Washblog || "Very Scary": A Major State Expenditure Bill with no Known Opposition

"Very Scary": A Major State Expenditure Bill with no Known Opposition

By noemie maxwell
Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 01:43:44 PM PST
Section: Washington State Topic: Legislation

I've never before seen a bill that had more sponsors than it needed votes to pass into law. But that's the case with both the House and Senate versions of "Enacting the local farms-healthy kids and communities act" (SB 6483 and HB 2798.) In a recent Seattle Times article Representative Pettigrew, the prime sponsor in the House, was quoted as commenting on the lack of opposition: "very scary".

This legislation is the kind of win-win economic stimulus proposal that I had hoped to see on the national level in response to recent economic woes. Approximately $4 million in 2007-09 and then $5 to $7 million each for the next two biennia would be invested in facilitating the purchase of Washington-grown food by state schools, agencies and institutions of higher education. Benefits listed in the bill: children's health and school performance; stewardship of working agricultural lands; direct and spin-off jobs in farming, processing, tourism, and support industries; energy conservation; greenhouse gas reductions; increased food security. There is also the matter of the "local multiplier effect". According to findings from the recent Local Food Economy Study by Sustainable Seattle, "locally directed spending by consumers more than doubles the number of dollars circulating among businesses in the community. This means that a shift of 20% of our food dollars into locally directed spending would result in a nearly half billion dollar annual income increase in King County alone and twice that in the Central Puget Sound region."

Until recently, there have been barriers to the purchase of local foods in Washington schools and institutions. One of those barriers, a prohibition against using USDA School Food Service funds in a way that gives preference to state or local food, may be removed with the 2007 farm bill.

Another barrier is removed by the new legislation itself. RCW 28A.335.190 requires purchases by state institutions that exceed $50,000 to be made by competitive bidding, with contracts awarded to the lowest bidder. A Washblog story last year discussed Representative Hurst's intention to introduce a bill to repeal that requirement in relation to purchases of local food by schools. That bill, HB 2709, didn't make it. But this session' bill would amend the same section of law to repeal the prohibition against preference to local food.

Given the importance of agriculture for our state economy, it's no wonder this legislation has broad, bipartisan support. From the House Bill Analysis:

Washington is a major agricultural state with 34,000 farms operating on more than 15 million acres, producing some 300 commercial crops and livestock products valued at $6.4 billion.

Washington ranks first in the U.S. for production of 11 commodities, including apples, sweet cherries, pears, hops and red raspberries. Growers' production ranks second in the U.S. for an additional eight commodities, including potatoes, grapes, and onions. Washington is also the second-largest producer of wine in the U.S. The state's diverse agricultural economy includes
aquaculture, farm forest products, cranberries, spearmint and peppermint oil, and mink.

< Incarcerex: Are you an Elected Official Suffering from Political Fear? | "We Cannot Build Prisons Fast Enough": WA Dept. of Corrections on prison transfers >

"Very Scary": A Major State Expenditure Bill with no Known Opposition | 3 comments (3 topical)

Understanding local food economy

I read with interest the Executive Summary, and I plan to read more of the report (which is still annotated as a "Public Comment Draft").

It sounds reasonable that locally produced food would be fresher, less processed, and probably healthier. Also, it's reasonable that transportation costs would be lower.

Americans tend to be so obsessed with getting the lowest price that they are willing to sacrifice quality and sustainability. People will buy at Walmart even though Walmart pays it employees too little (causing many of them to depend on government handouts for things like medical care), even though Walmart drives local stores out of business, even though Walmart has low quality goods, and even though Walmart drives production overseas to the cheapest, least environmentally and socially sustainable suppliers.

Still, if the quality were the same, it would seem to make sense to buy the cheapest product. Forcing, say, schools to buy locally produced goods even if they're more expensive than commodity goods would be ineffiicent and would deprive the schools of money for other needs (e.g., teacher salaries).

So, I'm not sure I understand all this.

Also, some of the jargon in the report is hard to understand, e,g., "Buying local connects the community's resources to its needs, resulting in synergistic relationships and the circular flow of resources."

Also: "Relationship-based transactions provide for more adaptability in the use of local resources and thus greater self‐reliance, while practices in community building are key to the vitality of local food economy business and the regeneration of resources."

Can anyone explain this stuff clearly?

by ThinkerFeeler on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 07:04:45 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *

I Asked an Advocate by ktkeller, 01/30/2008 06:29:04 PM PST (none / 0)

ktkeller and Goldie by noemie maxwell, 01/31/2008 04:35:38 PM PST (none / 0)

"Very Scary": A Major State Expenditure Bill with no Known Opposition | 3 comments (3 topical)

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