Farm Bill needs help from rural America

From the Society of American Florists’ (SAF) Sept. 28 “Washington Week in Review” newsletter: Rep. Collin Peterson (D-7-Minn.), the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, recently said  that Congress can still pass a farm bill this year – but only if rural America speaks louder – adding that "nothing short of a groundswell of pressure from congressional districts” will push leadership to take up the bill, and so far, he hasn’t seen the “100 or 200” calls or emails to key lawmakers’ offices that would make a difference. “If you don’t do that,” Peterson said, “we’re not going to get a farm bill.”

“We plead with SAF’s members to contact their congressional representatives now in support of maintaining the important programs for specialty crops that are contained in the Farm Bill,” said SAF’s Lin Schmale.

SAF members are asked to join the other 120 organizations that are part of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance members and to call and/or write their House and Senate delegations demanding they pass a Farm Bill this year. Click here to write a letter to Congress. There is a prewritten letter that you can just email – or, better yet, add some thoughts of your own.  It will just take a few minutes – but it can make a difference.

Some are predicting a one-year extension of the current Farm Bill – but that would be detrimental to specialty crop efforts. Several programs would receive no funding, including the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, the Value-Added Grant Program, and support for rural businesses. The Senate Farm Bill and the House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill, both passed this summer, further invest in specialty crop programs with an increase of more than $1 billion in funding from the current law. Congress will return for a lame duck session in November and December, which should allow time to pass a new Farm Bill that will provide stability to U.S. agriculture and rural communities, and to further invest in specialty crop priorities, including research, trade, eradication of pest and disease, nutrition, and targeted state and local initiatives through specialty crop block grants. On the other hand, if Congress fails to act during the lame duck session and carries over into next year, Congress will have to start over in developing a Farm Bill. Given the current budget environment leading into next year, it will be a monumental task to replicate the success from this year’s efforts for specialty crops.

For more information, contact SAF’s Lin Schmale, lschmale@safnow.org.