Vilsack: USDA should help farmers diversify operations, revenue

INDIANOLA — With large farm operations dominating agriculture and small, family farms growing ever smaller in number — in Iowa and across the U.S. — Tom Vilsack, the former national ag secretary and Iowa governor, is proposing more sustainable farming practices, and partnerships between agriculture and the public and private sectors.

Vilsack spoke Tuesday to a gathering of roughly two dozen people at an event hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party and billed as a discussion with Iowa farmers.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said they hope to hold more, similar events and discussions with farmers across the state in the future.

Vilsack was the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary during all eight years of former President Barack Obama’s administration and during former President Joe Biden’s single term in the White House. Before that, Vilsack was Iowa’s governor for two terms, from 2003 to 2010.

During the event Tuesday at Middleswart Lodge, just south of Indianola, Vilsack spoke about the challenges facing small, family farms in modern agriculture and his ideas for helping them.

There were 1.9 million farms in the U.S. in 2022, according to the most recent USDA data. That’s down roughly 545,000 farms from 1981, Vilsack said.

“The whole system is focused on production because that’s what we told farmers to do,” Vilsack said. “We have told our farmers to work harder. (But) there are no more hardworking people in the country or the world than our farmers. Trust me.”

While Vilsack noted multiple ways the current agricultural system benefits large farming operations — including their significant share of government assistance — he also said it’s not a matter of pitting large farm operations against smaller farms, but creating a system where both can succeed.

“You’re not going to find me bashing the big guys. We need them. We need to feed the world. We need their production. But aren’t we smart enough in this country to figure out how we can have that and small, midsized farming operations? Can’t we figure out a way to make it happen so that you have an option?”

Vilsack proposed helping farmers create multiple revenue streams by establishing government incentives for sustainable and environmental farming practices and crop diversity, finding new uses for agricultural waste like Wisconsin dairy farms turning waste into methane that can be sold to natural gas producers, and establishing more direct farm-to-market options.

“So you could create a system, you could invest in a system, you could combine the marketplace and the private sector and government to do right by the environment and to do right by the small and midsized market operation,” Vilsack said. “The farm will work harder. Not the farmer.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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