WICHITA — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said here today he is worried Congress will try to cut the food stamp program, which would, in turn, lead to pressure to cut farm programs.

The House and Senate Budget committees are expected to reveal their proposals for a budget resolution this week and for bills to reconcile the federal budget.

In a wide-ranging speech to the National Farmers Union convention, Vilsack said he is “afraid Congress will take an arbitrary number and apply it to nutrition” by turning the food stamp program into a block grant to the states.

“As a former governor you would think I would be in favor of it,” he said, adding that he does not favor turning food stamps — officially the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP — over to the states because “there is a differing level of interest in nutrition programs.”

“What are we going to do about the states [where] I have found that less than 50 percent of eligible [people] were getting benefits?,” Vilsack asked.

SNAP, he noted, reduces poverty, helps infants and children get food, and “creates additional business opportunity for grocers, which creates opportunity for producers.”

If Congress “goes after” SNAP, Vilsack said, “then there will be those on the other side who want to go after the safety-net programs, not understanding the risks in farming.”

They won’t understand, he said, that farmers can work hard “and end up with nothing,” and that without the safety net they might be out of business in one or two years.

If Congress really wants to get people off SNAP, he said, members should support job creation programs or raise the minimum wage.

He urged the NFU members to “be careful about easy and quick answers” that “divide the people in this country.”

Vilsack noted that Saturday night at the Gridiron dinner he sat next to a Republican presidential candidate who said SNAP beneficiaries need to work. Vilsack said he told the candidate that 80 percent of beneficiaries are children, senior citizens, the disabled or people working at minimum wage jobs. The other 20 percent, to the extent they are able-bodied, have a work requirement or can get benefits only three out of 36 months.

At a press conference, Vilsack identified the candidate as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Vilsack was also critical of the March 7 Iowa Ag Summit, saying event organizer Bruce Rastetter, an agribusiness leader, did not delve deeply enough into agriculture when interviewing the Republican presidential hopefuls there.

Vilsack noted that every candidate was asked whether he favored labeling genetically modified foods, but “There wasn’t a single question asked about what are we doing about the fact that the average age [of a farmer] is 58,” or what to do about co-existence between organic and conventional food production.

“I couldn’t participate in that event because of an ethics issue,” Vilsack said. “But I do hope that we do put the focus on this incredible part of the American economy. ”

Asked at his press conference whether Hillary Rodham Clinton, the expected Democratic candidate, should be questioned about these issues, he said anyone running for president, Democratic or Republican, “needs to understand the role that agriculture plays in the economy” and that hopes “any candidate would take those issues seriously.”

“Unfortunately, the conversation is often about the issue of the day or whether you are for or against something,” Vilsack said, adding he hopes the 2016 presidential campaign will be more substantive and goes into the issues of the future of American agriculture, what can be done to boost the rural economy and the future of rural children.

Too often, he said, people in agriculture don’t talk enough about the future.

“We don’t talk about it because we are fussing about these issues within agriculture,” he said, such as whether a candidate favors the Renewable Fuel Standard or the Waters of the United States rule.

He said the larger questions are about who is going to farm land, who is going to own it, whether landowners who live in the city will be as concerned about conservation as about rental rates, and what is going to be grown in the country.

Farmers, he said, do need to assure others that they are conserving the land and taking care of animals properly. Agriculture leaders also need to make sure there are opportunities for women and people of color, he added.

USDA, he notes, appoints “tens of thousands” of people to advisory committees, but that finding diversity on those committees is hard.

In his speech and at the news conference, Vilsack also discussed a wide range of farm issues. He repeated previous comments that trade promotion authority is “tough” but offers opportunities to agriculture, that resolution of country-of-origin labeling has to wait for a World Trade Organization decision, and that USDA is doing everything it can to promote renewable fuels while waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to finalize the volumetric requirements.

He also made new points on a number of issues:

FARM PROGRAM SIGNUP — About 90 percent of crop farmers and landowners have now made decisions about reassigning their basic acreage and updating their yields, Vilsack said.

The pace of farmers making choices between the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs has picked up. Vilsack said he will continue to monitor the pace of signups and will not make any decision about an extension beyond March 31 at this time.

ACTIVELY ENGAGED RULE — This rule to keep unqualified people from getting farm subsidies won’t apply to family farms but to “someone who is in a high-rise office building in a city who is on a conference call” and who may never have seen the land.

The “loophole,” needs to be addressed, Vilsack said because “it creates a good talking point to attack the overall farm program.”

AVIAN INFLUENZA — There have been 58 incidents of poultry getting avian influenza in a number of the flyways.

USDA wants to work with states governments “to make sure we do the best job we can in initial surveillance,” Vilsack said. If there are losses USDA will reimburse growers consistent with USDA’s responsibility.

Trying to control the disease “is a challenge because you are dealing with wild flocks that come from everywhere. They mix and mingle and create new strains,” he said.

Eleven countries have banned all imports of U.S. poultry, others have banned poultry from the areas where birds have been diagnosed with avian influenza, and still others have taken no action, he said.

USDA is urging other countries to follow international guidelines on import bans and has also pointed out that there is a lot of poultry produced on the East Coast that has not been affected by the disease.

USMARC — In his most extensive remarks to date on the animal welfare situation at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska, Vilsack said there were “some points that were appropriate” in The New York Times investigation published in January.

Vilsack noted that the review team he sent to look at the facility made some concrete suggestions on the approval process and oversight. He added that he wants to make sure animal welfare procedures are applied to small animals as well as large.

But of the criticism that lambs were born outside during a storm, Vilsack noted that the center is supposed to replicate real-world situations, and that lambs born “out in the open is how it happens.”

There was criticism that the staff did not respond quickly enough to the storm in which the lambs died, but Vilsack noted that it was a bad storm involving tornadoes and that the staff made the right call in putting human safety first.

Problems with buildings, he noted, are being handled through new construction.

BEEF CHECKOFF — Asked by a member of the NFU audience about reform of the beef checkoff, Vilsack seemed a bit annoyed.

He noted that seven groups — not including the NFU — signed a memorandum of understanding, but said “we will see what happens” with any legislation that comes forward.

Vilsack noted that he believes that the beef checkoff needs more money, that he had tried to get all the groups together “and that didn’t work,” and that he then proposed to use his authority as secretary to create a second checkoff with rules more closely aligned to what NFU and other critics wanted.

He noted that he knew the idea wouldn’t work when NFU President Roger Johnson called him on his cell phone to oppose the idea.

“Nobody, not even my wife and kids, thought that was a good idea,” Vilsack noted. “I said ‘You figure it out,’ and you still haven’t figured it out. At least with my idea you would have tried something different. But I know when I am licked.”