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HEARING TO REVIEW HORTICULTURE 

PRIORITIES FOR THE 2013 FARM BILL

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HORTICULTURE, RESEARCH, 

BIOTECHNOLOGY, AND FOREIGN AGRICULTURE

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

APRIL 24, 2013

Serial No. 113–4

(

Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture 

agriculture.house.gov 

COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE 

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma, Chairman 

BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia, 

Vice Chairman 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas 

MIKE ROGERS, Alabama 

K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas 

GLENN THOMPSON, Pennsylvania 

BOB GIBBS, Ohio 

AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia 

SCOTT R. TIPTON, Colorado 

ERIC A. ‘‘RICK’’ CRAWFORD, Arkansas 

MARTHA ROBY, Alabama 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

CHRISTOPHER P. GIBSON, New York 

VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

KRISTI L. NOEM, South Dakota 

DAN BENISHEK, Michigan 

JEFF DENHAM, California 

STEPHEN LEE FINCHER, Tennessee 

DOUG LAMALFA, California 

RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina 

RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois 

CHRIS COLLINS, New York 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

COLLIN C. PETERSON, Minnesota, Ranking 

Minority Member 

MIKE MCINTYRE, North Carolina 

DAVID SCOTT, Georgia 

JIM COSTA, California 

TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota 

KURT SCHRADER, Oregon 

MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio 

JAMES P. MCGOVERN, Massachusetts 

SUZAN K. DELBENE, Washington 

GLORIA NEGRETE MCLEOD, California 

FILEMON VELA, Texas 

MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico 

ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire 

RICHARD M. NOLAN, Minnesota 

PETE P. GALLEGO, Texas 

WILLIAM L. ENYART, Illinois 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

CHERI BUSTOS, Illinois 

SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York 

JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut 

JOHN GARAMENDI, California 

NICOLE SCOTT, Staff Director 

KEVIN J. KRAMP, Chief Counsel 

TAMARA HINTON, Communications Director 

ROBERT L. LAREW, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HORTICULTURE, RESEARCH, BIOTECHNOLOGY, AND FOREIGN

AGRICULTURE

AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia, Chairman 

VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri 

JEFF DENHAM, California 

STEPHEN LEE FINCHER, Tennessee 

DOUG LAMALFA, California 

RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois 

CHRIS COLLINS, New York 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

KURT SCHRADER, Oregon, Ranking 

Minority Member 

SUZAN K. DELBENE, Washington 

JIM COSTA, California 

MARCIA L. FUDGE, Ohio 

ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire 

JUAN VARGAS, California 

SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York 

(II) 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Scott, Hon. Austin, a Representative in Congress from Georgia, opening statement ...................................................................................................................... 1

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 2

Schrader, Hon. Kurt, a Representative in Congress from Oregon, opening 

statement .............................................................................................................. 3

WITNESSES

Frey-Talley, Sarah M., President and Chief Executive Officer, Frey Farms, 

Keenes, IL ............................................................................................................. 4

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6

Brim, William L., President and Owner, Lewis & Taylor Farms, Inc., Tifton, 

GA .......................................................................................................................... 9

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11

Bushue, Barry, Vice President, American Farm Bureau Federation; President, 

Oregon Farm Bureau Federation, Boring, OR .................................................. 14

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 15

SUBMITTED MATERIAL

Barnard, Steve, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mission Produce Company; Chairman of the Board, Western Growers Association, submitted 

statement .............................................................................................................. 39

(1)

HEARING TO REVIEW HORTICULTURE 

PRIORITIES FOR THE 2013 FARM BILL 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HORTICULTURE, RESEARCH, BIOTECHNOLOGY, AND FOREIGN AGRICULTURE, COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, Washington, D.C. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in Room 

1300 of the Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Austin Scott 

[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Members present: Representatives Scott, Denham, LaMalfa, 

Davis, Collins, Yoho, Schrader, DelBene, Costa, Kuster, and 

Vargas. 

Staff present: Debbie Smith, John Goldberg, Mary Nowak, Patricia Straughn, Pete Thomson, John Konya, Merrick Munday, Keith 

Jones, Liz Friedlander, and Caleb Crosswhite. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. AUSTIN SCOTT, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM GEORGIA 

The CHAIRMAN. Good morning. This hearing of the Subcommittee 

on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture, 

entitled Horticulture Priorities for the 2013 Farm Bill, will come to 

order. 

The purpose of this hearing is to gather information from the 

specialty crop industry as our Committee begins assembling the 

2013 Farm Bill. We want to ensure our work product reflects your 

highest priorities. We are pleased to have before us several witnesses who are involved in horticulture. A good deal of work has 

been done in previous Congresses, but as we all know, the process 

last year did not result in the enactment of a full 5 year farm bill. 

However, I believe a review of the Committee work from last year 

may be helpful as we begin today’s discussion. 

Back in 2008, this Committee for the first time devoted a title 

exclusively to horticulture. Last year, the Committee proposed providing states with the flexibility to tailor projects to their particular 

concerns related through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. 

We also proposed enhancements to programs related to plant pest, 

and disease control. With early plant pest detection, threat identification and mitigation, and technical assistance in plant pest management systems, growers are given the necessary tools to combat 

current and future threats. 

The Committee also proposed allocating funds to assist specialty 

crop producers who face technical barriers related to trade. Among 

2

the issues faced by specialty crop producers are the numerous 

trade barriers put in place by other markets around the world. By 

providing technical assistance, the Committee sought to assure producers are continually provided avenues to grow in foreign markets. 

While many issues faced by the specialty crop industry were addressed, the industry continues to face many challenges. Pests and 

disease concerns are increasing, growers face continued food safety 

concerns, pressures with natural resources and regulatory burdens 

continue to grow. All of these concerns threaten the production of 

healthy food for Americans and people around the world. 

Before us today is a panel that represents almost every aspect 

of the specialty crop industry. We have a representative from the 

growing, packing, and shipping industry with operations in the 

Southeast and Midwest, a fruit and vegetable grower from my 

home State of Georgia, and the President of the Oregon Farm Bureau. I hope we can continue to remain receptive to the priorities 

of the industry and address any issues that may have arisen last 

summer. We appreciate the time each of you has given to prepare 

for this hearing. Your testimony will be of significant importance 

as we begin the process to reauthorize a new farm bill. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Scott follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. AUSTIN SCOTT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS

FROM GEORGIA

Good morning. The purpose of this hearing is to gather information from the specialty crop industry. As the Committee begins assembling the 2013 Farm Bill, we 

want to ensure our work product reflects your highest priorities. We are pleased to 

have before us several witnesses who are involved in horticulture. 

A good deal of work has been done in the previous Congress, but as we all know 

the process last year did not result in the enactment of a full 5 year farm bill. However, I believe a review of the Committee work from last year may be helpful as 

we begin today’s discussion. 

Back in 2008, this Committee, for the first time, devoted a title exclusively to Horticulture. Last year, this Committee proposed providing states with flexibility to tailor projects to their particular concerns related through the Specialty Crop Block 

Grant program. We also proposed enhancements to programs related to plant pest 

and disease control. With early plant pest detection, threat identification and mitigation, and technical assistance in plant pest management systems, growers are 

given the necessary tools to combat current and future threats. 

The Committee also proposed allocating funds to assist specialty crop producers 

who face technical barriers related to trade. Among the issues faced by specialty 

crop producers are the numerous trade barriers put in place by other markets 

around the world. By providing technical assistance, the Committee sought to assure producers are continually provided avenues to grow in foreign markets. 

While many issues faced by the specialty crop industry were addressed, the industry continues to face challenges. Pest and disease concerns are increasing. Growers 

face continued food safety concerns. Pressures with natural resources and regulatory 

burdens continue to grow. All of these concerns threaten the production of healthy 

food for Americans and people around the world. 

Before us today is a panel that represents almost every aspect of the specialty 

crop industry. We have a representative from the fresh produce growing, packing 

and shipping industry with operations in the Southeast and Midwest, a fruit and 

vegetable grower from my home State of Georgia, and the President of the Oregon 

Farm Bureau who is also a horticultural producer. I hope we can continue to remain 

receptive to the priorities of the industry and address any issues that may have 

arisen since last summer. We appreciate the time each of you has given to prepare 

for this hearing. Your testimony will be of significant importance as we begin the 

process to reauthorize a new farm bill. 

I would like to recognize my colleague from Oregon, Ranking Member Schrader, 

for any opening remarks he may have.

3

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to recognize my colleague from Oregon, the Ranking Member, Mr. Schrader, for any opening remarks 

he may have. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KURT SCHRADER, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM OREGON 

Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I would like to thank you for holding this very important hearing 

today. It is a great opportunity for us to talk about specialty crops 

and the value they have for our great country. 

I want to express my gratitude to the witnesses for coming a long 

way and appearing before the Subcommittee to give us your homegrown insight that carries a lot of weight, believe it or not, here 

in Washington, D.C. 

I would like to acknowledge and thank Barry Bushue in particular. He traveled all the way from my home State of Oregon. We 

have had a long and great relationship. 

When it comes to discussing the farm bill, all too often the conversation tends to focus on just the commodity or the nutrition titles of the bill. That is despite the fact that specialty crops account 

for nearly 1⁄2 of all domestic farm gate value nationwide. And, even 

with that, the specialty crop title is usually a very small fraction 

of the overall bill. In fact, it wasn’t, as the chair pointed out, until 

2008 that the farm bill included specialty crops as a separate title. 

That is why it is important to have this hearing today. 

Specialty crops are facing very different challenges than traditional program crops. These challenges range from pest and disease 

issues to labor shortages to competition from foreign producers. 

Specialty crop producers face these challenges without the traditional assistance like direct payments to support their industry. 

Programs like the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program which requires matching funds, and eligible projects that produce measurable outcomes. That is stuff that America can understand. 

The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program has funded projects in 

all 50 states for the benefit of the industry at the state level. These 

funds have been very successful in making our producers more productive, more competitive, and more profitable. Additional programs like the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, the Market Access Program, Pest and Disease Management Programs, the Fresh 

Fruit and Vegetable Snack Programs, the Farmers’ Market Promotion Programs, are all examples of programs that are smart investments that benefit specialty crop producers nationwide and 

cost very, very little. Most importantly, I think a point to be made: 

these are not government handouts. These are cooperative programs that farmers and government alike work on. 

I am sure many people in the room will be surprised to know 

that my State of Oregon is a huge agricultural state. Nearly one 

in eight jobs rely on agriculture. We are not all Portlandia, folks. 

There are some of us that actually live in rural America. We grow 

over 250 different crops valued at over $5 billion a year and contribute over $22 billion in our state’s economy annually. 

Here is an example of the diversity of Oregon agriculture: we are 

the number one producer of Christmas trees, hazelnuts, sugarbeets 

for seed, blackberries, boysenberries, rye grass seed, orchard grass 

4

seed, red clover seed, and fescue, just to name a few. And we are 

in the top five for nursery stock, pears, cranberries, wine grapes, 

blueberries, and many other crops. Please taste our pinot noir. 

Oregon is the very definition, I would like to think, of a specialty 

crop state. Our producers need a strong farm bill. I hope this Committee continues to build on the success of the 2008 Farm Bill. I 

look forward to your testimony. And with that, I yield back, Mr. 

Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Schrader. 

The chair would request that any other Members submit their 

opening statements for the record so the witnesses may begin their 

testimony and to be sure there is ample time for questions. And if 

we have time and the Members so request, we may do a second 

round of questions as well. 

I would like to welcome our panel to the table. Ms. Sarah FreyTalley is President and CEO of Frey Farms from Illinois; Mr. Bill 

Brim, President and Owner of Lewis & Taylor Farms from my 

hometown of Tifton, Georgia; Mr. Barry Bushue, Vice President, 

American Farm Bureau Federation, President of the Oregon Farm 

Bureau Federation from Oregon. 

Ms. Frey-Talley, please begin when you are ready. 

STATEMENT OF SARAH M. FREY-TALLEY, PRESIDENT AND 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, FREY FARMS, KEENES, IL 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Good morning. Chairman Scott, Ranking 

Member Schrader, and the Members of the Subcommittee, thank 

you so much for holding this hearing to focus on specialty crops in 

the upcoming reauthorization of the farm bill. I appreciate the opportunity to share my perspective on these issues. 

My name is Sarah Frey-Talley, and I am the President and CEO 

of Frey Farms. Frey Farms is a multi-state grower of fresh 

produce. We specialize in growing, packing, and shipping fresh 

market produce, including cantaloupes and watermelons, but we 

are best known as the nation’s largest jack-o’-lantern pumpkin producer. Our farms and facilities are strategically located in Florida, 

Georgia, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, West Virginia, and Illinois. 

In addition to my role at Frey Farms, I am a member of the 

United Fresh Produce Association and serve on United Fresh’s 

Government Relations Council. United Fresh is the only produce 

trade association that represents all segments of the fruit and vegetable production chain nationwide. United Fresh and its counterparts in the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, known as the 

SCFBA, a coalition of nearly 120 organizations in the specialty crop 

sector, worked to ensure the 2008 Farm Bill reflected the importance of specialty crops. With Congress’ support, that legislation 

contained nearly $3 billion in specialty crop funding, which has 

been used to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. I am 

glad to provide comments on the issues facing specialty crop providers today and how Congress can build on 2008’s momentum. 

In 2012 the SCFBA had examined the current state of specialty 

crop farm bill programs and provided Congress with a set of recommendations to support specialty crops. Key areas of focus by the 

Alliance included Specialty Crop Block Grants, specialty crop research, trade, nutrition, pest and plant disease mitigation. UnfortuVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:34 Jun 03, 2013 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 I:\DOCS\113-04\80841.TXT BRIAN
5

nately, as you know, in spite of the great deal of hard work by the 

Members of this Committee and the Agriculture Committee leadership, the 2012 Farm Bill was not reauthorized, and now, the work 

must begin all over again. 

