AgJobs push starts anew

With the reintroduction of AgJobs in the Senate, Craig Regelbrugge, with the American Nursery and Landscape Association and a leader of the AgJobs coalition, confirms a 9 a.m. press conference tomorrow at the Senate Russell building. Besides members of Congress, the press conference will feature two growers in speaking roles and 30 growers and producer reps on hand. Maureen Torrey told me last week she will be there on behalf of United.


Visiting with Lorelei DiSogra of United today, we were talking about the hard work of lobbying. Through the ups and downs of the process, she said the persistence of industry efforts is coming through, even to lawmakers not used to listening to specialty crop growers. "We are not going to go away, and we want our part of the plans, programs and policies, whether in WIC, the farm bill, school meals or More Matters."

Further documentation of the "not going away" mentality is an extensive CQ Weekly article on the coming farm bill and the "early pitch" by specialty growers for a bigger piece of the pie. "We want a bill that looks at all of agriculture, not one that just focuses on the commodities," Robert Guenther was quoted in the piece.