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Summary:
Congress is moving ahead expeditiously with consideration of omnibus legislation to replace the expiring Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-171, the 2002 farm bill). Farm bill policies governing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs on marketing, crop insurance and disaster assistance, protection against pests and diseases, export promotion, and domestic food assistance, among others, are important to the competitiveness of the specialty crop sector of U.S. agriculture. The sector includes fruit, vegetable, tree nut, and nursery crop producers, processors, manufacturers, wholesalers, importers, and exporters. Although specialty crops are not eligible for direct support under USDA's farm commodity price and income support programs, the policies that Congress sets for the those programs affect them. Chief among these policies is one Congress originally adopted in the 1996 farm bill (and extended through 2007 in the 2002 farm bill) that largely restricts commodity program participants from planting fruits and vegetables on program base acres. Specialty crop interests argue that the 2007 farm bill should extend the planting restriction through 2012 in order to protect the sector from the economic damage that could occur if additional acres of vegetables (in particular) suddenly came into production. On the other hand, because the planting restriction has come under challenge in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and could face further difficulties in ongoing trade negotiations, other stakeholders are in favor of lifting it. Several legislative proposals containing comprehensive policy initiatives intended to benefit the specialty crop sector have been introduced as "marker" bills in the months leading up to House and Senate committee consideration of the 2007 farm bill. In general, these bills would make USDA's conservation, trade, pest and disease protection, disaster assistance, and research programs more attuned to the unique characteristics of the specialty crop industry. Additionally, many of the bills would substantially increase the amount of fruits and vegetables that USDA purchases for distribution through the school lunch program and a number of other nutrition programs that reach low-income, nutritionally vulnerable segments of the of the U.S. population. This report will be updated as necessary as congressional consideration of the 2007 farm bill progresses.
