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Release No. 0358.05 Contact: USDA Press Office (202) 720-4623

**Transcript of Alaska Farm Bill Forum with Deputy Secretary of
Agriculture Chuck Conner and Under Secretary Mark Rey, Natural Resources
and the Environment And Moderator Dennis McMillian, President, The
Foraker Group in Palmer, Alaska\
on August 25, 2005**

SEC. CHUCK CONNER: Let me start us off by saying that it\'s truly a
pleasure for me and Under Secretary Rey and our team to be here in
Nebraska to experience this Farm Bill. Nebraska did I say? I better get
my state straight. This is not Nebraska.

\[Laughter.\]

How about Alaska? When you work for Mike Johanns, former governor of
Nebraska, you have a tendency to do that.

But we are really thrilled to be here in Alaska today.

And I\'m delighted that our Secretary of Agriculture has asked Mark and
me to come and do this event. He has pledged really to be an advocate
for America\'s farming and ranching sector as well as our food and
agricultural sector which I think includes both forestry as well as the
fishing industries of extreme importance to this state.

And so we can assure you that we want to work with you to make the best
in behalf of your producers and your growers and your people involved in
these sectors.

At this press event today we have a special opportunity I think to sign
an agreement that I think we\'re excited about, and because we know that
really Alaskan producers and your people just in the short time we\'ve
been here, you are true stewards of the land in this state of Alaska.

And what we want to do today is, this year promote the fact that we have
entered into conservation contracts at USDA that really have resulted in
unprecedented levels of assistance to this state. The EQIP and the WHIP
programs that each of you I think are familiar with, they\'re enhancing
conservation practices in this state and promoting I think a long-term
preservation for that next generation that is going to be around in the
state of Alaska.

In line with our conservation partnerships with this state I am pleased
to announce that we are going to enter into the first ever tribal
conservation district in Alaska. This has been formed. We are here today
to sign this agreement, and I am honored to sign the agreement in a few
minutes with Jaison Sandifer. He is president of the Tyonek Native
Corporation. This district is the result of a cooperative conservation
agreement between USDA, the Tyonek Native Corporation, and the village
of Tyonek.

And we are very excited about this opportunity today because Native
Americans really have always valued and respected the land. They know
that life begins in working in a harmonious way with nature. And we\'re
honored to be a part of this partnership with them today. This is the
26th I believe tribal conservation district that we have organized with
USDA. It is the first federally funded one here in the state of Alaska.

And so again we\'re just very, very excited about this opportunity.
It\'s 40,000 acres; it\'s a large district that joins many of the Indian
tribes that they have elected to form their own officially recognized
district. And these districts will help them keep a close cooperative
relationship with USDA and give them full access to the programs that we
offer in behalf of conservation.

So without further ado on that, we\'re going to open this document, sign
at the appropriate place, and proceed forward.

\[Agreement is signed.\]

Congratulations.

\[Applause.\]

SEC. CONNER: All right. Well with that I believe we will transition at
this point into the Farm Bill Forum portion of our meeting. Again I
encourage each of you to stick around and give us your input. We will
begin that I believe shortly.

MODERATOR: I\'m not from Washington, I\'m not here to help you. I\'m
from Anchorage actually, and the president of the Foraker Group. When I
got to Alaska about 15 years ago, my very first meeting with Elmer and
Ed Rasmussen (sp) in Anchorage, I show up in a coat and tie. You know,
you\'re going to go eat with bankers you\'re going to wear a coat and
tie. Problem was, I had to get on a plane about 15 minutes after the
meeting and go to Bethel for the first time.

So I show up in Bethel in a coat and tie, and people are just staring at
me, saying what in the world is this guy up to? And I finally figured
out, they told, they said when you show up in Bethel with a coat and tie
you\'re either a G-man or an evangelical minister, one of the two. And
so I don\'t know which I am. But.

We are welcoming you to the discussion today with the deputy Secretary
and under Secretary about the Farm Bill. And we will get into the
comment period in just a minute. But first we would ask that all of you
with cell phones find them and turn them off or at least put them on
silence so we don\'t get interrupted with that. And now if you would,
please stand for the presentation of the colors. This will be done by
American Legion Post No. 35.

\[Colors are presented.\]

MODERATOR: And now we will ask President Robert Anderson of Future
Farmers of America, and 4-H member Britany Vaughan to come up and lead
us in the Pledge.

\[The Pledge of Allegiance is given.\]

To start off, I\'d like to introduce you to the two gentlemen here from
Washington that are here to not only help you but listen to you. The
first is Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Conner, or Chuck
Conner, who was sworn in as deputy Secretary last May. And, prior to
that, his tenure with USDA he served on the national Economic Council
beginning in November of 2001 as special assistant to the President for
Agricultural Trade and Food Assistance focusing primarily on Farm Bill
issues. From \'97 to 2001 he was the president of the Corn Refiners
Association, a trade group, on the refining industry.

Prior to this he held several positions with the Senate Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. He has served as both the Majority
staff director and the Minority staff director of the Senate Agriculture
Nutrition and Forestry Committee; has worked as professional staff
member for the committee from \'85 to \'87 and prior to the Senate
committee worked for Senator Lugar.

He grew up in Benton County, Indiana. And that\'s still where his family
owns the family farm. He received a BS degree in economics from Purdue
University. He is married and has four children, and I think this is his
first trip to Alaska, and he is going to go fish later.

I also would like to introduce you to Under Secretary for USDA Natural
Resources and Environment, Mark Rey. Mark was sworn in as the under
Secretary on October 2, 2001. And he oversees the Forest and Natural
Resource Conservation Service which is of course one of the mission
areas. And he works to prevent damage to natural resources and the
environment, restore the resource base and promote good land management.

Prior to joining the Bush Administration he spent 18 years in the
private sector as vice president of Forest Products for the American
Forest and Paper Association, VP for public forestry programs for the
National Forest Products Association, and he served in several positions
for the American Paper Institute and the National Forest Products
Association. He has also served as a staff member for the U.S. Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources.

He is a native of Canton, Ohio, and holds a bachelors of Science and
management and forestry from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. So
let\'s welcome our two guests from Washington.

\[Applause.\]

And Mark, have you been here before? Okay. He\'s been here a lot. Okay,
good. I\'d imagine with a forestry background maybe so.

Okay. So the next thing we\'re going to do is give you a little bit of
the format of how this is supposed to work. First, this is really a
session for you to be heard. It is being recorded so all the detail of
what you are now getting ready to tell us about will be understood after
the session. There are a series of six questions that we would like
people to make public comment about. If you choose not to make public
comment, there are ways you can go out into the lobby and do it in
written format, and you can also, we\'ll give you some instructions
later about how to do that on-line if that\'s the way you prefer to do
it.

But today is really an attempt to try to have you speak up for what
you\'ve understood the Farm Bill to be about and how you see it
impacting you here in Alaska. There are six questions that we\'re going
to ask you to comment on, and you can comment on any of these six
questions.

The first one is, how should farm policy address unintended consequences
and ensure that such consequences do not discourage new farmers and the
next generation of farmers from entering production agriculture?

The second question is, how should farm policy be designated to maximize
U.S. competitiveness and our country\'s ability to effectively compete
in the global markets?

The third question is, is current farm policy designated to effectively
and fairly distribute assistance?

The fourth question would be, how can farm policy best achieve
conservation and environmental goals?

The fifth question is, how can federal rural and farm programs provide
effective assistance in rural areas?

The sixth question is, How should agricultural product, marketing and
research-related issues be addressed in the next Farm Bill?

Mark and Chuck are going to listen to your comments, and so we\'re going
to ask people to come up in some sort of order. You will have,
regardless of previous instructions, three minutes to make your
presentation. We\'re giving you an extra minute. So please be concise,
know what it is you want to say, and try to get it across quickly. We
will have a timing mechanism, and where is our light? Oh, right there,
okay. It\'s just like a traffic light with if its red you got to be
quiet.

So come up and speak, and you\'ll be getting a yellow light when you
have about a minute or a minute and a half left. Then keep an eye out
for the red light.

And the primary purpose for me to be here today in a suit is if you
can\'t be quiet after the red light goes on, I have to say, please be
quiet. Okay?

So is everybody kind of clear of the format and how we\'re going to do
this?

Okay. I want to ask Jeff Werner to come up, and he would like to respond
to question one. He\'s going to do this as kind of the template for the
way we hope all of you can proceed after Jeff. Thank you, Jeff.

MR. JEFF WERNER: Thank you. Thank you for coming. I would like to
address the first question at large. However my remarks will be relevant
to all six questions for Alaska and the rest of the nation as well.

My name\'s Jeff Werner. I\'m with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
I\'m a research horticulturalist. I\'m also the state advisor for Alaska
State FFA.

Our nation is at risk from those who do not understand that agriculture
contributes to our everyday life including the food, fiber and natural
resources. Production agriculture is more than cows and plows.
Considering the fields of biotechnology, agribusiness, food science,
marketing and even homeland security production agriculture is a highly
important technical and scientific industry.

The next farm policy needs to ensure that agriscience education is
restored as a fundamental component of our public school system.
Throughout Alaska there are only a handful of natural resource classes,
but only one agriculture education program which has been in Palmer
since the 1940s.

What happened to agriculture education in Delta Junction, North Pole,
Fairbanks and the rest of Alaska and the rest of the nation? Local
boards of education have deemed agriculture education nonessential or
too expensive and have eliminated these programs. Along with the
agriculture they have also eliminated the partner program of home
economics which focused on the family values, food preparation and
self-reliance.

The current funding source for America\'s agriculture education is
through the federal Carl D. Perkins Vocational Act. Even with very
little actually going toward agriculture, this funding is in jeopardy of
being discontinued. If so, the first to go will be agriculture
education.

It would be in the best interest of American agriculture to fund local
natural resources and agriculture education programs in order to
strengthen rural America and provide a foundation to strengthen families
and communities and the U.S. position in global markets.

The American work ethic was founded in the sweat and tears of the
pioneers, and we are now faced with the challenge to regain the work
ethics utilizing today\'s technologies and continue the advancement of
the sophisticated science-based production agricultural systems. Much
like the U.S., Alaska is a truly a state wealthy with opportunities for
inspiring young agriculturalists. However, if not given the opportunity
for education, training and experience how can we expect to see anything
less than status quo?

Thank you.

MODERATOR: Terrific. Everybody give him a great hand. This was perfect.

\[Applause.\]

If you notice, he was finished on the yellow light. We wanted just to do
that to break the ice and get you into the room. First of all, all of
you standing around the back there are plenty of rooms up on the front
two or three rows unless your religion happens to be Baptist its fine if
you come on up here. So we\'d like too encourage everyone to please come
up and sit down. Before we go to having additional comments, we\'d like
to ask Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary to make a few comments, and
then they also would like to introduce comments from another
distinguished person.

SEC. CONNER: Dennis, thank you very much. And I really do appreciate
your willingness to step in the middle of this group and moderate for us
and I really do appreciate that. I thank Under Secretary Rey for joining
me up here today.

Just a few thank yous before we do get started with your comments, and
that is the chief purpose of why we are here, to hear from you.

I do want to thank your governor of this great state, Frank Murkowski
actually was the one who invited us specifically to come here. He asked
us specifically to hold a forum on behalf of the Farm Bill and sent a
letter to Secretary Johanns. And so we\'re quite honored to be asked by
the governor to come here and hear your views on this issue.

I also want to thank Larry Devilbiss. If you\'re here, Larry, please
raise your hand and give us a wave. Back in the corner. He\'s your
director of the Division of Agriculture here in the state. Larry, thank
you for being here.

Kate Williams I know is here. Kate, where are you? If she hasn\'t
stepped away? She\'s hiding back there, but Kate is with the Washington
staff of Senator Ted Stevens, knows a lot about agriculture in this
state. And we look forward to working with her more closely as we begin
this Farm Bill process as well.

On that note I would just say that really we couldn\'t be here today if
it wasn\'t for the great congressional representative that you guys have
in Senator Stevens and Lisa Murkowski and of course Representative Don
Young. We\'ve had a brief tour here today, and certainly you understand
in driving around this state the impact that these members of Congress
have had upon this state. And I think that impact has been a very
positive one. And they have certainly been tireless advocates for the
fishing, forestry and agricultural industries in this state.

Dennis, again thank you. Thanks to the American Legion Post 35 for their
efforts. Robert Anderson our state FFA president here in Alaska, and
Britany Vaughan a member of the Pathfinder 4-H Club, thank you for your
help as well as we attempt at the start of these sessions to give honor
to our great country that we so much have the privilege to live in here
today.

My appreciation to the organizations as well that helped us get the word
out about this Forum \-- Alaska Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, the National
Grange, the Alaska Grange, United Fishermen of Alaska, Association of
Conservation Districts all played an important role for us. Thank each
one of you for what you have done in that way.

Mark and I were really honored when Secretary Johanns asked us to be the
ones to come to Alaska to do this forum. He certainly sends his
greetings. He is in Alabama today on trade related business, but he is
also while there hosting a Farm Bill Forum in the state of Alabama as
well. So we are reaching out to many, many different regions of this
country. He has truly pledged to be an advocate for your industry, for
not only the traditional agricultural crops but for fishing and forestry
sectors as well in his role as your Secretary of Agriculture. And I can
assure you that he is doing what he can to expand markets for your
products that are produced here in Alaska.

This is of great importance to the state of Alaska, and I know Frank
Murkowski your governor is working to open doors for trade and commerce
for these Alaskan resources and the products you produce. And we really
do appreciate that work.

This state that counts the beauty, the wonder and the abundance of
natural resources among its most important aspects\-- I think it\'s
fitting that we have this forum here. It\'s fitting that we focus
specifically on some of the conservation aspects as well.

As some of you know and as Dennis mentioned in his opening remarks, I
grew up on a farm. And I think I understand some of the challenges
facing family farms and those involved in family food-related
businesses. That\'s one of the reasons I\'m thankful to be here in
Alaska.

After this Forum I\'ll be headed to the Alaska State Fair later on where
I\'ll have the honor of announcing the Farm Family of the Year Award for
the state of Nebraska. And it\'s again my pleasure \--

\[Laughter.\]

Nebraska? Boy, you guys. Please don\'t take this offensively. I\'m from
Indiana. I work for a former governor of Nebraska, so it must \-- I must
be trying to reach out to him today in some way. Alaska. And I promise I
will try and not do that again.