I would like to elaborate on the following specialty crop farm bill 

priorities. Specialty Crop Block Grants: the specialty crop industry 

was pleased with the annual funding level of $70 million for Specialty Crop Block Grants in the House Agriculture Committeepassed version of the 2012 Farm Bill, and we urge you to maintain 

that level. 

In addition, there are a few policy changes that would increase 

the program’s effectiveness. Examples of policy improvements 

would be encouraging states to further expand or prioritize grower 

level needs, as well as strengthening requirements for justifications 

for how a project enhances the competitiveness of specialty crops 

and include language to encourage multi-state projects. The Alliance believes these changes will further enhance the Block Grant 

Program. 

The work that has been done in SCRI will yield benefits for producers across the country by addressing issues such as improving 

production efficiency, improving crop characteristics, addressing 

pest and plant disease, response to food safety hazards, and innovation and technology. The specialty crop industry appreciated the 

$50 million allocated annually to SCRI by this Committee. Also, 

the SCFBA believes that making changes such as expanding research priorities for specialty crops would be helpful. We also believe that adjusting the process for reviewing grant applications to 

ensure that projects reflect industry priorities would also be beneficial. 

As the Members of this Subcommittee are aware, SCRI is one of 

the programs that had its funding authority expire due to the lack 

of full reauthorization of the farm bill, which could undermine the 

program’s effectiveness. We urge you to address this issue by making the authority for this program permanent. 

The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program provides a fresh fruit 

and vegetable snack to nearly four million low-income schoolchildren across the country. As Members of the Subcommittee may 

be aware, FFVP was recently evaluated by outside experts and 

found to be highly effective at increasing students’ fresh fruit and 

vegetable consumption. We support the funding of FFVP at $150 

million per year. 

And now, I will talk briefly about trade. The House Agriculture 

Committee passed a version of the farm bill that included $200 million for the MAP program, which is Market Access Program, which 

the Alliance supported. The work that is done through MAP to develop and expand international markets has been very useful for 

the significant number of specialty crop interests that participate 

in the program. 

In addition, there are other challenges that are facing our industry, including food safety, and as many of you know, immigration. 

The stability of the specialty crop sector is seriously impacted by 

our ability to attract a stable, reliable, and skilled workforce. While 

produce providers have varying levels of success with procuring a 

stable workforce under the current Federal ag guest worker proVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:34 Jun 03, 2013 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 I:\DOCS\113-04\80841.TXT BRIAN
6

gram known as the H–2A, far too many providers have found this 

program to be too slow, unresponsive, and cumbersome to work for 

their operations. 

And there has been an agreement recently reached between ag 

labor and ag employers on the framework for a new Federal ag 

worker program. This framework contains many of the elements 

first proposed by the AWC of which United Fresh is a founding 

partner. I urge Congress to act on immigration reform with an ag 

guest worker component included as soon as possible. 

We in the specialty crop industry are grateful to the commitment 

that Congress has made. We believe that the specialty crop farm 

bill programs will continue to show results but only if Congress 

passes a full reauthorization of the farm bill. 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I will be 

happy to answer questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Frey-Talley follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SARAH M. FREY-TALLEY, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE

OFFICER, FREY FARMS, KEENES, IL 

Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Schrader, and Members of the Subcommittee 

on Horticulture, thank you for holding this hearing to focus on specialty crop needs 

in the upcoming reauthorization of the farm bill. Thank you also for the opportunity 

to share my perspective on these issues. 

My name is Sarah Frey-Talley and I am the President and CEO of Frey Farms. 

Frey Farms is a multi-state grower of fresh produce and is headquartered in rural 

Wayne County, IL. We specialize in growing, packing, and shipping fresh market 

produce including cantaloupes, watermelons, sweet corn and various other fresh 

market commodities. We are best known as the nation’s top producer of fresh market pumpkins. Our farms and facilities are strategically located in Florida, Georgia, 

Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, West Virginia, and Illinois. 

Frey Farms is a certified woman owned company. Since 1996 we have grown to 

meet the demands of our national retail partners by becoming geographically diverse in our operations and bringing the local farmer approach to the marketing of 

specialty crops on a national level. Our retail partners have recognized Frey Farms 

as an industry leader in food safety, sustainability, and as an ethical sourcing partner. In addition to my role at Frey Farms, I am a member of the United Fresh Produce 

Association and serve on United Fresh’s Government Relations Council and Grower 

Shipper Board. United Fresh is the only produce trade association that represents 

all segments of the fresh fruit and vegetable production chain nationwide. United 

Fresh and it’s counterparts in the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA), a coalition of nearly 120 organizations in the specialty crop sector, undertook a concentrated effort during the 2008 Farm Bill deliberations to ensure that specialty 

crops received the dedicated funding and policy focus this sector deserves. With 

Congress’s support, the 2008 Farm Bill contained nearly $3 billion in specialty crop 

funding, which has been used to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. I 

am glad to provide comments on the issues facing specialty crop providers today and 

how Congress can build on the momentum of the 2008 Farm Bill. 

As deliberations began in 2012 on the reauthorization of the farm bill, the SCFBA 

provided Congress with a set of recommendations on how to maintain the progress 

from the 2008 Farm Bill. Key areas of focus included Block Grants, Specialty Crop 

Research, trade, nutrition and pest and plant disease mitigation. The Alliance’s 

2012 Farm Bill recommendations acknowledged the difficult budgetary environment 

that Congress must contend with and urged that funding for these and related programs be maintained. In the version of the farm bill that this Committee passed 

in July of 2012, much of the Alliance’s recommendations were incorporated, allowing 

the important work of these programs to continue. 

Unfortunately, in spite of a great deal of hard work by the Members of this Committee and the Agriculture Committee leadership, the 2012 Farm Bill Reauthorization was not passed and now the work must begin all over again. While the current 

farm bill has been extended, the lack of a formal reauthorization creates a great 

deal of confusion and uncertainties among producers who either rely on farm bill 

programs or who take farm bill programs into consideration as they make plans for 

7

their operations. United Fresh joined virtually every other sector of the agriculture 

in calling for the passage of the 2012 Farm Bill reauthorization. It was disappointing to see Congress fail to complete the tremendous amount of work that had 

already been done to get the 2012 reauthorization to the President’s desk for his 

signature. My comments will elaborate on some of our sector’s farm bill priorities 

as well as other challenges facing the produce industry. 

Specialty Crop Block Grants 

As I mentioned previously, the Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program is 

among the most prominent farm bill program focused on specialty crops and provides assistance to producers who are seeking to enhance their ability to be competitive, meet marketplace demands, as well as consumers’ nutritional needs. In the 

years since the 2008 Farm Bill, hundreds of projects nationwide, many with areas 

of focus such as improving food safety or risk management; have been awarded 

funds from this program. The specialty crop industry was pleased with the funding 

level of $70 million annually for this program in the House Agriculture Committeepassed version of the 2012 Farm Bill and urges you to maintain that level. In addition, there are a few policy changes that would help the program’s effectiveness. Examples of policy improvements include: Congress should encourage states to further 

expand or prioritize grower-level needs, and also ensure that notice of funds available (NOFA) are released in a timely manner. In addition, the SCFBA recommends 

that Congress take action to encourage states to require applicants to provide appropriate justification for how a project enhances the competitiveness of specialty crops 

and include language to encourage multi-state projects. 

Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) 

Another top priority of the specialty crop industry is the Specialty Crop Research 

Initiative (SCRI). The work that is done in SCRI will yield benefits for producers 

across the country as projects address challenging issues such as improving production efficiency, improving crop characteristics, addressing pest and plant disease, response to food safety hazards and innovation and technology. The specialty crop industry appreciated the $50 million a year allocated to this program in the Committee-passed version of the 2012 Farm Bill. In addition, the Alliance believes that 

making changes to the program such as expanding research priorities for specialty 

crops for crop characteristics, pest and disease threats, as well as handling and 

processing would enhance the effectiveness and integrity of the program even more. 

Adjusting the process for reviewing grant applications to ensure that projects reflect 

industry priorities would also be beneficial. As you know, SCRI is one the programs 

that did not have mandatory authority or ‘‘baseline’’ so when the farm bill was not 

reauthorized, only extended, SCRI ran out of funding authority. I’m sure the Members of this Committee realize that research projects can take extended periods of 

time to yield results; they cannot be turned off and then restarted at some arbitrary 

time in the future. Furthermore, the work of the SCRI is work that providers do 

not have the resources to do themselves. That is why it is so important to keep this 

program and its work going and Congress should address the need for continuing 

authority for SCRI. 

Nutrition 

In addition to these programs, we support specialty crop priorities in other areas 

such as nutrition, particularly, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program {FFVP) 

which provides a fresh fruit and vegetable snack to four million low-income schoolchildren across the country. As the Members of the Subcommittee may be aware, 

FFVP was recently evaluated by outside experts and found to be highly effective at 

increasing students’ fresh fruit and vegetable consumption. We support the funding 

of FFVP at $150 million per year. The specialty crop industry appreciates the Committee’s support for this program which helps kids who might not otherwise have 

access to fresh fruit and vegetables get started with healthy eating habits. 

Trade 

The Committee also supported or closely followed the Alliance’s recommendations 

on other programs like the Market Access Program (MAP) which helps to support 

international marketing opportunities for U.S. entities. The House Agriculture Committee-passed version of the farm bill provided $200 million a year for MAP, which 

is what the Alliance supports. The work that is done through MAP to develop and 

expand international markets has been very useful for the significant number of 

specialty crop interests that participate in the program. 

8

Plant Pest and Disease Management 

As the Members of the Subcommittee know, the hard work and thorough planning 

of a fruit and vegetable provider can be destroyed if his or her crop is attacked by 

a plant disease or pest. These threats can easily spread from state to state and region to region, so a broader approach to these evolving issues is needed. That is why 

the specialty crop industry was particularly pleased to see the full House Agriculture Committee allocate $71.5 million per year for pest and disease mitigation, 

which was an increase over the Senate-passed version of the 2012 Farm Bill and 

urge you to maintain that funding level. 

Food Safety 

Certainly, reauthorization of the farm bill is a crucial policy development that the 

specialty crop industry strongly urges Congress to pursue and achieve as quickly as 

possible. However, the lack of a farm bill reauthorization is definitely not the only 

policy challenge facing our industry. 

The produce industry is currently addressing implementation of the Food Safety 

Modernization Act (FSMA). Two of the five rules for implementing FSMA have been 

issued; FDA is receiving comments and has just extended the comment period for 

another 120 days; which is a positive development. 

Produce providers realize that a food safety incident can truly destroy a business. 

Members of the produce industry have a heightened sense of awareness with regard 

to food safety and are committed to bringing the safest product possible to the consumer. Food Safety is a critical priority for those involved in the production and 

handling of fresh fruits and vegetables and requires a time and monetary commitment. Quality fruit and vegetable producers such as Frey Farms have made considerable investments in implementing food safety practices. Frey Farms employs a Director of Food Safety who manages the food safety system for all of our operations. 

In addition, we offer Food Safety consultation services to our contract growers. Frey 

Farms holds Global Food Safety Initiative Certification (GFSI) as the standard and 

has third-party audits conducted on all farm and packing facility operations annually. GFSI certification covers the supply chain from pre- to post-farm gate production in an integrated supply chain approach. In 2012 Frey Farms received superior 

ratings through GFSI third-party audits at all of our operations and is currently 

preparing for and expecting the same results for 2013 growing season. This level 

of commitment will be necessary for all produce growers packers and shippers as 

FSMA rules are implemented. I, along with the rest of our industry, have consistently supported strong mandatory, enforceable, commodity-specific food safety practices based on the best available science, applicable to both domestic and foreign 

produce. However, it is important to take the time necessary to allow for thoughtful 

comments and continued careful analysis of the proposed rules. 

Immigration 

While the Agriculture Committee may not have formal jurisdiction over immigration policy, the stability of the specialty crop sector and the programs that I just 

described are seriously impacted by our ability to attract a stable, reliable, skilled 

workforce. As those of you on the Subcommittee know, fresh fruit and vegetable providers have tried repeatedly to attract and retain domestic workers for the very 

labor intensive jobs necessary to bring fresh produce to consumers. However, those 

efforts are rarely successful in finding domestic workers who can do the jobs well 

and will stay on the job. Our operations are seasonal and although regionally diverse they are primarily located in very rural areas of the country. Attracting the 

appropriate number of domestic workers for short work time-frames is impossible. 

Frey Farms has participated in the H–2A Guest worker program since 2002. 

While produce providers like Frey Farms have had varying levels of success with 

procuring a stable workforce under the current Federal Ag guest worker program, 

known as H–2A, far too many providers have found this program to be too slow, 

unresponsive, expensive, and laden with bureaucratic inefficiencies. The produce industry’s continued growth and the creation of domestic jobs such as facility managers, shipping and receiving clerks, and administration personnel is directly affected by our ability to obtain a sufficient number of harvest employees. At a time 

when over 47 million Americans rely on government support for nutrition it is incomprehensible that in several states growers have been forced to walk away from 

abundant fields and destroy millions of dollars worth of fresh fruits and vegetables 

simply because they could not gain access to an adequate harvest workforce. It is 

imperative for Congress to address overdue reform policies affecting the availability 

of Ag workers. 

