Farm bill boosts specialty crops
Sacramento Bee, October 24, 2007

WASHINGTON – Fruit and vegetable growers would harvest more money in the farm bill that senators start publicly writing today.

The Senate's proposed five-year bill includes a record $2 billion for specialty crops. The money would buy fruits and vegetables for school lunches, boost overseas advertising, finance organic agriculture research and more. It is four or five times greater than the amount provided specialty crops in the 2002 farm bill.

"I'm pretty pleased," Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, said Tuesday, "although there are a couple of areas I have some concerns about." The new farm bill is far from done. The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee could spend two or more days on the bill before the full Senate takes a crack at it. The House and Senate must then reconcile their differences.

Specialty crop growers also dislike some Senate proposals. Some senators, for instance, want farmers who receive traditional subsidies for crops like rice and cotton to be able to plant fruits and vegetables on certain land. Specialty crop farmers consider this unfair competition and are resisting.

Other details will change. Nonetheless, the Senate's starting farm bill package locks in one crucial conceptual victory for fruit and vegetable growers. For the first time, both the House and Senate are determined to carve out a farm bill chunk for specialty crops.

"This year is when we said specialty crops should get a seat at the table, and that's been accomplished," said Jack King, Sacramento-based director of national affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation.

The House's farm bill, approved in late July, offers an estimated $1.7 billion for specialty crop programs. This essentially becomes the minimum amount fruit and vegetable growers can expect, now that the Senate is proposing a $2 billion package.

The Western Growers Association and a coalition of specialty crop producers had sought $3.2 billion.

Despite the increases, the specialty crop spending is modest compared with the traditional crop subsidies that remain the heart of the farm bill. Roughly half of the House bill's $286 billion total cost goes to traditional crop subsidies. Food stamps consume another big portion.

In California, these traditional subsidies flow to about 7,200 farms. Most of California's other farms do not receive federal payments, and would-be reformers have hoped to scale back subsidies this year.

"Our state would be much better off with a farm bill that helps more hungry people put nutritious food on the table for their families," said the Rev. G. Richard Fowler, executive director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Stockton.

Fowler joined with the Rev. Nancy Clegg, pastor of Cortez Presbyterian Church in Turlock, and other ministers from the state Tuesday in urging the Senate to fundamentally reform crop subsidies. They favor a reform proposal by Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, but it is unlikely to survive the 21-member Agriculture Committee, where traditional farm interests dominate.

The House and Senate bills each have distinct personalities, reflecting in part different memberships.

The Senate bill, for instance, includes a $15 million asparagus program that's lacking in the House bill, a reflection of the influence of Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Stabenow is a Senate Agriculture Committee member whose home state ranks third in U.S. asparagus production.

The Senate bill offers $1.1 billion for federal fruit and vegetable purchases, triple the House amount. This would extend to schools in all 50 states a feeding program now limited to 14 states.

"Everybody is for school nutrition," said Cardoza, who as chairman of the House horticulture and organic agriculture subcommittee will help negotiate the final bill.