Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat

ATTRA Appeals: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

By Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, 11-06-07

An email I received this week began, ”ATTRA, the national sustainable agriculture service, is in a serious funding crunch.”

In the past, ATTRA, a project of the National Center for Appropriate Tchnology, has been funded by a federal grant from the USDA. The ATTRA project hosts a website and answers a toll free phone line (in English and Spanish) that has provided thousands of farmers and agricultural organizations with information on sustainable agriculture. ATTRA’s 250 publications were downloaded 670,000 times last year and an additional 40,000 were mailed out.

While the House passed the Agriculture Appropriations Bill back in August, the bill went dormant in the Senate. Just to clarify, this Bill differs from the Farm Bill. The Ag Appropriations Bill happens every year as a part of the budget process and funds agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and Homeland Security staff. According to ATTRA’s Teresa Maurer, the Appropriations Bill used to be passed by October 1, when the federal fiscal year starts. But this year, against all congressional promises to do so, they didn’t get it done. So while the Ag spending bill has funding for ATTRA, the funding is in lock down until the Bill is passed. 

Maurer believes that part of the delay stems from Congress’ focus on the Farm Bill, which has been complicated by discussions about the real food that people want to eat and the role of large subsidies (see my September article). In his recent op-ed piece, Michael Pollen adeptly explains how lobbyists are ensuring these subsidies in the face of public opinion. Even so, the Farm Bill is expected to hit the Senate floor this week. The Appropriations Bill has no such deadline.

For years ATTRA has provided its services for free and according to Maurer, the organization has never in its twenty years of work been forced to fundraise. But this week the organization explained, “There is no funding in sight for this NCAT project until Congress completes its budget work.”

So for now, ATTRA has been forced to decrease its staff time. Experts will no longer answer the phone twelve hours a day. They will only answer from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Central Time. They will not be able to answer any questions that require research. They will not be able to write or update ATTRA publications, and they will not be speaking at any workshops or conferences.

Staff have already been laid off and to keep the remaining few answering the phones, ATTRA is asking for donations. At this rate, Maurer believes they will only be able to make it a couple more weeks. She hopes that the Farm Bill will pass this week, and allow the Senate to immediately focus its attention on the Appropriations Bill. But until then, ATTRA staff will continue volunteering much of their time and watch the funding delays stall their work.

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