Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

With the world poised to enter an urban age when more people will live in cities than in the countryside, Josiah Tobiko sees no need to move from his cow dung-covered hut in rural Kenya.

"You can choose city life with televisions and mobile phones but I prefer living here," said Tobiko, a Maasai teacher who lives in a settlement of 125 cattle and goat herders with no electricity or piped water at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Tobiko, 35, moved into a new one-storey home this year -- made of tree branches tied with sisal and coated with about six inches (15 cms) of cow dung and mud.

Here in Amboseli, lions and elephants are residents' most pressing concerns, not road accidents or muggers.

"People go and live in the towns but most come back because they feel there's no culture there," Tobiko said.

He may be right but for now, more and more people are moving to the world's cities and this population shift promises to usher in an urban age -- 6,000 years after the first cities emerged in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.

According to U.N. data, the world's urban population is poised to surpass the rural total for the first time in history.

September 12, 2006

The Honorable Dennis Hastert The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker Majority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
Washington DC 20515 Washington DC 20515

Dear Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Boehner:

We are writing to ask that you schedule time in the U.S. House of Representatives to debate and vote on emergency agricultural disaster assistance for 2005 and 2006 before the House leaves for its announced October recess.

Very limited and in some cases inadequate disaster assistance has been provided to some parts of the country, while other regions continue to be ignored. Farmers and ranchers are still struggling to recover from disastrous floods, droughts and other natural disasters in 2005, only to face another bad year in 2006, so the time to act is now.

Democrats have sought to provide disaster relief several times in the House. Last fall, Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee proposed emergency disaster assistance measures that were defeated by party-line votes. Democrats have offered similar proposals in the Appropriations Committee that were also defeated by House Republicans last fall and early this year. The Senate included agriculture disaster assistance in both of their emergency supplemental bills. Unfortunately, earlier this year, under pressure from President Bush's veto threat, House Republicans failed to stand up for disaster assistance in the conference committee, once again abandoning the pressing needs of our rural communities. Now, the Senate has included disaster assistance in its agriculture appropriations bill. However, since it is not likely that this bill will be completed before Congress recesses, this is another lost opportunity to provide this needed relief.

A coalition of more than 30 farm and allied organizations, including the National Farmers Union, American Farm Bureau Federation, Independent Community Bankers of America, Farm Credit Council and others have recognized the critical need for disaster assistance and are urging Congress to act quickly and decisively to provide comprehensive relief before the October recess.

Floods, droughts and other natural disasters have a profound negative economic impact on our small rural communities, impacting the banks, equipment dealers, grocery stores, and other businesses as well as our nation's farmers and ranchers.

The House Democratic Caucus recognizes the pressing, urgent need to provide this assistance in our rural communities, and we ask that you schedule time this month to debate and vote on a comprehensive agriculture disaster package.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader

Steny Hoyer
Democratic Whip

James E. Clyburn
Chairman
Democratic Caucus

John Larson
Vice Chairman
Democratic Caucus

Collin Peterson
Ranking Member
House Agriculture Committee

Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee

Bob Etheridge
Co-Chair
Democratic Rural Working Group

Stephanie Herseth
Co-Chair
Democratic Rural Working Group

Penny Altendorf isn't a farmer, but the ongoing drought is affecting her family nonetheless.

She and her husband Richard own an aerial sprayer company, a business that is dependent on the weather in eastern North Dakota where they live. And it's been so dry this year, Altendorf says, struggling farmers in the area are cutting down on expenses by using ground sprayers.

.....

Indeed, farm-state lawmakers are asking for a lot of money when money is scarce. A $4 billion proposal is pending in an agriculture spending bill; Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., introduced a new version last week that would provide $6.5 billion.

Lawmakers aren't optimistic about the chances of the money making it through Congress anytime soon.

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the House "is probably not going to go along with it."

"It's always been pulled out by the House," he said. "I don't know."

House Republicans pulled the $4 billion package out of a spending bill designed to pay for the Iraq war earlier this year, and leaders have shown no public indication of changing their minds on the issue.

Reps. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., and Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., both say they are frustrated there is not more attention on rural issues as the election nears.

"Things could be very different after the election, and I believe there are rural seats hanging on this disaster bill," Pomeroy said.

North Dakota's Conrad said it would be easiest to push the package before the election, when political pressure is highest.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who is in a tight election race, is pushing his own disaster legislation that includes targeted money for fighting wildfires.

But Republican leadership, preoccupied with several defense and national security bills this month, has so far shown little interest in moving agricultural disaster assistance soon.

In spite of what Mother taught you about the benefits of eating broccoli, data collected by the U.S. government show that the nutritional content of America's vegetables and fruits has declined during the past 50 years -- in some cases dramatically.

Donald Davis, a biochemist at the University of Texas, said that of 13 major nutrients in fruits and vegetables tracked by the Agriculture Department from 1950 to 1999, six showed noticeable declines -- protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and vitamin C. The declines ranged from 6 percent for protein, 15 percent for iron, 20 percent for vitamin C, and 38 percent for riboflavin.