NCFC supports legislation on spill prevention

Washington, D.C. (May 7, 2013)—The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) today signaled its support for the inclusion of S. 496, the Farmers Undertake Environmental Land Stewardship Act, as an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act currently being debated on the Senate floor. The amendment seeks to ensure that the Environmental Protection Agency’s pending Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations adequately recognizes the low risk of spills on America’s farms and ranches. “Inclusion of an amendment identical to S. 496 in WRDA will bring much needed clarity to agriculture on the confusing requirements of the SPCC rules,” said Chuck Conner, president and CEO of NCFC. “Throughout this long regulatory process, the EPA has failed to provide solid data, or even anecdotal evidence, of on-farm oil spills to justify such as resource-intensive rulemaking for America’s farmers and ranchers.” The amendment would exempt farmers from SPCC rules for aboveground oil storage tanks that have an aggregate storage capacity of less than 10,000 gallons. In addition to providing this exemption, it will also allow farmers who are regulated and have less than 42,000 gallons of above ground storage capacity to self-certify their own plans. “By providing realistic threshold sizes for tank regulation at the farm level, this amendment would allow farmers and ranchers to focus on running productive agricultural operations instead of on finding engineers and writing plans that address a problem that simply doesn’t exist,” continued Conner. “I would like to thank Senators Mark Pryor and James Inhofe for their leadership on this issue and hope to work with them as the measure moves through the legislative process.” About the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives NCFC is a national association representing America’s farmer cooperatives. There are nearly 3,000 farmer cooperatives across the U.S. whose members include a majority of our nation’s more than 2 million farmers, ranchers and growers. These farmer cooperative businesses handle, process, and market agricultural commodities and related products; furnish farm supplies; and provide credit and associated financial services. Earnings from these activities are returned to their members on a patronage basis. Farmer cooperatives also provide jobs for nearly 250,000 Americans, many in rural areas, with a combined payroll of over $8 billion. Additional information about NCFC can be found at http://www.ncfc.org.

Mother's Day facts: Census Bureau

            Mother’s Day: May 12, 2013

The driving force behind Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis, who organized observances in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. As the annual celebration became popular around the country, Jarvis asked members of Congress to set aside a day to honor mothers. She succeeded in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

How Many Mothers

4.1 million

Number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 who gave birth in the past 12 months. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey, Table B1302 <http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B13002&prodType=table>

53%

Percentage of 15- to 44-year-old women who were mothers in 2010.
Source: Fertility of American Women: 2010
<http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2010.html> Table 1 

81%

Percentage of women who had become mothers by age 40 to 44 as of 2010. In 1976, 90 percent of women in that age group had given birth. Source: Fertility of American Women: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2010.html> Table 1
2,449
The total fertility rate or estimated number of total births per 1,000 women in Utah in 2010 (based on current birth rates by age), which led the nation. At the other end of the spectrum is Rhode Island, with a total fertility rate of 1,630.5 births per 1,000 women. Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Table 12, page 42 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_01.pdf>

 20%

Percentage of all women age 15 to 44 who have had two children. About 47 percent had no children, 17 percent had one, 10 percent had three and about 5 percent had four or more. Source: Fertility of American Women: 2010, Detailed Tables, Table 1 <http://www.census.gov/hhes/fertility/data/cps/2010.html> 

89.7%

Percentage of all children who lived with their biological mothers in 2012. About 1.2 percent of all children lived with a stepmother. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements, 2012 CPS, Table C9 <http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2012.html>

Recent Births

3.954 million
Number of births registered in the United States in 2011. Of this number, 329,797 were to teens 15 to 19 and 7,651 to women age 45 to 49.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_05.pdf>

25.4
Average age of women in 2010 when they gave birth for the first time, up from 25.2 years in 2009. The increase in the mean age from 2009 to 2010 reflects, in part, the relatively large decline in births to women under age 25.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Page 6 <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_01.pdf> and <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_01_tables.pdf>
           

29.2%

The percentage of mothers who had given birth in the past 12 months who had a bachelor’s degree or higher and 84 percent of mothers have at least a high school diploma. Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American FactFinder, Table S1301 

<http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_S1301&prodType=table>

Jacob and Sophia

The most popular baby names for boys and girls, respectively, in 2011. Source: Social Security Administration <http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/>

 68
Number of births in the past year per 1,000 women age 15 to 50 with a graduate or professional degree. The number was 57 per 1,000 for women whose highest level of education was a bachelor’s degree.
Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American FactFinder, Table S1301

<http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_S1301&prodType=table>

Stay-at-Home Moms

5 million

Number of stay-at-home moms in 2012 — statistically unchanged from 2009, 2010 and 2011— down from 5.3 million in 2008. In 2012, 24 percent of married-couple family groups with children under 15 had a stay-at-home mother, up from 21 percent in 2000. In 2007, before the recession, stay-at-home mothers were found in 24 percent of married-couple family groups with children under 15, not statistically different from the percentage in 2012.

