The mushroom provisions

Some of the language included in Title X - horticulture and organic provisions - of House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Collin Peterson's mark of the 2007 farm bill relates directly to the mushroom industry.

One is merely updating the parameters for regions and representatives for the Mushroom Council, as governed by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Order.
The USDA issued a rule effective July 27 that will accomplish some of the same things that the farm bill language is intended to address. However, the farm bill language will be a clean and tidy fix to the issue, while the USDA rule is described as a "band aid".
In the end, the Mushroom Council will reduce the domestic regions represented on the board from four to three and also create a new region for imports. Representatives from the regions will be determined by production, with a total of nine representatives on the council's board.

Laura Phelps, president of the American Mushroom Institute, Washington, D.C., - the lobbying arm of the mushroom industry - said the more important and forward-looking provision in the farm bill language from Chairman Peterson and the House Agriculture Committee relates to the possible involvement of the mushroom promotion order with food safety oversight.
In particular, the language in Chairman Peterson's mark revisits the "powers and duties" of the council:

(b) POWERS AND DUTIES OF COUNCIL.—Section 3 1925(c) of the Mushroom Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act of 1990 (subtitle B of title XIX of Public Law 101–624; 7 U.S.C. 6104(c)) is amended—(1) by redesignating paragraphs (6), (7), and (8) as paragraphs (7), (8), and (9), respectively; and (2) by inserting after paragraph (5), the following new paragraph (6): ‘‘(6) to develop a program for good agricultural practices and good handling practices for mushrooms;’


TK: This language would provide the authority to the Mushroom Council to develop a program for good agricultural practices/good handling practices for mushrooms - the first time a USDA research and promotion act would be vested with that authority. That isn't to say the Mushroom Council has decided to develop good agricultural practices for the industry, Phelps said. And even if they did, the process would still involve rule making and a comment period with oversight by the USDA.