A few musings

As the produce industry looks for sources to fund its priorities and seems to be hitting a dry hole, I wonder if the time is now to point the guns at imposing meaningful payment limitations on high income program crop farmers. There is no reason why program crop growers should be unscathed by the budget woes inflicted on specialty crop priorities. Plus, saving generated with such limits could generate real dollars to help fund f/v programs.

Air quality standards and ozone regulations are becoming bigger and bigger regulatory issues for farmers. Farm Bureau is devoting a whole staff position to that issue alone. I'll share some of my interview with FB staffers on that topic and others over the next week.

The USDA AMS is anxious - maybe a little too anxious - to ramp up its role in performing GAPs/GHPs audits and lend its assistance in creating national marketing agreements for food safety. In some ways, it represents a promising revenue stream for the Fresh Products Branch, which is dealing with lower trending numbers for destination inspections. Even so, it may be a case where industry needs dovetail with USDA capabilities, provided the agency's audits truly carry the same heft as other respected for profit third party audits.