As the 118th session of congress settles in, the ag policy world has turned its attention to a looming debate that will shape the way growers and allied industry members operate for years to come. Of course, that issue is the writing of the 2023 Farm Bill.
In early February, as the House and Senate Agriculture Committees kicked off their Farm Bill hearings in earnest, the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) released its policy recommendations.
As one the SCFBA co-chairs, I joined Mike Joyner, President of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, and Dave Puglia, President and CEO of Western Growers, in issuing the Alliance’s 109 specific recommendations in total. These recommendations cover eight titles of the bill and prioritizing core principles such as healthy Americans, competitiveness, sustainability, trade and foreign competition, research and innovation, and natural resources and climate.
SCFBA represents a diverse sector of agriculture economy with farm gate value accounting for $64.7 billion in the U.S. It’s a national coalition of more than 200 organizations advocating broad-based policy initiatives to address unique needs of the specialty crops industry while aiding their overall competitiveness against import pressures on American exports.
Our Recommendations
Primary goals of the 2023 Farm Bill recommendations are to ensure that specialty crop farmers have access to vital financial tools, market opportunities, and risk management. And this is while we continue to prioritize healthy Americans through nutrition programs, research, and innovation.
Among other things, the SCFBA calls for:
• Increasing funding for Specialty Crop Block Grants Program to $250 million annually
• Improving small-scale research grants program by raising its authorized level from $10 million to $15 million per year
• Establishing a permanent disaster relief fund for horticulture crops with an initial capitalization of at least $100 million
• Reauthorizing and strengthening the Healthy Incentives Pilot Program
• Creating a new national organic certification cost share program
• Revising the National Clean Plant Network to more effectively and efficiently combat pests
• Expanding the Farm-to-Fork program.
The recommendations also focus on helping specialty crop farmers better manage their risk through additional resources, such as strengthening agricultural trade mitigation, expanding access to federal crop insurance products, and improving safety net systems like the Agriculture Risk Coverage.
Ultimately, SCFBA’s vision is to strengthen and secure America’s specialty crops industry by creating a farm policy tailored to meet the unique challenges of this sector of agriculture.
Through our collective recommendations for the 2023 Farm Bill, we are hoping to continue improving the environment for specialty crop growers and help ensure more Americans embrace a healthy, vegetable-rich diet.
Read more about SCFBA and our efforts at FarmBillAlliance.com.