Washington, DC, February 14, 2011 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today made the following statement on the proposed FY 2012 budget:

"President Obama and I share a vision for building an economy that works for all Americans; one that makes, creates, innovates and expands the middle class.

"Since coming to office, we have taken important steps to avoid the potential economic collapse, turning around the economy to create private sector jobs each month for the past year. At President Obama's direction, USDA focused on stimulating growth, creating jobs, and setting in place a framework for a robust future for the rural economy: investing in new technologies like broadband, opening new markets for agricultural producers, supporting production of renewable energy and making better use of our natural resources.

"But as President Obama said in his State of the Union address, these are challenging times. We face tough competition from countries around the world. We need to step up our efforts and get serious about winning the future.

"Our goal must be to lay a foundation for sustainable economic growth and job creation by out-educating, out-building, and out-innovating our competitors. At the same time, we cannot ignore growing deficits accumulated over the past decade through increased spending and tax cuts without offsets. To afford the strategic investments we need to grow the economy in the long term while also tackling the deficit, this budget makes difficult cuts to programs the President and I care about. It looks to properly manage deficit reduction while preserving the values that matter to Americans.

"USDA already showed our commitment to deficit reduction by providing $4 billion last year to help pay down the debt through negotiation of an agreement with crop insurance companies. Our proposed FY 2012 budget cuts discretionary funding to $24 billion, about $2 billion below our FY 2011 request.

"In this budget, we are cutting programs not because we want to, but because we have to. American families have been forced to tighten their belts and government must do the same. The budget fulfills the President's pledge to completely eliminate earmarks. We are promoting good government and streamlining agency operations in a host of programs. And we have reduced or terminated selected programs.

"In the end we must cut to grow. And we are working to do it as responsibly as possible for American agriculture and the American people.

"At the same time, we are making investments to lay a foundation for a successful future for agriculture and for the American people. This budget includes targeted investments and program increases in key areas to support job creation and economic competitiveness. We will invest in research to spur innovation, promote exports, support renewable energy and conservation, and enhance critical infrastructure in rural communities.

"We are proposing some targeted reductions in farm program payments which would save $2.5 billion over 10 years, while only affecting 2 percent of participants. These savings would come on top of earlier work to institute procedural improvements that reduced the error rate in payments from 2 percent to under 0.1 percent, as well as a partnership with the IRS to eliminate improper payments to high-wealth individuals. At the same time, we are pursuing strategies to grow the next generation of farmers.

"Just as importantly, this budget pursues priorities that will spur job creation and innovation in rural America.

"Increasing exports is critical to growing our economy – every billion in increased exports supports 8,000 American jobs. To support President Obama's National Export Initiative, we will provide an additional $20 million to help expand agricultural trade.

"To promote the domestic production of renewable energy, we invest in renewable energy programs related to commercialization; research and development; education and outreach; and energy efficiency and conservation. We are also focusing our loans to rural electric cooperatives to support the development of clean burning low emission fossil fuel facilities and renewable energy deployment. Developing a nation-wide renewable energy industry will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in rural America, while helping us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and reducing risks to our environment.

"Overall, we propose cutting our Rural Development budget by $535 million, reflecting targeted reductions and eliminations of programs. The most important thing we can do to support thriving rural economies is to provide credit to entrepreneurs and communities – which is why we will better target our investments to high growth rural businesses. And to out-build rival nations – and at no cost to the taxpayer – we are more than tripling our direct loan support to help communities build and repair hundreds of hospitals, libraries, and police and fire stations.

"Our budget also recognizes that successful and effective rural economic development will occur on a regional basis. Rural communities have different attributes, and when they find ways to connect and cluster their economies geographically and based on these strengths they are able to efficiently increase productivity and build more robust, sustainable economies. Despite the overall reduction in funding, our budget for Rural Development works through existing programs to fund regional pilot projects, strategic planning activities, and other investments to improve rural economies on a regional basis.

"To reform USDA so it's leaner, more efficient and ready for the 21st century, we will support efforts to better streamline operations and deliver results – at lower cost – for the American people. While many of our payment programs are operating at historic levels of accuracy, this budget continues to support efforts to reduce improper payments. We have cut $80 million in administrative expenses from across the Department including travel, shipping, printing, advisory contracts and supplies. This budget establishes a training program to help our procurement officers make the best use of taxpayer dollars. It looks to reduce staffing in areas that are seeing program cuts, or where we have created new process efficiencies. We are also seeking to recover the cost of operating a number of programs by collecting user fees from those that directly benefit from the services being provided. And we invest in IT to modernize critical systems in our Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development agencies.