My goodness. Okay. Moving right along.

You\'ve got unique problems, and we\'ve heard about some of these
problems today. And this will be a different Farm Forum than I think we
have had in other states. You don\'t appreciate the size of this state
until you\'ve just traveled a little bit like I have today. You know,
challenges of, for example, getting a veterinarian for your livestock or
just simply the challenges of the additional cost that\'s associated
with being involved in production up here\-- these are unique
challenges, and we need to factor these into our Farm Bill debate as we
go forward because I\'m not certain that\'s been done very well in the
past. I\'m not certain your interests have been quite at the forefront
as perhaps they should going forward.

This is our tenth Farm Bill Forum. We have Secretary Johanns, Under
Secretary Rey and myself \-- we\'ve been in Tennessee, North Dakota,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, California, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wyoming
and now Alabama. And we are on a nationwide listening tour for this
purpose, and we are really I think learning lots at these forums.

This is our opportunity to stay connected with you and to make sure
it\'s not just sort of the people inside Washington that are providing
the input on this next Farm Bill. That would not be right, and we feel
it\'s very, very important to be out here with you.

I\'m not the only one excited about these tours. President Bush is
following the development of this Farm Bill very, very closely. He is a
great friend of American agriculture. He has a heart for farmers and
ranchers and all aspects of the food industry. And so if you guys will
indulge us just a minute we would like to play a taped message from the
President to welcome us to this Forum\-- if we\'ve got the taped
message.

Okay. We do not have the taped message. I can tell you the President
again in this message just expresses his strong excitement. You know the
President comes under some criticism for being outside of Washington a
lot. I can assure you he believes very, very strongly it is important to
get outside of Washington and to hear people and that was the point he
makes in this message that we\'ve been playing at each one of the Farm
Bill Forums. He encourages you to give us your input and promises that
we will take it into consideration.

Important point. I\'ve stressed it once but I need to say it again \--
we are here to listen to your ideas and your opinions. This is not an
opportunity for Mark and I to have a whole lot to say back and forth to
you. We are on this listening session to hear your point of views. We
can always have a forum in Washington to stand up and say what we think
about things.

But again, this is our opportunity to be with you, to hear what is
working in Alaska and what is not. And from some of what I\'ve heard
today, we need to do some work to make sure these programs are
specifically tailored towards your needs because there has been a
tendency in the past to develop these things very, very much for the
part of the country where I come from originally, Indiana and some of
our southern regions. That\'s not right. We need to make sure as well
that you guys get a fair opportunity to be participants in these
programs.

We\'ve got six questions that we\'re going to consider. Now if some of
these questions may be highly relevant to Alaska, they may be not. The
first question though I think is important to the state. It\'s important
to us. And it\'s really the reason that we are doing what we\'re doing
with these Farm Bill Forums. And that is, we\'re concerned about the
next generation of farming. I think past Farm Bills have focused very,
very much on what\'s good for farm, ranch, forestry next year kind of
things.

And I\'m not saying that\'s unimportant. At the same time too I think
it\'s important we look forward a little bit and say, okay, what\'s good
next year, but what\'s going to be important to bring that next
generation into this type of business, this line of business that we
call food production, that we call farming, ranching, fishing, forestry,
whatever the case may be?

I noticed in Alaska the average age of a person involved in food
production in some way in your state is 58 years old. That\'s even a
little bit higher than the national average, which is too high. And just
10 years ago that average age I believe was about 51 or 52. So that
number is going up. We have an aging population in this business because
new people are not coming in. That\'s not right. And we need to hear
about what we can do to make sure there is a next generation, and
that\'s the principle focus of our first question we\'ve asked you
about. How can we do this?

The second question deals with competitiveness, and this is a tough
issue, it\'s a tough issue for all producers, but we just simply note
for the record that 95 percent of the world\'s population does not
reside under the U.S. flag. And there are a lot of people out there that
need our products. How can we get our products, whether that\'s corn
from Indiana or salmon from Alaska into the hands of the people who need
it? I think our future and our ability to have profitability in the
future probably depends upon how we solve that one question.

Our third question deals with farm program benefits. I know this is an
issue where we are making an attempt I think to try and get our farm
program benefits which are geared towards the Midwest section of the
region of the country better suited to Alaska. They\'re not very suited.
We\'re trying to get there. You actually have access to these programs
this year for the first time. Let\'s talk about how we can make that
better going forward with the new Farm Bill.

Our fourth question I\'m going to turn over to Mark because it is a
specific focus of this particular session, and that is dealing with our
conservation of our natural resources. You have an incredible natural
resource base in this state, and it sounds gratuitous for me to even say
it because it\'s such a natural observation to make. But that doesn\'t
come without a cost. And there are reasons that is going to continue in
the future, and I think there are important questions to be considered
on that that Mark is going to discuss.

The fifth question\-- you have a lot of rural areas in the state of
Alaska. And a lot of people residing in those rural areas. And many of
our programs we have, whether it\'s sewer and water loans for rural
areas, housing assistance, all these kinds of things are very, very
tailored toward rural areas. But I\'m not sure they\'re very tailored
toward rural areas in Nebraska. And we need to look at that and make
sure we\'re doing that properly.

And finally the sixth question deals with research. And we\'ve talked a
little bit about agriculture research today in terms of some of the
natural pests that may be out there, some of the invasive species that
are threatening this state. We need I believe to consider how a Farm
Bill might help us move forward and develop these new technologies that
are going to be necessary to protect ourselves going forward and for us
to remain competitive.

So again, I just want to stress that my intention is to say very little
throughout this forum. We\'re anxious to hear from you. Once I finally
give up the mike here we\'re going to be anxious to hear what\'s on your
minds.

So Mark, do you want to give them a footnote on conservation as well
before we start?

SEC. MARK REY: Sure. As Chuck indicated I\'m the under Secretary for
Natural Resources and the Environment with jurisdiction over the Forest
Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. My career has
been spent working on conservation, a significant amount of that related
to Alaska. During my tenure on this Energy and Natural Resources
Committee staff I had occasion to work for then-committee Chairman
Senator Frank Murkowski as well as providing staff assistance to Senator
Ted Stevens.

As you may know the Farm Bill is one mechanism that helps us to work on
conservation. The 2002 Farm Bill was considered landmark legislation for
conservation funding and for focusing on environmental issues. The
conservation provisions of that bill have assisted farmers and ranchers
in meeting environmental challenges on their lands. That Farm Bill, the
2002 bill, also simplified existing conservation programs and created
new conservation programs all seeking to enhance the long-term quality
of conservation on working farms, ranches and forestlands.

One of the new programs created by the 2002 Farm Bill (audio break) and
related resources on tribal and private lands. This has been a
successful program implemented since 2002 in a cooperative spirit. In
2005 by the end of this fiscal year, the end of next month, we will have
awarded 12,700 contracts nationwide under the Conservation Security
Program resulting in a long-term commitment of more than \$1 billion to
conservation work over the next 10 years.

Today we are announcing the watersheds that are selected for the
Conservation Security Program in 2006. We are announcing the
identification and selection of 110 watersheds with at least one in all
50 states that will be eligible for 2006 Conservation Security Program
funding.

The sign-up period will take place early in the fiscal year. These
watersheds represent more than 120,000 of the nation\'s potentially
eligible farms and ranches covering an additional 46 million acres that
are evenly split between cropland and grazing land.

Here in Alaska two watersheds\-- the Upper Kenai and the Anchorage
watershed \-- have been selected for eligibility for funding for this
2006 Conservation Security Program. This voluntary program recognizes
farmers and ranchers for their ongoing stewardship activities on working
agricultural lands.

The 2006 program will also include a renewable energy component for the
first time. Eligible producers will receive compensation for converting
to renewable energy fuel such as biodiesel and ethanol, for recycling
100 percent of on-farm lubricants, and for implementing energy
production including wind, solar, geothermal and methane production.

The sign-up announcement for the 2006 program will be published in
detail shortly in the Federal Register. Additional information on the
program, with a map of the Fiscal Year 2006 watersheds and eligibility
requirements, is featured on the Web at the Natural Resources
Conservation Services\' website which is WWW.NRCS.USDA.GOV.

As Chuck indicated, Secretary Johanns is in Alabama today as we speak
conducting a Farm Bill Forum in that state as we are here with you in
Alaska. As Chuck also indicated, the primary purpose of this forum is to
hear from you, not for us to speak to you. So with that I\'d be
interested in hearing the next of our participants tell us what they
think.

Thanks, Dennis.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Here is the process one more time. If you choose
to not speak at the session there is a USDA table outside where you are
more than welcome to ask questions or to deliver comments. You can also
go to WWW.USDA.GOV and you can make comments on-line if that\'s the way
you choose.

However, we are hoping that many of you want to make comments today so
the Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary can hear the comments directly.
We\'re going to hear as many comments as we can in the time allotted.
But we are going to reserve a little time at the end of the session
today so there can be some questions they could respond to.

But again, your comments need to be three minutes long, you need to
introduce yourself, your community and how you feel what type of
agriculture you\'re involved with. So there could be some connection to
how that would relate to the Farm Bill. And you\'re supposed to respond
to one of these questions and give some good feedback. It\'s being
recorded, and I\'d once again like to urge all of you guys standing in
the back that we still have room up here in the front and we promise not
to pick on you. So please come up.

Okay. The people will speak in the order they come to the mike, so we\'d
like people that want to make comments \-- you can do it a few of you
right now just stand up and get behind the mike and in that order we
will be taking your comments.

Okay, we\'ll start with this gentleman.

MR. ERIC DOWNEY (sp): Thank you. It\'s great to go first because lots of
other things to do and might have an opportunity to actually remember a
few things I\'m saying. My name\'s Eric Downey and I\'m with the Alaska
Manufacturing Extension Partnership. Thanks very much for coming out
here. We really do appreciate this. And I\'d like to commend the USDA
for creating the Rural Internet Broadband Program. I recommend you
continue that program in the 2007 Farm Bill.

Broadband program offers partial solutions for questions number two and
five on competitiveness and rural assistance; 81 percent of U.S. workers
are connected to broadband. I couldn\'t\' live without it, and you guys
probably couldn\'t either. It opens up a whole new way of doing
business.

I have a computer programmer out in Bethel. I\'ve got a graphic designer
down in Billingham, Washington. And my webmaster is over in Iola,
Kansas. And so these are some of the ways that the Internet allows us to
do business. And oh, all these guys charge me a lot of money. And so
these cashflows out of my pocket and into rural America would not be
possible without broadband Internet.

It\'s a powerful tool for removing some barriers to making a living in
rural Alaska and outside rural America.

But broadband is scarce and prohibitively expensive in parts of rural
Alaska. Telecom companies are not able to serve these small markets in a
cost-effective manner, and so there\'s a service gap. And this gap
creates an important role for government service in the delivery of
broadband, at least temporarily until technology solves this problem and
narrows the gap.

The Farm Bill is bridging the gap by putting broadband into Alaska
villages where there is no Internet, and this is a very needed and
worthy effort. Our company, the U.S. Department of Commerce National
Institute of Standards and Technology, and the state of Alaska are
following on the USDA\'s efforts. We\'re right behind you, we\'re
establishing rural e-commerce centers in a variety of villages so locals
can use the Internet to sell their home-based manufactured goods, their
tourism services, their professional services, and their Alaskan native
art.

But hardware is not enough. Training is the key to success. Without a
history of Internet use in these communities, it really takes three
elements to make the program work \-- the broadband, e-commerce centers,
and entrepreneurship training. That\'s why we\'re providing the
entrepreneurship training in skills development. If you are to make any
changes in the \'07 Farm Bill, we recommend that you open up the
training component to non-telecommunications companies who can emphasize
more on entrepreneurship.

Out in the lobby you may have seen there are some fine examples of
native art that used to be sold generally to a village store, then to a
wholesaler, then to a gallery, and finally to a customer. It\'s a
standard distribution channel, but this channel often only about 10
percent of the final selling price comes back to the artist in the
village. The Farm Bill coupled with our e-commerce program is opening up
entirely new markets for this art which increases the overall demand.

I\'m red already? Oh, boy. Okay. In summary, thank you guys very much.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

\[Applause.\]

MS. LEE HECINOVICH: Thank you. My name is Lee Hecinovich, and I
represent the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H within the Matsu
(unclear) District and statewide. And I will address question number
one, and I will also echo Jeff Werner\'s concern on education and
continued funding for education.

We need to start with our kids at an early age and continue on. 4-H is
over 100 years old and is also celebrating 75 years along with Extension
of educating our Alaskans in a variety of different topics. But the
heart of 4-H has always been the animals and agriculture. And if you go
out to the fair this next couple weeks \-- I\'ve already been there
several days so I apologize for my appearance, but you\'ll see that as
4-H expands into many areas whether it be computers or shooting sports,
the heart has always been agriculture and animals. And you just can\'t
ever separate it.

But please consider continuing to fund these, and the educational
aspects, and also you need to be thinking about enhancing our
collaborations with different agencies, working together, developing
partnerships and mentorships whether within the agencies, schools or at
various organizations, to keep our young people aware of what\'s going
on, what their opportunities are and how to be best suited for what
they\'re getting into. Thank you.

SEC. CONNER: Thank you. I was a 10-year 4-H member, and it was a very
important part of my growing up.

MS. PAULA CULLENBERG: Thanks, and welcome to Alaska. My name is Paula
Cullenberg. I\'m an associate professor at the School of Fisheries and
Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. I\'m also the associate
director of Alaska Sea Grant and the director of the Marine Advisory
Program which is a statewide marine Extension Service. We have 14
Extension agents located in nine coastal communities in the state.

I\'m also a Bristol Bay salmon fisherman for 15 years as well.

And a couple years ago we got closely involved in USDA activities when
we were tasked with providing technical assistance to the Trade
Adjustment Assistance Act in the state. And we ended up doing 250
workshops about the state for about 4,500 salmon fishermen, all the way
from Ketchikan to Kotzebue north of the Arctic Circle \-- talking about
how to keep their salmon business sustainable.

We also did a survey of those fishermen, and we got about 2,500
responses and got a pretty clear indication that salmon fishermen in the
state are determined to keep their industry viable. We have a very
valuable wild resource here that I think salmon fishermen across the
state are working very hard to maintain their markets in the face of
global competition and the whole marketplace situation that we\'ve been
struggling with.

