Remarks by Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman White House Community Empowerment Conference Edinburg, TX May 25, 1999 Release No. 0231.99 Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman White House Community Empowerment Conference Edinburg, TX May 25, 1999 "Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to the annual White House Community Empowerment Conference. Joining me for this opening session is Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, who has worked tirelessly on behalf of those who have missed out on the nation's current economic success. "And as you know, later today, President Clinton and Vice President Gore, will be joining us. "I especially want to thank our hosts, Bonnie Gonzalez and the Rio Grande Empowerment Zone, and all the people of the Rio Grande Valley. They've shown that if you believe in people if you give them a vote of confidence if you help them believe in themselves then they will do for themselves and their communities a lot more than simple handouts can achieve. "As we move forward to build on the successes of the first round of Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, I want to congratulate all the pioneers in all the communities -- the people who've shown the rest of the nation that a can-do attitude and a little seed money can reinvent whole communities and allow people and families to turn their lives around. You know the old saying about success having many fathers, well the EZ/EC program is a success because every participant in every community is one of its fathers or mothers. "Now I know many of you appreciate what I'm saying, but I also know many of you might be saying to yourselves: "Sounds great, but what is the Secretary of Agriculture doing here? Doesn't he just do the farm thing?" "Of course I do. Especially now, with many of our farmers and ranchers in the midst of a particularly harsh period. Commodity prices are down. We've had three consecutive years of record worldwide grain production. Global demand has shrunk, thanks to the Asian financial crisis. So a lot of my time is spent working with farmers, helping them just to stay afloat. But through tough times as well as good times, we help them do what they do better than anyone else in the world raise the food that feeds our people and much of the world. "But our mandate at USDA is very broad. As the anti-hunger department, we administer Food Stamps, the Women, Infants and Children's Program and the School Meals Programs. We run the Forest Service and the nation's largest private lands conservation program. We have a massive research arm looking into everything from biotechnology to nutrition. We also ensure the safety of the nation's meat and poultry. "But the responsibility that brings me here today is this: We are the Department of Rural America. As we step into a new century as the world's only superpower, this Administration always keeps in its sights the goal of seeing all our communities share in our nation's success. As the economic engine powers forward, we need to see that no community is left behind. "That includes rural America. Just to shatter a few myths for you, only 10% of our rural economy is devoted to agriculture. And 40% of farmers work off the farm at least 100 days out of the year to make ends meet. "And although most folks tend to think of cities when they think of poverty, the fact is that poverty is slightly higher in rural areas. While things have been improving for these communities, these the past five years, they are lagging behind the rest of the nation. "It is hard to imagine that in 1999 there are more than two million rural Americans who don't have safe, reliable drinking water in their homes. If you don't have running water, quality health care and education systems, how can you attract businesses and spur economic development? And because the towns in rural America are so small and dispersed, getting these basic resources to people is very expensive. "The federal government has traditionally been there to help. One of the signal achievements of the New Deal of our recovery from the Depression was the work USDA did to bring electricity, telephones and running water to rural America. And still today, we build on those groundbreaking accomplishments and work to empower rural communities. "We provide loans and technical assistance to rural businesses. We build partnerships that leverage public, private, and cooperative resources to generate rural economic activity. We also invest in rural utilities. That includes insured loans that help build rural electrical facilities; loans that finance water and waste disposal systems; solid waste management grants; and efforts to bring information technology and Internet service to rural areas. We also help ensure that every rural American has a safe, decent place to call home, with homeownership loans, rental housing assistance, home repair grants and more. "But what we do, we do as a partner. We've moved beyond the old top- down approach to a new model, where the government acts as a catalyst, encouraging efforts that sprout up from the grass roots. We don't hand out opportunity or prosperity because that's not possible. But we do give people the tools they need to create it themselves. We may provide job training or placement services but we don't go to work for people. We provide the revolving loan fund but the entrepreneurship that puts the capital to work comes from the community. We help build the road or the industrial park but those are only vehicles to support ingenuity and leadership that are coming from within people. "Success begins and ends with the leadership of the community. Nobody knows better than folks at the local level what works