> ![](media/image1.jpeg){width="6.1875in" height="0.9895833333333334in"}
>
> Release No. 0494.02
>
> of
>
> Secretary Ann M. Veneman's remarks to
>
> The 7^th^ Farm Journal Forum: Your Stake in the Food Chain
>
> Washington, D.C.
>
> December 4, 2002

"Thank you Sonja for that kind of introduction. I really appreciate the
opportunity to be with you today. There are so many friends in the
audience and I have a chance to share a little bit with you and I hope
you all have a happy holiday. It is hard to believe that we've been here
for almost two years already particularly the last year; I have no idea
where the time went. But it's been a very, very busy year and it's as
someone said to me \`we've faced many challenges but we've also
accomplished a great deal."

"You all had the opportunity last year at this forum to see the
President up close and personal and you see what a strong leader he is.
I must say I continue to be very proud to have the opportunity to serve
in his Cabinet.

"I also want to compliment the Farm Journal for holding this Forum
because I think it is very important that we continue to work
proactively at the issues facing food and agriculture today. And I
commend you on your topic: The Food Chain. As you all know we put out a
book last year called: Food and Agricultural Policy Taking Stock for a
New Century. One of the things we talked about very distinctly was
looking at the importance of the entire food chain---that it is consumer
driven, globalized, and driven today by technology and so as I look
through your agenda --and I have been reading all the press stories
about what every one has said---I really commend you on putting together
a first-class agenda (inaudible). So what I want to do today is talk
about some of the issues and then leave a little time for us to have a
conversation about them and have you raise some issues as well.

"One of the issues that continues to be very important to USDA is that
of Homeland Security.

The President just last week signed a new Department of Homeland
Security bill, a very big accomplishment, creating a huge federal
department to coordinate all of the activities related to Homeland
Security, some of which, of course, involve agriculture. I think it is
important that we clearly understand the role that agriculture plays in
the homeland security issue and the importance of food in that process.
This department will unify federal resources and it will include USDA's
border inspection system (inaudible) abatement, the Animal Health Plant
Inspection Service that oversees the people coming through our airports
together with Customs and Immigration and Naturalization---all of the
border agencies.

"I think the hardest thing for me to lose is our Beagles. We have
Beagles as part of that force that sniff the luggage when you come in
from overseas and will now become part of the Department of Homeland
Security. It's always been nice to say we had Beagles employed by us.

"But we will continue a very strong focus on Homeland
Security---everything from looking at how to respond to a terrorist
attack on the food supply, something like the intentional introduction
of Foot and Mouth disease, strengthening food safety, working with
producer groups and the entire food chain. I want to commend Deputy
Secretary Moseley and the leadership role he has taken in this area.

"Another issue I wanted to discuss today is that of international trade.
As you know we've had some significant progress this past year. The
President was finally able to get Trade Promotion Authority from
Congress and signed it. We made significant progress on the Doha
Development Agenda including the U.S. proposal, which we put forward at
the end of July, which is a very visionary proposal that calls for
further reform from the Uruguay Round in the area of agriculture. As
those negotiations continue they are focused somewhat differently than
the Uruguay Round in that the Doha Development Round is much more
focused on the developing world. We are also working on several
bilateral trade negotiations, Chile, Morocco, Singapore and as well the
Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and so we work closely with USTR as
we negotiate agricultural portions of all of these agreements.

"But at the same time we continue to experience a number of issues we
might call trade irritants whether it is the Russian poultry situation
which I know you talked about earlier today or soybeans in China,
(inaudible)\--we have a whole host of these issues that involve sanitary
and phytosanitary issues that continue to be trade irritants---very
difficult for our exporters and producers. So we have spent a great deal
of time on what we call market maintenance and that is really
maintaining markets that we have and protecting them against these kind
of --what we believe are unjustified barriers to trade. We have a strong
team in place that is working together in this regard...JB Penn, David
Hegwood, and Bill Hawks, of course, who is head of marketing and
regulatory has a strong role to play to make sure that
sanitary/phytosanitary issues are dealt with.

"That brings me to another issue that we discussed at
lunch---(inaudible)\-- and this is something else that is becoming
another global issue and that is biotechnology. Think about the fact
that we had this year something we never thought we would see\--our food
aid turned down. And it was turned down because of biotechnology. But
basically not because the countries were afraid of the food, they were
afraid of losing their licenses in Europe if it happened to get in their
animal byproducts and they couldn't export it.

"So we've seen the impact of biotechnology on trade in that respect
along with our continuing issues with Europe and our inability to get
new regulations (inaudible)---as a result they've had a moratorium on
new product approvals which has been in place now for over four years.
And I know that has been a tremendous burden on our food exporters as
well as our producers. But as we all know biotechnology remains one of
the most important technologies in the agricultural area. It offers so
much promise for the future and I know that you are going to have a
session about that this afternoon and discuss some of the new products
that are coming down the pike. And I believe that we will see more
consumer acceptance of these products (inaudible) as they become aware
of the health benefits of some of these food products and I believe that
is what the consumer wants to see.

"There is also interest in the developing world in this technology. I
spoke yesterday with the 1890s task force --one of the issues they have
been very involved in is research with some of the African countries to
develop the products of biotechnology---to develop drought-resistant
strains, disease resistant strains that will help Africa feed itself.

"I think we haven't gotten enough credit for the environmental gains
we've seen from Bt cotton and corn and soybeans. Because we are seeing
already broad benefits from biotechnology. But we are also seeing some
challenges from biotechnology. Sometimes it is challenges to our legal
and regulatory systems but we've been proactive in dealing with these
issues and are moving forward to adapt to the issues of the future.