Recently I authored a paper with an economist for something called the
Farm Bill Briefing Book for Congress on Wild Salmon Policy. And we
looked at a number of policy decisions that have been in the state and
with the federal government, and made some recommendations on things the
Farm Bill and USDA might be able to facilitate salmon fishermen in the
state.

Moving forward and just to read down a few of those\-- first of all I
think salmon needs to be accepted into the larger world of U.S. food
processors and food producers. Acceptance of wild capture fisheries and
aquaculture produced fish and shellfish as an important and vital
contributor to America\'s diet would put participants on an even playing
field with other food producers in our nation.

We\'d like to see some quality incentives and disincentives. Price
supports for chilled salmon which are handled properly could encourage
fishermen to invest in refrigeration on-board. Adopt new handling
standards that could produce consistent quality salmon which is
definitely an issue in our state. Establishment of minimum product
quality standards such as mandatory chilling.

Higher standards for both vessel and plant sanitation could improve the
competitiveness of Alaska salmon particularly in demanding markets such
as the EU. Risk mitigation tools which support production fluctuations
and innovative changes to the industry. And we are very similar to
farmers here. We certainly feel highs and lows in our production.
Support for cooperative marketing efforts \--

MODERATOR: Excuse me. You are red.

MS. CULLENBERG: Okay. And I have a copy of this that I\'ll leave on the
table here. So thanks very much.

SEC. CONNER: Thank you very much.

MODERATOR: This is the way we turn all Democrats into Republicans. You
are red.

\[Laughter\]

MR. BILL WALL (sp): Thank you. My name is Bill Wall. I\'m the executive
director of the Private Lands Wildlife Management Program under Alaska
Village Initiatives.

First I\'d like to thank Mark and the DC staff for working effectively
with us to begin taking some of the programs under the Farm Bill to
rural Alaska even more effectively relative to subsistence use of
wildlife and fisheries. And also Bob Jones from here in the state and
his state also have been very, very helpful and supportive as we began
this process.

I have to tell you that it\'s a very exciting time, and we\'re looking
forward to the next Farm Bill as well as we introduce these programs
more effectively into rural Alaska.

With that I\'m going to hit some bullet points that address the third,
fourth and fifth questions I believe.

We would like to see the alignment of the definitions in policy
regarding subsistence definitions and eligibility for Farm Bill programs
for private and native corporation lands in rural Alaska. And I\'ll have
a copy of this as well.

Fully recognize the unique needs of rural Alaska and the fact that the
current Farm Bill programs are structured for the Lower 48 agriculture
and need adaptation to rural Alaska. You mentioned that earlier, Chuck,
and we appreciate that recognition.

Fully recognize the unique structure of ownership in rural Alaska and
the use of rural Alaska private lands between tribes, corporations,
communities and develop policy definitions and policy that fit rural
Alaska private lands and subsistence economies such as the definition of
\"beginning farmer.\"

Develop a funding formula for regional state equity to increase funding
to Alaska. Recognize that there are 44 million acres of eligible private
lands in Alaska, and that\'s the size of the entire state of Washington.

Recognize the need and fund a culturally-based education and outreach
program to rural Alaska landowners on programs and services under the
Farm Bill that meets the unique needs of rural Alaska.

Recognize the need and fund technical assistance programs tailored to
rural Alaska landowners\' needs to for subsistence agriculture.

Increase funding for the WHIP program which most effectively fits rural
Alaska relative to subsistence.

NRCS has historically provided very little funding in Alaska, and
that\'s just based on the way the structure of the formula was done in
the past. And we\'ve seen tremendous strides forward in that, but
historically there was very little. And much work remains to enhance
conservation practices in private lands in Alaska.

Reduce and streamline the definitions for cost-share requirements for
rural Alaska private lands. A high level of poverty and minimal local
cash economics are insufficient for high-cost share regulations.

Provide funding and support for establishing and maintaining tribal
conservation districts throughout Alaska. We appreciate the quickness in
which the Secretary addressed this issue already, and we\'re very, very
excited to continue that work in the future. So thank you very much.

MODERATOR: Time is up.

MR. WALL: Almost got there. I have the rest on paper. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Tom?

MR. TOM HARRIS: Thank you very much. I am Tom Harris, president of
Alaska Village Initiatives. It is an association of 180 village
corporations, regional corporations and tribes representing some 100,000
Alaska citizens and U.S. citizens who happen to be Alaskan native
landowners. The question that I\'d like to address though is one that
affects all of us as Alaskans and Americans \-- how should farm policy
be designed to maximize U.S. competitiveness and our country\'s ability
to effectively compete in global markets?

In the area of wildlife Alaska has fallen behind the rest of the nation
in providing productive wildlife habitat for grazing animals such as the
moose, elk, deer, goats, caribou, musk ox, buffalo and sheep. Recent
research shows that in 2001 more grazing wildlife was harvested within
60 miles of the borders of Washington, DC than was harvested in Alaska.
This new relationship between USDA and Alaska native landowners holds
great promise for Alaska to meet all the subsistence and recreational
needs of not just the rural Alaskans but every Alaskan citizen \-- at
the same time develop world-class wildlife recreational resources for
the world market.

To give you an example of what this means, if Alaska were to meet, not
exceed, just match the national average for out-of-state hunters that
the Lower 48 enjoys, it would add \$30 million a year to the budget to
the Alaska State Fish and Game.

Most rural Alaskans have reason to fear development such as gold mines,
temper harvest oilfield development, because they bring new users with
no resources to an already overburdened resource. USDA-NRCS we believe
is the key. Bob Jones, when he came to the state of Alaska, I had to
tell him that from our board\'s perspective he\'s the most important man
to walk into the state in a long time because he\'s bringing with him
you as an agency. And we miss you, believe me. We hope that this
resource will allow rural Alaskan communities to welcome development
instead of oppose it by reducing the fear and helping us restore and
enhance Alaska\'s wildlife resource.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Tom. You\'re next.

MR. MIKE SHULTZ: Oh, all right. Thank you. I\'d like to introduce
myself. My name is Mike Shultz. I\'m here as the president of the Alaska
Farm Bureau. I\'m a grain producer from Delta Junction, Alaska, about
300 miles from here. I\'d like to welcome you folks, and I hope you
enjoy your short visit here in Alaska and hope you find some interesting
things to look at.

Brief explanation on what the Alaska Farm Bureau did over the summer
months here. We scheduled several meetings. The purpose of the meetings
were to give our members and farmers in different areas of the state a
chance to give us ideas as to what they saw was important in upcoming
discussion on the Farm Bill.

Some of the ideas that came out of that series of meetings I will read
here shortly if time permits.

I\'ve listed them out in order of your six questions you posed. And
under the first question number one on the farm policy and unintended
consequences and so on comments were, to continue to allow programs to
be administered from the ground up through local representatives that
have been elected by their peers such as the Soil and Water Conservation
Districts and FSA County committees. We feel that\'s instrumental to
making these programs work is to let those folks out in the area have
some jurisdiction over what goes on with these programs.

Question number two, we don\'t have a state certified disease testing
and quarantine facility; nor do we have a certified feed lot nor a port
of entry in Alaska. A lot of this \-- I\'m trying to cram a lot into a
few seconds here \-- but a lot of this involves bringing cattle into the
state. It\'s really frustrated our whole situation here bringing in
feedlot cattle, feedlot replacement cattle or replacement heifers for
our dairy industry, the whole border situation, the mad cow disease
problem. And these are components of the new regulations coming into
effect now. So we could take half an hour just on that issue, but I\'ll
move on.

Question number three\-- make farm start loan program eligible for all
commodities including hay to allow for hay storage structures. Second
item that same question, make grass hay eligible for LDPs. Now I know
how the LDP program works and it\'s probably a stretch there. There\'s
no terminal market for grass hay, but we do have a lot of grass hay
producers in the state, and I guess the main point is they have done it
all on their own. There is no government support programs as you know
for hay producers, and something that would resemble loan deficiency
payments might be appropriate for them.

Restore wetland compliance exemption for any state that has less than 1
percent of land in the state in wetlands on privately owned land. Alaska
has .8 percent. This is something that was in effect in past years \--

MODERATOR: And I am also very sorry but \--

MR. SHULTZ: Boy, those three minutes went fast!

MODERATOR: \-- three minutes goes very \-- but all the things that are
written down I do hope that you leave them at the USDA desk or on-line
or someplace because those are great comments. Thanks.

SEC. CONNER: Dennis, let me just say I appreciate the comments on the
Canadian border. Too much of our day is given towards working on that
one issue, and I can only imagine the greater impact that it probably
has on the state of Alaska. You know, we believe the border should be
reopened. I think there\'s no health or scientific reason why it should
remain closed. So sometime over the next 12 months, 8 to 12 months it
would be our intention to try and continue to move in that direction as
we\'ve demonstrated so far.

MODERATOR: And for everyone, I am noting when you\'re standing up at the
mike. And so I have you in order of when you showed up. And if I don\'t
know we\'ll figure out how we\'re going to do it. We\'ll flip a coin.

MR. SAM COTTON: Thank you. My name\'s Sam Cotton. I grew up here in the
valley, but my folks were in the water wheel business, and we provided a
lot of water wheels for farm families and irrigation. But I sort of
wandered off the farm a bit and now I\'m a commercial salmon fisherman.
I also, like a lot of a salmon fisherman, have a day job. I work with
the local government out in Southwest Alaska whose economy depends
entirely on fish. So I wanted to address a couple of your questions on
next generation competitiveness and benefits.

And I think fishermen and farmers have a lot in common as far as food
production is concerned, as long as the farmers don\'t start farming
salmon.

\[Laughter\]

Thank you. But we are in a similar boat as far as concerned about the
next generation. I\'ve got a couple boys that work on my boat with me.
And I\'m 58 years old; your average farmer I suppose. And I\'m looking
forward to somebody else getting into the business. And we appreciated
the TAA program, the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that the
fishermen were allowed to participate in.

But I was disappointed when the training that was offered was very clear
they weren\'t going to allow any training that had anything to do with
the fishing business. They wanted us to become watchmakers or some
other, get involved in some other industry, because it just wasn\'t part
of the program to train us to be more competitive in the fishing
industry\-- processing, marketing, other things that would help
fishermen become more competitive.

The other thing about that particular program that astounded most of us
and the logic of it escaped me was that the benefits that were allowed
were based on volume rather than value. For example, you got I think it
was 2 or 3 cents a pound for every pink salmon you caught and 2 or 3
cents a pound for red salmon you caught. This year\'s prices were about
a nickel for pinks and about 90 cents for reds. So maybe you could
compare it to a bale of hay and a pound of some other high-value farm
product and see there wasn\'t any logic in that.

So we as fishermen appreciated participation in the program. We\'re
working with the state of Alaska. The state\'s really made a strong
effort to assist in the fishing industry; we\'ve appreciated that very
much and look forward to the Department of Agriculture taking a closer
look at some of the training and other benefit programs that affect
fishermen. Thank you.

MR. VICTOR MERCULIEF: My name is Victor Merculief. I\'m from the
Aleutian region. I represent the Island Herders Association Coalition,
and it consists of some villages of Aleutians and also Nunivak Island
and the Pribilof Islands where there\'s crab resources, resources for
the Bering Sea are dwindling. We have a strong need to continue looking
at doing cattle and reindeer operations on our islands. We operate off
half a million acres of land plus more if the Fish and Wildlife Service
will work with us.

The fencing funds that came down through NRCS and Farm Service Agency
helped out a lot this year. And it\'s going to be very beneficial to us.
We have the largest cattle operation in the state of Alaska in the
Aleutians right now. We\'ve got about 10,000 head of deer collectively.
This is probably around question number five I suppose. We\'d like to
grow the herds in order to sustain our communities and help ourselves.
For the 2006 Bill we\'d like to see some changes made that would allow
the reindeer to be treated amenable to cattle or like cattle when we put
them through the slaughter facility. If someone could do that for us it
would be appreciated.

We do need money for infrastructure. I have a briefing paper I\'ll leave
with the lady for you. Thank you. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Victor.

FEMALE: (woman speaks off-mike)

MODERATOR: I\'m sorry. You\'ve got your time. Thank you.

MS. CATHERINE INMAN: Hello. My name is Catherine Inman, and I\'m the
district manager at the Palmer Soil and Water Conservation District, so
a special welcome. And I came here today to present a direct voice for
those who are implementing these Farm Bill policies. I\'d like to
address one, three and four\-- the need to engage new people in
sustainable natural resource production industry.

(audio break)

\-- list you look at one of the fastest 10 top-growing areas in the
country. So in development growth and conservation are really coming
together here in a very interesting and fast way.

The main programs of the Palmer District are in providing landowner
services, working in close partnership with NRCS to our cooperating
farmers. We also work in watershed education, again with great support
from our partners at NRCS. We have formed a watershed coalition, and as
I look around the room there are too many partners to even name. We\'re
working with so many of the different public and private and individuals
who are here.

We work in invasive plant management recently with support from the
Forest Service to state and private forestry. And they\'ve been a
tremendous partner leading the charge for conservation districts across
Alaska to form cooperative weed management areas locally. We have
several of them across the state, and Palmer District just hired on a
state-wide coordinator that\'s helping locally and statewide. So it will
never be cheaper to implement prevention of invasive plant problems than
it is right now in Alaska. We\'re learning so quickly about what\'s
coming.

What I\'d specifically like to speak to is farmland protection. It\'s
been a big push that we have. We\'re going to have a display and
petition at the fair. There\'s of course concern about losing farmland
so rapidly to development, and we\'ve really put together a coalition
that\'s working on that. Specifically we\'d like to see more funding in
GRP since that can fund up to 100 percent of a conservation easement.

We do have landowners coming in the door who are very interested. The
FREP program as well. But we\'ve been struggling to meet that local cost
match with our various setups, so we\'re running fast on that, we\'re
getting interest building, and we definitely need more funding for GRP
in the near future.

Education, of course undoubtedly one of the most important things that
we do, and it overlaps into every part of our program. We want to get
new young people with both the ability to afford to go into agriculture
and other natural resource industry but to understand it and to really
get a passion for natural resource science.

And again, we\'re one of the on-the-ground implementers, and I want to
especially thank you for taking the time to listen to us today. Enjoy.

MR. TOM HEALY (sp): Hi. I\'m Tom Healy. I\'m a city manager from the
city of Palmer. First of all, on behalf of Mayor Colmes (sp) and the
City Council I\'d like to welcome you to Palmer and hope your stay is
productive. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on these USDA
programs.

