Senate produce bill to be introduced today

The word on the street is that the Senate's version of the produce title of the farm bill - called the "Specialty Crops Competition Act of 2007" will be introduced today by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Ida, , and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., with 13 or more co-sponsors. One of those is N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Though there are some differences between the bills, John Keeling of the National Potato Council says the Senate bill is considered a companion bill to the EAT Healthy America Act in the House. The Senate bill defers to Senate Ag chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, on conservation issues and also offers a different funding formula for block grants, among other marginal differences.