Looking At Specialty Crops
Looking At Specialty Crops. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture.
Representative Kurt Schrader from Oregon is a member of the Farm Bill Conference Committee and after their meeting last Wednesday he says things are looking pretty good. A lot of ag producers of specialty crops here in the northwest are wondering exactly how things will shake out for them.
SCHRADER: So far so good. The Senate and House provision match up pretty well. We'd like to add a few - one or two of the organic provisions I think from the Senate bill to the House one. We did some good work ourselves on the House side. We actually plussed up the amount of money in both the crop grants and the research initiatives so we hope the Senate accedes to our numbers in that arena
Schrader is the ranking member of the horticulture subcommittee that has purview over specialty crops.
SCHRADER: We got a lot of, I thought, very good additions in the farm-to-market stuff. The market access program so that our small farmer, rancher folks could sell their stuff overseas. The Pacific rim is a rising area of middle class consumers that want safe American food and fiber so I think we've got some great opportunities.
He says there will be some challenges in making sure these programs are properly funded.
SCHRADER: But so far, so good. I think having the chairwoman, Debbie Stabenow, from Michigan who is a huge supporter of the specialty crops. Michigan is also a large specialty crop growing state. I've been working very hard to educate Colin Peterson from Minnesota who is our ranking member about the value of the specialty crops to our Pacific rim partners.
We'll wrap up our talk tomorrow.
That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