There has been an agreement reached between Ag labor and Ag employers on a 

framework for a new Federal Ag worker program. This framework contains many 

9

of the elements first proposed by the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) of 

which United Fresh is a founding partner, along with many other agriculture stakeholders. Like any policy compromise, this one is definitely not perfect and will need 

further refinement. However, on a national basis, it is better than the status quo

and moves us closer toward a reliable, effective program that provides employers in 

the Agriculture industry to a stable legal workforce and upholds worker rights. I 

urge Congress to act on immigration reform with a strong Ag guest worker component included as soon as possible. 

We in the specialty crop industry are grateful for the commitment Congress has 

made to our industry by supporting programs that promote specialty crops. Produce 

providers know that they have to be innovative and aggressive in pursuing opportunities and we know it is our responsibility to do everything we can to meet consumers’ demands and needs. The programs directed toward specialty crops in the 

farm bill have shown results in helping providers help themselves in being competitive in the marketplace. We in the industry believe they will continue to show results, but only if Congress passes a full reauthorization of the farm bill and addresses the other critical challenges such as Immigration Reform. 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to testify and I am happy to take questions.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, ma’am. 

Mr. Brim? 

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM L. BRIM, PRESIDENT AND OWNER, 

LEWIS & TAYLOR FARMS, INC., TIFTON, GA 

Mr. BRIM. Good morning. Chairman Scott, Ranking Member 

Schrader, and other Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for 

the opportunity to testify today. My name is Bill Brim. I am coowner of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, Georgia. We operate a diversified specialty crop operation, farming about 5,000 acres of 

vegetables with 650,000 square feet of greenhouse operation and 

have been using the H–2A program for harvesting and packing 

since 1998. 

I am an active member of our industry’s national trade association United Fresh Produce Association, and our state organization, 

the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. After several 

opportunities to pass a new farm bill over the past 18 months, the 

hard work of this Committee and our specialty crop industry seems 

to have been put on hold since last fall. I am hopeful that the 

House Agriculture Committee begins to make up the new farm bill 

next month, you will start where we left off back in last fall. 

In my opinion, when this Committee passed the farm bill back 

during the summer of 2012, I believe you were validating how well 

the 2008 Farm Bill was enhancing the competitiveness of produce 

in our industry. 

Well, my written testimony addresses a number of farm bill components. Due to the time limitations, there are three key elements 

I would like to mention that are very important to my farming operation. The sole purpose of the State Block Grants is to allow the 

states to identify the needs of the specialty crop industry and find 

ways through the Block Grants Program to increase the competitiveness of specialty crops. Over the life of the program, USDA reported that 2,500 projects have been funded. In Georgia, these 

funds have been very successfully utilized for education, promotion, 

research, food safety consulting, economic studies, pest management practices, and much more. 

In July 2012, Committee versions of the farm bill passed by this 

Committee, $70 million per year was approved for the Block Grant 

10

Program. We are encouraged that this Committee fights to maintain at least that level of funding in the 2013 Farm Bill. 

Research: the 2008 Farm Bill included key provisions creating a 

Specialty Crop Research Initiative, SCRI, which for the first time 

dedicated significant funding to addressing industry priorities and 

specialty crop research and extension. Unfortunately, SCRI did not 

have mandatory funding in the 2008 Farm Bill, and the extension 

of the farm bill, the program was no longer funded. For our industry, successful research projects have the ability to reduce the future burden on the Federal Government through increasing production outputs, improved varieties, developing best management 

practices, and increasing product availability to consumers. 

Specialty crop producers grow over 50 percent of the food we eat 

as Americans, but specialty crop research funding is nowhere near 

50 percent of the funding USDA spends on agriculture research. 

Federal investment in research and extension addressing those 

challenges has not kept pace with the dynamic growth and needs 

of the nation’s specialty crop industry. These investments must be 

increased and sustained as mandatory funding in the new farm 

bill. 

Nutrition programs: the investment in Federal nutrition programs can increase consumption of healthy, nutritious, and specialty crops. Currently, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program has 

proven to be highly successful by providing young students with 

the fresh fruit and vegetable snack pack every day at our schools 

and increasing that overall consumption of a wide variety of fresh 

fruits and vegetables. We support continued priority on fresh fruits 

and vegetable programs and incentives to help low-income families 

purchase and consume more fruits and vegetables. 

In closing, let me just say while I realize farm labor is not in the 

jurisdiction of this Committee, and the purpose of my testimony is 

to address the farm bill, if I don’t pause to mention this most pressing problem, I will be doing you and myself a disservice. If Congress does not address our immigration and farm labor situation, 

we won’t have to worry about the specialty crop title in the farm 

bill in the future. I encourage Members of this Committee to seriously consider comprehensive immigration reform for this country. 

While I have used the H–2A program for my labor needs for the 

past 14 years, the regulations, the red tape, delays, and bogus litigation has been horrendous. I hope you will give us a better guest 

worker program in the near future. 

In closing, Mr. Chairman, I ask the Committee to build on the 

foundation and investment in the specialty crop industry of the 

2008 Farm Bill and ensure our most important issues are addressed as you move forward in the development of the 2013 Farm 

Bill. 

Thank you very much, and I will be glad to answer any questions 

you have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Brim follows:]

11

PREPARED STATEMENT OF WILLIAM L. BRIM, PRESIDENT AND OWNER, LEWIS & 

TAYLOR FARMS, INC., TIFTON, GA 

Introduction 

Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Schrader, and other Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify before your Committee. My 

name is Bill Brim and I am the co-owner of Lewis Taylor Farms in Tifton, Ga. We 

are a diversified specialty crop operation, farming 450 acres of bell pepper, 550 acres 

of cantaloupes, 2,000 acres of greens and broccoli, 500 acres of squash and 900 acres 

of cucumbers, 50 acres of tomatoes, and 350 acres of vegetables crops. We also 

produce 185 million vegetable seedlings and 35 million pine tree seedling in our 

650,000 square feet of greenhouse operations. We also grow 350 acres of cotton and 

250 acres of peanuts. I have been using the H–2A program for our harvest and 

packing operations since 1998. 

I am active in our industry’s national trade association to help bring safe, healthy, 

affordable and great-tasting fruits and vegetables to the public. In this capacity I 

serve as a member of United Fresh Produce Association’s Government Relations 

Council and will be joining the United Consolidated Board of Directors in May. 

United Fresh represents more than 1,700 growers, packers, shippers, fresh-cut processors, distributors and marketers of fresh fruits and vegetables accounting for the 

vast majority of produce sold in the United States. I also serve on the Board of the 

Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and served as President of the association in 1997–98 and 2007–08. Our farm also strongly supports the efforts of the 

Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance and their 120 organizations that represent the 

majority of specialty crops in the United States including fruits, vegetables, treenuts, wine-grape growers, nursery and landscape companies. This important coalition represents over 350 individual specialty crops across the United States. 

Overview 

After several opportunities to pass a new farm bill over the past 18 months, the 

hard work of this Committee and our specialty crop industry seemed to have been 

put on hold. I am hopeful we can start where we left off back in the fall and move 

forward with a framework similar to that passed by this Committee in July of last 

year. For specialty crops, the Farm Bill of 2008 and the bill passed by your Committee last July provided a tremendous investment in our producers by recognizing 

the needs and priorities of fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, nursery and wine grape 

growers in the United States. 

From a produce grower’s perspective, we continue to be driven and experience tremendous challenges in our business environment. We have worked hard to remain 

profitable, satisfy consumer demands, conform to and develop new technology, and 

compete in an increasingly global marketplace. Our markets are highly volatile, yet 

we have never relied on traditional farm programs to sustain our industry. Instead, 

we look to each other to promote efficiency and reward market competition that so 

marks our industry. 

In passing the farm bill recommendations by this Committee back in the summer 

of 2012, I believe you were validating how the 2008 Farm Bill enhanced the competitiveness of the produce industry. I trust this Committee will see the benefits our 

consumers and our farmers are receiving through your investments in the specialty 

crop industry. The following are key elements in the farm bill that I believe are critical to specialty crop farmers maintaining their competitiveness. 

State-Block Grants 

One of the key aspects of the 2008 Farm Bill with respect to specialty crops was 

the Specialty Crop Block Grant program. As you know, the sole purpose of this program is to promote the competitiveness of specialty crops, such as fruits, vegetables, 

tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture and nursery crops. Over the life of the program, 

USDA reports that 2,500 projects have been funded that benefit the specialty crop 

in all 50 states and the projects have enhanced all aspects of growing and marketing specialty crops including research, plant and pest health, food safety and production. 

For example, in my State of Georgia, block grant funds were used to promote 

Georgia specialty crops at a variety of trade shows across this country. At one of 

these trade shows, the growers participating reported collective new sales the following year at more than $2 million. Funds were also used for research to provide 

pest management practices against fruit blotch on watermelons and economic studies of labor needs of Georgia specialty crop growers. In addition, funds were used 

for grower risk management and operations education plus food safety on-the-farm 

consultation. 

12

The block grant program was designed to address grower needs at the state level. 

In Georgia these funds have been very successfully utilized to help specialty crop 

producers improve their operations and be more competitive and profitable. 

In the July 2012 Committee version of the farm bill passed by this Committee, $70 million per year was approved for the Block Grant program. We encourage that 

this Subcommittee fight to maintain at least that level of funding in the 2013 Farm 

Bill. 

Research 

Research serves as both a foundation and a catalyst for growth in the advancement of any industry. The importance of specialty crop research was first recognized 

by the Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act of 2004. Congress, in this legislation and 

additional legislation gave USDA direction: ‘‘Research and extension grants may be 

made under this section for the purpose of improving the efficiency, productivity, 

and profitability of specialty crop production in the United States.’’

Subsequently, the 2008 Farm Bill included key provisions which for the first time 

dedicated significant funding to address industry priorities in specialty crop research and extension. The Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) was based on 

competitive processes, required stakeholder involvement, and had already had significant impact. Unfortunately SCRI did not have mandatory funding and with the 

‘extension’ of the 2008 Farm Bill the program is no longer funded. 

However, this Committee, in passing a new farm bill has an opportunity to offer 

a brighter future to specialty crop growers. For our industry, successful research 

projects have the ability to reduce the future burden on the Federal Government 

through greater public access to healthy products, enhanced exports to growing consumer economies around the world, pest and disease resistant crops, reduced resource consumption and a variety of other beneficial applications. In order to offer 

these benefits and reach these goals, U.S. specialty crops urgently requires an enhanced commitment to research and extension activities focused on their priorities. 

We produce over 50% of the food we eat as American’s but specialty crop research 

funding is nowhere near 50% of the funding USDA spends on agricultural research. 

U.S. specialty crop producers and processors face mounting challenges to their 

economic vitality and long-term viability in a highly competitive global marketplace: 

These include high production input costs, extensive need for hand labor, new 

invasive pests and diseases, escalating regulatory demands, and unique domestic 

and international market requirements. Federal investment in research and extension addressing those challenges has not kept pace with the dynamic growth and 

needs of the nation’s specialty crop industries. These investments must be increased 

and sustained in the new farm bill. 

Nutrition Programs 

The role of investment in Federal nutrition programs cannot be overstated. This 

investment in nutrition programs can increase consumption of specialty crops such 

as fruits, vegetables, and tree nuts and benefit the specialty crop industry. 

Currently, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program reaches more than four million 

low-income elementary school children nation-wide. This program has proven to be 

highly successful by providing young students with a fresh fruit or vegetable snack 

every day at school and increases their overall consumption of a wide variety of 

fresh fruits and vegetables. This program is a WIN–WIN–WIN for agriculture and 

the produce industry, our kids and public health. 

We support a strong continued focus in the farm bill on nutrition programs and 

increasing access and availability of fruits, vegetables and tree nuts. In particular, 

we support continued priority on the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, Section 

32 commodity purchases, the Department of Defense (DOD) Fresh program for 

schools, and incentives to help low-income families purchase and consume more 

fruits and vegetables. 

Pest and Disease Programs 

The liberalization of international trade in agricultural commodities and commerce coupled with global travel has greatly increased the number of pathways for 

the movement and introduction of foreign, invasive agricultural pests and diseases. 

Economic damages from invasive pests and disease now exceeds $120 billion annually. 

The specialty crop industry continues to support expedited and aggressive actions 

by the Federal Government, in cooperation with the industry and stake holders at 

the state and local levels, to eradicate and protect the domestic market from the 

increasing threat of exotic pests and diseases entering the U.S. through international commercial shipments of products, as well as the importation of agricultural contraband by vacationing travelers and commercial smugglers. 

13

Section 10201 of the 2008 Farm Bill has provided critical funding and direction 

for innovative initiatives to identify and mitigate offshore threats, and improve pest 

detection and rapid response in the U.S., thereby also improving domestic growers’ 

ability to export product to other countries. 

It is vital that the United States maintains its responsibility for the protection 

of the nation’s food supply, our agricultural economy, and plant health. Therefore 

policies established under the 2008 Farm Bill provide the greatest opportunities for 

the reduction in risks, establish a consistent and clear communication structure, 

and provide for problem resolution with built-in accountability. We believe Congress 

should continue these important programs and build on their successes over the last 

4 years. 

International Market Access 

U.S. specialty crop growers face significant obstacles in the development of export 

markets for their commodities and unique challenges due to the perishable nature 

of our products. That is why we strongly support the continuation of two key programs that address sanitary and phytosanitary, as well as, marketing barriers to 

the export of U.S. specialty crops. Those programs are the Technical Assistance to 

Specialty Crops (TASC) and Marketing Access Promotion (MAP) programs, respectively. 

