Texas Department of Agriculture's Wine Passport Program Wins Award

The Texas Department of Agriculture's Texas Winery Passport Program won the 2010 North American Agriculture Marketing Officials (NAAMO) Agricultural Marketing Excellence award!

The winery passport program works in new and innovative ways to offer incentives to visitors experiencing Texas wine country. Through the program, more than 1 million travelers visit Texas vineyards and wineries, while meeting the winemakers who take pride in their craft. Thanks to those winemakers, Texas is the fifth-leading wine-producing state in the nation.

When travelers redeem their passports, not only does TDA send them a reward or connect them with a reward-donating winery that offers tastings, dinners or overnight stays, the agency also receives valuable feedback about consumer interests that serves as essential market research.

NAAMO awarded TDA and Texas this honor above all other U.S. states and Canadian provinces. To learn more about the Texas Winery Passport Program, visit www.gotexanwine.org.

Congratulations again to TDA's Marketing and Promotion Division for superior strategy and excellent execution!

Commissioner Farmer supports federal bills protecting producers from costly regulation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
For more information contact:
Bill Clary
(502) 564-1137

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer supports federal legislation that would prevent the government from requiring farmers to get additional permits under the Clean Water Act for using pesticides that are applied consistent with federal pesticide law.

Bills filed in the U.S. House and Senate would clarify that producers who apply pesticides in compliance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) are not subject to Clean Water Act permits. The measures stem from a federal appeals court decision that overturned an Environmental Protection Agency rule that exempted permitting of certain pesticide applications from the Clean Water Act. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota), Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma), and Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) have filed similar legislation to address the situation.

“The court ruling reversed decades of sound federal policy on pesticide use,” Commissioner Farmer said. “This legislation would prohibit the government from placing a costly and unnecessary burden on our producers that would result in little or no benefit to the environment.”

FIFRA was enacted by Congress to control all aspects of pesticide registration, sales and use. The EPA has never issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit under the Clean Water Act for the application of a pesticide, and in 2006 the agency specifically exempted permitting of certain pesticide applications from the Clean Water Act. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2009 that the EPA did not have the authority to exempt pesticides from the Clean Water Act.

Agricultural Finance Loans Approved

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sandra Gardner
(502) 564-4627 x. 223
(502) 330-2105

agpolicy.ky.gov

Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corporation Approves More Than $315,000 in Loans

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Oct. 1, 2010) -The Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corporation (KAFC), chaired by Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, today approved $315,938 in agricultural loans for projects in the Commonwealth during their regular monthly business meeting.

KAFC participates with lenders to provide financing to producers making capital expenditures for agricultural projects through the Agricultural Infrastructure Loan Program. Eligible projects include permanent farm structures with attached equipment that improves the profitability of farming operations. An Agricultural Infrastructure loan was approved for a total of $100,000 in Metcalfe County.

The Beginning Farmer Loan Program is designed to assist individuals with some farming experience who desire to develop, expand or buy into a farming operation. Beginning farmers may qualify for financing to purchase livestock, equipment or agriculture facilities; to secure permanent working capital; and to make a down payment on real estate or invest in a partnership or LLC. Beginning Farmer loans totaled $215,938 and included one recipient from Daviess County.

For more information on the programs offered by the KAFC, contact Bill McCloskey, director of financial services, at (502) 564-4627 or visit the KAFC Webpage at kafc.ky.gov.

In defense of America's food supply.

by Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer

Here in America, we are blessed with the safest, most abundant and most affordable food supply in the world. It has always been this way for most of us, so it’s easy for us to take for granted that it will always be this way.

But the fact is that any number of conditions could affect the availability and affordability of food in Kentucky and America, for better and for worse. For one thing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled scientific reviews for atrazine and for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter – here in Kentucky, we call it “dust” – that could make it more difficult and more expensive for Kentucky farmers to make a living.

That’s why I felt it was necessary to stand up for Kentucky family farmers and question the necessity of these reviews in letters to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Atrazine is a critical tool in weed control for Kentucky farmers, and thousands of scientific studies have show it to have little, if any, risk to the environment and to public health. Further, there is no scientific basis for more stringent dust standards that would be the toughest in our nation’s history.

We all want to protect the environment. But if Washington tightens restrictions on atrazine and dust, it will do very little good for our air and water while raising costs for Kentucky farmers. Those costs inevitably will find their way to consumers, many of whom are strapped for cash as it is.

Mac Stone named to national organic board

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 1, 2010
For more information contact:
Bill Clary
(502) 564-1137

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Mac Stone of Georgetown, executive director of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s marketing office, is one of five people appointed by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to the National Organic Standards Board.

“Mac is a national leader in organic and sustainable agriculture,” Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “He uses organic production principles on his own farm. Mac’s knowledge and passion for organic farming will make him an outstanding addition to the National Organic Standards Board.”

Stone was named executive director of the Department’s Office of Agriculture Marketing and Product Promotion in March 2008. He joined the Department in October 2004 as director of the Division of Value-Added Plant Production. Before that, he served as manager of the Research and Demonstration Farm at Kentucky State University for 19 years. He also worked at the Spendthrift Farm thoroughbred operation and as a beef research specialist at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.

Stone and his wife, Ann Bell Stone, own and manage Elmwood Stock Farm, a certified organic farm near Georgetown, where they produce vegetables, tobacco, Angus cattle for seed stock, organic beef, lamb and organic-raised pastured poultry. Stone has been active in Partners for Family Farms, the Organic Farming Research Foundation and the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association.

Stone hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kentucky.

Stone and the other four appointees will serve from 2011-2016.

The 15-member National Organic Standards Board is responsible for making recommendations about whether a substance should be allowed in organic production or handling; assisting in developing standards for substances used in organic production; and advising the agriculture secretary on other aspects of implementation of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.