Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke to the Agribusiness Club of Washington, D.C. today on the occasion of National Agriculture Day. Vilsack discussed his four cornerstone priorities for the new rural economy – with special focus on building new markets for production agriculture and local/regional marketing of food. (USDA/Bob Nichols)

Congress and the Obama administration should have an “honest debate” on the future of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today in a major speech on the administration’s second-term priorities.

Passing a five-year farm bill is the Obama administration’s highest priority and Congress should take it up when members return from the upcoming two-week break, Vilsack said in a National Agriculture Day speech to the Agribusiness Club of Washington.

In a subtle acknowledgement of Republican demands to cut food stamp spending, Vilsack said, “We need an honest debate on SNAP.”

Reducing eligibility, he said, will only reduce the number of people on the program when “we need to transition them to a better economic opportunity.”

“The great thing about SNAP is we know where those folks live, we know where they are working,” he said. “By redirecting existing resources to training, we can transition them off SNAP the right way. By reducing the number of SNAP beneficiaries by 5 percent across the country we would save $45 billion over 10 years. That seems to me to be the right way.”

In his comments on the farm bill, Vilsack repeated the elements that the administration has stressed for several years.

Vilsack said the farm bill “starts with the importance of crop insurance.”

Without it, he noted, there would not have been record income in 2012 despite the drought. He noted, however, that the dairy and livestock industries had serious difficulties.

He also repeated previous statements that USDA needs flexibility in administering conservation programs and strong trade promotion authority, including “robust engagement” in the Trans Pacific Partnership and with the European Union.

He also said the farm bill should resolve the dispute with Brazil over cotton because “we write checks to Brazil every quarter and we need to stop that” by coming up with a program that addresses the World Trade Organization’s concerns without harming the U.S. cotton industry.

He also said there needs to be a strong program for agricultural research including specialty crops and organic agriculture. The rural development title should include conservation, outdoor recreation, renewable energy and local and regional food systems as well as commercial agriculture, he said.

Researchers also need to be more public about what they do, Vilsack added.

“They are wizards and magicians,” he said. “They don’t tell people what they do.”

He also said that he has asked USDA officials to send him a monthly report on what is going on in research and that he has been sending emails to researchers a couple times every month talking to them about their work.

Vilsack declined to take a position on linking conservation compliance to crop insurance. The secretary said there are good reasons to link conservation compliance to crop insurance, and that if Congress tells the agency to do that, officials will follow through.

But if Congress doesn’t do that, the agency “won’t take a step backwards.”

USDA, he said, is focused on providing incentives for farmers to sign up for conservation programs.

“I decided to focus on what we have control over,” he said. “I have learned we don’t have much control over Congress.”

Vilsack declined to say whether the administration would favor continuing current food aid programs or propose a shift to purchases overseas.

“From a budget perspective, we need to do a better job of marketing this,” Vilsack said. “Most people think we spend an ungodly amount of money on foreign aid.”