The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) and two groups of U.S. representatives recently urged federal officials to include specialty crop producers in any new federal economic assistance program for agriculture.
The SCFBA, co-chaired by Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association President Mike Joyner, addressed the issue in a letter to President Donald Trump.
“Although our growers are experiencing similar economic challenges to those confronting row crops, American specialty crops are different,” the letter stated. “During your first administration, you created a program that addressed those differences and made economic relief from USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) finally workable for the family farms that produce our nation’s specialty crops. We need your program to be put in place once again to deliver assistance to specialty crop growers across the United States.”
“Rising input costs, overly burdensome regulations, limited access to labor, unfair trade practices by foreign countries and natural disasters … have all impeded the global competitiveness of our growers,” the SCFBA letter stated. It added that “it is vital that any program designed to provide economic assistance to specialty crops should be uniquely tailored for our growers. It should also be designed to not overly burden the hardworking men and
women at the Farm Service Agency (FSA) with a blizzard of paperwork and red tape that would
only delay getting assistance into the hands of growers who desperately need it … We ask that you provide emergency economic assistance uniquely tailored to the needs of specialty crop growers at the earliest opportunity.”
U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin of Florida was the lead author of a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. That letter urged the USDA to include Florida’s specialty crop producers in any new federal economic assistance program being developed for the agriculture sector.
“With labor shortages, higher input costs and repeated hurricane losses, our growers need programs that fit specialty agriculture,” Franklin said. “USDA should deliver equitable, timely assistance so Florida farmers can recover and rebuild.”
Similarly, U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan led colleagues in calling on Rollins to include specialty crops in any potential USDA economic aid package. See the full letter from Moolenaar and other legislators here.
Sources: SCFBA and U.S. Reps. Scott Franklin and John Moolenaar
Share this Post