Best case scenario

What the industry would like to be the produce title of the farm bill has been unveiled. Here is the link to the United press release on the EAT Healthy America Act.

An excerpt:

United Fresh Produce Association endorsed the Equitable Agriculture Today for a Healthy America Act (EAT Healthy America Act), which was introduced Tuesday morning by U.S. Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Rep. John Salazar (D-CO), Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and included numerous co-sponsors.
United Fresh, which serves on the Steering Committee of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA), helped develop a series of farm bill priorities found in the EAT Healthy America Act. The SCFBA is a national coalition of more than 100 specialty crop organizations, working to forge mutual objectives for the 2007 Farm Bill and to assure a common platform across regions, commodities and other interests.


TK: One of the most impressive parts of the process has been the ongoing work of the specialty crop farm bill alliance. We will see how the Senate version differs from the House, but the EAT Healthy America Act is an appropriately ambitious bill that benchmarks the industry's best hopes for the 2007 farm bill.

Eat Healthy Act and food safety initiatives

When I asked him about the topic today, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns was fairly cool to the idea of using marketing order regulations for food safety purposes. The industry is more open to that possibility. Here are a couple of provisions worth noting in the Eat Healthy America Act.

SEC. 808. FOOD SAFETY INITIATIVES.
(a) INITIATIVE AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary may carry out a food safety education program to educate the persons involved in the fresh produce industry and the
public about—
(1) scientifically proven practices for reducing microbiological pathogens on fresh produce; and
(2) methods of reducing the threat of cross-contamination of fresh produce through unsanitary handling practices.
(b) COOPERATION.—The Secretary may carry out the program described in subsection (a) in cooperation with public or private partners.
(c) FUNDING.—The Secretary shall use $5,000,000 of the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation for fiscal years 2008 through 2012 to carry out this section.

SEC. 809. IMPLEMENTATION OF FOOD SAFETY PROGRAMS
UNDER MARKETING ORDERS.
Section 8c(7) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(7)), reenacted with amendments by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, is amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘(E) In the case of an order related to a specialty crop (as such term is defined in section 3(1) of the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-465; 1 Stat. 3883)), authorizing the implementation of food safety programs, such as the implementation of International Organization for Standardization 9000 standards and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points programs¿, designed to enhance the safety of the specialty crop and products derived from specialty crops.’’.

Eat Healthy America Act debuts

Here is the title and table of contents for the Eat Healthy America Act. The PDF of the bill is 119 pages long:

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Equitable Agriculture Today for a Healthy America Act’’
or the ‘‘EAT Healthy America Act’’. (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for
this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings and purposes.
Sec. 3. Definitions. TITLE I—COMMODITY-RELATED PROVISIONS
Sec. 101. Flexible payment limitations for disaster payments to reflect variations in cost of production and crop value. Sec. 102. Adjusted gross income limitations on receipt of disaster assistance by
first handlers of specialty crops.
Sec. 103. Equitable treatment of specialty crop producers in distribution of disaster
assistance.
Sec. 104. Tree assistance program.