Conservation 

Today, United States consumers have affordable access to the most abundant and 

diverse food supply in the world. However, for the specialty crop industry, there continues to be mounting pressures of decreased availability of crop protection tools 

that can be used to provide the abundant and safe food supply the consumer demands. In turn, environmental regulations continue to put pressure on the industry’s ability to be competitive in a world economy. Because of these factors, Congress 

should consider assistance that encourages producers to invest in natural resource 

protection measures they might not have been able to afford without such assistance. Such programs would include EQIP, CSP, and WHIP. 

Labor 

While I realize farm labor is not in the jurisdiction of this Committee, and the 

purpose of my testimony is to address the needs of the specialty crop industry as 

it relates to the farm bill, if I don’t address my most pressing problem I will be 

doing you and me a disservice. If Congress does solve our immigration and farm 

labor situation you won’t have to worry about a specialty crop title in the farm bill 

in the future. I encourage Members of this Committee and other Members of the 

House to seriously consider the comprehensive immigration reform that will be introduced very soon. While I have used the H–2A program for my labor needs for 

the past fourteen years, the regulations, red tape, delays and legal services law suits 

have been horrendous. I hope you will give us a better guest worker program in the 

near future. 

Conclusion 

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to working with the Committee as you begin your 

consideration of the next farm bill. Many of the pressures that specialty crop producers and my farm face are similar to those of producers of other commodities—

increased regulation, high energy costs, transportation costs and input costs. However, the perishability of our crops requires that we take a different strategy and 

move our products to market quickly. It is very important that these unique characteristics be addressed through agricultural policies that drive domestic consumption, 

and expand foreign market access while investing in research, food safety, conservation and pest exclusion policies that benefit the members of the specialty crops industry. 

I ask the Committee to build on the foundation and investment of the 2008 Farm 

Bill and ensure that our important issues are appropriately addressed as you move 

forward in the development of the 2013 Farm Bill. We certainly recognize the fiscal 

constrains facing the Congress, however, the many challenges facing our industry 

will only worsen if real and adequate policy reforms are not provided through a 

farm bill that appropriately meets the needs of the broad U.S. agriculture community. 

Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Brim. Mr. Bushue? 

14

STATEMENT OF BARRY BUSHUE, VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN 

FARM BUREAU FEDERATION; PRESIDENT, OREGON FARM 

BUREAU FEDERATION, BORING, OR 

Mr. BUSHUE. Thank you, Chairman Scott, Ranking Member 

Schrader, and the Members of the Committee. Thank you for the 

opportunity to testify today on behalf of the American Farm Bureau and Oregon Farm Bureau. 

The Farm Bureau is the nation’s largest general farm organization. Today, I will speak to the importance of the farm bill to specialty crop producers. Specialty crops accounted for approximately 

17 percent of the $391 billion in U.S. agriculture cash receipts in 

2012. 

I am a horticultural producer. I grow a variety of specialty crops, 

including pumpkins, flowering baskets, strawberries, and tomatoes 

for farm-direct, you-pick, and farmers’ markets sales. In Oregon, 

we are fortunate to grow more than 240 recognized commodities. 

In 2011, Oregon ranked number one in the production of nine new 

commodities. We were ranked 2nd, 3rd, or 4th nationwide in ten 

additional commodities. Based on the value of production, 22 of the 

top 40 commodities produced in the state are specialty crops. We 

are very proud of what we do and we do it extremely well. 

In Oregon, as in other specialty crop states, the industry appreciates Congress’ recent focus on the importance of such commodities. It is our belief that a strong agricultural industry depends on 

a healthy variance of types of commodities grown, as well as production styles. 

The State Block Grants for specialty crops program is extremely 

important not only for the specialty crop producers, but also states 

that are high in specialty crop production. We would support expanding the program and the funding for research for specialty 

crops, as well as technical assistance for the United States Department of Agriculture. The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program provides funding to states to enhance the competitiveness of specialty 

crops. The 2008 Farm Bill provided the $55 million for each year 

until Fiscal Year 2012. We would like to see that program expanded in this new bill. 

Over the life of the program, USDA reports that 2,500 projects 

have been funded that benefit the specialty crop industry in all 50 

states. In Oregon, more than $6.5 million has been distributed for 

a multitude of programs. These program funds have been used for 

outreach and training on Good Agricultural Practices, GAP, programs aimed at improving food safety, traceability, and productivity. Several programs that bring more Oregon-produced fruits 

and vegetables to Oregon schools have been implemented as have 

trade, education, and marketing opportunities for the Asian market. Last, but certainly not least, pest and plant disease initiatives 

and direct retail opportunities for producers have been highlighted. 

As an industry, we recognize the budgetary constraints today 

and tomorrow and that the reauthorization of the current farm bill 

is going to be a far different bill than the 2008 legislation. I would 

urge Congress to pay particular attention to crop insurance programs, particularly the Stacked Income Protection Plan, STAX. It 

is an insurance program that is designed to provide a fiscally responsible and effective safety net for program crop farmers and 

15

growers of tomatoes, potatoes, apples, grapes, and sweet corn. It is 

designed to complement existing crop insurance programs and does 

not change any features of the existing insurance policies. If we can 

use this program to cover these five specialty crops, fruit and vegetable producers in 44 states will benefit. 

Oregon serves as a perfect example of STAX protection for these 

five specialty crops. All five rank in the state’s top 40 production 

value: potatoes at $179 million, grapes at $80 million, sweet corn 

at $32 million, apples at $20 million, and tomatoes at almost $12 

million. As an organization, we would like to cover additional fruits 

and vegetables under the STAX program in the future. 

Another farm bill program quite popular with our members is 

the Farmers’ Market Promotion Program. As you probably know, 

we have more than tripled the number of farmers’ markets in this 

country in the last decade. The mission of the program is to improve and expand domestic farmers’ markets, roadside stands, CSA 

programs, and agritourism. More than 160 farmers’ markets showcase Oregon’s bounty creating a unique connection between food 

producers and consumers. 

Farm-direct sales include farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture farm stands, and other direct-to-consumer sales. 

Annually, it is estimated that farmers’ markets contribute $50 million to Oregon’s farm sales, not least to tell the story of a vital industry with strong support from the loyal public whose members 

continue to grow. 

Last, I like to mention the importance of agritourism. In Oregon, 

we have countless pumpkin patches, strawberry festivals, and wine 

country events. Obviously, the goal of agritourism is to bring the 

public to individual operations or a group of operations for entertainment and opportunity for sales. There is also another goal, 

maybe one that can’t be measured, but certainly important, and 

that is to establish a lost connection for many with today’s farms. 

We encourage the House Agriculture Committee to continue your 

investment in our specialty crop producers and their operations. 

We look forward to working with the Committee on the development of the next farm bill, hopefully sooner rather than later. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bushue follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF BARRY BUSHUE, VICE PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FARM

BUREAU FEDERATION; PRESIDENT, OREGON FARM BUREAU FEDERATION, BORING, OR 

Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Schrader, thank you for the opportunity to 

testify on behalf of the American Farm Bureau Federation and Oregon Farm Bureau Federation. Farm Bureau is the nation’s largest general farm organization and 

is the first (and, so far, only) agricultural organization to offer a comprehensive farm 

bill proposal in 2013. I will not cover details of that proposal today, but will instead 

hit a few highlights and then focus on our thoughts on the importance of the farm 

bill to fruit and vegetable producers. Specialty crops accounted for approximately 17 

percent of the $391 billion in U.S. agriculture cash receipts in 2012. 

I am a horticultural producer. I grow a variety of specialty crops including pumpkins, flowering baskets, strawberries and tomatoes. In Oregon, we are fortunate to 

grow more than 240 commodities. In 2011, Oregon ranked number one in the production of blackberries, boysenberries, youngberries, hazelnuts, loganberries, raspberries, peppermint, Christmas trees and onions. We ranked second, third or fourth 

nationwide in snap peas, hops, garlic, pears, blueberries, sweet cherries, strawberries, green peas, cranberries and wine grapes. Based on value of production, 22 

16

of the top 40 commodities produced in the state are specialty crops. We are proud 

of what we do and we do it extremely well. 

In Oregon, as in other specialty crop states, the industry appreciates Congress’ 

recent focus on the importance of such commodities. It is our belief that a strong 

agriculture industry depends on a healthy variance on types of commodities grown 

as well as production styles. 

The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program helps to achieve that goal. In Oregon, more than $6.5 million has been distributed for a multitude of programs between 

FY 2009 and FY 2012. These program funds have been used for outreach and training on Good Agriculture Practices (GAP), programs aimed at improving food safety, 

traceability and productivity. Several programs that bring more Oregon-produced 

fruits and vegetables to Oregon schools have been implemented as have trade, education and marketing opportunities for the Asian market. Last, but certainly not 

least, pest and plant disease initiatives and direct retail opportunities for producers 

have been highlighted. 

A thriving agricultural economy benefits all Americans, and depends on a sound 

farm bill. The farm bill helps farmers and ranchers deal with the risks that threaten their ability to produce the food, fiber and fuel we all need. As the Agriculture 

Committees in Congress begin to draft a 2013 Farm Bill against a backdrop of decreasing government funding, Farm Bureau has put forward a farm bill proposal 

that is financially responsible, provides a measure of equity across crop sectors and 

helps farmers and ranchers deal with the weather and market risks they face. 

American Farm Bureau Federation policy supports strengthening crop insurance 

and offering farmers a choice of program options to complete their ‘‘safety net.’’ In 

addition, AFBF supports providing programs that encourage farmers to follow market signals rather than make planting decisions based on government payments. 

Farm Bureau also supports extending some of the programs generally ‘‘reserved’’ for 

farm program commodities to producers of fruits and vegetables. 

We developed a proposal recognizing the budgetary environment of today and tomorrow. Agriculture has been singled out by numerous Congressional leaders. 

Whether we like it or not, Congress is sending a clear message that the Federal dollars that were there in the past are simply not going to be there tomorrow. Farmers 

should not expect to receive the same level of support as they have—even as recently as 3 or 4 years ago. Our proposal recognizes that fact and makes every effort 

to try to use the limited resources we have available in the best way possible. 

Farm Bureau is a general farm organization. Individual commodity groups are obviously able to push for their own crop’s interest. Farm Bureau stretches across all 

of agriculture, and providing significantly higher benefits to one crop would mean 

that other crops would be forced to take a larger hit. We worked diligently to spend 

scarce dollars wisely and to treat farmers of various crops equitably. 

The top-level recommendations included in Farm Bureau’s proposal are:

➢ Support the lower Senate budget reduction number of $23 billion;

➢ Structure the farm bill proposal to achieve this level of cost reduction and, if 

funding is further reduced, to proportionately reduce the safety net programs 

as necessary (rather than require a total rewrite);

➢ Allow program crop producers to choose either a Stacked Income Protection 

Plan (STAX) or a target price program, on top of participation in crop insurance 

and marketing loans, as the three legs of a safety net;

➢ Establish a STAX program for all program commodities, as well as for apples, 

potatoes, tomatoes, grapes and sweet corn; and

➢ Provide a target price program for all program commodities, with the exception 

of cotton.

The Stacked Income Protection Plan (STAX) is an insurance product designed to 

provide a fiscally responsible and effective safety net for program crop farmers and 

growers of tomatoes, potatoes, apples, grapes and sweet corn. The program would 

be administered by USDA’s Risk Management Agency in a manner consistent with 

the current crop insurance delivery system. It is designed to complement existing 

crop insurance programs. It does not change any features of existing insurance policies. If we can use STAX to cover these five specialty crops, fruit and vegetable producers in 44 states will benefit. The five crops were selected based on the following 

criteria:

a. Crop insurance is currently available for the crop;

b. The crop ranks in the top 13 in value of production for the country and represents at least two percent of the country’s value of production; and

c. The crops are all grown in at least 13 states.

17

We would like to cover additional fruits and vegetables under the STAX program 

in the future. 

The STAX plan addresses revenue losses on an area-wide basis, with a county 

being the designated area of coverage. In counties lacking sufficient data, larger geographical areas such as county groupings may be necessary to preserve the integrity 

of the program. The ‘‘stacked’’ feature of the program implies that the coverage 

would sit on top of the producer’s individual crop insurance product. 

The 2008 Farm Bill was the first farm bill that included a title devoted exclusively to our sector. 

Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture and nursery crops, and floriculture. This level of productivity was accomplished on only about two percent of the country’s crop acres. 

Our other farm bill priorities that specifically relate to fruit and vegetable production include:

➢ Reauthorize and fund with mandatory money the four expired disaster programs. This includes the (a) Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), (b) Livestock 

Forage Program (LFP), (c) Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and 

Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP), and (d) Tree Assistance Program (TAP). 

Due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), many beekeepers have suffered significant losses in recent years. ELAP covers producers of aquaculture, bees, and 

other species. ELAP provides funds for losses that are not covered by other disaster programs, and USDA reports it has paid out $31 million from program 

inception. It has provided substantial assistance to beekeepers whose bees have 

suffered from CCD;

➢ TAP is equally important and provides assistance for tree death losses. Nationwide, TAP has paid nearly $14 million from program inception. TAP and ELAP 

often provide assistance to producers who may not have access to Federal crop 

insurance, and are critical in this era of widely varying weather events. The 

four disaster programs expired on Sept. 30, 2011 and permanent mandatory 

funding, as well as funding for 2011 and 2012 is critical;

➢ Mandate additional studies on insuring specialty crop producers for food safety 

and contamination-related losses;

➢ Improve the Noninsured Assistance Program (NAP). Currently, producers 

must suffer at least a 50 percent crop loss or be prevented from planting more 

than 35 percent of intended acreage to collect. For losses above those thresholds, a producer receives 55 percent of the average market price for the commodity. Allow additional coverage at 50 to 65 percent of established yield and 

100 percent of average market price. Producers would pay a premium for such 

coverage;

➢ Oppose additional payment limits and means testing on any crop insurance 

programs. This is likely to hit specialty crop producers especially hard since 

they are often producers of high-value crops;

➢ Oppose linking conservation compliance with crop insurance programs. Fruit 

and vegetable producers have little to no experience dealing with conservation 

compliance. Compliance with wetlands issues can be especially problematic; and

➢ Expand the State Block Grants for Specialty Crops program and funding for 

research for specialty crops as well as technical assistance at USDA. The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program provides funding to states to enhance the 

competiveness of specialty crops. Each of the fifty states are eligible to apply 

for these grant funds from USDA and receives the higher value of $100,000 or 

1⁄3 of one percent of the total amount of funding made available for that fiscal 

year. The 2008 Farm Bill provided the $55 million for each year until FY 2012. 

