Oversight of implementation of Farm Bill's specialty crop provisions

Washington Ag Today November 3, 2009 A House Agriculture Subcommittee held a hearing last week to look at USDA’s implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill’s provisions for specialty crop and organic growers. The Farm Bill dedicated nearly three billion dollars over five years to those areas with block grants going to states.

USDA Ag Marketing Service Administrator Rayne Pegg testified that her agency awarded about 49 million dollars for 745 projects in fiscal 2009. Nearly all the money benefited small and medium sized specialty crop growers.

Pegg: “Many of the grant programs under Title X are focused on making more specialty crops available to consumers and tackling the challenges that growers are facing. Many of these programs support the department‘s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food“ initiative.”

That initiative emphasizes the development of local and regional food systems to support small and mid-sized farms. At the hearing the ranking Republican on the House Ag Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, Jean Schmidt of Ohio, said that makers her wonder;

Schmidt: “If this administration is choosing one sector of the agricultural community over another. The Food and Agricultural Organization has stated that food production will have to rise 70% in the next four decades to feed the world by 2050. With information like this coming from the United Nations it is important that the USDA support all producers regardless of their size or far they transport their products to market if we are gong to meet such a high demand.”

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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