Farm bill and other questions

Lotto-sized subsidies give the farm bill a bad name, and this legislation seeks to restore integrity to the payment limitations of the farm bill. Another bill would instruct the Ag Secretary to invest in farmers' markets.

The beginning of the session is time for lawmakers to wade into the water and see what floats.

Here is the link to the online CQ Weekly referenced earlier about the influence of specialty crops and others to reshape the farm agenda.

Here is a Washington Post editorial (albeit reprinted) about the farm bill, citing a "hefty crop of disingenuous sentimentality and equally hefty lobbying efforts" that keep farmers rolling in subsidies.

My dad is a Nebraska corn grower, so I have genuine sentimentality for the family farm. But after 60 years of plowing the same rut, farm policy needs to be retooled to serve all growers.

Chile's certainty

Working with Chilean grape exporters in the past couple of weeks, they expressed near certainty that the USDA would not move this season to change the date of Marketing Order 925, or the California desert grape marketing order. Proposing the idea first in 2005, desert grape growers want to move the effective date of their marketing order from April 20 to April 1 to prevent poor quality grapes from storage from disrupting their season. Chilean exporters say this would prematurely end their season by mandating quality inspections upon arrival, thus wreaking havoc with the supply pipeline for retailers and consumers. See this link for some heavy duty arguments for each side.

A Washington source tells me that a compromise could still happen this season - at least California growers are still pushing for a decision even now.

AgJobs rollout

A lot of effort has gone into today's effort to capture the ear of Congress on the need for AgJobs. Here is PMA's member alert on AgJobs. Here are statements of apple grower Kelly Henggeler and Toni Scully. More to come on The Packer site. Here is a release from Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform and another on the press event that provides more background. Here is United's member alert.