We would like to see the program expanded in this bill. The sole purpose of this 

program is to promote the competitiveness of specialty crops. Over the life of 

the program, USDA reports that 2,500 projects have been funded that benefit 

the specialty crop in all 50 states and the projects have enhanced all aspects 

of growing and marketing specialty crops including research, plant and pest 

health, food safety and production.

➢ Another farm bill program quite popular with our members is the Farmers’ 

Market Promotion Program (FMPP). As you may know, we have more than tripled the number of farmers markets in this country in the last decade. The mission of the program is to improve and expand domestic farmers’ markets, roadside stands, community-supported agriculture programs, agritourism activities, 

and other direct producer-to-consumer market opportunities.

18

➢ For the specialty crop industry, there continues to be mounting pressures of 

decreased availability of crop protection tools that can be used to provide the 

abundant and safe food supply the consumer demands. In turn, environmental 

regulations continue to put pressure on the industry’s ability to be competitive 

in a world economy. Because of these factors, Congress should consider assistance that encourages producers to invest in natural resource protection measures they might not have been able to afford without such assistance. These 

programs would include the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) 

and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

➢ We are also very supportive of Section 32 distributions. Funds are used to encourage domestic consumption of non-price supported perishable commodities 

and to re-establish farmers’ purchasing power through a variety of activities, including purchases of commodities and removal of surplus commodities from the 

marketplace for distribution to Federal nutrition assistance programs such as 

the National School Lunch Program. When specific commodities are hit hard, 

this program can immediately relieve some of the pain. According to USDA, 

they have made Section 32 specialty crop purchases of about $400 million per 

year since the 2008 Farm Bill.

We encourage the House Agriculture Committee to continue to invest in our specialty crop producers. This can be accomplished by mandating the availability of a 

STAX program for some specialty crop producers and watching for every opportunity 

to expand that program over the next few years, providing additional specialty crop 

block grant funding, improving our Farmers Market Nutrition Program and expanding the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program. We look forward to working with 

the Committee on the development of the next farm bill. 

We recognize the fiscal constraints facing Congress and the Committee, but the 

many challenges facing our industry will only worsen if real and adequate policy 

reforms are not provided through a farm bill that appropriately meets the needs of 

agriculture.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Bushue. 

The chair would like to remind Members that they will be recognized for questioning in order of seniority for Members who were 

here at the start of the hearing. After that, Members will be recognized in order of arrival. We certainly appreciate your understanding. 

This first question I have is for the panel. As many of you are 

aware, the last several years there have been advancements in food 

safety, pest management, and pesticide use through the Specialty 

Crop Research Initiative. Have any of you worked with your respectively land-grant universities in regard to the specialty crop research, and how would you rate the effectiveness of these research 

programs? 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, Congressman. I have worked with the University 

of Georgia. We probably have as many protocol test plots on my 

farm from herbicides to insecticides to all different type of research 

on disease, all different type of diseases. We probably have as 

many experimental plots on my farm as the experiment station 

does in Tipton, so we work really close with them. We think this 

is one of the most important issues for our colleges to sustain the 

research that we need to help further our ability to make a prosperous crop. 

The CHAIRMAN. Would anybody else like to comment on that? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Our company, Frey Farms, we enjoy the benefits of that research through Purdue and also the University of Illinois in the work that they do there with pest and plant disease 

mitigation on fresh market pumpkins. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, ma’am. 

Mr. BUSHUE. Many of our members work directly with our research extension service in Aurora, Oregon, which specializes in 

19

specialty crops and horticulture, and we have a very active engagement with our land-grant through that process, and many of our 

growers have plots on their own farms nearby. It has been very 

successful and very important to Oregon’s agriculture. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Mr. Brim, it is my understanding 

that Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program has worked well in Georgia since 2008. Under the Committee’s farm bill last year, the program expanded to all forms of fruits and vegetables. Can you just 

give us a brief explanation of the impacts that that change has 

from the standpoint of the policy that would be carried out? 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, sir. As you mentioned, the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program has been very effective in the State of Georgia. This 

has definitely increased the kids’ fruits and vegetable consumption, 

introducing them to a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables 

that they can eat at school, as well as at home. Once they develop 

those tastes, they will go home and start having fruits and vegetables at home as well. 

As a grower, this program has been very important to me because of the many fresh fruits and vegetables that schools typically 

serve in the programs, as we all know, they are through the canned 

fruits and vegetables and frozen. They are spending about $400 

million on the actual buying of the cans, fruits, and fresh/frozen, 

and $150 million just for the fresh fruit, which is about three percent of the budget of the Agriculture Committee in the farm bill. 

So we grow cantaloupes, green peppers, and broccoli, cucumbers, 

tomatoes are now available in all of these Georgia schools. 

To your question, the impact of last year’s policy decision was 

significantly undermined in the integrity of the program for broadly expanding the program to fruit and vegetables that already received considerable access to schools through the Section 32 Program. As you are aware, Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, which 

includes the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, sent 

a letter in December to the leadership of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees urging that the farm bill to insert the original language on the program from the 2002 Farm Bill regarding 

commodity eligibility for the FFVP. I strongly support these efforts 

and urge the Committee to move forward in this way. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. I now recognize the Ranking Member, Mr. Schrader, for 5 minutes. 

Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. 

Ms. Frey-Talley, you talked about the Market Access Program 

and, as you know, the exports seem to be of increasing importance. 

Could you talk a little bit about the importance of helping small 

farming cooperatives, small farming families reach worldwide with 

their products through the Market Access Program? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Well, obviously, that is what MAP was originally intended to do. Our company does not participate in that program, but I know that through that program, several citrus growers have benefited greatly by being able to export their products. 

And I know in the State of Florida, that has been very beneficial 

to numerous growers. And it has also been, as you suggested, very 

advantageous for smaller farming operations and allowing them to 

be able to make their products available on a global level. 

20

Mr. SCHRADER. Yes, a lot of farming operations are not all big 

agribusinesses, particularly in specialty crop areas. It is really important for us to be able to get our produce out there, and this is 

one program that works. 

Mr. Brim, could you talk a little bit about making SCRI mandatory, how important that is in the farm bill? 

Mr. BRIM. Well, yes, sir. It is very important to us and of course 

to our universities where we have applied research. And like I 

talked about a while ago on our farms, it is very important for us 

to have this funding available to them for us to be able to have the 

specialty crops that we need in our particular areas to be able to 

use this funding and through SCRI. 

Mr. SCHRADER. And Mr. Bushue, could you elaborate a little bit 

about the STAX program and the problem with a lot of the insurance programs. We don’t get direct payments, and a lot of the insurance programs don’t really fit our needs because many farms 

have multiple crops on them at any one time. Can you talk a little 

bit about the need? I know there are some amendments out there 

to modify NAP a little bit that would help, but could you talk about 

the STAX program just a little bit more? 

Mr. BUSHUE. Yes, it is designed to basically complement the current insurance programs for those crops. We chose those five hoping to expand those of course in the future. We chose those five because of the diversity of them, the breadth and depth that they 

cover across the United States. Also, they are grown in at least 13 

states and they rank in, I believe, the top two percent of production 

for those particular crops. We just think it would be an ideal opportunity as a starting place if you will to maybe make a pilot-type 

program to offset some of the loss and some of the tragedies that 

happened on farms, especially in specialty crop industry where a 

loss can be significant. 

If I could take the liberty and comment on your agribusiness, a 

large farm is generally something that is an acre bigger than 

yours. 

Mr. SCHRADER. Well said. A follow up, if I may, on immigration. 

Every one of you has indicated some interest in the immigration 

bill. I know the Chairman and I are very interested in making sure 

that whatever bill comes out works for our agricultural producers 

and our agricultural workers. Each way has been problematic, as 

you testified to. Perhaps, starting with Mr. Bushue, give us a quick 

comment, give us your opinion, on how the Gang of 8 immigration 

draft seems to shape up for American agriculture? 

Mr. BUSHUE. The Farm Bureau certainly shares the interest of 

the other two panelists today with the need for dramatic and comprehensive reform on immigration. It is critical to the agricultural 

industry. The Farm Bureau has been working very closely with the 

folks on the Hill both in the Senate and in the House hoping for 

some kind of solution soon, and we would encourage Members of 

this Committee to work with anybody that they can to make that 

happen as soon as it possibly can. Thank you. 

Mr. SCHRADER. Mr. Brim? 

Mr. BRIM. I think that agriculture is more unified right now in 

the need to have something done about immigration from the 

Southeast to Oregon to New York State. I mean it is vital that we 

21

get something done about immigration. We have gone through so 

many years. I have been in the H–2A program for 14 years and it 

is just vital to us now for us to even be able to grow in our businesses, to develop our businesses and know where this new program is going to go. I think that we have an opportunity now to 

finally get something done, and we don’t need to stop with it now. 

We need to go ahead and proceed and have something pass to help 

us with our immigration. 

And the Gang of 8 bill is a good bill. There are some good things 

in it; there are some bad things in it. I think there are a lot of 

things that we can rework, but overall, we are all united and we 

just need something done. 

Mr. SCHRADER. Ms. Frey-Talley, real quick? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Yes. I think this is a critical point in our industry and the work that the AWC has done bringing all the different sections and groups in agriculture together to reach an 

agreement for the framework for ag business and labor to come together I think it is just a really incredible and pivotal moment, and 

I would encourage Members of Congress to understand the need 

that we have and how crucial it is. Especially at a time when over 

47 million Americans receive some type of government nutritional 

support, growers are forced to walk away in certain instances and 

in states from abundant fields simply because they can’t get access 

to an adequate harvest labor force. So, they end up just giving up 

millions of dollars worth of fruits and vegetables. 

Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you very much. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. SCHRADER. I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Ms. Frey-Talley. And ladies and gentlemen, I now recognize to Mr. Denham. 

Mr. DENHAM. Thank you. In California in the Salinas Valley and 

Central Valley we have been hit with a huge amount of food safety 

concerns over the last decade or so. I am sure that you are all concerned about the pending implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which looks like it will treat strawberries the same 

as walnuts or citrus. And recently, a district court in California announced that it had found that FDA had unreasonably delayed implementation of food safety regulation and has ordered the FDA to 

agree to an implementation timetable with an activist group by 

May 20. Do you believe that it would be appropriate considering 

the complexity of the issue involving the FDA to rush through 

these regulations? If you could each talk about food safety, Mr. 

Bushue? 

Mr. BUSHUE. Any time you have a broad-based regulation that 

deals with food safety, you are going to come across some problems, 

and you have already allocated to some of them. I don’t think we 

ought to rush into any program, and the Food Safety Modernization Act, like most bills, is not perfect, but I think there needs to 

be time spent doing it correctly so that we don’t have the problems 

with strawberries that we do have with treating them the same as 

tree fruit. 

Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Brim? 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, I think food safety issue is very important. I 

think FDA’s position right now is too quick. We can’t implement 

22

this FDA rule by the 6th. I think a term for terminating and relooking at the whole bill would be advised. We as farmers, we try 

our best and do everything we possibly can food safety-wise already, so let’s get it right when we do it. Let’s don’t hurry into anything. And we certainly, as farmers, don’t want to hurt anybody, 

don’t want anybody sick. So we do everything we possibly can right 

now with food safety. So, as I say, let’s get it right before we terminate. 

Mr. DENHAM. Thank you. Ms. Frey-Talley? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Well, I, along with the rest of our industry, 

have consistently supported strong, mandatory, enforceable commodity-specific food safety practices based on the best available 

science applicable to both domestic and foreign produce. Having 

said that, I believe that it is very important to take the time necessary to allow for thoughtful comments on the proposed rules and 

allow the continued careful analysis of those rules. 

Mr. DENHAM. Thank you. And on the chemical side of things, 

pesticides, herbicides, what are the challenges facing each of you 

regarding access to fumigants for crops now that methyl bromide 

has been phased out and now that sulfuryl fluoride is being proposed as well? What are the other options? What are your concerns? What do you think could be next? 

Mr. BUSHUE. Certainly access to crop protection products, including the fumigants you have mentioned, are critical to specialty crop 

producers. Over the years, we have seen a decline in the number 

of products available to small crops because of the cost of implementation through FIFRA and the EPA. We recognize that those 

products are critical to our production needs. The lack of any kind 

of a usable, safe fumigant creates a lot of problems for rotational 

issues and especially the kind of crops that we raise on a fairly intense basis. So we would encourage anything this Committee could 

do to work through EPA to make those things happen on a much 

quicker level. 

Mr. DENHAM. Thank you. Mr. Brim? 

Mr. BRIM. I think there is an opportunity right now for you and 

our Congress to do something about the handling of the way EPA 

has handled their chemistries that they are trying to get into process. We need to be able to have new chemistries coming out on a 

regular basis because we have restrictions on resistance management. Where you are managing your chemicals in your products is 

a great tool. Some people don’t manage their chemicals and their 

products like they should so we get resistances to these chemicals 

and they are not doing us any good. So we need some help to alleviate and be able to return some of these chemistries that will be 

available to us that we can use. 