"This budget will help drive innovation by investing in basic and applied science. While we have eliminated all earmarks in our research programs – saving $183 million – we have proposed a 24% increase in funding for our competitive grants program to support the most worthy projects. Our in-house research programs are re-directing nearly $59 million to higher priority research areas like agricultural production, food safety, and building a green economy.

"We are also focused on raising a healthier generation of young people who will enter our classrooms ready to get the world-class education they'll need to out-compete the rest of the globe. This budget ensures that all of America's children have access to safe, nutritious, and balanced meals. It fully funds the expected participation in all the Department's major nutrition assistance programs including WIC, the National School Lunch Program, and SNAP and the improvements implemented in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. It restores the SNAP benefit from the Recovery Act. It also makes appropriate investments to help us continue to improve the safety of the food Americans eat each day.

"This budget increases support for various Farm Bill conservation programs, including CRP, on 335 million acres – an average increase of 20 million acres annually since 2009. These programs provide critical benefits to the American people, filtering our water, cleaning our air and improving our wildlife habitats. For our National Forests, this budget improves the ability to restore forest resiliency and health, while supporting sustainable economic development and job-creation essential to growth in rural America.

"All told, this budget takes important steps to grow the economy while taking our responsibility for our deficit. The targeted investments we are making will be critical to building a robust economy for years to come. There are serious trade-offs in this budget, but by focusing on programs with the greatest potential to drive innovation, build critical infrastructure, and generate job growth, we will set this nation on a path to out-compete our rivals and win the future."

Congress passed the Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010 with bipartisan support to help ensure every American child had access to the nutrition they need to grow into healthy adults. One goal of the law was to help reduce America's childhood obesity epidemic and reduce health risks for America's children by helping schools across the country produce balanced meals so children had access to healthy foods during the school day. USDA based the new school meal standards on independent, expert recommendations from the Institute of Medicine to ensure kids are being fed healthy food while they are at school.

Results of the Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act school meals provision to date include:

• Kids are eating more fruits and vegetables as a result of updated standards. A recent Harvard study has concluded that, under the updated standards, kids are now eating 16 percent more vegetables and 23 percent more fruit at lunch.
• Over 90 percent of schools report that they are successfully meeting the updated nutrition standards. Students across the country are experiencing a healthier school environment with more nutritious options. The new meals are providing children more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean protein and low-fat dairy, as well as less sugar, fat, and sodium.
• School lunch revenue is up. Despite concerns raised about the impact of new standards on participation and costs, a USDA analysis suggests that in the first year of implementing updated meal patterns, schools saw a net nationwide increase in revenue from school lunches of approximately $200 million. This includes the annual reimbursement rate adjustments, as well as increased revenue from paid meals and the additional 6 cents per meal for schools meeting the new meal standards.
• Healthy food standards have not increased food waste. While reducing plate waste at schools, homes and workplaces continues to be a priority for USDA, a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health showed that new school meal standards did not result in increased food waste.
• Participation is increasing substantially in many areas of the country. USDA has received reports from many schools indicating a positive response to healthier offerings and increased participation. Examples include Los Angeles, Dallas, and some of Florida's largest school districts. In fact, Los Angeles Unified-one of the nation's largest school districts-has seen a 14% increase in participation under the new meal standards. As more kids and schools continue to successfully make the transition to the new standards, USDA expects participation to keep climbing.
• HHFKA has led to participation increases within many schools. The Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) under the HHFKA has been successfully implemented in almost 4,000 schools in early adopting States. More than 600 school districts across 11 States have at least one school participating in CEP. The evaluation results demonstrate that participating schools were able to increase participation in their meals programs, and as well as experience revenue gains and decreased administrative costs.
• Virtually all schools continue to participate. Data from states indicated very few schools (only 0.15% of schools nationwide) reported dropping out of the programs due to struggles over providing kids healthy food. State agencies reported that the schools no longer participating in the NSLP were mainly residential child care institutions and smaller schools with very low percentages of children eligible for free and reduced price meals.
• USDA has and will continue to listen to stakeholders and provide guidance and flexibilities, as appropriate, to help schools and students adapt to the updated requirements. Early in the implementation process for school meals, when schools asked for flexibility to serve larger servings of grains and proteins within the overall calorie caps, USDA responded. In January of this year, that flexibility was made permanent. USDA is also phasing other requirements in over the next several years. And hearing schools concerns on the lack of availability of whole grain pasta, USDA is allowing schools that have demonstrated difficulty in obtaining adequate whole grain pasta to use traditional pastas for an additional two years while industry works to create better whole grain pasta products.
• USDA is helping schools encourage kids to choose new healthier options. Most recently, the Department announced $5.5 million in new grants to support Smarter Lunchrooms, a broad toolkit of easy-to-implement, low-cost, evidence-based strategies that increase consumption of healthier foods and decrease plate waste.
• USDA is supporting numerous training sessions in conjunction with our partners to help schools implement the updated meal standards and prepare for Smart Snacks. USDA has completed seven sessions with various audiences since the rule was published, and additional training is planned for the rest of the year. The Department has made in-person trainings at 16 school professional organization meetings and have three more scheduled this spring and summer.
• USDA is supporting implementation of the updated school meals standards and new Smart Snacks standards through a variety of additional methods.

