Coming up

Robert Guenther of United reports that the Senate's Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act may be introduced Thursday by Sens. Larry Craig and Debbie Stabenow, with perhaps 12 and 15 co-sponsors in tow.

While funding levels are somewhat different, Guenther said the bill is still being called a companion bill to the House of Representative's EAT Healthy America Act introduced earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Guenther said that the Senate Agriculture Committee is expected to hold a hearing that will cover specialty crops, organic agriculture and other topics on Tuesday, April 24.

There also is a hearing on organic farming issues tomorrow by the House ag subcommittee on horticulture and organic agriculture, Here are the details.



Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Hearing to review economic impacts of organic production, processing, and marketing or organic agricultural products
April 18, 2007
10:00 a.m.
1300 Longworth House Office Building
WITNESS LIST

Panel I
Ms. Caren Wilcox, Executive Director, Organic Trade Association, Greenfield, Massachusetts
Mr. Robert B. Marqusee, Director, Department of Rural Economic Development, Woodbury County, Sioux City, Iowa
Ms. Bea James, Category Leadership Program Manager, National Cooperative Grocers Association, St. Paul Minnesota
Mr. Mark Lipson, Policy Program Director, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Santa Cruz, California

Panel II
Mr. Manuel Vieriera, A.V. Thomas Produce, Livingston, California
Ms. Mary-Howell R. Martens, Lakeview Organic Grains, Penn Yan, New York
Mr. Scott Lively, President and CEO, Dakota Beef, LLC, Howard, South Dakota
Mr. Robert Pike, Vice President/General Manager, Braswell Foods/Glenwood Foods, Nashville, North Carolina
Panel III
Ms. Sandra Marquardt, President, On the Mark Public Relations, Silver Spring, Maryland, on behalf of Ms. La Rhea Pepper, Chief Executive Officer, Organic Essentials, Inc., O'Donnell, Texas
Mr. Lynn Clarkson, President, Clarkson Grain Company, Inc., Cerro Gordo, Illinois
Mr. Rich Ghilarducci, President and CEO, Humboldt Creamery, Fortuna, California
Ms. Nicole Bernard-Dawes, President and COO, Late July Snacks, Hyannis, Massachusetts