Mr. DENHAM. Thank you. And Ms. Frey-Talley, my time is getting short, but let me just ask one other quick question. On crop 

insurance we face some unique challenges in California primarily 

because we are a specialty crop state. You know, crop insurance 

doesn’t seem to provide a good risk management tool for specialty 

crops. Can you comment on that? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Yes. There is no crop insurance available to 

our company for the commodities that we grow. They are really 

outside disaster policies for hail and such. So our company, we parVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:34 Jun 03, 2013 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 I:\DOCS\113-04\80841.TXT BRIAN
23

ticipate in the NAP program. And as I am sure all of you are 

aware, that program, I would say that in the event of a complete 

crop loss, it is a beneficial program to participate in, but it is not 

as effective as some type of private insurance obviously would be 

for the fruits and vegetables that we grow. 

Mr. DENHAM. Thank you, ma’am. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now recognize the gentlelady from New Hampshire, Ms. Kuster. 

Ms. KUSTER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank 

you for hosting this hearing. Thank you all for coming. 

I had an ag roundtable in my district in western New Hampshire 

on Monday and we had a great deal of this type of discussion. It 

was very informative for a new Member coming right before markup. 

I want to continue, Ms. Frey-Talley, with the conversation you 

were just having on insurance. What would you recommend for insurance products that would be useful to the specialty crop industry? We have a lot of orchards, berries, local fruits and vegetables 

for farmers’ markets and school programs. I am curious how you 

would structure insurance products if you could rewrite them. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Well, I think that it would certainly be commodity-specific. I don’t think it would be like a one-size-fits-all. But 

with the help of United, I would be happy to get back with you on 

our suggestions on what the framework would look like for overhauling that. 

Ms. KUSTER. Do the other witnesses have any recommendations 

on specialty crop insurance? 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, ma’am. On CAT coverage and NAP coverage for 

me it is just ineffective. I would say something on a risk-based arrangement where you could at least recover your cost, not a profit 

but just a cost effect so we at least wouldn’t lose our farms because 

of a catastrophe. And a risk-based I think would work fine for that. 

Ms. KUSTER. Mr. Bushue? 

Mr. BUSHUE. I would agree with Mr. Brim. Certainly, most of the 

current insurance products do not work for me on my farm and a 

risk-management base would be much better, similar to the STAX 

program that I talked about earlier. We think that would be absolutely effective, but it does need to be crop-specific. 

Ms. KUSTER. Thank you. I will now turn to other programs mentioned, briefly, by each of you, such as school lunches and farmers’ 

markets. Could you comment on how we can encourage that growth 

in specialty crops and open up those markets further? Are there 

specific elements? I know, for example, the farmers talked about 

the EBT cards at the farmers’ markets. Are there other types of 

programs that would be helpful to expand your markets? And Mr. 

Brim, if you would like to start. 

Mr. BRIM. I think there is a great opportunity out there to expand the school lunch programs and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable 

Snack Program to all the schools and not just have it just at a 

morning session but in an afternoon session before they go home. 

Just adding funding and being available funding for this new program would be a benefit to all of us. 

Ms. KUSTER. And healthier for the kids as well. 

Mr. BRIM. That is right. 

24

Ms. KUSTER. Absolutely. 

Mr. BRIM. And take away some of obesity maybe. 

Ms. KUSTER. Well, we hope. Thank you. And definitely can make 

a big difference. 

Mr. BRIM. That is right. 

Ms. KUSTER. Finally, the comments about immigration. What 

would you recommend to change for the immigration program? You 

have talked about making sure you have a reliable workforce. Are 

there specific elements we should be looking for as the immigration 

bill comes forward? And, Ms. Frey-Talley, if you would like to start. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. I think a very strong ag guest worker program 

is critical to any type of comprehensive immigration reform bill. 

And like I had mentioned, the AWC has outlined and reached an 

agreement for those best practices. And in the current bill that the 

Senate has, we support that framework and we think that that is 

a workable solution for ag. 

Ms. KUSTER. Okay. And the other two witnesses, do you agree? 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, ma’am. I would think, though, that the Gang of 

8 that put the labor bill together, their proposals are good. There 

is still some tweaking the needs to be done but moving the program to a 3 year visa was a good thing, taking away the 50 percent 

rule. In my district, I get calls all the time because I am so active 

from farmers, and they think that they haven’t been able to effectively get the wage rate right, and that is another problem. 

Ms. KUSTER. Okay. 

Mr. BRIM. But overall, I think the cap on the visas at 112,000 

we feel like it is too low for the 1st year and especially for the third 

year. Once these blue card holders leave agriculture and we have 

to go back to the H–2A program or some kind of contractual program. And the other thing in mediation that is a nonbinding agreement with legal services, I mean if we are going to have a mediation, then it should be binding. 

Ms. KUSTER. Right. 

Mr. BRIM. Why should we have to go after we have mediated and 

they have agreed to a mediation, and then they will take us to 

court and we have to spend another $1⁄2 million on something that 

we didn’t do wrong? And it is just horrendous I think. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentlelady’s time has expired. 

Ms. KUSTER. Thank you so much. 

The CHAIRMAN. I am now going to recognize the gentleman from 

New York for 5 minutes. 

Mr. COLLINS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the witnesses. It is interesting in New York sometimes we don’t think 

about agriculture. I have the western part of New York, which is 

one of the most agricultural districts. New York has recently become the number one yogurt producer in the United States, so 

clearly dairy is a very big part of what I have. But also specialty 

crops, sometimes people don’t realize because of our unique climate 

and where we are surrounded by the Great Lakes, when it comes 

to apples, peaches, grapes, cabbage, potatoes, we are some of the 

largest producers. 

So what I would just simply state is my farmers concur with everything you have said and certainly, Ms. Frey-Talley, the specialty 

farmers agree. When I put together my agricultural roundtable, I 

25

said what is it we should be doing here on the Agriculture Committee? And they said number one, we just need a farm bill. We 

need to know what we are going to be facing the next 5 years. We 

can’t continue to go with uncertainty. So they asked, number one, 

pass the bill so we know what the rules are. Number two, obviously, immigration reform. You have to milk cows 24 hours a day, 

sometimes twice a day, sometimes three times a day so a guest 

worker program, as we have now in dairy, doesn’t work, but then 

the specialty crop farmers reminded me from the processing plant 

standpoint again it is 12 months a year; it is not 10 months a year. 

So you have confirmed much of the same thing that we have been 

hearing. 

The other thing they mentioned again was on the specialty crop 

research. We do have a land-grant university, Cornell, very well 

known, and when it comes to peaches and apples and some of the 

issues, what my farmers have said is on their own they can’t afford 

it but the research that they get and the benefit from Cornell not 

only benefits them but others. 

So I guess, a lot of the questions I had have been answered, but 

the other thing I am hearing is trade barriers, about grapes turned 

into wine. We have a lot of vineyards under Lake Ontario and they 

can’t export their wine certainly into Canada because there are 

trade barriers in getting into Canada where we have our markets 

open and they don’t, and I have talked to the Canadian trade officials about that. But I am curious more on the export side as a 

question, Ms. Frey-Talley and others. Do you export? Do you see 

barriers? I mean the biggest one I hear about on the wines is Canada, but on the export part, if we are going to grow our economy. 

And also I would like your comments on whether the lack of a 

farm bill may be stifling the growth of your farm or investment as 

you are waiting to see what the new rules are going to be? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. We do not currently export any of the products 

that we grow, pack, or ship. Maybe Mr. Brim could elaborate. 

Mr. BRIM. We do export some of our vegetables to the Caribbean 

islands but not a whole lot. With the Canadians we export to Canada, I guess that is a different country as well, so we do do that 

one, too. But we find that it is difficult, and once our product gets 

across the line, then we are defenseless in what they do with that 

product. And so we have problems with rejections that are really 

bad because of not being able to bring them back into the United 

States after they go into Mexico or into Canada. So it has created 

a problem and it ties our hands a little bit on what we can do with 

our product as well. 

Mr. BUSHUE. I don’t export directly but certainly Oregon is a 

huge exporter of specialty crops and other crops, and American 

Farm Bureau is actively engaged in the trade markets. We recognize that for the agricultural economy, we are going to have to 

open up more and more markets, and we look forward to the passage of more and more multilateral, bilateral trade agreements like 

TPP, et cetera, and we would support that. Thank you. 

Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Bushue, would you say also that the lack of a 

farm bill like this past Congress has held back expansion or 

growth? Have you heard those kind of comments from your members? 

26

Mr. BUSHUE. I think it is the concept of not knowing where we 

are going as critical right now. And certainly, whether or not I 

could point to individual examples on my farm, how it has impacted me, that becomes more of a challenge. But to the industry 

as a whole, without that future security knowing where we are 

going, obviously, it is going to impact negatively our economy and 

our ability to trade certainly. 

Mr. COLLINS. Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I yield 

back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. I now recognize the gentleman from 

California for 5 minutes. 

Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. And thank 

you very much for holding this hearing. I also want to thank the 

panel. 

I represent San Diego County, California, and also Imperial 

County. Of course, Imperial County you may be familiar with. 

There are lots of specialty crops there. It is a fantastic growing 

area. I am in contact with a lot of the farmers there. I asked them 

if there was one thing you could fix, what would it be? They all 

said immigration. Immigration. They also said the insurance policies don’t work for them either, but immigration is the biggest 

issue. And I appreciate all of your testimony here today about it. 

I want to ask you a little bit more about comprehensive immigration reform. I think on the Democratic side, we are ready to go. We 

want to do something. I come from a little different perspective, 

from a religious perspective on the issue. Certainly, it is very clearly in the Torah and throughout the Old Testament and the New 

Testament, so I am coming at it from a little different perspective, 

than from pure commerce. 

I hear now that there is this notion of radicalized immigrants. 

Have you seen any of those guys out there on your farms? 

Mr. BRIM. No, sir, I have not. We do have some problems on our 

farms——

Mr. VARGAS. Yes. 

Mr. BRIM.—but it is not from terrorism, I assure you. 

Mr. VARGAS. Okay. So it is not from immigrants—terrorizing 

anything? 

Mr. BRIM. No, sir. 

Mr. VARGAS. Okay. Can you comment a little bit more about the 

immigration? You have commented about the guest worker program. One of the things that growers mentioned a lot of time is 

that there are a number of employees that are long-time employees. These are people that have been employed for a long time, not 

guest workers, who they suspect might have an issue with immigration. 

Mr. BRIM. Well, we have been doing the H–2A program since 

1998, and we have the same people coming back each year, year 

after year. And like the Congressman a while ago said from New 

York, we are a 12 month business. We can’t do it 10 months and 

stop. And all of our employees, they keep coming back so they are 

well-trained employees. We don’t have to re-recruit and retrain 

each year. So that is very different, but we think that the H–2A 

program is very cumbersome——

Mr. VARGAS. Yes. 

27

Mr. BRIM.—and it is litigious but because we have the people 

coming back each year, and so that allows us to have a trained 

workforce because our domestic people in the United States will 

not do it. 

Mr. VARGAS. Perhaps, California maybe is a little bit different. 

In the Central Valley, there are a lot of people that work in the 

fields that are undocumented, and they are not seasonal. They live 

there. Supposedly, those would be some of the people that would 

be able to gain legal status in this country. Is that the case anywhere else? I know in California it is for a fact. 

Mr. BRIM. We have illegals in Georgia as well. I mean probably 

there are about 18 growers in the State of Georgia that do H–2A 

program, so the balance of the program is based off of illegal workers or domestic workers as well. But trying to find domestic workers, we don’t have any other opportunities. Domestic workers will 

not work on our farms. Because I am mandated to hire, I hired 

1,650 domestic workers in January through July. The end of July, 

do you know how many I had? None. 

Mr. VARGAS. I am not surprised. It happens in California all the 

time. I worked on workers’ comp there for 2 years as a Chairman 

of the Insurance Committee. He asks me one day, ‘‘Do you know 

how many people on my farm are illegal?’’ And I said, ‘‘How 

many?’’ He said all of them except for the general manager because 

I can’t get anybody else to work. It is hard work. I am not surprised. Maybe I should be but I am not. 

I am hoping that through this legislative process you will become 

active working with the wonderful gentlemen on the other side of 

the aisle. They may need convincing that this is something we 

ought to do. I think there is a great need. 

Mr. BRIM. There is definitely a need for the four of us to have 

a new immigration policy. When Georgia passed their H.B. 87 Bill, 

which destroyed our illegal portion that cost us as an ag community about $140 million. 

Mr. VARGAS. Yes. 

Mr. BRIM. So we definitely need some new regulations to be able 

to——

Mr. VARGAS. Well, God bless you. And I thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. The chair would remind people we recognize immigration is an extremely critical issue, and I know most of the 

Members here have asked the question that revolves around immigration, and you alluded to it in your opening statements as well. 

That is the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee, and so we are 

here to review horticultural priorities. We recognize that it is a key 

issue, but we want to focus on what we can do for horticulture actually in the farm bill. And again, I know most of the Members 

have asked a question that revolves around immigration. 

So with that, I recognize the gentleman from Florida. 

Mr. YOHO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you guys coming up here and talking. I been associated 

with agriculture since I was 16. I am a large animal veterinarian 

by trade and have practiced the last 30 years. I made my living on 

the south end of a northbound horse or cow, which was the fertilizer for your plants. Most of my questions have been answered 

today, and I appreciate you guys coming up here. 