Palmer as you know is really the foundation of our agriculture is the
foundation of what Palmer was built on. And from the Colony project in
the \'30s, more than 60 years the residents and officials of the city of
Palmer and the area have done an excellent job in preparing for the
needs of the citizens in developing the community from the ground up in
terms of basic infrastructure.

I guess I\'d want to comment on a local example we have of USDA\'s
assistance, the utility programs, in terms of meeting environmental
goals and community sustainability. Palmer\'s water and sewer system was
developed, is a core system today\'s. We have a very extensive
collection and distribution system. Good basic public utilities are the
foundation of sound and sustainable development, and Palmer I think is a
unique example of that.

Right now we\'re in sort of a historical level of growth in this area,
and we are working with others to meet the demands of that growth. I
might interject here too there were comments of preserving and
conserving farmlands, where Palmer is also in the midst of revising its
comprehensive plan. And this is a central issue to those discussions in
terms of the future of farmlands.

Our local utility example is the Southwest Utility Extension Project.
Initially we\'ll serve the construction of a new hospital about five
miles south of town. This is a great location for a hospital; it just
happened to be five miles from any municipal utility. So, but because of
the work that had been done over the years in building a good utility
system in Palmer, Palmer has the capacity to meet the demands of this
large new investment that will serve our entire region.

Through the efforts of Senator Murkowski, the state of Alaska, the
Secretary, the city of Palmer, our local USDA office, Bill Allen and his
staff, USDA has provided more than half the funding for this utility
extension project. And we appreciate that. I think this is a good
example of these programs providing the basic utility systems in terms
of assuring a good quality of life and the ability for communities to
sustain themselves. The costs of public utilities are very high. And
these programs are valuable in areas like Palmer. I also had an
experience in a community in Southeast that had helped. So I appreciate
that assistance.

MS. RONNIE SULLIVAN: Hi. My name\'s Ronnie Sullivan. I\'m with Southern
Region EMS Services. Our office is in Anchorage. But I\'m here to talk
about emergency medical services in all the rural communities across
Alaska.

I\'m speaking to question number five on your list on how these programs
can provide effective assistance in rural communities. I want to speak
especially to the importance of the special impact initiative in the
community facilities program.

Emergency medical services are a vital part of a healthy community. They
establish the first access to healthcare, the first response to medical
and other emergencies. They\'re usually volunteer organizations and they
serve very small populations, very reliant on the service due to the
distance from other areas, weather, lack of hospitals and so on.

Here we are, a small hometown volunteer services. They have limited ways
to get equipment, EMS equipment. Code Blue is a very successful program
that was developed with the assistance of the USDA Rural Development
program along with other partners including the state, private
foundation and local funding. It\'s been tremendously successful, and so
far has served 170 communities in Alaska.

The difference it\'s made has been that it\'s actually kept EMS services
in some of these areas from closing their doors. I\'ve worked with
communities from almost every one of the previous speakers, and so I
know you folks know what I\'m talking about. These are better-equipped
EMS squads now; they have improved morale; they understand there are
people willing to listen to them and help with their issues. They are
better equipped rural clinics, better utilization of the very limited
resources. They provide better healthcare and better communities.

In closing I would like to thank USDA Rural Development program for
their commitment to rural Alaska. I encourage your continued and
increasing support for this important program. It\'s critical to the
health and well-being of rural communities across Alaska. Thank you.

MS. ROBIN RICHARDSON: Hello. Welcome Mr. Conner and welcome back Mr.
Rey. My name is Robin Richardson. And today I\'d like to address the
question number two, how would farm policy be designed to maximize U.S.
competitiveness and our country\'s ability to effectively compete in
global markets?

Yesterday I noticed an article in an international seafood publication.
It was entitled, \"USDA Gives Alaska Special Consideration.\" And it
referred to your visit and the testimony today. Unfortunately these
messages are broadcast around the world about food production in Alaska,
and they\'re consistent. They have been references to emergency aid,
subsidies, grant awards, and gross commercial errors in the public and
private sectors.

I preface my following remarks with fact that I like many who have
testified before you in Alaska and then those in Minnesota, California,
Indiana, maybe Nebraska I don\'t know, have a great sense of personal
pride. I desperately want the future headlines around the world to
reflect Alaska to be a leader in food and food-based industries\-- so
much so that I am part of a new private company to facilitate this
vision. It\'s called Global Food Collaborative Alaska, and it\'s located
in Anchorage.

So how can the 2007 Farm Bill maximize our U.S. competitiveness? Well, I
just completed a degree in global supply chain management at UAA, a
Masters program, where we looked at everything in terms of systems. And
as I read through the previous testimony in other states there seems to
be a glaring omission of people testifying to the fact that this is a
system and that it should be recognized as a system linking the systems
that support agriculture and the related programs.

Each testimony refers to one element of that system, but no one has
addressed how that system interrelates. It\'s my observation in
countries that are maximizing their competitiveness that they have
approached the industry as an entire system. Foreign trade agreements,
education K through graduate, training, supply chain information
technologies, research production marketing and all the associated
polices are part of a grand scheme.

In countries where we compete with seafood \-- for example Norway,
Chile, Ireland, Iceland \-- they have addressed the interdependence and
synergies of these elements with the strategic and intentional
objective. Although I fully understand market economies U.S. innovation
independence, it is not apparent that our elements have a visible and
flowing system.

In Alaska for example, we received multimillions of dollars to support
marketing Alaskan seafood. We\'re grateful and there are indeed some
great successes. However, we have no comprehensive educational programs
that teach us the business of food. How can Alaska compete when our
competitors are fully engaging their children in the business or science
of food? The same goes with research. Millions of dollars go to research
and development, but there\'s no mandatory or incentivized linkage to
the commercial companies or applications.

Thank you for your time.

MR. CHIP TRINON (sp): First I\'ll say thank you very much for giving us
the opportunity to come and testify. My name is Chip Trinon. I\'m a
commercial fisherman. I also happen to be I think the only commercial
fisherman who\'s a member of the county committee, FSA county committee.
And I was elected last year based on my commercial fishing
participation.

I\'ll begin by addressing the first issue. I know these reading glasses
notwithstanding we commercial fishermen are pretty young lot, a pretty
youthful lot compared to farmers. Our average age is probably more like
50.

\[Laughter\]

But we still have a problem with the next generation of fishermen
entering the fishery. And one thing we certainly need to be careful of
are unintended consequences of support for one portion of an industry
that ends up being at the expense of another portion of the industry.
And I\'ll reference that to a Department of Commerce initiative to
support fish farming in the federal waters.

That support may be coupled with potential USDA programs that those fish
farms might be eligible for would certainly put capture fisheries,
commercial fishermen, at a disadvantage. So I guess the point is, we
want to make sure there aren\'t any unintended consequences of programs
that would be supported by the Department of Agriculture that would be
at the expense of the groups already there.

I\'d like to just say that we need to have a broad view like the
previous speaker mentioned, that this is a system, and as food producers
we need to be part of that system. And we appreciate the chance to be
involved with the Department of Agriculture and get some of our views
known on that.

I also wanted to just express a view on conservation and environmental
goals. I think they\'re most achievable when there\'s a viable economy
in the area, and we need to make sure that commercial fishermen are
supported because they want a few viable economic activities that can
take place in many of these rural Alaska areas. So thank you very much
for listening.

MR. STEVE DUNCAN (sp): My name is Steve Duncan. I live down off the
outer Springer Loop system in a subdivision that used to be farmland.
One of the things that I did want to speak about today is that we
continue our support for the farmland protection.

I know we had some funds made available to us here this year to purchase
conservation easements I believe on farmland, and those funds had to be
turned back in because we couldn\'t come up with a matching amount of
money that was needed, that we have people that are interested in that
but we just don\'t have a way at this point with coming up with those
matching funds.

One thing, we hope those funds will continue to be forthcoming and that
maybe there\'s some way that we can help to maybe find a way to make it
easier for the farmers up here to take advantage of that funding, maybe
by reducing the number of acres necessary to set aside in a parcel or
maybe by some way of reducing that matching grant requirement if
there\'s any way possible to do that.

As Catherine Inman said awhile ago, this is one of the fastest growing
areas in the whole country. During the first six months of this year
there was over 100 new subdivisions platted in this borough in the core
area around here, which includes a lot of farmland. We currently have a
proposal for a Kinikarm (sp) Crossing, for a ferry system, for a bridge
to come across Kinikarm over to Point McKinsey. There\'s a lot of
farmland over there that will come under threat from the induced
development that will follow the bridge when the bridge gets made. So I
hope that you\'ll take that into consideration and keep those funds
available for us.

I also am the Environmental Protection Agency\'s Aquatic Resource
representative here in the Matsu Borough, and I just want to express
appreciation for the leadership role that the Department of Agriculture
through the NRCS has taken for producing tools that allow us to make
sound land management use decisions. Particularly the soil surveys is a
perfect example of that.

Making those tools available so that they can be shared by other state
and federal agencies as well as local communities and local governments
in a user-friendly, easily accessible format, some way that local
developers and everybody that has an interest in this land-use
management planning and developing areas can go to a single place and
pull those tools up and sit down and look at them at the same time and
help them make the decisions that need to be made with sensitive type
resource areas.

You know, I\'m particularly interested in wetlands and steams and things
like that as the Aquatic Resource coordinator.

Another tool that was recently developed here as a result of NRCS
cooperation was the low level, high resolution aerial photography, the
road system here in the borough. Those things aren\'t quite available to
all of us yet, and I would encourage you to help find a way to make
those available to the general public in that user-friendly,
easily-accessible format. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Steve.

MR. DAVID SUTTON: Thank you for being here, gentlemen. I\'m responding
to question number five, how can federal, rural and farm \--

MODERATOR: Please everybody, do introduce yourselves. We really want to
know your names.

MR. SUTTON: David Sutton. Farm programs provide assistance in rural
areas. I\'m a volunteer board member of Sunshine Community Health
Center. Sunshine Community Health Center\'s a federally-qualified health
center offering comprehensive healthcare including oral and behavioral
health to people living throughout the upper Susitna Valley of the
Matanuska Susitna borough. Our organization was founded in 1986 through
a grassroots efforts to bring healthcare to this remote rural region for
the first time.

Sunshine Clinic opened its trailer clinic in 1987. Our service area
stretches nearly 160 miles along both sides of the Alaska Parks Highway
encompassing 12,250 square miles, an area larger than Maryland and
Delaware combined.

Sunshine Community Health Center expanded services to the communities of
Trapper Creek and Willow via a mobile clinic affectionately known as
Mobie in 2002, 2003. And we opened a permanent satellite clinic in
Willow in September 2003.

From 1994 until 2004 we were located in a duplex apartment building in a
series of other small outbuildings and trailers. We had only four exam
rooms, one of which was a converted closet. Our x-ray developer and
viewer were located in our staff bathroom. Our lab was a converted
kitchen.

In 2000 our board and senior management staff agreed that the most
important strategic priority of our organization was to construct a new
facility. We began our capital campaign in January 2001, and were
graciously awarded a USDA Rural Development grant for \$2.56 million in
September 2001. That grant was the backbone of our capital project which
totaled \$5 million. We completed construction and moved into our new
12,000 square foot facility in January 2004.

There are very few options and resources for communities such as ours to
support major capital development. Rural communities in Alaska lack
governmental infrastructure and tax bases. Investing in capital projects
to build capacity in rural areas for primary telemedicine,
telepsychiatry and telepharmacy should be a critical component of a
federal assistance to rural areas. Investing dollars in carefully
planned projects such as community health centers, construction and
expanded health service delivery options not only expands healthcare
resources for community members; it also supports economic growth for
rural areas.

For example, we are now the third largest employer in the area, and we
provide health insurance to our employees. Investing in primary care and
health delivery capital projects should continue to be the priority of
the USDA 2007 Farm Bill. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Dave. Yes, sir.

MR. OMAR STRATMAN: Thank you. I\'m Omar Stratman. I\'m currently
chairman of the state GLCI Committee. I\'m also vice president of the
Alaska Association of Conservation Districts. I have a cattle and horse
ranch on Kodiak Island which is out in the middle of the Gulf of Alaska
about 300 miles south of here. I\'ve been in Alaska about 43 years, came
from Colorado where my folks used to send a lot of feeder cattle back to
Indiana.

Anyway I\'d like to talk a little bit about question number one, How do
we get new young faces in agriculture? It\'s a difficult task, and one
of the tasks is education. There\'s currently about \$3 million being
used by Alaska, Hawaii and I think a special appropriation through USDA.
I don\'t know about Hawaii but now that money here in Alaska is being
used in Western Alaska in the rural areas. I\'d like to see that
increased a lot so that we can see some of it used here in what we call
the rail belt up and down the corridor here so we can increase and have
more FFA and 4-H programs.

I came up through the FFA system, and I\'d like to at this point tell
you what works. If those of us with gray hair or no hair would find a
young person who wants to get involved in agriculture and become their
mentor and really help them get started, it can work. I would like to
see more of these young farmer, Beginning Farmer programs. I think
there\'s things that can be done. You\'re doing some things, but
there\'s other things that can be done.

I\'ll tell you this example. We have a young man 20 years old on our
district board of supervisors. And the reason he\'s there is because I
knew he was interested. I wanted to nominate\-- we started to get ready
for nominations and I got a nomination form, I got him to sign it, and I
took it around and got people to recommend him. And behold, he was
elected.

Well, you know, the same thing happened to me about 45 years ago in
Colorado. So I knew how to do it. It wasn\'t my idea; I just was working
from experience. So that\'s one of the things we need to do\-- we need
to help those folks, and we need to provide tools for them to use to get
them back up.

Now just one or two more things. Wetlands CRP is very important to some
of the growers, my neighbors over there. I don\'t use it, but I have
neighbors that use it and it makes the difference. I see the red
light\'s on. I\'ll sit down. Thank you for being here.

MODERATOR: Thank you. I would like to commend all of you in the front
part of the room for being very good. But all of you folks at the back
of the room, please keep your voices down. You\'re disturbing the
questions and responses. Thank you.

MR. PAT SHIFLY (sp): I am Pat Shifly with Alaska Community Development
Corporation. We\'re a nonprofit housing assistance agency, and I\'d like
to speak to item number five in support of USDA Rural Development
housing programs.

