Department Will Be At Full Speed by 2007
News Date January 06, 2006
The state's secretary of agriculture describes himself as a bureaucracy of one and says his goal is to get the new department running at full speed by the time the next governor takes office in 2007.
Richard Bell, who spent 27 years at the helm of Riceland Foods Inc. before retiring in 2004, was named secretary of the new agriculture department in August by Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is term-limited and can't seek reelection this year. He later was confirmed by the 20-member Arkansas Agriculture Board.
Whether he stays on past Huckabee's final term will be up to the new governor, he said.
Bell said last week his role as secretary is not to create another layer of government bureaucracy, but to "fill in the gaps" among the department's three state agencies--Livestock and Poultry Commission, Forestry Commission and State Plant Board.
His goals for filling in the gaps:
* Growing farmers' markets throughout the state. Well-developed farmers' markets already are located in Fayetteville, Little Rock, Springdale, Hot Springs and Texarkana.
* Getting the state more involved in the production of biofuels, such as soy-diesel.
* Using the Cooperative Extension Service to educate and improve the eating and healthy lifestyle habits of Arkansans, particularly the Delta region.
* Opening up foreign markets for small agriculture-related businesses in the state.
The new department, he said, will be a single strong voice among diverse Arkansas agriculture industries such as farming, ranching, poultry and timber production.
"I tell people that the most important reason for having (an Agriculture Department) is that now they have an advocate within state government for farming interests," Bell said last week from an office in Stuttgart, where he lives.
"I know from my experience with the federal government that if you weren't at the table when the decision was made you didn't have much influence," he said.
Before going to work for Riceland, Bell was an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He was in charge of international affairs and commodity programs.
For now, Bell said he will split time between Stuttgart and Little Rock. The new department is officially located at the Plant Board, 1 Natural Resources Drive, along with Livestock and Poultry Commission. Eventually, the department will have its own suite of offices in the same complex in west Little Rock.
The new department has about 595 employees and budget of $43 million.
"Mr. Bell is the best selection we could have made for secretary of agriculture," said Rep. Wayne Nichols, D-Marked Tree.
"He was undersecretary of the federal (agriculture) department and he's probably forgotten more about agriculture than most of us will ever know," said Nichols, House sponsor of the legislation that created the new department.
The idea for an agriculture department originally was proposed during the 2003 legislative session as part of the governor's attempt to reorganize government. The proposal was not embraced by lawmakers and eventually failed to make it out of a House committee.
The idea of total government reorganization was scrapped during the 2005 session and the creation of just an agriculture department was presented to lawmakers. After some heated and passionate debates, including some strong opposition and hard lobbying by the Arkansas Farm Bureau, the proposal won legislative approval.
Supporters of the measure said it was needed to improve government efficiency. They said it would save roughly $700,000 annually over the next two years.
Opponents said it would create another bureaucracy and expand government.
Bell said he is aware of political fighting that occurred during the session and he spent much of the fall traveling around the state talking about the new department and the status of agriculture in general.
There will be a no new bureaucracy, he said, noting that he technically is the department's only employee. Eventually, he hopes to hire an office administrator, and hopes to add a deputy secretary by the end of 2006.
"I hope to organize the department, get it running and hand it off to the next governor," he said.
Bell said he has met with both Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson and Democratic candidate Mike Beebe and they have pledged their support to the new department.
Bell also said he has met with Farm Bureau officials and they also have pledged their support and already have begun trying to locate small businesses in the state that might need assistance exporting their goods.
In the next few months, he said he hopes to work with the directors of the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission, Arkansas Forestry Commission and the Arkansas State Plant Board to develop a strategic plan and a unified budget that can be presented to the lawmakers during budget hearings next fall.
While the Farm Bureau continues to represent the farming industry, Bell said the agriculture department will work with the business side of agriculture, agriculture support institutions and promote education.
Farm Bureau President Stanley Reed of Marianna said last week that the organization supports Bell and the new department and is looking forward to working together to improve agriculture in the state.
"We have always been for marketing and promotion and development of farmers' markets and helping the small farmer," Reed said.
Recalling his years at Riceland, Bell said there were several times he wished Arkansas had had an agriculture department.
Whenever Riceland wanted to participate in international fairs in Europe or the Middle East, the company had to work with the secretary of Louisiana's agriculture department, he said, adding that the U.S. government always recruited participants in those fairs through state agriculture departments.
During many of those fairs, Riceland had its booth in the Louisiana pavilion, he said.
A state agriculture department also would have been a major benefit during a dioxin scare that involved the chicken and catfish industries in 1997. Agriculture secretaries from Louisiana and Mississippi were key in helping address that problem, he said.
While the Livestock and Poultry Commission, Forestry Commission and Plant Board, are parts of the new department, eight other state departments that have agriculture activities fall within its jurisdiction. They include Departments of Rural Services (rural development), Natural Resources (soil and water), Finance Authority (marketing), Economic Development (exports and energy), Environmental Quality (pollution issues), Health and Human Services (food inspection) Department of Education (food assistance programs) and Alternative Fuels Commission (soy diesel). (By Rob Moritz. Reprinted by permission of Stephens Media Group's Arkansas News Bureau.)