The following was released by the office of Senator William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.):
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.) today highlighted the importance of Massachusetts’ agriculture sectors, and the challenges faced by local farmers and fishermen, at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on “Drought, Fire and Freeze: The Economics of Disasters for America’s Agricultural Producers”.
This hearing was Senator Cowan’s first Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. It also marked the first time a Massachusetts Senator has sat on the Senate Agriculture Committee since 1879 and only the third time since the Committee was established in 1825.
Senator Cowan’s hearing statement, as delivered, is below:
Thank you Madame Chair. I am pleased to join this honorable committee today. I have a question, but I want to preface by saying, the last time a Massachusetts Senator sat on this committee was 1879, and I am only the third Senator from Massachusetts to serve on this committee. And if you’re wondering why I’m here, I’m going to tell you. We in Massachusetts are not unfamiliar with agricultural issues and the importance of agriculture to this nation, and certainly the Commonwealth. Personally, I spent much of my childhood in North Carolina on my grandparents working farm, where almost everything we ate was either grown or born on that farm.
Though Massachusetts is not a corn or wheat belt state, it is an important food producer for the nation. In the Northeast, specialty crops and dairy are our largest agriculture sectors, and we are the nation’s leaders in sales of locally grown products, with a growing and dynamic population of organic and new and first time farmers. We’re also the second largest producer of cranberries. Not only do we have roughly 8,000 farms, we also have over 80,000 fishermen, the farmers of the sea. These farmers and fishermen have a combined production of 7.2 billion dollars in annual sales.
I recognize that some aspects of our fisheries are not in the jurisdiction of this committee, but fishermen from the Northeast who risk their lives to put food on our tables must be treated with the same respect as farmers across the nation. Our fishermen are struggling too and are currently facing drastic stock reductions. Many fishermen, through no fault of their own, are in dire straits. I will continue to push for provisions in the Farm Bill that my predecessor, now Secretary John Kerry advanced to ensure that fishermen are eligible for disaster assistance programs just like the other important farmers in this nation.
As we look to reauthorize the Farm Bill this Congress, we must make sure farmers and fishermen have the tools they need to manage risk, that we protect our natural environment for future generations, and that we preserve federal nutrition and other programs that ensure that no child is forced to go to bed hungry.
We also need to be thinking about new threats that our farmers and fishermen are facing.
Climate change and more frequent and intense extreme weather events threaten our agricultural economy, and I am pleased the committee is discussing this important issue today. According to the Climate Vulnerability Initiative, the U.S. is among the top-10 countries that will be most adversely affected by desertification and sea-level rise and this does not bode well for either our farmers or fishermen.
Again, I am honored to join this Committee and I look forward to representing the interests of Massachusetts citizens, farmers and fishermen and working with you all to solve our challenges.