Rural Development is a very important factor in affordable housing in
rural Alaska. I\'d like to speak specifically about the USDA mutual
self-help housing program. In USDA Mutual Self-Help Housing Program a
group of families and individuals work together under the guidance of a
construction supervisor hired by a nonprofit housing developer.

These owner/builder groups perform at least 65 percent of the
construction work on their homes. Those who participate in this program
are unable to find a home they could afford or down payment funds for
other housing. And IN the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program, self-help
groups build each other\'s homes. Their labor becomes their down payment
and also provides sweat equity, helping to make the homes affordable.

These groups share the common goal of home ownership and commit
themselves to share in the work that will make that goal a reality.
Alaska Community Development has partnered with USDA Rural Development
for the completion of 16 Self-Help Homes in the Matsu borough with two
builder groups so far. A third group of eight homes is underway with
construction with a fourth group is scheduled for 2006. This program has
helped 16 families so far realize the dream of home ownership. Home
ownership through other means was not likely for most of the
participants as 11 of the 16 met the very low income guidelines.

Through the assistance of USDA Rural Development Self-Help Housing
Program these low and very low income families have realized the dream
of home ownership. Through their hard work in this program, they have
developed the pride in home ownership and developed the skills to
maintain the homes. They have developed the sweat equity in their homes
that has averaged over \$45,000 in the 16 homes built so far. There has
also been job skills acquired through this process, and at least one of
the participants has been working in construction based on the skills he
learned during the home building process.

USDA Mutual Self-Help Housing Program is very beneficial and successful
to home ownership program. The participant families now live in quality
homes in quality neighborhoods. The program assists building homes and
building communities, and I encourage continued support for this
program. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you. You\'re next. Yes.

MS. ROSE FOSDICK: Thank you. I am Rose Fosdick. I am from Nome, Alaska.
I\'d like to welcome you here to our beautiful state.

Our region, the Bering Straits region, has received many benefits on
behalf or from the USDA. But I\'m here especially to talk about the
organization I work with. I work with Kawerak Reindeer Herders
Association, and our association is a membership association of 21
reindeer herders on the Seward Peninsula.

I\'d like to thank you for the EQIP funds that you have provided to our
region. Very soon several of our reindeer herders will receive some
support through EQIP in the way of conservation practices, keeping track
of how the reindeer and other animals are using the range. Each of the
ranges are about 1 million acres. We have about 15 ranges on the Seward
Peninsula. Also we have a range on the St. Lawrence Island.

The practices they will employ in the EQIP program are they\'re looking
at the groundcover, especially looking at the lichen which is a feed
that they use in the wintertime only. And we\'re very interested in how
they\'re using the feed and therefore with funds from EQIP we\'re
placing collars, satellite collars on reindeer and watching how they use
the feed. Also looking in the summertime at the range resources,
monitoring how well or how much the animals are using the feed.

I want to make sure that the forage quality is very good and make sure
the pollution, there is no pollution in the way of groundcover
reduction.

The EQIP program helps to fulfill our purpose which is to provide
assistance in the development of a viable reindeer industry.

We also benefit from USDA\'s funding of the GLCI in which RHA is a
member. We have 21 members.

I thank you very much for coming up here and listening to us. I
encourage you to support processing plants throughout the sate for
(off-mike). I guess that\'s it. Oh, I thought you cut me off. I also
want to make sure that research funds are available for things like
foreign animal disease. We do have funds from USDA to do some CWD
testing and also Johnes disease testing. I hope you will expand your
offices and make your resources and staff and services available to the
rural communities. Thanks.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Rose.

MR. ROB WELLS: My name is Rob Wells. I\'m the Matsu Farm Bureau Chapter
president. I\'ll mostly be addressing questions 4 and 6. I would urge
you to continue to fully fund and expand your NRCS Grasslands Reserve
Program, EQIP, WHIP, Resource Conservation and Development, and
particularly your Farm and Ranch Protection Program.

Like others who have spoken here today, there is a growing awareness of
the challenge. We are the largest state, but we have limited quality
agricultural soils and they are predominantly within 100 miles of where
you\'re sitting. And those are the soils that are coming under extreme
pressure from development.

We are working to find the match for that program that you continue to
fund, and even though we haven\'t taken advantage of it yet I would urge
you to continue to fund it. And I think we will by raising awareness
find a way to take advantage of it.

The other area I\'d like to speak about is, I think there should be more
emphasis in the next Farm Bill on specialty crops, not the major program
crops but your fruits and vegetables. A few years ago the Department put
out a one-time grant program for all the states to take advantage of to
promote specialty crops. It was very effective, and I think it should be
put in permanently in the next Farm Bill.

(audio break, tape 2, side 2)

\-- long proposal for a value added ag processing facility. We don\'t
have really any of those in the state in the Alaska. And it would
greatly expand our market capabilities.

I would also think the next Farm Bill ought to have some cost of
production programs specifically for Alaska and Hawaii. As you noted
earlier our transportation challenges of getting fertilizer and feed and
other inputs on the farm are severely hampered by our cost of production
and special consideration I think should be given.

And that\'s all I have. Thank you for coming to Alaska.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

MR. ERIC WEBBER (sp): My name is Eric Webber. I moved in from the
Alaskan Peninsula, Aleutian Islands about 1989 I moved my family, and I
presently live in the Debutte (sp) area right down the road. I\'ve
commercial fished out of Falls Pass for the last 30 years.

I\'d like to thank the U.S. Department of Agriculture for their efforts
to promote wild Alaskan seafood. When fishermen were classified as
agricultural producers, they received USDA support. The support has made
a significant difference in my fishing business. I would encourage you
today to continue and enhance the support in the new Farm Bill set to be
implemented in 2007.

I ask that you look at supporting a wide range of programs within
Alaska, from capital infrastructure projects to creating options for
small family operations to fully utilize the economic value of their
product.

I\'m here today representing a typical independent Alaska commercial
fishing family. It\'s people like me that make up the majority of Alaska
state fisheries. Fisheries in Alaska are the largest employer. When you
look at assistance and promotion of wild Alaskan seafoods, consider the
needs of the typical independent Alaska commercial fisherman.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thanks, sir.

MR. MARK VINSEL: Hello. My name is Mark Vinsel, and I\'m executive
director for United Fishermen of Alaska. We\'re an umbrella organization
of 31 member groups and individual fishermen from fisheries throughout
Alaska. I welcome you all to Alaska, and thank you for coming. We
appreciate the recognition that USDA has provided as fishermen as
producers. We appreciate the TAA program, Country of Origin Labeling,
and the Rural Development programs that benefit Alaska coastal
communities.

I think as you\'ll see up here, I think the definition is the same up
here but there\'s an order of magnitude that might be different from the
Lower 48. And your programs help a lot in rural areas because what
fishermen need are options to get the best value for their product, and
with electricity, transportation and communications which many of your
programs provide those fishermen have an option to sell their fish at a
high price in a very special marketplace. That leaves many, many
fishermen if not by far the vast majority of fishermen in our coastal
communities still wanting for those kind of options.

Homeland Security Department has identified agriculture as a top
national security priority. If that\'s the case, then maintaining
Alaska\'s more than half of domestic fish production must also be a top
national security priority. What we as fishermen ask for is
consideration and a level playing field, consideration for any programs
that might benefit fish farmers starting their operations or in their
operations.

Encouraging the next generation of fishermen, question number one\--
well, if aquaculture operations are going to be funded to start up,
fishermen need similar programs for funding to either stay in business
or for the next generation to enter the business.

As far as number two, competing on a level playing field, is our key to
competing with imports. We have done many, many things with the state of
Alaska. In our legislature we passed over 20 bills in the last three
years relating to our fisheries. We\'ve got marketing programs. USDA,
you\'ve helped with Country of Origin labeling. We really need to see
Country of Origin labeling cover all seafood, not eliminating the canned
seafood it currently makes up about half our salmon production.

We\'d like to see salmon considered as a covered commodity in the
Commodity Credit Corporation programs. I think the light is on and
that\'s a good time to stop. I hope you enjoy Alaska\'s sport fishing
while you\'re here, and I hope you enjoy Alaska\'s commercial fish
eateries while you\'re in DC.

MR. PETER CRIMP (sp): Excuse me. Let me get my reading glasses on too.
We all have all these 50ish people in the room. My name is Peter Crimp,
and I\'m representing Alaska Energy Authority, the state\'s energy
office. I manage the Alternative Energy and Energy Efficiency Section.
We\'re grateful for the support and funding that USDA has provided to
rural Alaska for improving energy infrastructure and building local
capacity.

Reliable and affordable energy is a basic requirement for economic
development. However, rural Alaska which is dependent largely on diesel
is having a tough time with prices that have risen about 36 percent in
two years. Over the last 20 years my agency has worked in this area. We
found, settled on a basic approach.

One, to maintain progress toward properly sized code-compliant bulk fuel
facilities and power systems which are leading building blocks of
communities. This includes reducing loss of fuel through leaks and
spills and following good O&M procedures.

Using established priorities. We and our partners have upgraded around
60 percent of the bulk fuel facilities in the state and about 30 percent
of the power systems, but there\'s still a lot more work to be done.

We need to continue training and business management and operation to
protect their investments. Help villages remain credit-worthy.

Having a business plan and following the terms are huge steps toward
economic sustainability.

Then finally, we need to reduce the export of cash from our communities
for imported fuel. This means aggressive energy conservation measures
and use of local energy sources. For instance, generating power and
using commercially proven hybrid wind/diesel systems, using modern high
efficiency electronic controlled generators, recovering waste heat to
heat schools and provide ice for fish processing operations, exploiting
local geothermal, hydro, coal and natural gas resources; then using our
local biomass resources\-- wood, fish wastes, ag residues and garbage as
fuels and feedstocks for lumber drying, space heating, power biodisel,
ethanol and other products.

Alaska Energy Authority has a number of programs, substantial programs
that address a lot of these, and we\'d like to continue working with
USDA. And I\'ll provide you more details in writing.

It looks like the yellow light\'s on so I\'ll just say, I\'ll put in a
plug for the Rural Energy Conference which is coming up in Valdez
September 20 through 22nd. Thanks.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Now I would like to ask everyone that\'s in line
with the exception of the two next ones to have a seat. I know who\'s
coming up next. We\'re going to take a break in about two seconds and
then come back. So we\'ll have the presentation from the Alaska Native
Arts Foundation. Is that what we\'re doing today? Hi, Carrie.

MS. CARRIE IRWIN BROWN: Thank you and welcome. My name is Carrie Irwin
Brown. I\'m Athabascan Indian from Nenana, and I\'m the executive
director for the Alaskan Native Arts Foundation. The foundation was
created in 2002 and our main focus is to support Alaskan native arts,
artists and cultural heritage.

And our primary vehicle for that has been through our website,
AlaskanNativeArts.org. And since we\'ve started that website and with a
partnership with the Alaskan Manufacturing Extension Partnership in
those e-commerce centers, we\'ve developed relationships with over 500
artists across the state of Alaska. We now have over 1,300 items, pieces
of art for sale through our website.

It\'s a very, very exciting time for us, and I want to thank you for
your support of the broadband internet access. Without it, it just
wouldn\'t be possible. I can\'t tell you how important that is to our
rural villages and for creating economic development opportunities out
there in the bush in particular.

With me is Renee Egres (sp). She\'s an Athapaskan from McGrath. Renee is
one of our staff members as well as one of our featured artists. We\'ve
sold many of Renee\'s pieces through our website, and she\'s holding a
piece that I want to talk just a little bit about. And I\'m addressing
questions 2 and 5 for you.

One of our big concerns in marketing native art and our real focus
through the foundation is to expand new markets and open up new markets
for Alaskan native artists. And what we\'ve found of course is that
really for many artists, and this piece in particular is by a gentleman
named Brian Emus \-- he\'s from Mekoryuk, a young fellow. And this
particular piece is made of whalebone, has ivory and baleen (sp) on it.
And of course many of the markets are restricted to us because of that
reason. We just urge your support and your continuing support for the
expansion of that so we can truly open up global markets to Alaskan
native artists which are currently closed to them.

I might note that unlike the farming community, the Alaskan native
community represents about 20 percent of the population of Alaska. Of
that, more than 50 percent of us are under the age of 18, so we have a
lot of youth and kids and people coming up behind us. We really want to
support the up and coming Alaska native artists and continue to expand
markets for them. Thank you for your support, and we ask for your
continued support.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Okay, so after we\'re going to take a 10-minute
break I will try to get your attention, and then just line back up
behind the same mike and we\'ll make sure you\'re taken in order. Thank
you.

\[Recess. Off and on the record.\]

MODERATOR: Please be quiet. We want to do the session up here. Thank
you.

MR. MARK MASTELLER (sp): Hi. I want to thank you guys for coming and
listening to us. My name is Mark Masteller, and I\'m the director of the
Alaska Center for Appropriate Technology. And I\'ll start off by just
talking a little bit about mainly energy things. But I believe energy
security and food security are intimately linked. And I\'m really
thrilled in the past few years that USDA has had these programs, like
through Rural Development, for renewable energy programs for rural
businesses and farmers, etcetera. So I really am thrilled with those
programs and would like to see those continue.

I would also like to encourage expanded programs including wind, solar,
biofuels, biogas digesters, and programs to increase energy efficiency.
And I'm really glad I heard some of that this morning from the other
gentleman there.

I believe these programs promote energy and food independence, rural
economic growth including those small companies that can install these
renewable energy systems, community self-reliance, potential cash income
to farmers from energy sales and land rentals, and development of clean
and leading-edge technologies such as small-scale distributed generation
technologies.

So I really want to encourage those energy programs.

Along the lines of the specific questions that were given to us, for a
numbers one and two, unintended consequences and discouraging new
farming, etcetera, and maximizing our competitiveness \-- to me I want
to reinforce what some other folks said about, number one, the Farmland
Trust Programs\-- because if we\'re continually pushing farmers to other
areas that aren\'t as good, there are marginal lands, we\'re going to be
putting them at a disadvantage.

Also, you can\'t talk to any commercial fishermen without the
conversation going almost immediately to the cost of energy. So again,
back to those energy programs\-- critical to our commercial fishing and
any fishing business in Alaska.

I notice that this is the first year, 2005 is the first year the U.S. is
a net food importer. So now we are importing food. I want to see us
reverse that by encouraging import substitution, so programs that
encourage import substitution on a local and regional scale.

