Florida Farm Bill Session and Inflation's Impact on Organic Produce
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Last week, House Ag Committee Chair, Representative Glenn "GT" Thompson was joined by a bipartisan group of colleagues in Central Florida for an official Farm Bill listening session.
Thompson was joined by Florida Reps Kat Cammack and Darren Soto, Georgia Rep Austin Scott, and others.
Members heard from a diverse group of stakeholders representing specialty crops, dairy, forestry, nutrition assistance, and more.
Approximately 400 ag industry professionals attended to share personal insights to help in crafting an effective Farm Bill.
**USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service released its new five-year strategic plan.
The plan includes six strategic goals, focused on protecting agriculture from plant and animal diseases and pests, better meeting current and future challenges, and reducing the impacts of diseases.
It also looks at ecosystem changes, climate change, expanding safe trade, managing wildlife diseases, and promoting animal welfare.
**Inflation continued to impact organic fresh produce sales in the first quarter.
Overall dollar sales grew by slightly less than 1%, and volume declined by 3.4% from the same period last year.
Conventional produce dollars rose higher than organic dollars by about 2% and declined in volume by a lesser degree than organic.
Current trends show both conventional and organic produce volume shrinking year over year, but both are consistently gaining in dollars.
