It’s Morning Again in Rural America

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and US Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan visit with biobased manufacturers at the USB Biobased Stakeholders meeting

Prosperity arrives not just via “all of the above” with energy sources; but with agriculture markets, too, say Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman Debbie Stabenow in impassioned addresses in Michigan

“We don’t have an economy unless we make things and grow things,” begins Senator Debbie Stabenow, addressing the Biobased Stakeholders meeting. It’s a small, invite-only the United Soybean Board has convened a half-dozen times over the past decade to galvanize the use of biobased materials in manufacturing.

“If you make them in your own community, then you have jobs. You are limited only by ability to invest and innovate; and when it comes to jobs of the future, through biobased manufacturing, the sky’s the limit.”

New markets for agricultural producers, further opportunities to reduce dependence on foreign oil, and job creation — these are the themes which Stabenow and US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack tackled in a pair of addresses to the group, composed of biobased industry leaders and several dozen college and high school students. The students are attending the meeting to present posters on biobased innovations after winning event scholarships from the USB.

You Get to Shape it, You Get to Make it

Vilsack, addressing the students, noted “this unlimited future, you get to shape it, you get to make it.”

Addressing the biofuels and biobased revolution, Stabenow said, “We write a farm bill every five years; it’s bi-partisan, which is not easy in these times; we cut $23 billion in this cycle and made major reforms by eliminating old programs, but it remains a very large, very broad piece of legislation, and in this bill we have strengthened the energy title. Our view is that advanced biofuels are an extraordinarily market opportunity and biobased materials is another huge huge opportunity. We have expanded beyond biofuels, such as providing loan guarantees to help innovative companies through the well-known valley of death, and increased the biobased marketing program.”

In his opening remarks, Vilsack paid tribute to Stabenow. “I don’t know of anyone who cares more about making rural america a part of every conversation,” he said. “Further, she understands not only production agriculture and link to research coming from universities [the sustains the US farm sector’s innovative edge], but also understands the new and emerging opportunities in the biobased economy.

No one thought it was possible

“Look at her work on the Farm Bill. No one in Washington thought it was possible to bring through a bill of this magnitude this year. I think that the House was caught by surprise, by this extraordinary bill getting through the Senate so fast. There is still a challenge to get a bill through the full House this September.

“The risk we run in delay is not only the uncertainty,” the Secretary continued. “We run the risk of having one of the real bright spots in our economy, and having one of our strongest export sectors become part of the larger conversation and debate over the deficit reduction and sequestration. Agriculture is dong its part [in terms of reducing spending and in performance], and shouldn’t get wrapped up at this time [in an extended debate] over the deficit and tax policy.

Rural America has a pathway to new prosperity

“It’s a very important time. Rural America has a pathway to new prosperity based on four factors. We have production agriculture — and very few countries have the capacity to grow all its food, affordably. We have a growing local and regional food system, where food can be directly sold, at farmers markets and, more and more, we can buy local. And we have a new conservation, linked to outdoor recreation.

“Add in biobased, where we have virtually everything we need to make fabric, food, energy, fuel produced from plant livestock. Not just the crop income, but manufacturing opportunities in small towns because biorefieries are built smaller, closer together.

“Today, you see 25,000 products being made using biobased materials, already employing 100,000 people.

Rural values and rural value-add

“We not only have this framework, we have a rural value system. Rural communities represent 16 percent of population but 40 percent of US military.

“You see, when young people grow up in rural areas, they grow up knowing that if you want to keep taking from the land you have to give back. It’s our value system, that something worth taking from is worth giving back to.

“It requires certainty, policy and support, Got to have all of that: Outdoor recreation, conservation biobased economy, can’t just have production agriculture. Above all, an understanding that rural America matters.

Put all that together?

“The 21st century will be a century of biology,” Vilsack said, simply.

The bottom line, and what you can do

Action on the farm bill is needed in September, and a strong energy title needs to be sustained in a House-Senate conference, as the House Agriculture Committee bill substantially reduces the commitment to stimulating this new sector for rural job and export income development, preferring to focus on a “production agriculture only” strategy.

So, it’s “all-of-the-above” vs “put-all-your-chips-on-one-spot-and-c’mon-seven!” – this time, a portfolio strategy for agricultural markets, compared to the “all of the above” energy strategy which relates back to energy sources.

Sources and markets. Portfolio approaches, with a balance of investments, vs picking single stocks and hoping for the best. “Action this Day on one of the country’s brightest sectors” vs “Action sometime after the election, if we get to it ever, on everything all at once, counting on Washington’s reputation for speed and bipartisanship.”

If the outcomes, for agriculture as a whole, biobased materials and biofuels in particular, and for developing jobs and exports through fostering a new market segment — if these outcomes matter to you, ask yourself this: what is my outreach schedule look like this fall. How many members of congress will I speak to during the election cycle and how will I press forward my views to them?”

Vilsack proclaims the 21st century as the “century of biology,” and it is difficult to disagree, given the fundamental advances expected in genetics – but perhaps more tactically, this morning is an hour for action, if indeed it is to be morning in rural America, and the kind of sunny morning you would like it to be.

Whatever your view on the role of government in fostering this market sector, or accelerating its realization — it is a conversation that you should be having right now with your legislators at the state and federal levels.