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| Michigan ag statistics office gets private funding to finish projects |
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By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has received generous funding from private industry, public sector and nonprofit organizations that will enable it to stay afloat through the end of this fiscal year.
More than $168,000 has been donated to enable the Michigan Field Office to complete several projects. These include the 2006-07 Agricultural Statistics Bulletin; the Fruit Rotational Survey for 2006-07; the Michigan Equine Survey for 2006-07 and county estimates for dairy operations and milk production.
“The NASS program is a key program for us nationally,” said Phil Korson, president of the Michigan Cherry Committee, which is one of the donors. “To have an accurate accounting for what’s happening in these industries, you have to have accurate statistics.
“In perennial crops like ours, that data is just critical.”
According to Korson, the USDA doles out grants based on data from NASS, and Michigan Field Office data is often intertwined with data from the national office.
He also said that industry produced data is not considered credible by USDA and other institutions, which makes the NASS and the Michigan Field Office all the more important.
Bob Boehm, commodity and marketing department manager for the Michigan Farm Bureau, echoed Korson’s last point. He stated that a company trying to get approval for a new pesticide, for example, would need objective data to present to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“The EPA is reluctant to take industry generated data,” he said.
According to Boehm, Greenstone Farm Credit Services donated about half of the $15,000 needed to complete the 2006-07 Agricultural Statistics Bulletin.
Greenstone is a major farm lender in Michigan. Greenstone really took the initiative, Boehm said.
The Michigan Farm Bureau was actually key to facilitating all of the donations. Last spring and early summer the Farm Bureau hosted a series of meetings between industry, its own representatives and David Kleweno, director of the Michigan Field Office.
Kleweno provided the financial information that all of the participants needed to make sure the 2006-2007 fiscal year projects were completed.
After that it was up to the stakeholders to act.
Boehm is now concerned about what the future may hold.
“What we really have to face is what we do for ‘08, ‘09 and beyond,” he added. “Until we can get the bigger budget picture resolved we don’t really know where we’re going to be at.”
According to Boehm the cost of doing an entire rotational survey next year will be $140,000. He fears that industry and the public sector won’t be able to afford to pay for these statistical services every year. He believes there’s an important public benefit to be had from these data.
Currently the leaders of the state assembly, state senate and the governor are meeting to sort out the state’s budget crisis. As of this writing there is an ongoing stalemate as to how to balance the state’s budget. Without deep cuts in state services or a substantial tax increase, the budget won’t be balanced as mandated by the state’s constitution. Without a deal the state government will be shut down, presumably with the exception of essential services such as police and prisons.
It’s still unclear whether the senate, which is controlled by Republicans, can reach a deal with the Democratic controlled assembly and Democratic governor before a possible shutdown this week.
The Michigan Field Office is trying to function and survive within this environment. Korson is a little more optimistic about the office’s chances of surviving in future fiscal years despite the larger budget picture.
“Our hope is that we’ll be able to reinstate some state funding,” Korson said. “When they made the cuts state legislators were not aware of how critical these statistics are.” |
| 10/3/2007 |
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