One of these is of course increasing competitiveness through reducing
energy costs through renewable energy, but also encouraging small farms,
organic farms. There\'s a tremendous growth in the value of organically
produced food, and Alaska is in a unique position to encourage a lot of
small farms rather than these big operations. And oh, for fishing when
it comes to questions 1 and 2, we just need to discourage the use of
chemicals that are going to end up in our streams and oceans and make
our fish not clean and not wild.

Okay. Question number 3, how can farm policy be effective and fairly
distribute assistance? Actually I don\'t think it should be fair. I
think we need to shift the focus to benefit small organic farms. For
many, many years the focus has been on corporate businesses and
agribusinesses, and that\'s where it\'s all happened. And now we need to
shift it the other way. So I\'m not necessarily looking for fairness;
I\'m looking for small, local, regional assistance really.

One idea I was thinking about on that is that we might need a program
that would encourage food production in urban and suburban areas like
community gardens, community supported agriculture, etcetera.

MODERATOR: That\'s it, Mark. Thank you.

MALE: (off-mike)

MR. SIG RESTAD: My name is Sig Restad. I\'m a master in Northland
Pioneer Grant No. 1 in Palmer and Ag chairman for the Alaska State
Grange. And after 47 years about of working with USDA in Alaska it\'s a
little hard to crystallize my comments to a couple of questions, but I
will try.

On number 2, we only have really fisheries and forest products that are
globally competitive at the present time. But I wish the Farm Bill would
say competitiveness for Alaska products because Alaska and Hawaii
because of its location is really in a competitive situation, not in a
global competitive situation.

And as far as I\'d like to see the Farm Bill take, assist with new crops
and get them into the marketplace in the fastest way possible. And that
includes crops that are unique to a location, and Alaska has some of
those.

We have some of the best crops in the world that are raised here. And we
just can\'t move them to where people would like them.

We have programs that sometimes impact upon other programs within the
state. I think we ought to look closely that we don\'t develop a
program, a conservation program or some other program, that very
adversely affects another program in a local situation. We ought to look
at that.

There is one and I\'m going to look at it. It really doesn\'t address
any particular question I don\'t believe, but if the Farm Bill could
assist in the transfer of the Alaska fish processing policy and assist
the handling of processing waste and make it profitable for processors
to move from the grind and pump situation that we have now to a
processing to fishmeal so we\'d have a product of food for livestock and
fertilizer, both organic matter, that would be really a terrific
advantage for not only the local economy but the global economy as well.

What processing we have now is largely way out on the Aleutian chain,
largely for the export market. We have some small processing plants, one
on Kodiak and maybe another one, but is not available without great
expense. It would really be an asset to the conservation of our
tidewaters and it would be a benefit to industry as well. Almost every
other country in the world does this, but \--

MODERATOR: I\'m sorry. We\'re out of time. Thank you.

MR. DOUG VOLLMAN: My name is Doug Vollman. I\'m the district manager for
the Kenny Lake Soil and Water Conservation District which is a rural
area about 200 miles east of here along the Copper River. I\'d like to
thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment on this.

I\'d like to address number 5, how can rural and farm programs provide
effective assistance in rural areas. I\'d like to reiterate what Otto
Kelser was saying, that we don\'t need to centralize; we need more
people in the fields. The NRCS, our partnership with them has been very
good; it has gotten us the hands-on technical assistance to landowners.
We want that program to continue.

Also the RC&D program has been very effective in our area. It\'s in its
infancy but as we continue to grow we\'re trying to open up new
farmland, so we need more cooperation between both federal agencies and
state agencies in order to make this a reality as our better farmlands
are being lost to urban development. We need more farmlands opened in
Alaska. We are attempting to do that in the Copper Valley, but it\'s a
difficult situation when most laws are written for the contiguous Lower
48.

Now specifically what we need is more infrastructure. Other people have
stated this that without processing facilities we aren\'t able to get
our products to market here within the state. Especially in the meat
industry, but we also need to grow in the vegetable sector and get
processing facilities and packing facilities there in that sector.

And then the School Lunch Program I think needs to be talked about a
little bit and we need to find a way to get our products, our Alaskan
products into the Alaskan School Lunch Program. And that\'s been very
difficult in coming, so we need some considerations there so our kids
are eating fresher products, healthier products.

And along those lines, one of our producers thinks they should open a
school lunch program to every student as opposed to based on income
levels because he feels it probably costs more to look at the programs,
the paperwork involved. We know just in our local rural school how much
paperwork is involved in determining who\'s eligible, who\'s not, how we
can pay for it. At least this one producer feels everyone should get a
free lunch, and it would probably save money.

Education funding is very important if we\'re going to address number 1.
How are we going to encourage future farmers? It\'s through conservation
education and also we need programs that are tailored for Alaska. Now
\--

MODERATOR: Thanks, Doug. That\'s time.

MR. HENRY MITCHELL: Thank you, gentlemen. My name is Henry Mitchell.
I\'m the executive director of the Bering Sea Fishermen\'s Association.
Our members fish from Bristol Bay up to the Kotzebue area, includes
Norton Sound area of the Yukon and Kuskokwim. Most of our fishermen are
small-boat fishermen fishing for salmon, herring and halibut. Your
programs over the years have been effective, but we need more in the
next few years.

I want to give you an example. The Kotzebue Fishery 15 years ago used to
have 195 individuals fishing. Those individuals at that time probably
made on average a gross of close to \$25,000 to \$40,000 a year. Two
years ago there were three people fishing in Kotzebue because the
processors had abandoned the area because of difficulties,
transportation. Our association went in, refurbished the plant with
technical assistance monies that came through the state, some of your
programs have been helpful also.

This year we had over 27 fishermen fishing and about 25 local people
working in the plant. For the future though, because of the price of
fuel and because of the warming nature of the Bering Sea and the climate
associated with it, we need infrastructure development and
technologically efficient pooling facilities, holding facilities so the
quality of our fish can be maintained because you have to hold it in an
airport here, then get it into Anchorage.

Additionally, in some cases it doesn\'t make sense in small villages to
build a full-blown fish processing plant. So we would like to see the
ability of the rural monies also being used in Anchorage perhaps right
at the airport to build an efficient facility there right on the tarmac
where good quality fish that\'s being handled properly and in small
rural villages can come right into Anchorage, be reprocessed further,
packed properly, and off to world markets.

We sold some of our fish this year in New York to high end restaurants,
and we\'re getting over \$5.00 a pound. And the future could be bright.
But the infrastructure developments take lot of money, and so if those
things could be included in the Farm Bill we\'d really appreciate it.
Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Henry. You know some of you, about half of you have
no clue of the Four Acre Group and the organization that I\'m the
president of. But the other half of you do because at least half of you
I know from your faces have been in sessions we\'ve done around the
state working with nonprofits, and we work with the soil and water
conservation districts. We work with fisheries groups. We work with a
lot of you. So a lot of these issues are things we are very connected
to.

And getting to the next person I\'d like to introduce you to three of
our \-- we have two boards and Kerry Irwin Brown who\'s the young lady
with Native Arts Foundation is one of those. Mr. Bill Allen with USDA
Rural Development is another. The other one is the next person. So who
are you, young lady?

MS. DIANE CAPLAN (sp): Thank you, Dennis. Hi. My name is Diane Caplan.
I\'m president of the Rasmussen Foundation. We\'re a private
philanthropic organization, the largest (audio break) \--

\-- going around the state is sustainability. We all want to help make
good projects happen. Most of us can\'t do it alone, but working
together with one another we can make big things happen.

USDA for us is one of our most significant partners, both in terms of
leveraging funding for projects that we cannot do alone, also the cross
due diligence that we benefit from with multiple funders looking at a
single project and being able to provide technical assistance.

I wanted to give you a few examples of statewide initiatives that we\'ve
done with USDA and other funders. Code Blue you may have heard about. It
was a statewide effort to equip many of the emergency medical teams,
both volunteer and professional, with the vehicles, equipment,
telecommunications equipment that they need. That was a \$6.4 million
project. It had about \$2.75 million of USDA funds, about \$1.1 million
of Rasmussen Foundation funds, and \$2.5 million from our other funders.
And that\'s a good example of leveraging our funds to do something big.

The Council on Domestic Violence Project was an effort to fix up all of
our domestic violence shelters. We have about 22 around the state. We
work with Wells Fargo Bank, with the Dinali (sp) Commission, and other
funders. That was a \$2.6 million project; it had about a \$1.5 million
of Rasmussen funds, half a million of state of Alaska funds, \$275,000
of USDA funds, and we were able to divide up that project so that the
USDA funds could be directed at rural projects, Wells Fargo and
Rasmussen funds at the urban projects, and all together do an efficient
statewide project.

Most recently we\'ve been focusing on several goals. One is the idea of
a single point of contact for grantees. We know very often a grantee has
a project that could be eligible for multiple sources of funding but
often they don\'t know who to go to first, how much to ask for from the
different funders. Our thought is, let\'s get the whole group together
and help the grantee assess what their opportunities are and then work
together.

Recently we did that very successfully with senior housing on the North
Slope. This is an issue that\'s been of concern to all of us for a long
time. HUD was the lead agency along with Alaska Housing Finance. That\'s
their business primarily, and we were able to put together about \$8
million working together \--

MODERATOR: That\'s time.

MS. CAPLAN: Okay. So thank you very much for being here. We appreciate
it. And we appreciate the leadership of Bill Allen and his staff.
Thanks.

MS. MELANIE TRYST (sp): My name\'s Melanie Tryst. I\'m with the
Matanuska Susitna Borough. I\'m working actually under a grant provided
by Senator Ted Stevens to look at building a vegetable processing center
here in Palmer to process Alaskan vegetables. And one of the things that
got Senator Stevens excited about it was the idea of getting local
veggies into local schools. So we\'re just, with the limited fresh
market the farmers just only have so much. But if you expand it to year
around production, agriculture can really expand in Alaska.

One thing we\'re looking at is like food security up here is one little
piece of that. I\'ve heard that if a port shuts down at Anchorage or
Seattle shuts down for one day it takes them 10 days to get back up
running to normal operations again. And Alaska has about seven to ten
days of a food supply, so just one day of a port shutting down is a
serious problem for Alaska.

So having a local source \-- we have no commodity warehouses in Alaska.
From what I understand there\'s 3,000 across the nation, not a single
one up here. So that would be an extra help. So I just encourage any
value added processing. We have some great vegetables up here, berries
with really high antioxidant levels, and our growing conditions, we just
have some veggies that have distinct differences with colder soils,
longer daylight hours that make a big difference. There\'s been some
studies done on that.

And so we wouldn\'t ever be looking to compete with like McCain or the
low priced, high volume like fries you get at fast food, but higher
quality, better price for the farmers kind of situation. So thank you.

SEC. CONNER: I had great peas from Met Valley last night. Thank you.

MR. JESS HALL: I\'m Jess Hall. I\'m a local homebuilder here in Palmer,
and presently chairman of the National Association of Homebuilders
Housing Finance Committee. As such I\'ve worked with Rural Development,
met with Russell Davis the administrator of Rural Development many
times, and he\'s a great guy to work with and really concerned about the
housing industry. I also had the opportunity in May to meet with
Secretary Johanns and talk to him about rural housing issues, and
appreciated his keen interest in our concerns.

I just want to talk about a couple of things we\'ve been concerned about
over the years, primarily funding levels like for the 515 Multifamily
Program. It\'s been a difficult situation for the multifamily builders
in dealing with the problems that you may be aware of that\'s affected
that part of the industry. We\'ve been really concerned about that. We
know there\'s a proposal that the Department\'s putting together, and we
believe it\'s out. Our builder members are studying it right now, and we
look forward to working with you and Congress to try and get that bill
through to help alleviate some of those issues there.

Also in the 502 program, you know the program is really such a good one
because it\'s the only one in the United States that does what it does
with the low and the very low program, the abilities it has to deal with
issues for low income people in those areas\-- there\'s nothing that HUD
has that competes against it. It\'s the only one in existence. And every
year it seems like the funding kind of tends to crank down.

We know the demand for the people that are out there that need that kind
of housing is really a key issue, and it\'s been kind of stuck in limbo,
and we\'ve been somewhat concerned as builders that not a lot of
attention gets focused on that program in the Department. We know
housing is a very minute section of Department of Agriculture, and we
understand that. But since it\'s so unique, we hate to see it kind of
end up fading away.

One thing we would like to or I would like to commend you on is the
construction to loan for the 502 program wherein a builder can get a
construction loan through USDA rather than going to a local lender and
doing that. I think that will have some great benefit particularly for
small builders in Alaska that have either no funding sources because
they don\'t have a bank locally or they\'re small builders without a lot
of capital behind them to be able to go ahead and build houses for these
lower income people.

And also I\'d like to thank you and the Department for your help on the
Roadless Rule and the Tongass National Forest. That was a huge effort
that has really meant a lot to Alaska and particularly our people that
live in Southeast, so it was really a key issue for us. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you. I would ask that no one else please stand up for
comments. I think when we get through this line we will have as many as
we can take right now. The next person up. Yes, sir.

MR. BILL KNOLL: Good afternoon, Mr. Conner and Mr. Rey. Welcome to
Alaska. My name is Bill Knoll. I\'m commissioner of the state of
Alaska\'s Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. We
are here today to ask your interest and support in giving greater access
to wild seafood in USDA programs. That\'s the basic part of it.

Alaska is well-known to be a place of energy. Probably that\'s one of
our biggest calling cards back in DC nowadays \-- oil and gas. But it
may not come as a surprise to people like you that actually our largest
employer here is the fishing industry. There\'s a reason for that, and
I\'ve been trying to think of a way to put in a kind of perspective. And
here\'s one way.

We are surrounded, this great land of ours, on the north, west and south
by water. About 33,000 miles of coastline geographers tell us, and a
scientist once told me a few years ago that about one-third of the
world\'s fish protein swims in those waters between Alaska and Russia.
It\'s a staggering number when you come to think about its importance,
not only personally but strategically.

To manage all of that we have a couple of great functions in play. One
of them, the state of Alaska\'s responsibility for on-shore or
near-shore and inland waters. We manage very, very well since 1959 our
resources.

Secondly, we work hand in hand with the North Pacific Fishery Management
Council. We have undoubtedly the best managed fishery in the entire
world. There\'s North Pacific Fishery Management Council. So we\'re
proud of those things.

