Behind the curtain

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is set to unveil the Administration's proposals on the farm bill this morning, at about 9 a.m. Central time. The USDA will have Johanns presentation hooked up to the Web, so we may have a real time reaction.

Meanwhile, here is a piece that is a good overview of how specialty crop producers are trying to influence the farm bill. It also points out that some specialty crop growers in California do receive farm program payments via crops like cotton.
From the Farm Press piece:

Often California growers farm both commodity and specialty crops. One of those is Charlie Fanucchi, a Kern County, Calif., farmer who grows cotton and fresh produce. He is the chairman of Calcot, the largest cotton marketing cooperative in the West, and is also a director of Western Growers. He believes both commodities and specialty crops can achieve their goals of continued commodity support and increased specialty crop funding in the new farm bill.
"There are 268 million acres of program crops in the U.S. and it is important that those crops continue to receive direct payment support," Fanucchi said. "You take that money away and you destroy rural America."
He noted that the government pays $11 billion in direct payment support for commodity crops. "This represents only 11 percent of the department's $100 billion budget. I think the money for the specialty crop element of the new farm bill can come from some other area of the department?s budget than direct payments."

Program crops and specialty crops are is not quite like "east is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet." But the suggestion is close enough for argument's sake. I don't think it is realistic to expect specialty crops to get more without program crops getting a little less. After all, new specialty crop money is certainly not coming from food stamps.


Here is the latest thinking on how the farm bill might impact the WTO talks.