Down on the farm

The American Farm Bureau Federation is holding its convention in Salt Lake this weekend. While I attended the last two, I wasn't able to get to this one. The news is starting to trickle out, however. FB President Bob Stallman gave his opening talk to the assembled crowd, and the release about his speech is worth noting.

Stallman said ag and farm program spending have "big targets" draped all over them. While a Democratically controlled Congress may be better for farm programs than if Republicans were in charge, he said there will be a lower budget baseline because renewable energy demand has boosted grain prices and reduced subsidy payments. He said commodity groups need to be more unified to get anything done. I'm sure he is talking about corn and wheat, and not apples and asparagus. Stallman tips his hand to show that Farm Bureau will resist any "radical changes" to U.S. farm policy. He said a revenue-based safety net is being discussed as an alternative to commodity payments, but he said no agreement is found on that approach yet. In other views, he expressed hope for a WTO agreement and hinted that Farm Bureau may support eliminating the fruit and vegetable planting prohibition in the next farm bill because of world trade rules.

All in all, this is about what the fresh produce industry should expect. Unfortunately, it appears changes in the next farm bill that would substantially elevate the profile of fruits and vegetables simply won't be supported by Farm Bureau.