Supporting Specialty Crops

Supporting Specialty Crops. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Wednesday, Senator Maria Cantwell visited a potato processing plant near Pasco to highlight the need for a comprehensive Farm Bill. Part of that bill is a key component for specialty crops which include things like apples, cherries, pears and more. Chris Schlect with NW Hort Council lent his support.

SCHLECT: I’m here to support the farm bill as it’s going through the Senate and I hope that Senator Cantwell will cast her vote when it comes to that point in June for a full farm bill. For those who don’t know, the farm bill right now it’s extended one year. we need to extend it for 5-years with a new farm bill and get rid of some of the uncertainty that’s harming, I think our research effort - ARS and other facilities around the nation with the uncertainty of funding. I think getting a farm bill that’s nailed down for the next 5 years would be very good for the agriculture community. And the general public.

Schlect says they are supporting the Market Access or MAP program among other parts.

SCHLECT: Nutrition has been a very big thing for the fresh fruit and vegetable industry and the bill has quite a few attributes on nutrition and school lunch programs that we support. We want to add potatoes to that. We think that there’s a lot of good on, again the export side. There’s programs like the Technical Assistance Program for specialty crops that we’ve used to work on technical issues overseas through the Foreign Agricultural Service. So the farm bill is very important.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.