By Tony Wheeler
Contributing Writer

Rep. Heath Shuler has been appointed as a conferee on the reauthorization of the Farm Bill. As a conferee, Rep. Shuler will be part a small group that works to reach a compromise on the different versions of the Farm Bill passed by the House and Senate. He was selected to serve as a representative of the Small Business Committee on the conference committee.

“I am honored and excited to be a member of this conference committee,” Rep. Shuler said. “For years specialty crops, like those grown in western North Carolina, were ignored by the Farm Bill. I am committed to working to ensure the gains made in the House bill remain in the final version of the bill.”

The House version of the Farm Bill, officially the Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007, makes historic investments in programs to support western North Carolina’s fruit and vegetable producers, including $1.5 billion in baseline budget funding dedicated to programs that directly benefit fruit and vegetable producers.

This bill also benefits specialty growers by improving programs that provide schools with nutritious fruits and vegetables. The House version of the Farm Bill expands Section 32 funding, which is used by the USDA to directly purchase a variety of fruit, vegetable and tree nut products for domestic nutrition and food assistance programs to provide fresh fruits and vegetables in our schools. Rep. Shuler originally requested this increase in a letter to the Rep. Collin Peterson, the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

“As a representative of the Small Business Committee, I will also be working to ensure that small businesses that are related to farming, both directly and indirectly, receive security in the final version of the Farm Bill,” Rep. Shuler continued. “From the drought to last year’s Easter freeze, we in western North Carolina know that agriculture disasters affect businesses throughout a community, not just farms.”

Rep. Shuler is the only Democratic freshman to the Conference Committee.

The Farm Bill, H.R. 2419, would create a tax penalty for transactions designed exclusively to avoid federal tax, lower an income tax credit for ethanol blenders from 51 cents to 46 cents after the sale of 7.50 billion gallons, and establish the Agriculture Disaster Relief Trust Fund to provide disaster assistance for crop losses.

By the year 2010, it would end assistance for persons who have an average adjusted gross income of $750,000 or more and earn less than two-thirds of their average adjusted gross income from farming, ranching or foresting.

The bill reauthorizes the Federal Food and Nutrition Program, the Commodity Distribution Program and the Nutrition Information and Awareness Pilot Program.

It extends the Conservation Reserve Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program through 2012 and establishes programs to provide assistance for improving land for wildlife and forests.

H.R. 2419 establishes a mandatory labeling of country of origin on meats, increases loan rates for sugar producers and requires the Department of Agriculture to purchase certain dairy products to support their prices, extends the Dairy Export Incentive Program and the Dairy Indemnity Program and extends the Dairy Promotion and Research Program. It also provides a tax credit for energy generated from wind and expands and extends programs that provide credits for renewable fuel production, according to GovTrack.us, a database of federal legislation.

A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate and then be signed by the President before it becomes law. The major sticking point in the House and Senate versions is the cost of the bill, according to Andrew Whalen, communications director for Shuler. Also in disagreement is the closing of some Farm Service Agency offices, but Shuler is working to hammer out the differences, Whalen said.

Specialty crops are crops considered non-commodity. Whalen said the commodity crops are corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybean and they receive the lion’s share of support from the government. He said Shuler is working to make sure non-commodity farmers aren’t left out or ignored.

For more information visit www.agriculture.house.gov.