Peterson's teleconference

House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson briefed reporters today about the run up to full committee markup of the farm bill on July 17. Peterson indicated Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., has been a "bulldog" about finding paid-for funds for the fruit and vegetable snack program and other specialty crop priorities. Peterson has met with House speaker Nancy Pelosi to try to find offsets for items in the En bloc amendment, or those items depending on reserve or contingency funds. Peterson sounded like he was hopeful that specialty crop interests would be on board as the committee dealt with the farm bill next week. Hopeful - but by no means certain. Developing....