Stabenow, Vilsack celebrate specialty crop advances
October 01, 2013 | 03:40 PM
Both Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack pointed out to the United Fresh Produce Association the advances the industry has made in getting a share of farm policy and spending over the past decade.
“The things you grow actually taste good,” Stabenow said. “You can put down the candy bar and have something healthy.”
Stabenow noted that she began working on specialty crop programs in the 1996 farm bill debate. That year, she said, the goal was modest: a pilot project for crop insurance for specialty crops.
After more accomplishments in 2002, she noted, “Finally in 2008 we actually got a separate title for specialty crops. It sounds simple that we would add a separate chapter, but the folks that have the 11 chapters don’t want anybody to have 12. It was a heck of a fight but you know we have established that.”
Stabenow said she feared that in 2012 other farm groups and their representatives would want to eliminate the specialty crop title, but “No one said we should take it out.”
Now that there are block grants, research and market access programs, she said, “it’s all a question of funding levels.”
“We are in a good spot if we can get a farm bill done,” she said. “Now the question is actually getting this done.”
Vilsack said he is focused on comprehensive effort to increase the supply of fruits and vegetables, to increase demand domestic and international, manage costs for the industry and to have a workforce “that can provide your product.”
On the supply side, he said, the Agriculture Department’s effort is to make sure that producers “are ready to meet a changing climate.” He noted that USDA has established climate changes “hubs” to do research on how climate change will affect different parts of the country.
Vilsack also noted that USDA, recognizing that many fruit and vegetable producers are small, has paid for 10,000 tunnel houses to increase the growing season in colder climates and has plans to provide another 2,000 to 3,000 per year.
USDA is also helping producers aggregate what they have produced in food hubs by providing additional credit and capital, and in 35 states has launched “farm to school” programs to increase consumption of locally produced food in the schools.
The department has also supported farmers markets and is doing research on how to help low-income people buy more fruits and vegetables. USDA has provided equipment for 3,000 farmers’ markets so that they can accept the electronic benefit transfer cards that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP beneficiaries use.
Vilsack also noted that the organic equivalency agreements that the Obama administration has negotiated with Canada, Europe and, most recently, Japan, will help fruit and vegetable producers increase international sales.
On the Food and Drug Administration’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, Vilsack said that USDA is working “to make sure they understand and appreciate they understand the impact on all scale-sized producers.” Risk management tools, he added, “are as important” to growing fruits and vegetables as they are to corn and soybeans.
Vilsack also emphasized the effort the administration is making to pass immigration reform to provide the workforce the industry needs.
About the undocumented workers, Vilsack said, “in theory you could deport them, but it would take about 230 years to get 12 million people out of the country. You could imprison these folks, but no one is going to want to pay to imprison 12 million people.”
The immigration proposal, he noted, has a fine that creates “earned citizenship, not amnesty” and “reflects the fact that these folks are making a contribution to agriculture.”
Some growers are making a decision to move production south of the border, he noted, but immigration reform could provide an opportunity to repopulate rural America and enhance production.
“American agriculture, as great as it is, it is not operating on all cylinders because farmers don’t have the hands to harvest,” Vilsack said.
“The things you grow actually taste good,” Stabenow said. “You can put down the candy bar and have something healthy.”
Stabenow noted that she began working on specialty crop programs in the 1996 farm bill debate. That year, she said, the goal was modest: a pilot project for crop insurance for specialty crops.
After more accomplishments in 2002, she noted, “Finally in 2008 we actually got a separate title for specialty crops. It sounds simple that we would add a separate chapter, but the folks that have the 11 chapters don’t want anybody to have 12. It was a heck of a fight but you know we have established that.”
Stabenow said she feared that in 2012 other farm groups and their representatives would want to eliminate the specialty crop title, but “No one said we should take it out.”
Now that there are block grants, research and market access programs, she said, “it’s all a question of funding levels.”
“We are in a good spot if we can get a farm bill done,” she said. “Now the question is actually getting this done.”
Vilsack said he is focused on comprehensive effort to increase the supply of fruits and vegetables, to increase demand domestic and international, manage costs for the industry and to have a workforce “that can provide your product.”
On the supply side, he said, the Agriculture Department’s effort is to make sure that producers “are ready to meet a changing climate.” He noted that USDA has established climate changes “hubs” to do research on how climate change will affect different parts of the country.
Vilsack also noted that USDA, recognizing that many fruit and vegetable producers are small, has paid for 10,000 tunnel houses to increase the growing season in colder climates and has plans to provide another 2,000 to 3,000 per year.
USDA is also helping producers aggregate what they have produced in food hubs by providing additional credit and capital, and in 35 states has launched “farm to school” programs to increase consumption of locally produced food in the schools.
The department has also supported farmers markets and is doing research on how to help low-income people buy more fruits and vegetables. USDA has provided equipment for 3,000 farmers’ markets so that they can accept the electronic benefit transfer cards that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP beneficiaries use.
Vilsack also noted that the organic equivalency agreements that the Obama administration has negotiated with Canada, Europe and, most recently, Japan, will help fruit and vegetable producers increase international sales.
On the Food and Drug Administration’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, Vilsack said that USDA is working “to make sure they understand and appreciate they understand the impact on all scale-sized producers.” Risk management tools, he added, “are as important” to growing fruits and vegetables as they are to corn and soybeans.
Vilsack also emphasized the effort the administration is making to pass immigration reform to provide the workforce the industry needs.
About the undocumented workers, Vilsack said, “in theory you could deport them, but it would take about 230 years to get 12 million people out of the country. You could imprison these folks, but no one is going to want to pay to imprison 12 million people.”
The immigration proposal, he noted, has a fine that creates “earned citizenship, not amnesty” and “reflects the fact that these folks are making a contribution to agriculture.”
Some growers are making a decision to move production south of the border, he noted, but immigration reform could provide an opportunity to repopulate rural America and enhance production.
“American agriculture, as great as it is, it is not operating on all cylinders because farmers don’t have the hands to harvest,” Vilsack said.