Why are we here? I\'m going to ask if I will at the end three things.
But as a setting for it, first of all, thank you. Thank you for the
following. I\'ve got some numbers written down here.

Since 1999 approximately \$2 million annually has been earmarked for
seafood research and development. Thank you.

Since 1996 USDA purchased over \$79 million worth of canned and poached
pink salmon for domestic programs. Thank you. By the way, none lately,
so if you would when you go back?

Since 1999 over \$19 million in marketing for international sales
efforts. Did that work? In 2004 just last year \$1.7 billion in seafood
was exported, not counting our domestic markets. It worked pretty well.
You\'re getting a lot of leverage with those kinds of programs. So thank
you. Please keep her up.

Here are three simple things. One, please assign staff to work with us
from USDA and help us determine which programs might be best for
continuing and expanding, particularly the Commodity Credit Corporation.
We\'d like to be listed there. We\'d like salmon, for example, or wild
seafood to be listed there.

With that information why not plan a conference with us at a time
suitable for you that would include both state and federal industry
people and educational people?

And third, please consider a separate section within the Farm Bill
dealing with wild captured seafood.

And that\'s it. Thanks very much.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Commissioner. You\'re next.

MR. BILL BURTON: Yes, sir. I\'m Bill Burton, and a rancher from Kodiak.
I\'m, it\'s kind of a dying breed over there. We have the Kodiak Game
Ranch. We used to be Kodiak Cattle Company and we had grass-fat beef and
everybody sure liked it, but the bears liked it even better so that\'s
when we started raising buffalo. Now we\'re raising elk and buffalo and
we even have some yaks. And there\'s a few-odd people there too.

Anyway my problem is, how can \-- number five actually. And I have a
real problem with the Farm Service Agency Offices closure, the Homer
office combining with the Palmer Office. We need as much help as we can
in this state for agriculture, and I think by closing these offices
you\'re making it where a lot of the farmers aren\'t going to be able to
get into the offices, and you\'re going to make where the CED, there\'s
going to be a lot more transportation involved to visit all these
different farms.

The problem is, Alaska is a big state, and these two offices, they\'re
about 500 miles apart. And that\'s a good nine-hour trip two ways \--
going both ways. So there\'s going to be a lot more travel involved.
You\'re just not going to have the participation of the farmers, and
you\'re not going to have the CED go down and inspect the farms, see
whether they even can do the conservation programs. Then they have to
check them and see that they are doing it.

I just think it\'s just a bad policy to do so.

Anyway I can\'t quite match the kilter but that\'s basically what I
wanted to bring up.

MODERATOR: Thanks, Bill.

MR. CHARLES PARKER: Good afternoon, and thanks for being here today and
allowing us some time to speak with you. My name is Charles Parker. I\'m
with Alaska Village Initiatives. And thanks to the preceding comments by
our CEO and by our associate, Dr. Wall, and with all due respect to my
many friends and respected colleagues with NRCS I\'d be remiss if I did
not talk about Rural Development, the role it plays here in the state of
Alaska.

I\'ve spent my entire career working in economic development in rural
Alaska, and during that entire career the most constant presence and
strongest supporter of development in rural Alaska has been USDA-RD. And
so it\'s a fantastic resource. Currently right now just ABI alone we
have three programs either recently completed or ongoing in conjunction
with USDA-RD staff and funding.

I\'ll try and briefly mention all three of them. First one we\'re just
starting up actually is Bethel Housing Project where we\'re working with
USDA-RD to provide low income housing in an area with huge problems in
the housing area, shortages, poor housing for folks. And also at the
same time supporting an industry that\'s integral to the area on
fishing, fish processing. So another project actually, just to reiterate
the comments made by Kerry and Eric earlier.

We are actually participating in your e-commerce broadband project.
We\'re not a direct grantee, but we\'re actually been hired by one of
your grantees to provide training. I think that\'s a fantastic problem.
It\'s absolutely essential for the long-term economic development of
rural Alaska to proceed with that program and to complete it throughout
the state.

My only concern there is that right now we have several communities that
are being ruled out for participation because they have very bad dial-up
connections. They cannot do mandatory grant applications on-line. They
can\'t do any on-line banking, they can\'t do a lot of things that they
need that for, especially for e-commerce and education and also to make
sure you understand that training needs to be a portion of that project.
That\'s the role we\'re serving right now.

And some of the folks we\'re training out there have never used a
computer. So we can\'t expect to drop in broadband and just figure
that\'s going to resolve all the problems out there. But it\'s a
fantastic program, and I think it\'s going to over the test of time
prove to be very valuable to the entire state.

And I\'d like to close with, you\'ve already heard some mentions about
Project Code Blue. I\'ll tell you a little bit about Project Code Red
which we\'ve in the last three years put 86 fire departments, trained
fire departments out in rural Alaska with appropriate equipment, and in
just a little over three years; 42 of those were funded by USDA Rural
Development. USDA Rural Development was an integral player early on when
it was just a concept, pilot project, to be able to put military
technology to use and put appropriate firefighting technology out in
rural Alaska inclusive with training and certification with our state
fire Marshall.

There are hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal personal
assets that are out currently unprotected. We need to continue to
protect those lives and those assets that we\'re putting out there. So I
see my red light\'s up. Thank you very much.

MODERATOR: Jeff. Would you mind me going out of order and letting you be
last since you were first? You will get a time.

MR. JOHN HANDLIN (sp): My name is John Handlin. I\'m from the city of
Nome, population 3,500. We\'re in the Bering Strait region, about 18
villages surrounding our area. And because of the high airfares just
getting here to Palmer for this meeting, \$600. I could go to
Washington, DC for \$700 from here, and it would cost at least that for
some of the villages in our area to come and talk to you. So I\'m going
to talk on their behalf as well.

My comments will be directed towards number five primarily. There is
farming \-- not farming and agriculture necessarily in the surrounding
communities to us, but the people do live off the land. And over the
years they have always been and continue to be good stewards of those
natural resources and utilize those.

But in order for them to live their lifestyle there, they need some very
basic infrastructure in order to function. And constructing this basic
infrastructure in Alaska is extremely costly, well beyond the means of
these residents. While they\'re resourceful and talented, often because
of the sparse populations they simply can\'t afford to construct these
necessary infrastructure items or maintain them without the assistance
of folks like USDA.

Nome has appreciated the partnership with USDA for over many years in
addressing basic water and sewer needs in our community. We\'re
fortunate to have a larger population base so that we can actually
maintain what is built and the continuation of provisions in the new
Farm Bill allowing USDA to partner with rural communities by investing
in this infrastructure is vital to the basis assistance of rural Alaska.

Without it, residents will continue with substandard infrastructure, the
construction of which is urgent to ensure healthy communities,
especially their physical health but also their mental health as well.

There are federal initiatives and investments being done now to expand
technologies in all areas of rural America, and that is important, and
we welcome those in our communities. Availability of high speed Internet
not only provides access to the world and e-commerce as we\'ve heard, it
also helps with telemedicine programs and the like that ensures the
health of our communities.

We urge support these programs and the expansion of these initiatives.
We respectfully submit that investment in basic infrastructure needs
such as water and sewer must not be overlooked or take second place to
technology.

I had the opportunity to travel with Under Secretary Dorr into some of
the remote and impoverished villages here awhile back and heartfelt
appreciation of the villagers in getting the very basic fire cart as was
referred to by the previous speaker under the Code Red program was
evident in their faces.

Our people don\'t ask much, only don\'t want to be forgotten by those in
the Lower 48 who often ask us, what country are you from? when we call.
And we would welcome and urge further visits to rural Alaska, and we
want to thank you for eliminating most of these from my community.

\[Laughter\]

These still exist in other rural communities. Maybe they can be removed
as well.

MODERATOR: No one else did show and tell.

\[Applause.\]

MODERATOR: Thank you.

MALE: It\'s still a better deal to come here than Washington, DC.

MR. TODD PETTIT (sp): Hi. My name is Todd Pettit, and I\'m a hay
producer, bison and elk rancher, and I\'m also the next generation.

My family\'s farmed in Palmer for the last 50 or so years.

I would like to specifically talk about number one, three and four. I am
under contract right now with NRCS and Soil and Water Conservation and
benefiting through some of their cost share programs.

And I can\'t begin to tell you how hard it is to be able to farm in this
day and age as a newcomer and not have the ability to improve what your
family has started. And unfortunately most \-- well everything falls
down to the bottom line. And the environment usually takes a second to
putting food on your plate.

And by being able to work with these different types of programs, these
nutrient management programs, EQIP, it\'s given me the ability to not
only invest in the property by making it a better yielding farm, but
I\'m also contributing to the environment. And I think it\'s a
no-brainer to continue these programs because it helps everybody. And
it\'s something I definitely wanted to touch on.

I\'d also like to touch on the fact that we started you know basically a
niche deal with alternative livestock, the bison and the elk. And I see
a great future in those animals, specifically the bison industry itself,
especially in this state. It\'s an animal that is definitely suited for
our climate. And the border is posing an extreme problem to us \--
specifically not being able to bring in breeding stock, specifically by
keeping it on the BSE monitoring program.

It will cripple us. The government doesn\'t recognize bison in any of
their BSE surveillance programs, but yet they are still putting a
moratorium on the border. And without \-- we\'re an island. You know, I
mean that\'s what it comes right down to. And by not being able to bring
in high end animals, we\'re not going to be able to further industries
in the state that will blossom, that would do well.

And I think that\'s all I have to say for right now.

MODERATOR: Well, thanks for speaking for the younger generation.

\[Applause.\]

MR. JOHN CONES (sp): Gentlemen, my name is John Cones. I\'m here for the
city of Palmer, and the first thing I\'d like to do is officially
welcome you to our community.

And my remarks will be primarily about the city of Palmer and the
greater Palmer area. I\'m going to touch a little bit on all of them I
think except for global marketing. I may do that too in a little bit.

But item one, unintended consequences. In the last three years you\'ve
probably heard this, there\'s been a great shift in population coming
and discovering if you will the area of Palmer here. And consequently
farmlands are being sold off to make way for subdivisions. And
subdivisions are a good thing, you know, and housing\'s a good thing.

But the efforts that your organization does to preserve farmland and set
up trusts and this type of thing really needs to continue to be
strengthened, I believe, to hang on to that heritage. It is our very
heritage.

You know, my folks came in \'47 on the Homestead Act. And the city of
Palmer and the Chamber of Commerce have started cataloging and
inventorying artifacts for placement in a museum that\'s going to show
the processes that were used in early pioneering and homesteading days
and how it got from the farm to the (matineed) (ph) property over here
for processing and distribution, and now to the public.

I think anything we can do to restore this property over here, the
matineed property, as an educational and a useful facility, I think is
really going to help get the message out to the rest of the Alaskans or
the community as far as the importance of farming and production in the
other various areas you deal with.

We are working on creating a museum, and so hopefully that will also
come into a historical district that we\'re going to be setting aside
and keeping developing and putting money into that, and any help that we
can get along those lines is going to be very welcome.

And I really think that taking the next generation when we talk about it
\-- I think I\'m in the third or fourth and then we go on down the line
\-- but to keep that aware and in front of people about how important
that this is to the state and to the nation as a whole.

And I think in terms of creating new programs, things like this, we do
want to maintain and sustain the programs that we have and the farms
that we have, this type of thing, before creating new things. We want to
make sure that the things that are already in place don\'t go away as a
result of that.

And finally, I\'d just like to say thank you, you know, very much again
for providing this venue for everyone. I\'d also \-- I don\'t know if
you guys had anything to do with it, but I\'d like to thank you for Bill
Allen because I can tell you that \--

MODERATOR: I\'m going to have to make you be quiet on that one. I\'m
sorry.

MR. CONES: That\'s okay. I got a sense of humor. You have to have a
sense of humor. But yeah, we feel very fortunate that we have a
gentleman of his caliber that\'s running the program in the state, so
thank you very much. Appreciate having you in town.

MODERATOR: Jeff.

MR. JEFF WERNER: As many Alaskans do, I wear many hats, and I\'ll leave
my FFA hat behind for a minute. But I\'d also like to represent all the
young Alaskan agriculturalists. I grew up in a community not too far
from here, had about 850 people there. Today we still are considered a
poverty level community. And at the same time, we\'re not real Alaska.
And I would like to see USDA make a definite definition on what
\"rural\" means, because rural Nebraska and rural Alaska are two
different things. But here in Palmer we think we\'re a metropolis, but
we\'re turning down or being turned away from a lot of USDA money
that\'s being taken advantage of in other programs; whereas, Alaska is
from the West Coast to Canada, and it should be one rural Alaska.

And according to Ted Stevens, anything north of Seattle is rural Alaska.
But there\'s a lot of money out there, \$3 million going to Alaska and
Hawaii that our agriculture communities cannot take advantage of because
we\'re not rural Alaska. We have a road. And as the young Alaskans, I\'m
currently involved, I do take advantage of a lot of USDA money, the
university. Got a great project going in controlled environment
agriculture where we\'re developing geothermal and waste heat production
systems for greenhouses.

And we\'re looking at encouraging Galena, Aniak, Nome, Kotzebue, hubs
that have huge generators, to do their own local tomato production. You
know, when you\'re paying \$6 a pound for tomatoes, that\'s insane.
They\'re coming from Mexico, they\'re getting a nickel apiece for those
things, and we\'re paying \$4 or \$5 apiece for the same tomato. And why
can\'t they be grown locally year-around in our local communities,
providing opportunity?

So at the university we\'re actually pouring the pad for the greenhouse
floor this week at (Chitina?) Hot Springs, and we\'re looking other
places throughout the state and doing the same thing as a teaching
opportunity to bring young people, show them how to do it, teach them
how to do it, and send them back home.

But at the same time I\'m also involved in a seed potato program where
we grow \-- or disease-free seed as a commercial grower. It goes to
China. And our fields are disease-free. We\'re fortunate not to have the
blight up there \-- it\'s actually North Pole by the (unclear). You
might know where they\'re at. And they\'ll be dug up here in a couple
weeks and headed for China and Taiwan. There\'s a huge opportunity
throughout the rest of Alaska for doing such a sustainable agriculture.

And I\'d also like to make a definition or ask USDA to make a definition
of what is \"sustainable agriculture,\" and what is \"subsistence
agriculture?\" Two different things. There is no such thing as
subsistence agriculture. That\'s gardening. Sustainable agriculture is a
productive farm that\'s continuing year over year that\'s making a
profit.