"We have new units in the Foreign Agricultural Service to deal with
biotech trade issues. In APHIS we have an aggressive team in place to
deal with regulatory issues and coordinate biotech matters across all
agencies of the Department.

"We have to ensure enforcement of biotech regulations in order to
maintain confidence in the systems and the new technologies.

"And, so when companies don't adhere to those rules, we will take action
as we did recently in the dealing with the case of the Prodigene issues.
We are continuing to work very closely with FDA to ensure regulatory
requirements are clear and that monitoring of licensees that are issued
is effective and efficient. But we also don't want to stifle growth but
we have to have strong and credible regulatory systems. And so that is
(inaudible).

"We also, and you had the opportunity to hear from our Undersecretary
Elsa Murano last night, and I've heard some very good comments about her
presentation last night, but this issue has been very prominent in the
past year and we think will continue to be on the forefront as go
forward into next year. We have strong programs that protect consumers
and they are a critical part of what we do at USDA. The responsibility
to protect the public health---we take that responsibility very, very
seriously.

"Just five years ago USDA scrapped its old system of food safety and put
in the HAACP system looking at critical control points. (Inaudible). We
continue the number of food borne illnesses go down because of the
progress that has been made. But on the other hand we have to continue
to look at our inspection system, our training system, our enforcement
activities to protect the public health.

"We continue to invest in our food safety inspection workforce -- our
inspectors are on the frontlines for ensuring regulatory compliance.

"As I said we have a strong team in place led by Dr. Murano, her deputy
Dr. Pierson and Dr. Gary McKee some of you may have read the Wall Street
Journal article about him yesterday, all scientists, microbiologists who
are working and refocusing our efforts to protect the public health in
the best way we can.

"We are looking at our research. Where are the gaps? We are looking at
our training, where do we need to provide more training? How do we use
technology to protect the public health? We have made progress on
putting in place new policies and procedures on E-coli 0:157 H7
(inaudible) and listeria.

"And, when plants have failed to live up to expectations, when we have
had a problem, we have not hesitated to withdraw our inspectors, which
is effective in shutting down a plant. We are going to continue next
year our ongoing series of various scientific conferences with Dr.
Murano to get cutting edge science on food safety issues. These were
effective in the past year and provided valuable input. It is important
that education all throughout the food chain continue in the area of
food safety so we can make our system as strong as possible in
protecting the public health.

"I want to address just a few more issues before I take questions---that
are not exactly related to the food chain but nevertheless important to
agriculture. One is the full area of energy. It's become a major part of
what we do at USDA. We've focused a lot on ethanol in the last decade
and that was very important to us. But this is an area that continues to
broaden and produce more opportunities and potential for agriculture
like biobased products. And there are several factors that are playing
into this additional focus. One is, as you know, the President put
together an energy policy and strategy, the first of its kind in a
generation and very forward-looking energy legislation, which
unfortunately did not pass the Congress this past year. However this
administration will continue to pursue this legislation, which contains
some key, issues which boost renewable energy fuels. And renewable
energy was an important component of the President's national energy
policy. And he continues to say we must become more energy
self-sufficient and renewable energy, particularly from agriculture, is
one way to do that.

"The bill contains a renewable fuel standard that would result in 5
billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel consumption by the year 2012.
That is a provision the administration supported and will continue to
support next year.

"Also the new farm bill contained an Energy Title for the first time
ever. And this would provide mandatory funding to strengthen USDA's
ability to grow these areas of energy. One of the farm bill provisions
makes \$23 million per year for grants, loans and guaranteed loans to
farms, ranches and small businesses for renewable energy systems and
energy efficiency improvements.

Our rural development mission area under the leadership of Under
Secretary Tom Dorr is responsible for that program. Just yesterday, we
held a public meeting to get input on how to operate the program. They
had 40 people signed up to make presentations on possible types of
projects, from wind and solar to methane digesters to more traditional
projects.

We expect to have this program announced by late spring 2003. In the
rural development area, we also have increased our lending for energy
projects. During the past two years, we have made over 70 loans and
grants in 25 states totaling \$75 million for bioenergy and bioproducts.

"We also have farm bill funding of the Biomass Research and Development
Act of 2000.

This under our environment area. Under Secretary Mark Rey is working
with the Department of Energy to identify and fund projects that will
advance the development of biomass as a feedstock.

"The Farm Bill also gave USDA leadership to develop a biobased
procurement and testing program for federal agencies and a biodiesel
education program. We are also in the process of putting together those
guidelines.

"We also have our CCC Bioenergy Program that share the cost of
feedstock's like corn and soybean oil for firms increasing their
production of ethanol and biodiesel.

And we are also working with the Forest Service as we look for
opportunities for biomass.

"One other area before I close. Another area in the farm bill that we
worked hard to achieve was a strong conservation title. And we are on
schedule now as (inaudible) to implement the various conservation
provisions of the farm bill. And I appreciate your compliment; I think
our team that has worked on this has done an incredible job on the farm
bill implementation. But we are now focusing our efforts on the
conservation title and it is important to note that this bill provided
an 80 percent increase in funding for conservation---85% of which will
go for conservation on working farmlands, helping farmers with
conservation. So these programs continue to be a priority for this
Administration.

"I want to thank the Farm Journal for hosting this, for inviting me to
be a part of it and for all of you for giving me the opportunity to
speak today. I think it is a very important topic and I applaud all of
you for participating. Thank you."