28

And what I hear over and over again, it is the uncertainty that 

comes out of Congress or Washington that creates an environment 

of instability that we can’t bank on, and we have to fix that. And 

I appreciate the input you have. I did have a question on immigration but I will pass that on. 

Ms. Frey-Talley, you were talking about the block grants. What 

can we do to adjust them to make the block grants more effective 

in your opinion? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. The SCFBA has offered several suggestions 

for doing that. For example, we would like to see more timeliness 

in the announcement of funds being available to ensure that states 

had plenty of time to review their requests and states could pursue 

more grower-level projects that address grower needs, strengthening the definition of what enhances competitiveness of specialty 

crops to lower the risk of potentially controversial projects, which 

would undermine the viability of the program. 

And the SCFBA would also like to see greater consideration of 

multi-state projects, which have been a fraction of the projects 

awarded. In our operations, obviously at Frey Farms, we operate 

in several different states, but I mean we are growing the same 

commodity——

Mr. YOHO. Right. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY.—throughout those different growing regions. 

So often the specialty crop industry faces challenges that affect an 

entire commodity or an entire region. So the coordination that 

would come from states more often working together to develop 

projects would serve producers well. 

Mr. YOHO. We have a great example of that with citrus greening. 

As you well know, in Florida how it has cut our production down 

about 50 percent and it extends all the way over to California. So 

we have met with APHIS and USDA and it is good to see them 

working together. 

I am going to move on to something else and open up a can of 

worms here. And it comes down to more confusion in the marketplace and it comes from rules, regulations, and mandates. I know 

if you had to pick an agency that is the most burdensome in your 

industry, which one would it be? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Department of Labor. 

Mr. YOHO. Department of Labor? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. DOL, EPA. 

Mr. YOHO. Okay. EPA. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. I mean it would be a tossup. 

Mr. YOHO. All right. You know, because I look at these programs 

that they should be a facilitator to your business and not a 

debilitator to your business. And so often they come out with the 

regulations that just stifle us in business. I would like to get your 

thoughts on some of the—myself and Congressman Collins out of 

Georgia formed a regulatory study group to where we want to attack some of these in a nice way to get them to back off so that 

you guys aren’t under that burden because you are talking about 

the FDA and the Food Safety Act, and if I understand that right, 

it is going to put a burden on the average farmer of about $30,000–

$35,000 a year. And you have to look at the cost-benefit of that. Is 

29

it going to benefit that much more to put this kind of rules and regulations on you? What is your opinion on that? 

Mr. BRIM. I am sorry. I turned it off to turn it on. 

Mr. YOHO. You didn’t want to be recorded? 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, that is right. I couldn’t say it over the speaker. 

EPA and DOL and the FDA, they have placed so much more burdensome rules on us in the last 5 years. My cost of my business 

has gone up probably 25 percent just on government regulations. 

And I will give you a for instance just on EPA. I was going to put 

a boiler system in my greenhouse operation, and at the time, it was 

going to cost me $250,000 to put the boiler system in. Well, with 

the EPA’s regs on new boiler emission standards, it went to 

$750,000. 

Mr. YOHO. Holy mackerel. 

Mr. BRIM. So I couldn’t do it. I had to back off of it. So the regs 

and the regulations that they put on us are tremendous. 

We are all very concerned about food safety, but we think that 

the FDA has gone overboard. I am a cantaloupe grower as well and 

I think that they are fixing to come test all of our farms, and they 

are going to find something either out in the field or wherever——

Mr. YOHO. Right. 

Mr. BRIM.—but what I would like for them to do is test after we 

have packed, not in the field because we know it is in the fields. 

We know it is there. So what we need is less regulations on what 

we are doing. And with chemical companies, their regulations on 

the chemicals of being able to get chemicals out of EPA back to us 

for our disease or whatever that we are combating in our farming 

operations. 

Mr. YOHO. Well, I agree with all of what you guys have said because your role is to produce healthy food, and the American farmer has done a fantastic job and I am proud of you guys. 

Mr. BRIM. Thank you. 

Mr. BUSHUE. I think you can probably pick an acronym, but with 

regard to Farm Bureau, right now the EPA and the Endangered 

Species Act are the ones that probably drive the majority of what 

is going on. I agree with the Department of Labor and the FDA, 

but on a broader scale, especially in the Northwest, the ESA drives 

almost everything we do and costs us incredible dollars just to try 

and figure out ways to get water and the other crops that we need. 

The pesticide products that we were talking about earlier are all 

part of that ESA rolled into one. But I agree with you. 

Mr. YOHO. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. I now recognize the gentleman from California 

for 5 minutes. 

Mr. COSTA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and thank you 

to the Ranking Member and the witnesses. All of your testimony 

makes very clear why we need to reauthorize the farm bill. I was 

a part of the 2008 effort. We made tremendous gains in specialty 

crops, with the EQIP program and a host of other areas which you 

have touched upon, market access, research. These are all important gains that we must keep in the 2013 reauthorization. 

We have talked a lot about specialty crops here this morning—

but would point out that for people around the country, specialty 

crops are no more than the fruits and vegetables that are part of 

30

our healthy diet. We refer to them as specialty crops. I guess they 

are special because they are healthy and they are a good part of 

America’s diet. I think we do it better in terms of quality and yield 

than anyone in the world. 

I want to note that specialty crops, or fruits and vegetables, employ 1.3 million people directly in the country and we don’t have 

Federal program subsidies that are applied to other crops. In the 

district that Congressman LaMalfa and Denham and I represent, 

the Central Valley, the salad bowl, it is responsible for almost 400 

crops. We are very proud of 1⁄2 the nation’s fruits and vegetables 

that we are able to produce. 

I think it gets overlooked that when we talk about the farm gate 

value that the fruits and vegetables and specialty crops that we 

grow account for over $44 billion of the nation’s agricultural trade 

surplus. There are a lot of factors that I could go on to talk about. 

Fresno County, which I represent, accounts for almost $6 million 

of the farm gate. 

I want to get into some of the points that were raised here that 

are important as we try next month to bring the farm bill together. 

I hope we maintain the bipartisan support that I think is witnessed by today’s testimony and by what we did last year. 

Let me ask if there are any changes that you think we ought to 

be making in the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. Any of the 

three please answer very quickly because I have a couple of other 

questions I want to get to. 

Mr. BRIM. Yes, sir. I think that to be effective we need more 

funding for the program. 

Mr. COSTA. Any other comments? When we look at the amount 

of money that we have spent, it is a fraction of the cost of what 

we spend on the program crops. I would surmise too that we get 

a lot more bang for our buck. 

The Market Access Program again is another important part. Research is critical to our land-grant universities, and one that each 

of you touched upon that. Mr. Chairman, I also want to talk with 

this Committee on what I think is a bar that exists for some of our 

state universities. When we are marking up the bill next month, 

I hope we can address the issue because, frankly, there are a lot 

of good efforts that go on in research that are not available to our 

state universities in agricultural areas that ought to be able to participate. 

The other area I think is very important, are the efforts on pest 

detection and eradication of invasive species. California, like other 

states, have had budget cuts. Our most recent detection was the 

European grapevine moth. Over 40 percent of all the agricultural 

imports come through California. So we are in a cutting-edge area. 

Money for pest detection and eradication is absolutely essential. 

I am glad to hear some of you talk about the nutrition programs, 

these programs not only help those who are at the bottom rung of 

our socioeconomic ladder but also they help American agriculture. 

There is a good balance there. 

So when we craft that next month, we are going to have to be 

surgical. We know the farm bill is going to be less this year, in 

funding, than it was in 2008. The Senate proposal last year was 

$211⁄2 billion less. The House version out of the Committee was $35 

31

billion less. So we know we are going to take haircuts in all areas. 

We have to be smart about how we do this to ensure that we do 

our best to represent America’s agricultural producers, which still, 

as the song goes, nobody does it better, in my opinion. And I am 

a third-generation farmer. 

So, again, I want to thank all of you. I want to thank, Mr. Chairman, for this hearing. I look forward to working with all of you 

next month as we mark up the farm bill. 

The CHAIRMAN. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Illinois for 5 minutes. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I would like the Chairman’s permission to be a little less formal 

with my questioning with one of the witnesses because I have 

known Ms. Frey-Talley for a number of years and have seen what 

she has done in southern Illinois to not only become a global leader 

in specialty crops but a leader in her community and in her region. 

So without your objection, I would like to call you Sarah like I do 

every other time I see you. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Sure. 

Mr. DAVIS. Is that okay? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Sure. 

Mr. DAVIS. All right. All right. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Absolutely. 

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you. I figured after we found out that thankfully we can sleep at night knowing there is no training ground in 

Imperial County, right, and the north or south end of a cow, if I 

would have been here on time, I would have been able to ask my 

questions earlier and I might not have heard that. So I do apologize that I was late. I had to be in the chair today. 

But I read your opening testimony and we met yesterday. However, you weren’t given enough time to really tell your story. It is 

a story of success. It is a story that many folks in this building 

don’t understand because when the general public sees somebody 

sit at a table like yours and offer testimony, it is automatically assumed that you are just a big business that has been handed down 

throughout generation after generation. That is not true with you 

and I know that. And I would like you to share with this Committee a little bit about your background and how you built your 

business up. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Wow. That is probably the toughest question 

I have taken all morning. 

I actually started Frey Farms out of the back of a pickup truck 

hauling melons from southern Indiana to a small delivery route of 

independent grocery stores, and I was a teenager when I undertook 

that endeavor. And I purchased also as a teenager our small family 

farm in southern Illinois. And as I had four older brothers who 

were off to college, one by one they came home to join me in the 

business as I began to grow up through the production of specialty 

crops. As most of your probably aware, you can’t survive on 100 

acres growing corn and soybeans. So we had to find ways to diversify our business with the smaller amount of acres. 

So, like I said, as I grew the business, one by one of my brothers 

came home to join me in the business, and we started buying up 

other small farms in other states across the country. And now we 

32

grow several thousands of acres of fruits and vegetables in a multistate region. 

Mr. DAVIS. Well, thank you, Sarah, very much. You epitomize the 

American dream when it comes to agriculture. I thank you for 

what you do. 

With the rest of my time, I apologize if I am repetitive with any 

of the questions that may have been asked, but that is the problem 

of asking the questions late in the hearing. I would, however, like 

to start with you, Sarah, and move on to the other two especially 

in regard to food safety. But specifically for you, what investments 

at Frey Farms have you made to strengthen food safety? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Food safety has obviously always been a top 

priority for our company. We work with most major retailers, WalMart, Kroger, Target, so on and so forth. And in our company we 

have invested in a director of food safety that not only oversees the 

compliance within our operations, but also consults with our contract growers as well. 

Frey Farms, we are GFSI-compliant. I am not sure if you know 

what GFSI is, but GFSI is the Global Food Safety Initiative, and 

over the last year during the 2012 growing season, all of our farms 

and facilities that we operate received a superior rating with GFSI. 

So the Food Safety Modernization Act, the proposed rules that 

are coming out and the outline for that really for our industry and 

for what we are doing at Frey Farms is really not much different. 

I don’t know that there is going to be a huge change in our operation because we have been compliant over and above what the industry standards have been. But I know that there are going to be 

monetary investments that will have to be made throughout the industry to implement the new guidelines. 

Mr. DAVIS. That is the point I wanted you to make is that you 

have already been leading the way in food safety. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. Yes, sir. 

Mr. DAVIS. And your industry has, too. So thank you for your testimony. I have run out of time so I can’t ask another question, although what it would have been was what is the biggest barrier 

you have to growing your business? And feel free to answer that 

or the food safety question and then I will not get my mike turned 

on again because the Chairman will now tell me to shush. 

Mr. BRIM. Thank you. I think food safety has been our priority 

in our business. Myself went to the State of Georgia to set up a 

voluntary food safety program back 10 years ago. We have implemented those programs. We have two food safety people on staff 

that work only in food safety. We have just recently established the 

ECGA, which is the Eastern Cantaloupe Growers Association 

where we have implemented the GFSI audits for cantaloupe since 

we have had the problems with cantaloupes in the last 2 years. We 

think it is very important and we went above and beyond the GFSI 

audit with eight different other sections to implement that will 

bring our standards higher than GFSI. 

So we are very serious about it and we are hoping that all of our 

growers that grow cantaloupes will join our ECGA so that we will 

all be on the same page, and then we won’t have an opportunity 

to lose a lot of money because somebody hadn’t participated in food 

safety. 

33

Mr. BUSHUE. I am going to take the last question. I think probably the litigious regulatory framework within which we operate is 

probably the greatest barrier to us growing our business and those 

across the United States. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentlelady from Washington is recognized. 

Ms. DELBENE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks to all of 

you for being here and sharing your thoughts with us. I really appreciate it. 

I represent the northwest part of Washington, a lot of dairy and 

berry specialty crop area. I recognize how important it is to pass 

a 5 year farm bill in order to provide certainty for farmers across 

the country. So, I too, would like to thank Chairman Scott and 

Ranking Member Schrader for having this hearing today to discuss 

the incredible importance of specialty crops. 

Oftentimes, specialty crops aren’t talked about as much as traditional commodities. I have to remind folks in my neck of the woods, 

mentioned before what specialty crops are because our terminology 

is not used broadly. They are an increasingly important role in agriculture, and some estimates place specialty crops at more than 1⁄3

to 1⁄2 of the value of the U.S. farm crop production in a given year. 

I am proud to be introducing a resolution tomorrow that, with 

the support of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, will highlight 

the importance of specialty crops in the fact that priorities like 

Specialty Crop Block Grants and the Specialty Crop Research Initiative deserve full consideration and funding. 

