbon dioxide in their processes. Enrolled growers get paid based on the estimated amount of carbon their land actually pulled out of the atmosphere and the market value of that sequestered carbon.

If it sounds like you’re missing something here, you’re probably not. Producers, of course, would have paperwork to keep track of and there would be regulatory requirements, but basically growers would continue to provide the same service they have always provided – producing food - but would get paid for the environmental benefits inherent in what they do.

To help wheat growers get involved, NAWG is looking into the possibility that the NAWG Foundation, a non-profit educational and research organization associated with the grower advocacy group, could serve as a carbon aggregator for growers in NAWG states.

Like many “new uses” the agriculture industry is finding, carbon sequestration is a win-win situation for growers and the environment. These aggregating programs have the potential to help farmers earn extra income that would flow through rural communities in the form of increased spending and investment on the farm. At the same time, they help producers of carbon emissions be responsible for offsetting what they put into the environment, ultimately helping us all breathe a little easier and stem the tide of global warming.

My fellow growers on the NAWG Board will continue to investigate carbon sequestration programs and other ways agricultural producers can help make our planet a better place to live while continuing to provide the safest, most affordable and most abundant food in the world. We see this as an opportunity for our industry and our children who have to live in the world we leave them.

 -         Sullivan is a wheat producer in Wallace, Neb.

NAWG Joins Environmental Defense on “Safety Valve” Ads

NAWG is participating this week and next in an ad campaign with Environmental Defense on the increasingly serious “safety valve” issue.  As carbon cap and trade programs are being debated, some are arguing for a so-called “safety valve” for the economy in the form of a cap on the price of carbon, ostensively to prevent companies purchasing carbon credits from being overwhelmed by the cost of offsetting their own pollution.

Effectively, however, this “safety valve” would create a maximum price for carbon emission and, depending on that price, companies might find it cheaper to simply pay the carbon price to the government directly, cutting farmers, who sequester carbon naturally, out of the program altogether.

The ads seek to grab the attention of those debating this issue and direct them to more information about how a “safety valve” would hurt farmers and rural economies, available at www.farmersprofit.org