A baseline for fruits and vegetables

House Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson said the chairman's mark of the farm bill will include $685 million in paid-for baseline funding for fruit and vegetable priorities. He revealed this in a teleconference with reporters today. Peterson credited Rep. Cardoza for working to include the work of the hort subcommittee in the chairman's mark. Peterson did not reveal how the $685 million (over 5 years, apparently) would break down - specialty crop block grants, fruit and vegetable programs etc - nor did he fully explain where the funds would be found (but crop insurance and change in the timing of counter cyclical payments account for the majority). He did say more funding would be sought. "This is just a start. At some point in the process we look to identify offsets that would improve fruits and vegetables beyond what we have now."

Peterson is also going to put forward a second farm bill, that will include $17.5 billion over five years of reserve or contingency funds for various titles of the farm bill, including $1 billion for f/v priorities.

TK: This is a big breakthrough. Very good news. Still details to be revealed about how the funds will break down. But having a baseline for funding is huge and a tribute to the lobbying efforts of United, Western Growers and the specialty crop farm bill coalition. Also, Dennis Cardoza has come up big if this is what it appears. Peterson was also asked about the idea of attaching the AgJobs bill to the farm bill. He laughed and said. "I have enough problems as it is without getting embroiled in that..... and we don't have jurisdiction." However, Peterson acknowledged it was a very important issue for agriculture.

In addition, Peterson said he was not inclined to include any provision about country of origin labeling in the farm bill, saying he has indicated to industry that there will be mandatory COOL by Sept. 30 of 2008. He left the door open just a little if there was consensus on the issue, however.

I didn't get the chance to ask about f/v planting restriction on program crop acres in the chairman's mark.

The two bills - the pay go bill and the bill funded with reserve funds - will be released on the House Web site July 6. Full committee markup is July 17 and the bill is scheduled to be on the House floor by July 26, Peterson said.