Letter to The Honorable Thomas Vilsack Secretary of Agriculture

Letter

U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, today pressed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase approximately 60 million pounds of Arkansas poultry through its Agricultural Marketing Service, in a letter sent to Secretary Tom Vilsack.

"In Arkansas, where poultry production represents one in every six jobs, this purchase is critical to reinvigorating our rural economies and putting people back to work," Lincoln said. "USDA has the authority to make a bonus purchase to help stabilize a commodity sector that is suffering undue economic hardship. Having the Russian market closed to poultry for so long has had a tremendous impact on the Arkansas economy and this purchase will really help an oversaturated market situation. A 60 million-pound purchase would go a long way in Arkansas and around the country in stabilizing the poultry industry."

The full text of the letter is below.

September 3, 2010

The Honorable Thomas Vilsack
Secretary of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave, SW
Room 200-A
James E. Whitten Building
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Secretary Vilsack:

Our nation's poultry farmers are suffering through an unprecedented financial crisis, and are in desperate need of assistance. Farms, jobs, and a valued way of American life are in jeopardy because of an oversaturated poultry market. This is due in part to countries around the world cutting off access to their domestic markets, such as Russia our largest export destination for poultry. Accordingly, I am writing on behalf our nation's poultry farmers to formally ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to make a bonus purchase of approximately 60 million pounds of poultry.

In Arkansas, where poultry production represents one in every six jobs, this purchase is critical to reinvigorating our rural economies and puts people back to work. However, the continued sluggish pace of the economy coupled with the existing export situation threatens the poultry industry's recovery. USDA has the authority to make a bonus purchase to help stabilize a commodity sector that is suffering undue economic hardship. A 60 million-pound purchase would go a long way in Arkansas and around the country in stabilizing the poultry industry.

This purchase will benefit our public as well, by supplying a healthy, low fat source of protein for the USDA feeding programs. A bonus purchase of this product would be helpful as USDA strives to meet some of the childhood nutrition goals outlined by the department.

Thank you for your consideration of this request. We look forward to working with you and your staff to facilitate this purchase.

Sincerely,

Senator Blanche Lincoln

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