Source: America's Families and Living Arrangements Table SHP-1 <http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/families.html> 

Compared with other moms, stay-at-home moms in 2007 were more likely:

•         Younger (44 percent were under age 35, compared with 38 percent of mothers in the labor force).
•          Hispanic (27 percent, compared with 16 percent of mothers in the labor force).
•          Foreign-born (34 percent, compared with 19 percent of mothers in the labor force).
•          Living with a child under age 5 (57 percent, compared with 43 percent of mothers in

   the labor force).

•          Without a high school diploma (19 percent versus 8 percent of mothers in the labor force).

Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2007 <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/p20-561.pdf>  

Employed Moms  

827,907

Number of child care centers across the country in 2010. These included 75,695 child day care services employing 859,416 workers and another 752,212 self-employed people or other businesses without paid employees. Many mothers turn to these centers to help juggle motherhood and careers.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/> and
Nonemployer Statistics: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/nonemployer/>

62.1%

Percentage of women age 16 to 50 who had a birth in the past 12 months who were in the labor force. Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American FactFinder, Table S1301 

<http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_S1301&prodType=table>

Single Moms 

10.3 million

The number of single mothers living with children younger than 18 in 2012, up from 3.4 million in 1970. Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements <http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/families.html> Table FM-2

5.9 million

Number of custodial mothers who were owed child support in 2009.
Source: Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009, Table 1

<http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-240.pdf html>

36%
Percentage of births in the past 12 months that were to women age 15 to 50 who were unmarried (including divorced, widowed and never married women). Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, Table B1302 

<http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B13002&prodType=table>

In 2011, 407,873 mothers who had a birth in the past 12 months were living with a cohabiting partner. Source: 2011 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, Table B1304

<http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_11_1YR_B13004&prodType=table>

 Mothers Remembered

16,182

Number of florist establishments nationwide in 2010. The 70,575 employees in floral shops across our nation will be especially busy preparing, selling and delivering floral arrangements for Mother’s Day.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/> 

10,258

Number of employees of the 103 greeting-card publishing establishments in 2010.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/>

14,654

The number of cosmetics, beauty supplies and perfume stores nationwide in 2010. Perfume is a popular gift given on Mother’s Day.

Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/>

23,739

Number of jewelry stores in the United States in 2010 — the place to purchase necklaces, earrings and other timeless pieces for mom.
Source: County Business Patterns: 2010 <http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/>

Farmers Shoulder Nearly $17 Billion in Losses in 2012

(OVERLAND PARK, Kan.) — Before farmers received a single dime in crop insurance indemnity payments, they shouldered $12.7 billion in losses as part of their deductibles to crop insurance policies, according to a guest editorial published today by Tom Zacharias, president of National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS).

“When combined with the $4.1 billion farmers paid out of their own pockets to purchase crop insurance last year, total farmer investment neared $17 billion,” explains Zacharias in today’s edition of Roll Call/CQ.

Zacharias noted that it was important to get those numbers out because of the ongoing assault on the “the men and women who put food on our tables and clothes on our backs” over their purchasing of crop insurance.   “Critics called crop insurance a farmer bailout and said things like farmers were ‘laughing all the way to the bank’ and were ‘praying for drought, not praying for rain,’” the article notes.   “Farmers even have been compared to cheap drunks at an open bar and told to pay their fair share.”

The article points out that when assessing the value of crop insurance, there are undisputed facts of what transpired after the worst drought our country has seen in decades:

v  Indemnities to farmers cost about $17 billion, but “thanks to crop insurance’s design, these indemnities were not completely borne by taxpayers because farmers and insurers picked up a major portion of the costs and sustained significant economic losses.”

v  “This was the sixth time since 1983 that crop insurers lost money.  Compare that to the property and casualty insurance industry, which has lost money only once as far back as data is available.”

v  “It is also important to note that when crop insurance premiums exceed losses, the government sees underwriting gains that help offset payments in bad years.  In fact, the government experienced nearly $4 billion in gains from 2001-2010.” And just as importantly, “Congress was not asked to fund an ad hoc disaster bill despite the historic devastation endured by our agricultural producers.”

Zacharias welcomed reasoned debate on farm policies, but added that “lawmakers and the American public deserve an intelligent conversation about the future of agriculture that is kept to just the facts.”

To see the guest opinion in its entirety, click here.