Baldwin's Flex Act

Here is the link to H.R. 1371, which was introduced March 6 by Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and three other Midwest members of Congress: Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Timothy Walz, D-Minn. Though the text of the bill, the bill is summarized:

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to provide producers on a farm with greater flexibility in selecting the crops to be planted on the base acres of the farm.


Of course, this would remove the restrictions on planting fruits and vegetables on program crop acreage - heavily opposed by produce interests. Here is the link to Baldwin"s press release.

From Baldwin's release:

Currently, farmers who choose to plant fruits and vegetables on their base acreage, are doubly penalized for doing so, in that 1) they will not receive the direct payments on those base acres on which they plant the fruits and vegetables, and 2) they must pay an additional financial penalty based on the market value of the fruits and vegetables they plant.
As a result, most producers cannot reduce their reliance on the farm commodity programs by rotating vegetable production onto their land and pursuing canning contracts. Consequently, processors have experienced inadequate supplies of fruits and vegetables for canning.
Farm Flex removes the planting restriction on fruits and vegetables. While producers who choose to plant fruits and vegetables on base acres would not receive direct commodity payments for that acreage, neither would they have to pay an additional penalty. In addition, their historical record of base acreage would not change.

FARM FLEX would allow fruit and vegetable (FAV) production for processing on unsubsidized program acres without jeopardizing the farm’s base acreage (acres eligible for enrollment in future government farm programs).
NO SUBSIDY, SAVES MONEY -- Farm Flex would reduce the farm’s program payments for the acreage planted in FAVs. No farm program subsidy would be paid on Farm Flex FAV acreage. CBO has scored Farm Flex as a budget reduction.
BETTER PROTECTION FOR FRESH -- Farm Flex pertains ONLY to FAVs under contract for processing. Farm Flex production would not enter fresh markets. Farm Flex would increase protection of fresh markets from Midwest FAV production.
LIMITED IMPACT -- The current FAV restrictions and Farm Flex affect only Midwest farms, where nearly all productive land is enrolled in a farm program, the double crop exemption is not relevant, and farm and producer histories are inadequate.

TK: Advertised as a way to make farm programs WTO-compliant, this bill will be heavily supported by Midwest farm state lawmakers, and the Administration's backing will make it an uphill climb for the industry to turn it back. United's Week in Review restates the association's opposition and says removing the restriction would result in a $3 billion reduction in income to specialty crop growers.

Irradiated from India

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved the importation of irradiated mangoes from India. The March 12 Federal Register final rule said the mangoes must be treated with a minimum required dose of 400 gray of irradiation. Additional safeguarding measures for a couple irradiation resistant fungi include a broad spectrum post harvest fungicide dip and orchard inspections.
From the final rule comes this analysis;

In order to compete with other countries importing mangoes into the United States, India expects to first target niche and gourmet markets by promoting the mangoes as premium quality fruit. Producers indicated to the APHIS site visit team that initially, the mangoes are expected to be sold through premium catalog sales and/or in specialty and ethnic grocers, after which the mangoes would then be sold in the regular retail sector. Additionally, we expect that India would initially target those geographic areas and markets with high concentrations of Asian and South-Asian persons. According to the United States Census in 2000, 11.9 million people, or 4.2 percent of the population, identified themselves as Asian. The 10 states with the largest Asian demographic in 2000 were California, New York, Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Virginia, and Massachusetts, which combined represent 75 percent of the Asian population in the United States. Regionally, the West and the Northeast have the largest concentrations of Asians. Asian Indians represented the third largest specified Asian group, with a total of 1.9 million people who reported Asian Indian alone or in combination with at least one other race or Asian group. Although this final rule will allow imports of all mango varieties, according to comments received on the proposed rule, producers in India are currently interested in exporting six varieties of mangoes to the United States--`Kesar,' `Alfonse,' Banganpalli,' `Lagra,' `Dussehry,' and `Neelam'--from four States: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. Based on a site visit conducted by APHIS officials, we believe the majority of exports would originate from Gujarat and Maharashtra, where there are two and six production areas, respectively, producing `Kesar' and `Alfonse' varieties. Comments received on the proposed rule indicate that the harvest season in India stretches from March to July. According to the request from the Government of India, the quantity of mangoes exported to the United States would be about 100 sea containers per year. With India being the world leader in mango production, and a typical export packinghouse having a shipping capacity of 40-50 metric tons (over 88,000 lbs.) per day for 45-50 days of the harvest season, the amount imported into the United States would likely only be limited by U.S. market forces.