Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

Agriculture is a vital part of the economy in Western North Carolina, and I am committed to helping our farmers grow prosper. Whether in food production, landscaping, the nursery industry, or the development of renewable energy, Western North Carolina's farmers are leading the way.

The Farm Bill

The 110th Congress recently completed work on a reauthorization of the Farm Bill, which governs federal farm and food policy and is rewritten every five years. The Farm Bill passed both the House and the Senate with strong bipartisan support, and both chambers overrode President Bush's veto, making the bill law. I was a member of the conference committee that worked out differences between the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill and worked to make certain that Western North Carolina's interests were protected.

The final version of the Farm Bill was remarkable for many reasons including, its promise to all of America's farmers, its investment in rural economies, its protection of our lands, and its commitment to renewable energy resources.

I wrote a letter to the Chairman of the Agriculture Committee requesting specific changes to the bill and worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make certain this was a Farm Bill for the 21st Century.

Specialty Crops

The House version of the Farm bill will provide a historic $1.5 billion in baseline budget funding dedicated to programs that directly benefit the fruit and vegetable producers across Western North Carolina. For the first time specialty crops, the crops we grow in Western North Carolina - apples, strawberries, blueberries, etc. - will directly benefit from the Nation's Farm Bill.

Some of this increased funding for specialty growers will come from major additions to Section 32 funding. This program is used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase a variety of fruit, vegetable and tree nut products from American farmers to provide fresh fruits and vegetables in our schools.

Conservation

The House version of the Farm Bill increases resources to protect environmentally sensitive land and encourage environmentally friendly practices on working farmland. The bill extends and increases funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and expands the activities for which a producer can receive incentive payments to include technical services that will help fruit and vegetable producers access the program.

I also sponsored an amendment that passed, which will help private land owners protect our forests from invasive species such as the hemlock wooly adelgid. The hemlock wooly adelgid is responsible for the destruction of thousands of acres of Carolina hemlock trees in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. I also specifically asked for better funding of the Healthy Forest Reserve Program. For the first time this year's Farm Bill contains mandatory HFRP funding of $85 million over the next five years. This funding will be used to help private forest landowners manage and conserve forests.

Rural Communities

For our rural communities the Farm Bill included strong economic development programs and will increase access to broadband internet access. Health care, rural infrastructure, and the needs of our first responders were also needs that were addressed in the bill.

The Farm Bill also invests in renewable energy by promoting the development of renewable fuel refineries a key step toward bringing more renewable fuels to market in America by offering incentives for biodiesel production from agricultural, forest, and waste plant materials.

Disaster Assistance

In the past year Western North Carolina suffered through some of the worst weather disasters in years, from below freezing temperatures to extreme drought. I was proud to stand with our farmers during those trying times and successfully secure the federal emergency assistance they desperately needed.

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