for them. Nobody is more committed to the long-term health of these communities than the people who live in them. Empowering people to make decisions about their community and their future is what the EZ/EC effort is all about. "You know that old line from the movie, "Field of Dreams" "If you build it, they will come." Well, it may be news to some, but they are already here. They are the people of America's underserved communities who are ready to work, ready to get involved. And they will do the building, because what they are building is their own lives and their own communities. "Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the rural EZs and ECs has been their ability to leverage the initial investment. Last year, for every dollar we put into their communities, they attracted almost ten additional dollars from other sources -- federal, state and local governments, the private sector and non-profits. "That's an astonishing achievement. I wish this Administration could take all the credit, but it's the local leaders, who with a little bit of seed money, went out and transformed their communities. In the first round, rural EZ/EC communities created thousands of jobs, retrained thousands of workers for new jobs, built or renovated schools and health care centers, got thousands of computers donated, created or restored homes, improved water facilities the list goes on and on. "Here in the Rio Grande Valley EZ where a community investment fund provided start-up and expansion funds for 22 family-owned businesses that helped to save and create jobs. The Rio Grande's Laguna Madre Enterprise Center houses, among others, a hovercraft manufacturer and a builder of billiards tables that will employ 120 people and generate profits in the millions. "And what statistics don't tell you about are the changed lives; they don't tell you about the communities that come out stronger, more tightly- knit, or better able to succeed in a modern world. They don't tell you how people are coming together, challenging themselves and each other to come up with concrete solutions. What all of you are doing -- just by participating in this process of uniting your community for a common purpose -- is changing your destiny. "Frankly, the success of the EZ/EC story is so profound and so overwhelming that it has become infectious. All over the nation we're seeing an outbreak of people and communities pulling up their bootstraps, rolling up their sleeves and digging in. "Take for instance our Champion Communities -- rural communities that didn't achieve EZ/EC status, but nevertheless put the empowerment concept to work in their own communities. We provide them with technical assistance and advice, and they do the rest. In the first EZ/EC round, there were more than 180 applicants Champion Communities, who have received over $290 million since 1995 just from USDA. And all of the 117 Round II applicants who did not receive EZ/EC status were offered Round II Champion designations. "The same empowerment philosophy is also behind President Clinton's New Markets Initiative. All over the country in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Mississippi Delta and the Redwood Forests -- there are communities with potential waiting to be recognized and human capital waiting to be tapped. They just need someone to invest in them. The New Markets Initiative is designed to help them attract that investment with tax credits, loans, technical assistance and more. "Traditionally, when we've talked about "emerging markets", it's been a discussion of economies in Latin America, Africa and the Far East. This new initiative is designed to bring attention to the emerging markets right here in our own backyards. "We have even put the empowerment concept into practice when it comes to fighting hunger. Of course, we have a nutritional safety net that will always be there, with USDA programs like Food Stamps and WIC. But what we've come to learn over the years is that government cannot and should not do it all. We all must pitch in, neighbor to neighbor. "That's why this year I launched the Community Food Security Initiative. Very much like the EZ/EC model, it is designed to bring government and rural and urban communities together as partners to devise grass roots solutions to tackle problems related to hunger, nutrition and welfare-to-work. Many of our EZ/EC communities are promoting food related businesses like farmers markets, or they're helping farmers sell their products directly to the School Meals Program. And food recovery programs are a big part of this initiative. In fact, right here at USDA's Edinburg Service Center, our employees got together with partners from local government, private industry and the University of Texas last year, and conducted a food drive that helped feed nearly 100 families in the valley. "That's just one example of many food recovery and gleaning efforts we are seeing all over the country. The point is, as we work hard to improve things over the long haul, we cannot forget there are people who need help from their neighbors now -- right now. "The overriding message at this conference is that the EZ/EC concept is successful. That we can revitalize our communities by empowering people who are willing to do for themselves. The great songwriter Irving Berlin once said, "The toughest thing about being a success, is that you've got to keep on being a success." Judging by the commitment of the people who have come here today, that won't be a problem. I'm of the belief that half the battle is won just by believing in yourselves and your communities. Congratulations on the long road you've already traveled. I'm confident that the road ahead is full of promise and opportunity. "Thank you." #