Specialty Crops

Vermont is the nation’s largest producer of maple syrup and a major northeast producer of apples, potatoes, eggs, honey, vegetables, Christmas trees, and greenhouse nursery products

 

NEW!   Value Added Market Development Grants:  Knowing the importance of enabling producers to capture more of the value of their commodities, the farm bill significantly increases this program to $40 million per fiscal year through 2007 ($240 million total).  This will increase participation in the program by allowing broader standards of eligibility so agricultural producer groups and business ventures largely owned by producers can compete for grants designed to develop value-added products or markets.  The provision also encourages grants to be used to assist in the development of agricultural-based renewable energy sources.

 

NEW!  Apples: Provides an additional $94 million in national assistance for apple producers who have suffered low market prices.

 

NEW!  Honey: To aid honey producers and provide them with a safety net in times of poor market conditions, the new farm bill creates a marketing assistance loan program similar to that of other program commodities.  The new program provides producers with price support loans or loan deficiency payments with a loan rate of $0.60 per pound.

 

NEW!  Specialty Crop Purchases: Increases carryover-spending authority for Section 32 commodity purchases. Directs additional commodity purchases by requiring not less than $200 million of Section 32 funds per year to be used to purchase fruits and vegetables and other specialty food crops. At least $50 million of that amount is to be used for fresh fruits and vegetables for schools through the Department of Defense’ Fresh Program.

 

T  Market Access Program: Increases the Market Access Program (MAP) from $90 million to $200 million per year by 2006. This program aids in the creation, expansion, and maintenance of foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products and is very important to the fruit and vegetable industry.

 

NEW!  Technical Assistance Specialty Crop (TASC): Creates a Technical Assistance Specialty Crop (TASC) fund of $19 million over 10 year to address the barriers to exports that U.S. producers of specialty crops face. The purpose of TASC is to provide direct assistance through public and private sector projects to facilitate increased exports of U.S. specialty crops within the global marketplace.

 

NEW!  Plant Health and Quarantines: Helps provide greater protection to  farmers by streamlining the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service's ability to respond to plant and animal pest and disease emergencies, and authorizes emergency loans for producers affected by quarantines.

 

T  Protection from Domestic Competition: Retains the planting restriction on fruits and vegetables on program crop acres.