Growers and Grocers

Before I get into the update, a note on terminology. The traditional term for the omnibus piece of legislation that authorizes agriculture and nutrition programs is the “Farm Bill.” But that term is far too limiting. The “Farm Bill” is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation to be considered by Congress this year. It touches what you eat, how much it will cost, what kids eat at school, how the hungry in the U.S. are treated, and how land is used. The next bill will also have a significant impact on how you get your electricity and transportation fuel (through biofuels). And so, after some thought, I’m going to call it the Food and Farm Bill until I think of something better. On to the update…

My Google News alert has been filled with stories about the Food and Farm Bill debate. Most of the stories are minor things: this Senator or that Senator speaking to a local farm group, or a Representative having a public forum, or the Agriculture Secretary having a meeting with somebody. Amongst all of this noise, a few important things have happened: budget proposals and two significant bill introductions.

Budgeting

The first step in the Farm Bill process is to decide how much can be spent over the next five-year period, thus putting financial boundaries on the legislators. The House and Senate budget committees have released their outlines.
The Senate approved a budget resolution for fiscal years 2007 and 2009 through 2012 which includes a $15 billion “reserve fund” for the Food and Farm Bill to allow spending above and beyond the baseline level. The catch: the fund can only be used if the money can be found in one of three ways: 1) taking the money from another program, 2) increasing government revenue (i.e., taxes or fees), or 3) the Senate votes to override the pay as you go (”PayGo”) spending rules.

In the House, The Chairman’s version of the budget plan (PDF) creates a reserve fund of $20 billion for the reauthorization of the Farm Bill (see page 30-31). As in the Senate, allocation of the funds can occur only if “would not increase the deficit or decrease the surplus for the period of fiscal years 2007 through 2012 and the period of fiscal years 2007 through 2017.”

A Reuters article says that “[t]he House and Senate have a goal of agreeing by April 15 on a spending plan,” so the next few weeks are good times for letters if you have strong opinions about how the Food and Farm Bill should look.

New Legislation

Two major pieces of legislation were introduced, one by Rep. Kind (D-WI), the other by Rep. Cardoza (D-CA).

Rep. Kind introduced the Healthy Farms, Foods, and Fuels Act of 2007 (H.R. 1551) with 74 co-sponsors. Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a bill with the same text as S.919. The press release from Reps. Kind and Gerlach, and Senator Menendez summarized the bill’s key points as

• Increase from $200 million to $2 billion annual loan guarantees for renewable energy development on farms.
• Expand programs that provide local, healthy food choices to our school children and dramatically
• Expand coupon programs that allow elderly and low income Americans to shop at farmer’s markets.
• Increase incentives by $3 billion a year for farmers and ranchers to protect drinking water supplies and make other environmental improvements.
• Provide funding to restore nearly 3 million acres of wetlands.
• Provide funding to protect 6 million acres of farm and ranch land from sprawl.

Rep. Cardoza (D-CA) introduced the “Equitable Agriculture Today for a Healthy America Act” (EAT Healthy America Act) with a bipartisan list of 64 co-sponsors as H.R. 1600. This is the bill that was written with input from growers of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and flowers (the “specialty crops”). A few months ago, I covered some of the issues around specialty crops. Scripps News described a few features of the EAT bill:

• Increasing the Market Access Program to $350 million a year, up from the current maximum of $200 million. The money pays for overseas ads and marketing by groups like the California Cling Peach Board and the California Kiwifruit Commission.
• Providing grants to boost fruit and vegetable consumption. This money eventually would climb to $100 million a year and likewise flow through agricultural trade organizations; farm co-operatives such as Sunkist would also be eligible.
• Building a $500 million-a-year program of specialty crop bloc grants paid to states, distributed in part according to each state’s level of fruit and vegetable production. California would get the biggest share.

In a new twist, the rewritten bill also would shift thousands of agricultural port and border inspectors back to the Agriculture Department. The inspectors are currently part of the Department of Homeland Security, where their morale is low.

Rep. Salazar’s (D-CO) press release has some additional details on the EAT Healthy America Act.

Quite a few other bills have been introduced that relate to agriculture and food. One that caught my attention was introduced by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Timothy Walz (D-MN), and Ray LaHood (R-IL) (press release). Called the Farming Flexibility Act of 2007 (H.R. 1371), the bill loosens the rules related to fruit and vegetable growing by farmers who receive payment for one or more of the five big commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice). Under current rules, a farmer who plants fruits or vegetables on land designated as commodity land will be forced to pay a penalty for removing the land from their commodity program. At first glance, the rule change seems like a good idea: one thing the United States needs is more fruits and vegetables and fewer commodity crops.

Next Steps

As mentioned above, the House and Senate will to agree on a budget plan in the next few weeks. In the meantime, more bills will be introduced, hearings will be held in the Agricultural Committees and Subcommittees to obtain additional input, and, I hope, Congressional offices will receive a good bit of mail about the Food and Farm Bill from “normal people” asking for a change in our nation’s agricultural and food policies. Sometime in the summer, we can expect the process to really heat up as the September expiration of the current Food and Farm Bill stares Congress in the eyes.

Background Reading or Viewing

If you find the above material interesting, but a little confusing, I recommend a new book called Food Fight: the Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill. It presents a comprehensive, yet readable, explanation of where the Farm Bill came from, how it works, and what needs to be fixed. For a audio-visual education on the Food and Farm Bill, the author of the book, Daniel Imhoff, was one of the panelists at a Michael Pollan moderated “Farm Bill Teach In” in Berkeley, which can be watched on the UC Berkeley webcast library.