And when I read the Farm Bill, the current one, it\'s not defined. And
when it gets to Alaska whoever may be the granting funding person,
they\'ve defined sustainable, and it cuts us out of the local
communities where we are farming.

Delta Junction\'s got a lot of young people that would go into farming
if they could have access to some funds to make that happen. Same with
Palmer. Anchor Point\'s another one. There\'s a whole bunch of people
down there that can\'t take advantage of our programs because we\'re not
considered rural. But at the same time (audio break)

MODERATOR: Lieutenant Governor Loren Leman. Would you like to make a
comment, please? We are finished with public comment other than with the
lieutenant governor.

LT. GOV. LOREN LEMAN: I hate to step in front of somebody who was coming
to the microphone, but let me just say, Welcome to Alaska. We are so
pleased to have people who normally \-- you weren\'t normally inside the
Beltway, but you are now. And to have you come out here and visit with
us in Alaska and meet some very fine people.

People in Alaska who are involved in agriculture and fishing are some of
the finest you\'re going to find anywhere. They\'re the salt of the
earth. And these things they\'re talking about are very real issues, and
we appreciate you coming and being willing to listen.

Agriculture is really important to Alaska. It\'s a small part of our
overall gross product, but it\'s a really important part, and I believe
if we support it \-- which we are with putting some rally good people in
place like the Director, Larry Devilbiss who I know you\'ve met \-- and
bringing all these people together, that it\'s going to improve and get
even better.

So thank you so much for listening, and I appreciate the folks here
being willing to step up and speak up.

And let me just say that the folks that you have here in-state at USDA
and the relationship we have through the Denali (sp) Commission,
arrangements like that, are really producing some great results. So
thank you very much.

MODERATOR: Okay. Now we will have time for a few questions from the
floor that the deputy Secretary and under Secretary can respond to.

Ma\'am, we\'d already closed off to public comment, I\'m sorry. But if
you have a question it would be fine.

FEMALE: I\'m not very familiar with the programs you have \--
agriculture and (unclear) tribes, (unclear). (off mike)

SEC. CONNER: I\'d be happy to respond to that and give you a little more
detail. We actually at the Department of Agriculture provide funding for
the School Lunch Program so that local schools can go and procure
commodities for their lunch program.

But in addition we purchase a substantial amount every year of
commodities that are actually distributed through something we call
Section 32 funding. Section 32 dollars come from customs receipts that
come to USDA that we in turn then use to purchase commodities that are
available for distribution through the School Lunch Program and other
humanitarian feeding programs that we have.

And that\'s hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commodity purchases
every year.

Now in the past we have purchased some salmon with those funds. I think
as one of our gentlemen noted earlier, probably not enough from your
vantage point, but nevertheless it\'s been a substantial amount of
purchase.

I think we need to continue to evaluate this to see how we can help
because I know particularly with certain segments of your salmon
industry we\'ve learned in the last 24 hours there is a lot of product
coming in and prices are low. And this is what Section 32 is for is to
take that period of time when prices are very low for these commodities,
purchase them, help the price of the commodity but then at the same time
use that high quality product to distribute through our feeding programs
including School Lunch. It\'s sort of everybody\'s a winner kind of
concept.

And that\'s what we need to evaluate, and certainly that\'s a point I
think I\'ve heard throughout the day today.

MODERATOR: If you have questions just come up to the mikes like the
people that were making comments.

MR. JOEL DAVIDSON: Hi. My name is Joel Davidson. I\'m with the local
paper, The Frontiersman. And the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program
has gotten a lot of attention out here, and there\'s several people who
commented today. The major problem I\'ve heard from farmers and people
working on this though is coming up with the matching funds. I\'m
wondering if that\'s a problem nationwide, if that matching portion of
the Farm and Ranchland Protection has become a problem, and if so how
will that be addressed in the 2007 Farm Bill versus the 2002 Farm Bill?

SEC. CONNER: Well, it\'s a great question. And let me just say that the
Farmland Protection Program is a very popular program. States like
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, more East Coast states where you
know the growth has been tremendous, they\'re relatively small in terms
of their agricultural area, have used this program successfully. I mean
there is a shortage of dollars available. So the direct answer to your
question is, yes, states have been willing at this point to come up with
some of those matching dollars that are required as a part of this
program.

Frankly, this is one of the surprises that\'s come out of this forum in
Alaska. I would not have expected to come here with a state of your size
and hear comments about Farmland protection. This is news to me. This is
why we\'re doing this. It\'s why we\'re out here to hear the local
concerns because frankly that would not have shown up on our radar
screen back in Washington as being something that you\'re interested in.
So we\'re very anxious to use that in our mix.

We are proponents of the Farmland Protection Program and the easements
that are associated with that. So we need to evaluate that to see how we
can make that work for everybody that has this kind of problem.

SEC. REY: In many states where the program is experiencing a high demand
and a high usage, it\'s in part because of the development of land
trusts, nongovernmental organizations that help organize some of the
matching money. In other states, the counties have passed bond levies. I
was just in Montana last week in Gallatin County where the citizens of
Gallatin County have voted to assess themselves through a bond levy to
develop the matching funds and have bought easements with us on roughly
40,000 acres of land in the Gallatin River Valley which is a blue ribbon
trout stream.

So those are some of the mechanisms that have worked in other states.
One of the things we\'ll have to do as we look at the 2007 Farm Bill is
see if we can expand those and work with you here to see if there are
some of those tools that can work here as well.

MODERATOR: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: I have a question concerning country of origin labeling. To me
\-- I mean that affects agriculture everywhere in the United States. It
really affects all parts, all facets of agriculture as far as anything
coming in. It\'s sold at the same price of our agriculture causing a lot
of direct competition. I\'ll use my industry. I raise elk and buffalo.
They sell elk here in Palmer, in Anchorage. You can get it for like \$3
a pound. I can\'t buy and raise and fence an elk farm for that kind of
money. It\'s not even elk. It\'s actually red deer from New Zealand. You
know, if these things would be easier notified, if country of origin
labeling was a law, it was a law, then they pretty much discarded it by
not funding. If you could?

SEC. CONNER: Yeah. This was mandatory country of origin labeling was
included as part of the last Farm Bill passed in 2002. Congress has
given us further direction on that law, I believe three additional times
since then. In the last appropriation bill they passed we were
instructed not to do it for meat products, fruits and vegetables, those
kind of things, but to have it for seafood. I believe Mark, we have a
mandatory program effective I believe this past April for seafood. I\'d
be interested if there\'s any feedback on how that is working. It\'s
just getting started. I know it\'s not as broad as the industry has
wanted in terms of the canned salmon and those kind of products, but we
are getting that started to try and sort of move it along.

I don\'t know what the future is going to bring on mandatory country of
origin labeling. There is legislation again pending before Congress that
would make it voluntary forever. And I don\'t know what is going to
happen. We obviously will follow the law and do whatever we are required
to do as a part of that. But I think it\'s important for you guys to
note that it is in effect today for seafood products.

MODERATOR: And we will take these two questions, and that\'s all the
time we\'ll have.

QUESTION: The question I\'ve got is a little bit touchy and I hope, I
don\'t want to cause problems. But I\'ve been a county committee member
for years and years and years, and the question is, this TA thing with
the fisheries and everything \--

And I come from Kodiak \-- I fished, I crab-fished and I also
salmon-fished. And I\'m surely not against the fishermen getting
whatever help they can \-- because they need the help. So do the
farmers.

My problem or question is, is there\'s a tremendous amount more
fisherman than there are farmers in the state. And I can see where the
county committees could be taken over completely by fishermen. And the
farm programs could be not done away with probably, but they might go
into disuse or whatever.

And isn\'t there a fisheries program under the FDA or whatever that
something like this could be put under instead of under the FSA which is
a Farm Service Agency, which could become the fishery service agency if
things was to transpire that way.

And again, I\'m not trying to cause problems because I think the
fishermen need all the help they can get too.

Is there under the USDA or whatever, is there some fishery programs that
some of this could be put under?

SEC. CONNER: Well, I appreciate the comment, and I\'m not \-- I think I
recognize your general point, although I\'m not certain of the exact
question.

Let me just say, I think the Farm Service Agency, and we\'ve heard some
good testimony today I think supporting the Farm Service Agency \-- they
are very, very good at reaching out at the local level. So I personally
would have no problem using the Farm Service Agency to administer both a
commodity program which is sort of their more traditional role, the
conservation programs, but as well any future efforts that may be
necessary on fisheries types of issues.

Again, these are very, very locally driven people and programs, and I
think they\'ve got their pulse on what\'s going on at the local level.
So I\'m not saying we wouldn\'t need to adjust and have some additional
expertise on this, but I think the Farm Service Agency is the best way
to administer locally as opposed to among people who may not understand
the local concerns quite so well.

SEC. REY: And there is no comparable program under NOAA (sp), nor does
NOAA have the sort of field delivery structure that USDA enjoys.

QUESTION: First of all, I want to say thank you again for coming to
visit us. And on behalf of our membership, the Yanks (sp) Corporations
and Tribes, this partnership with USDA has been absolutely critical in
their survival.

As a case in point, the Code Red system was instrumental in taking
Alaska off the top three fire loss states in the nation. As a direct
result of this program, Alaska won a national award for being ranked
30th last year. So going from the top three to rank 30th in fire loss is
very impressive. And my hat\'s off to you and the agency for helping us
reach that important goal. We reached 86 villages. We need another 60
villages. We\'re currently on the list hoping to participate in the
program.

You touched on a particular point and that was people who know the
territory. And as you can see from your day here, this is quite a bit
different than Nebraska.

SEC. CONNER: You guys aren\'t going to let me forget this.

\[Laughter\]

VOICE: We love you anyway. The challenge for us and particularly with
NRCS, we are struck with that apparently it is policy that every four
years an individual has an opportunity to take an appointment. That
typically is an appointment outside the state, which means we get a new
face and we have to begin the education process all over again. I\'m
thrilled that Bob Jones is here. We\'re going to be kicking and
screaming to try to keep him four years from now, but we are hoping \--

And the question to you, is that an agency policy or is it possible that
we can keep these people a little longer so that we don\'t lose that
investment we have in their education?

SEC. REY: There is no agency policy in terms of when they need to
transition or move on.

VOICE: So we can keep them forever?

SEC. REY: You can keep him as long as he\'s happy and as long as you\'re
happy with him.

SEC. CONNER: It takes awhile to educate those guys from Alabama too.
You\'ve got to \--

MODERATOR: He does talk funny.

VOICE: He\'s a quick learner. Thank you so much.

MODERATOR: Okay. Any closing thoughts?

SEC. CONNER: Well, yeah, Dennis. First, thanks again. You did a great
job of keeping us on schedule, and let\'s give Dennis a round if we
could for his \--

\[Applause.\]

Let me just close with a few thoughts. Obviously there\'s a lot of
information here that needs to be digested and reviewed and analyzed and
it\'s one of the reasons we are keeping a formal record here because we
need to go back and really sort through these comments carefully because
they were just great comments.

But I just wanted to highlight a few. I\'ve already noted the Farmland
Protection issue. Again this is a big surprise to me, and I would not
have anticipated this. I just appreciate the points that have been
raised on that issue, and we\'re going to go back and you will hear more
from us on that.

I just as well had to note the comments on rural housing, sewer and
water loans, the vivid demonstration we had of the importance of those
kinds of programs as well. And I can\'t walk away without taking special
note of the role these play in rural Alaska.

As well the comments about broadband. And this is something that is near
and dear to the heart of the President of the United States. He has
stated before he leaves office he wants high speed access to all our
rural areas. This is a big undertaking, and hearing the testimony today
it makes me appreciate the fact that we do have a long way to go on
this. But it\'s clearly our policy.

The last Farm Bill really was the first Farm Bill that ever addressed
broadband issues at all. It put a lot of money into this program. We
need to consider this carefully in order to meet the President\'s goal
of broadband access, high speed access in our rural areas as well. So
this is going to be an important factor in the new bill as we look at
that. And I just again appreciated the comments on that as well.

Mark and I both commented back and forth several times on the
conservation programs and the support that you guys have for those
programs and the popularity of programs like WHIP and EQIP in the state
of Alaska. And this is again perhaps a little bit of a surprise to me. I
think about EQIP and those kind of programs and I think Midwest region
of the U.S. more than I think about Alaska. So this is an important
consideration for me as we think about a Farm Bill for all 50 states and
not just a handful of states in the center part of the country.

Big deal. I want to also comment as well, I hear the message on the Farm
Service Agency. I think I counted I believe six or seven people
testified about the need to make sure that our Farm Service Agency
continues to have that local feature, that local input, not someone that
you have to drive halfway across the state, which is a long way, in
order to give your input to or to get some advice from. I understand
that. I have heard that.

We haven\'t really announced anything on this, but apparently I think
word is getting out of some of the things we are contemplating here, and
I just assure you that we\'re going to hear those comments and go back
and take a look at this as well.

So those are just a few things I noted here as we were going through.
All of the comments were just excellent. I appreciate the time that each
one of you have taken to just really highlight for us the unique
features of the state of Alaska, of your agricultural economy, of your
fishing economy.

And I\'ve heard that message loud and clear as well of the importance of
that industry to your state. And again, we\'re just, we\'re going to
sort through all of this. The comments were terrific. And it\'s really
going to be a great help to us as we try and make this Farm Bill a good
Farm Bill for all of agriculture, for all of rural America and for all
segments of the food and agricultural system in this country.

So thank you all very, very much.

Mark?

SEC. REY: As we said at the outset, we are not here to do a lot of
talking. I took four pages of notes on your comments. As I said earlier,
as part of serving for the United States Senate I had the opportunity
and have had the opportunity to come to Alaska many times over the last
10 years.

And since I took this assignment, one of the opportunities I\'ve had is
to bring colleagues from the Department of Agriculture who\'ve never
been to the state to see it with me, in their case for the first time.

This is the third trip I\'ve taken with USDA leadership in that regard.
It\'s always fun to bring new people to Alaska to show them the
superlative resources of the state. Among those resources are you, the
people of Alaska. So thank you for your thoughts and for your
hospitality today.

\[Applause.\]

MODERATOR: Again on your way out if you still have comments, please
leave it at the table or at the website. And thank you again for
coming.\_