TITLE II—CONSERVATION
Sec. 201. Findings regarding Conservation Security Program.
Sec. 202. Conservation reserve program.
Sec. 203. Wetlands reserve program.
Sec. 204. Funding for Farmland Protection Program.
Sec. 205. Grassland reserve program.
Sec. 206. Wildlife habitat incentive program.
Sec. 207. Environmental quality incentives program.
Sec. 208. Cooperative conservation partnership initiative.
Sec. 209. Regional equity in funding of certain Department of Agriculture conservation
programs.
Sec. 210. Integrated pest management initiative.
Sec. 211. Technical assistance under Department of Agriculture conservation
programs.
Sec. 212. Conservation loan guarantee program.
Sec. 213. Emergency Conservation Program.
Sec. 214. Exclusion of payments under Department of Agriculture conservation
programs from adjusted gross income limitation.
Sec. 215. Encouragement of voluntary sustainability practices guidelines.
Sec. 216. Assistance to address long-term climate change.
TITLE III—TRADE
Sec. 301. Technical assistance for specialty crops.
Sec. 302. Coordination of trade objectives between key agencies.
Sec. 303. Market access program.
Sec. 304. Grant program for market analysis related to anti-dumping and countervailing
duty cases involving specialty crops.
Sec. 305. Sense of Congress regarding certain antitrust laws applicable to agriculture.
TITLE IV—INVASIVE PESTS AND DISEASES
Sec. 401. Threat identification and mitigation program.
Sec. 402. Emergency control, prevention, and eradication programs.
Sec. 403. Agricultural quarantine inspection activities at ports of entry.
Sec. 404. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Export Division.
Sec. 405. Consultations on sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions for fruits
and vegetables.
Sec. 406. Multi-species fruit fly research and sterile fly production.
Sec. 407. Audit-based approach to specialty crop phytosanitary regulation.
TITLE V—NUTRITION
Sec. 501. Findings.
Sec. 502. Expansion of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.
Sec. 503. Fruit and vegetable nutrition promotion program.
Sec. 504. Use of ‘‘Dietary Guidelines for Americans’’ in special nutrition programs
and school lunch programs.
Sec. 505. Section 32 specialty crop purchases.
Sec. 506. School preference study.
Sec. 507. Independent evaluation of Department of Agriculture commodity purchase
process.
Sec. 508. Amendments to the Food Stamp Program.
Sec. 509. Sense of the Congress regarding nutritional supplements.
Sec. 510. Food stamp fruit and vegetable EBT pilot project.
Sec. 511. Decennial evaluations of WIC food packages.
Sec. 512. Extension of WIC farmer’s market nutrition program.
Sec. 513. Senior farmers’ market nutrition program.
TITLE VI—AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
Sec. 601. Specialty Crops Economic and Policy Research Institute.
Sec. 602. Development of specialty crop priority for the National Research Initiative.
Sec. 603. Establishment of specialty crop research grants program for producers
to improve efficiency and competitiveness.
Sec. 604. National Clean Plant Network.
Sec. 605. Prioritizing current Federal research activities for specialty crops.
TITLE VII—RENEWABLE ENERGY
Sec. 701. Inventory of specialty crop biomass waste as part of annual assessment
of renewable energy resources.
Sec. 702. Department of Agriculture bioenergy program.
Sec. 703. Grants for development of specialty crop bioenergy projects.
TITLE VIII—MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 801. Specialty crop block grants.
Sec. 802. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; requests by
State agencies for exemptions.
Sec. 803. Protection of intellectual property rights in plants and plant-derived
material.
Sec. 804. Grant program to improve transportation infrastructure to reduce
cost of transportation of specialty crops.
Sec. 805. Additional funds for Agricultural Marketing Service specialty crop
market news activities.
Sec. 806. Value-added grants to promote creation, expansion, or operation of
value-added processing of specialty crops.
Sec. 807. Eligibility of laborers admitted for temporary residence for Rural
Housing Service farm labor housing.
Sec. 808. Food safety initiatives.
Sec. 809. Implementation of food safety programs under marketing orders.
Sec. 810. Census of specialty crops; dissemination of information.
Sec. 811. Office of pesticide programs.
Sec. 812. Early pest detection and surveillance improvement program.

More Matters local coverage

Here is a roundup of what I've found on local coverage of the More Matters launch. Each of the following links to More Matters activities on the local level.

Cleveland

Minnesota

Kansas

South Dakota

Michigan

It is still news, isn't it?

Here is an offbeat perspective that brings to mind the ironical expression, "the exception proves the rule."
From the Wisconsin Ag Connection:

Is the nation's food safety system working or is it broken? The answer is both if you ask Michael Pariza, director of the University of Wisconsin Food Research Institute. During his testimony during last week's 'safety of fresh produce' hearing in Madison, Pariza--who serves as a professor of food microbiology and toxicology at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences--says there are good and not-so-good things happening in the food service industry."One might argue that the system works, at least sort of, because foodborne illness, when it happens is still news," Pariza testified. "If the system were completely broken foodborne illness would be commonplace, and it certainly is not that.


TK: Pariza believes that the funds that used to go to food safety oversight have been redirected to counter terrorism efforts after Sept. 11, 2001. That trend must be reversed, he believes, or else foodborne illness outbreaks may someday not make the front page.

Mr. Johanns comes to Kansas City

Agriculture Secretary came to Vance Publishing's Lenexa office today, and Lance Jungmeyer led him on a quick tour of The Packer newsroom before Johanns entertained questions from Vance editors in the fourth floor conference room. This picture above was taken by managing editor Greg Johnson this morning.

Johanns is arguably one of the most accessible Cabinet members ever, and was helpful to editors of both livestock publications and The Packer in this morning's interview session.

We asked him produce-related questions about immigration, the role of USDA marketing orders in food safety practices, border inspections for invasive pests, South Korea-U.S. free trade talks, the WTO, country of origin labeling, the farm bill and the flex acre provisions on program crops.

In general, Johanns communicates a conviction that the "Washington way" is not always the best way. That's refreshing. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Johanns ability to listen to voices outside the beltway has resulted in reform-minded farm bill proposals that are friendly to specialty crop growers.

USDA wanted for border inspections

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California on March 14 introduced S. 887, which is a bill to " restore import and entry agricultural inspection functions to the Department of Agriculture." I would speculate this bill likely finds fairly widespread support among produce industry leaders, though I think its chances of passage are low. Here is a link to the bill, which features co-sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

The industry never had as many good things to say about the USDA as they did when the inspection duties were transferred in March 2003 to the Department of Homeland Security. Since then, produce leaders like in California and Florida wonder if DHS inspectors are putting enough emphasis on keeping out invasive pests.

A big day

This is going to be a big day. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns is visiting our offices today, the Eat Healthy America Act is expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives, the FDA will hold a food safety hearing in Oakland, and the news wires will be awash in all kinds of Fruits & Veggies - More Matters coverage from yesterday's launch.

Here is a little housekeeping from the weekend. I had asked our readers where the CDC report on fruit and vegetable consumption was located on the Web, and one reader gave this link.