Recent actions include:

In February, USDA announced the availability of up to $5 million through the Farm to School grant program to increase the amount of healthy, local food in schools. In FY13, USDA awarded grants to 71 projects spanning 42 states and the District of Columbia.

USDA awarded $5.6 million in grants in FY2013 to provide training and technical assistance for child nutrition foodservice professionals and support stronger school nutrition education programs, and plans to award additional grants in FY 2014.

In April, USDA awarded $25 million in grants to help schools purchase kitchen equipment that will help them provide healthier school meals.

USDA is partnering with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to provide an online product calculator for Smart Snacks. The newest version of the calculator was released on April 7 and included a beverage module. This product calculator will assist all stakeholders in easily identifying food and beverage products that meet the new standards.

Washington, DC, Dec. 8, 2014 – Today USDA announced the selection of eight states to participate in the Pilot Project for Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables, as directed by the Agricultural Act of 2014, also known as the Farm Bill. Under the pilot, California, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin will be able to increase their purchases of locally-grown fruits and vegetables for their school meal programs.

USDA Foods – provided by the USDA to schools – make up about 20 percent of the foods served in schools. States use their USDA Foods allocation to select items from a list of 180 products including fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, poultry, rice, low fat cheese, beans, pasta, flour and other whole grain products. This pilot program will allow the selected states to use some of their USDA Foods allocation to purchase unprocessed fruits and vegetables directly, instead of going through the USDA Foods program.

“Providing pilot states with more flexibility in the use of their USDA Foods' dollars offers states another opportunity to provide schoolchildren with additional fruits and vegetables from within their own communities,” said Kevin Concannon, USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. "When schools invest food dollars into local communities, all of agriculture benefits, including local farmers, ranchers, fishermen, food processors and manufacturers.”

These states were selected based on their demonstrated commitment to farm to school efforts, including prior efforts to increase and promote farm to school programs in the state, the quantity and variety of growers of local fruits and vegetables in the state on a per capita basis, and the degree to which the state contains a sufficient quantity of local educational agencies of various population sizes and geographic locations.

This pilot is designed to support the schools’ pre-existing relationships with vendors, growers, produce wholesalers, and distributors, and increase the use of locally-grown, unprocessed fruits and vegetables in school meal programs. While the pilot does not require sourcing locally grown foods, the project will enable schools to increase their use of locally-grown, unprocessed fruits and vegetables from AMS authorized vendors. Unprocessed fruits and vegetables include products that are minimally processed such as sliced apples, baby carrots, and shredded lettuce. For more information about the pilot, please visit the Pilot Project for Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables website.

Building robust connections between farms and institutions, including schools, is a key element of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative, which coordinates USDA’s efforts and investments in local food system development. Since, 2009, USDA has supported over 3,000 projects nationwide to build new opportunities in local and regional foods, mainly through programs authorized in the Farm Bill:

• USDA has expanded access to healthy foods in underserved communities by making EBT available at farmers markets. Over 5,000 farmers markets now accept EBT, and SNAP redemption at farmers markets nationwide rose from $4 million in 2009 to over $21 million in 2013. In September, USDA announced the application season for the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) program, a new Farm Bill program to help low-income consumers purchase more fruits and vegetables, particularly locally-grown produce, by providing incentives at the point of purchase.
• USDA’s Farm to School grant program has funded 221 projects in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands since this program began in 2013. According to the USDA’s Farm to School Census, schools spent over $385 million on local food purchases during the 2011-2012 school year.
• In FY 2014 alone, USDA facilitated over 330 new markets for local foods – including food hubs, scale-appropriate processing, and distribution networks – that are connecting rural producers with new sources of revenue and creating jobs.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service administers 15 nutrition assistance programs. In addition to the National School Lunch Program, these programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, and the Summer Food Service Program which together comprise America's nutrition safety net.

Today’s announcement was made possible by the 2014 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America. For more information, visit: www.usda.gov/farmbill.