2012 Farm Bill

2012 Farm Bill. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack last week talked with reporters about his comments made during the opening session to discuss the 2012 Farm Bill. VILSACK: This obviously is the beginning of a long process that will ultimately lead to a proposed and passage of a 2012 Farm Bill. I wanted to take this opportunity to make sure that the members of the House Ag Committee as well as the country as a whole understands and appreciates precisely what's happening in rural America today on our farms and ranches but also in small towns across the country. Vilsack noted that in 1940 one farmer could feed 19 people whereas today one farmer helps to feed 155 people so productivity has increased exponentially but the number of people farming and the amount they make has not. VILSACK: At the same time what we're seeing in the countryside is an aging of the farmers and ranchers in this country. According again to our ag census the average age of a farmer today is somewhere in the neighborhood of 58 years of age. In 1945 it was 39 years of age so over the course of the last 40, 50, 60 years we've seen a significant aging of the farm population. That raises the issue that we need to focus on 2 things. One, we need to continue a strong safety net for America's families and recognize the important role that the off-farm income plays in that safety net so we need to do a better job of encouraging job growth in rural America. And Vilsack says the second thing that needs to be focused on is new strategies for how to get beginning farmers, younger farmers into the farming business. Another issue is the average income in rural areas. VILSACK: We know that the per capita income in rural America is substantially less than it is in metro areas. Today in non-metro communities across America per capita income is about $28 to 29-thousand dollars while in the metro sections of this country it's about $40,500. So there's a substantial difference between what you can make in a rural areas and what you can make in a metropolitan area and it's not just simply cost of living, it's the quality of jobs being created and we need to be focused as we begin the discussion of the next farm bill on how we might be able to improve the mix of jobs in rural America. More tomorrow with Secretary Vilsack on the 2012 Farm Bill. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg martin on the Ag Information Network.