Odds and ends

Congratulations to all associations and lobbyists working with the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, with a special nod to United Fresh. While the larger farm bill has some pork and "airdropped earmarks" - what a great phrase, by the way - the specialty crop coalition may have set the model for federal support designed to boost competitiveness and improve public health with nary a worry for adjusted gross income limits of growers.

I just "rejected" an anonymous comment about Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer. It didn't really offer much of reasoned critique, merely a unrestrained slam. Let's keep the criticism intelligent and issue and policy based, please.

The USDA's 196 page pdf of the Vegetable and Melon report is now available.

Check out the summary below:


U.S. production of all vegetables, potatoes, melons, and pulse crops increased 5 percent in calendar year 2007. In addition, fresh and processed imports for these crops were above a year earlier plus inventories of processed vegetables coming into the year were greater. As a result, total vegetable and melon supplies available for domestic use and export were up 5 percent to about 181 billion pounds in 2007. Buoyed by larger supplies, per capita net domestic use (disappearance) of all vegetables, potatoes, melons, and pulse crops increased 2 percent to 444 pounds (fresh-weight basis) in 2007. Potatoes (including potato products) remained the top vegetable crop in the United States (28 percent of total use), followed by tomatoes and products (20 percent), all lettuce (8 percent), sweet corn and products (6 percent), and onions (5 percent). Retail prices for fresh market vegetables increased 3 percent in 2007—the second smallest increase this decade. So far in the 2000s, fresh vegetable retail prices have increased an average of 4 percent annually, about the same as during the 1990s when prices were more variable. Consumer prices for processed fruit and vegetables increased 4 percent in 2007—the largest year-over-year gain since 2002. Although prices for frozen vegetables were little changed from a year earlier, for the second consecutive year, retail prices for canned and dried vegetables rose 3 percent. The farm value share of the retail cost of all fresh vegetables increased 4 percent in 2007 to an estimated 19.6 percent. The farm value share increased for fresh tomatoes and lettuce but declined for broccoli and potatoes. Although it has been relatively steady over the past 5 years, the share of retail value accounted for by the shipping-point price of fresh tomatoes has averaged about 28 percent this decade—down from 31 percent in the 1990s and 37 percent during the 1980s. The vegetable and melon trade deficit widened in 2007 as the value of imports increased more than the value of vegetable and melon exports. In 2007, nearly 17 percent of all the vegetables and melons consumed domestically was imported, with 32 percent of frozen vegetables being sourced from other nations, compared with 18 percent a decade earlier.