I thank my colleagues on the Subcommittee who have already 

lent their support, and I encourage and respectfully ask others to 

continue that support, too, so that we can have a strong resolution 

out there and make a strong point on specialty crops. 

In particular, we talked a lot about the importance of the research programs. I wonder if any of you have examples of the impact of not including research funding would have, going forward, 

and on projects that you might have been involved with. I think it 

is important that we realize you can’t start and stop research very 

easily and keep projects going. So, if any of you have examples 

where that has had and impact on research, please tell us. 

Mr. BRIM. I have had an impact on SCRI. I think that we need 

to move it back to mandatory funding actually. And we have had 

research on blueberries in the State of Georgia and actually doing 

research on E. coli and Salmonella from Georgia out of open pond 

waters. So we are right at the threshold. We need to support to 

continue this. If we don’t get the support, the disease, insects, all 

the E. coli and Salmonella foodborne illnesses will be out of question as far as what we can do. So we really need to support the 

SCRI to be able to continue, and our land-grant colleges need it. 

So I would ask you to please continue your support. 

Ms. DELBENE. Thank you. 

Mr. BUSHUE. The experiment stations in Oregon have continued 

to face decreased funding. In fact, the importance of that has been 

so critical that one of our counties actually created a tax base for 

the support specifically of its experiment station. So obviously, any 

kind of funding through any kind of resolution is going to benefit 

those research stations based on both crop protection, disease protection, and frankly even some of the new various varieties in OrVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:34 Jun 03, 2013 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 I:\DOCS\113-04\80841.TXT BRIAN
34

egon and of course in the Palouse country where you are from with 

new wheat varieties. Those are all critical but not so much necessarily directed to specialty crops, but they are all important. 

Ms. DELBENE. I know from visiting with the Washington State 

University extension, there were projects planned that couldn’t be 

initiated because they had to save funding to finish existing 

projects. Some private funding has been available to keep some 

projects going, but public funding for research is important. That 

is a continuing activity and if we start research we should keep 

funding in place to the end. I think it is important to make sure 

that funding is stable and not something that we are starting and 

stopping ad hoc.

We talked a little bit about trade and competitiveness and we 

talked about your exports. When you look at competitiveness in 

your businesses, have imports had an impact? And if so, what is 

the impact on your businesses? 

Mr. BRIM. We have had some impact from imports into the country because of the—are you familiar with the tomato suspension 

rule from Mexico where they are having to price tomatoes at a certain level now? Back before that price, they were dumping into the 

United States and causing us to have a decrease in the prices and 

where it was under production cost. So we have had some experience with that and we really need to take a look at what we are 

doing but also make sure it is on an even playing field for everybody. 

Ms. DELBENE. Well, thank you. I am running out of time. Thank 

you very much for your time here today. And I yield back, Mr. 

Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. I now recognize Mr. LaMalfa for 5 

minutes, the gentleman from California. 

Mr. LAMALFA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the time 

here today. 

And first, just to dispel something I heard a little bit earlier. My 

last name sometimes gets confused for certain things, and so 

though I am a descendent of Sicilian immigrants, fourth-generation 

here, we don’t really have any ties to certain pronouncement of any 

Italian organizations that are sometimes depicted in film and like 

that. So it is LaMalfa, okay? 

So I represent far Northern California which borders Oregon, 

and one of the areas I am interested in that we hear about a lot 

with our specialty crops—well, I do like this term specialty crops 

as it has been discussed here. I will try and sell my kids on eating 

their vegetables and say, kids, eat your specialty crops, okay. 

Maybe that will push them a little closer. 

We have, as a border area in my district, what is affectionately 

known as the bug stations, the ag inspection stations, and I want 

to ask on this panel here with the Pest and Disease Management 

Program that has been in place a few years, how do you feel that 

that has helped in your area, in your industry during that time? 

Has it seen any discernible results in this time period? And what 

areas could additionally be addressed in that? 

And then the other half of my question really would be what 

more could we be doing with the vast amount of imports that seem 

to be coming into this country here as far as looking at the food 

35

safety or the pesticide especially on that? So tie all those, please, 

in on this panel here of the imports and what we already have 

going that has been in place last few years. 

And by the way, I really thought the story for Ms. Frey-Talley 

was very compelling as well, so I am really glad you are part of 

this panel here today, and I like to tease our Oregon friends there. 

We want to make sure all those undocumented bugs don’t come 

across and into California as well. So anyway, but please, on those 

topics. 

Mr. BUSHUE. Well, I will start then. Obviously, funding means 

that there are going to be more of those border inspection stations 

in northern California. We are probably not for them, especially if 

we move product into California. Sorry, being facetious. 

Mr. LAMALFA. Yes, what have you got to hide there? 

Mr. BUSHUE. Anyway, the management of pest and disease to 

our industry is critical. I am not sure when you look at the longterm of things, many of these diseases actually arise here. I mean 

we just faced a downy mildew disaster on our farm. We just threw 

away piles of impatiens. We face issues with glassy-winged sharpshooters. What are they? Glassy-winged——

Mr. LAMALFA. That is the one. 

Mr. BUSHUE. Is that what they—sharp—I can’t remember the 

exact name. But all these issues, sometimes there isn’t an answer 

for them. But with research dollars to deal with how to deal with 

them to learn how to deal with them if we do get them is critical. 

Certainly, inspection of products coming from imports, I believe I 

heard once that less than five percent of all products imported in 

the United States are actually inspected. There has got to be a way 

to improve on that. 

But importation and exportation is a two-edged sword. One of 

the challenges of importation is when a crop is brought in and the 

market is flooded and it reduces prices and available markets for 

local growers like myself, but it also provides benefits if you have 

those products available year-round, it provides benefits to the consumer and provides benefits to me as a local grower because I have 

a competitive advantage over those products when they are imported. 

Mr. LAMALFA. Well, in summary then, you feel that on the import side it has been pretty inadequate and probably places our domestically produced crops at a greater peril in the market or with 

the pests that can get in to them? And we are short of times I need 

you to be succinct. 

Mr. BUSHUE. I would just sum up by saying I think it is important to continue to improve and increase the amount of inspection 

done on imported crops. 

Mr. LAMALFA. Okay. The others, now, do you think the Pest and 

Disease Management Program has been working? Has it improved 

anything you have seen in the last few years? 

Mr. BRIM. I think that they have been working well. It needs 

some improvement on even interstate inspections from Florida to 

Georgia. We have insects and diseases coming in from hurricanes 

and they are monitoring those. And also we had what we call a 

cucurbit leaf crumple virus that came in on whiteflies from Texas 

last year they said, and they have been monitoring that and letting 

36

us know ahead of time what is happening and us to be able to be 

proactive and get on top of the disease or the insect that is causing 

the problem and allowing us to be able to manage our crops really 

helps us. 

Mr. LAMALFA. Okay. Ms. Frey-Talley, you got any? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. I would just piggyback on the level of funding. It was $71.5 million a year and I would just encourage the continuation of that. 

Mr. LAMALFA. Okay. All right. Thank you, panel. Thank you, Mr. 

Chairman. I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. I know that Mr. Schrader has another question 

that he wanted to ask, and if either of you have another question, 

we will be happy to let you ask it as well. Mr. Schrader? 

Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your indulgence. It is more of a heads-up because American agriculture 

and our specialty crops in particular face a whole new threat that 

has not been talked about or identified. In the Pacific Northwest 

we have a new pest that is called the Department of Labor that 

is now going after fresh fruit and vegetable growers using an outdated 1930s ‘‘hot goods’’ order that is frankly ignoring due process 

and making criminals or implying criminality to people who don’t 

have a chance to defend themselves. 

I would like the Mr. Bushue, who is the President of the Oregon 

Farm Bureau and Vice Chair of AFBF to talk about this new 

threat and how we are trying to get this issue resolved for specialty 

crop growers across this country. 

Mr. BUSHUE. Thank you, Congressman Schrader. I appreciate 

your efforts on behalf of Oregon’s growers and frankly the nation’s 

growers on this very important issue. 

I will make this quick. We had some blueberry growers who were 

visited by DOL. DOL arbitrarily decided that no employee could 

pick more than 50 pounds of blueberries in an hour, and if they 

did, they must be joining pick tickets with other employees. DOL 

calls them ghost employees. DOL levied a fine, I believe, it was 

$160,000 on the grower and withheld his ability to ship, pick, or 

sell those products. They also notified the purchasers of those products through what is called a ‘‘hot goods’’ order. 

Now, I am not going to get into the legalities of it, but the challenge was three-fold. One, they had made this determination without any basis in fact, without any verification that 50 pounds an 

hour was indeed a maximum. In fact, the payroll records and the 

surveys we have done and that ex-DOL staff have done determined 

that many of these employees are picking 100 to 110 pounds of 

fruit an hour. 

The final challenge was is that DOL said to the grower they 

would only release this product to be shipped and sold provided the 

grower sign an order. The order said effectively the grower could 

not challenge or appeal the DOL decision. Essentially saying, ‘‘We 

are guilty, and here is $160,000.’’ I believe it has been almost 400 

days now since the order. To our knowledge, none of the employees 

have received any of those funds because there are no ghost workers. They don’t exist. There are no records of those people ever existing, so basically, DOL has $160,000 they didn’t have before at 

the expense of Oregon growers. 

37

But the biggest challenge to this is that the DOL has not responded to requests from the Oregon Congressional Delegation, except one, including our Senators. DOL has not provided an effective 

response or answers to our questions. And thankfully, due to Congressman Schrader, we are not going to let this rest. Thank you 

very much. 

Mr. SCHRADER. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Would any of you like to ask additional questions? 

The gentleman from Florida. 

Mr. YOHO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had one more question I 

wanted to ask you guys. Your opinion of country-of-origin labeling, 

if you haven’t answered that when I stepped out, how do you stand 

on that? 

Mr. BRIM. I think that it is a good idea to have country of origin 

where it is at so people know where they are buying products from. 

Mr. YOHO. Right. 

Mr. BRIM. So I don’t think it is mandatory right now, but I think 

it is probably a good idea. 

Mr. YOHO. Okay. Yes, I have heard that. On other industries in 

ag they are not so keen on it, so I just wanted to get your opinion 

on that. Ms. Frey? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. I actually think it is a great idea. I mean we 

have been following for well over 10 years on all of our products. 

Mr. YOHO. Okay. And do you think that will facilitate you in foreign trade? You said you weren’t doing any exporting right now. Is 

that just because you haven’t developed that market? 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. We haven’t been aggressively growing our 

business due to the labor shortage. 

Mr. YOHO. Okay. 

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. So at some point when we have a solution 

there, we might export. 

Mr. YOHO. Thank you. 

Mr. BUSHUE. I was just going to say I know that it has created 

some challenges to WTO and some of the trade agreements, and we 

are recognizing that. Currently, we are very supportive of voluntary country-of-origin labeling. 

Mr. YOHO. All right. Good enough. Thank you. I yield back, Mr. 

Speaker. 

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Illinois. 

Mr. DAVIS. I do get to talk again. A question I have——

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman’s time has expired. 

Mr. DAVIS. And you said we don’t have fun here in Congress. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I would like to ask each of you starting with Sarah. As a Committee that has jurisdiction over research and research 

prioritization, what can we do to make it easier for you to work 

with our universities, with our land-grant universities like the University of Illinois that is in my district that I know Sarah has 

worked with in the past. What can we do to help make that easier 

for you to work with those institutions to better address our specialty crop issues? 

38

Ms. FREY-TALLEY. I think that there is always room for more 

education and awareness of the programs. I think one of the points 

that was brought up earlier about the research funding to make 

that more available to state universities such as U of I. But I think 

just communication. I think there are a lot of growers in the State 

of Illinois that are not aware that they have that information, 

those resources available to them, and I think that as some of the 

departments and associations started talking to each other more to 

get that information out to growers and let them know that they 

can be working with universities, their local universities and such 

that would be good like the Illinois Specialty Crop Growers Association, they could get the message out to their members and then 

also be very instrumental in identifying the specific crops in the 

state, whereas research projects would be needed and therefore 

funding provided. 

Mr. BRIM. I think there is a great need for more funding available for us and our land-grant colleges. I think it is a great opportunity for all of us to work with our land-grant colleges and I do 

already work with them but also to have input in what their research is working on. Sometimes we get things out maybe in upper 

right field and it should be down the center. So with growers participating in the projects, it allows us to have a little more input 

in what they are researching and not get way out there. 

Mr. BUSHUE. On the nuts and bolts of it, you can make sure that 

the funding is there and then you can make sure that it is actually 

appropriating the money is spent. I mean those two factors, make 

sure that they are in your farm bill and your budget, it is there, 

and then put pressure on the appropriators to make sure that they 

actually spend those dollars on the land-grant institutions. 

Mr. DAVIS. I yield back. 

The CHAIRMAN. Before we adjourn, Mr. Schrader, do you have 

any closing comments? 

Mr. SCHRADER. I do not, sir. 

The CHAIRMAN. I would like to thank all of you for coming in and 

spending time with us today. We had a good hearing. We had a tremendous number of Members here, a lot of questions, a lot of information that you provided for us. I think the one thing that this 

Committee hears over and over loud and clear is about the burden 

that the regulatory agencies are putting on your industry and other 

industries, and whatever we can do to help with that, we will in 

a bipartisan manner. 

Under the rules of the Committee, the record of today’s hearing 

will remain open for 10 calendar days to receive additional material and supplementary written responses from the witnesses to 

any questions posed by a Member. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign 

Agriculture is adjourned. Thank you. 

[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

[Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:] 

39

1 A word on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA): As Members of the Committee know 

the Food and Drug Administration came out with new regulations implementing FSMA earlier 

this year. While farm bill programs certainly should not ‘‘pay’’ to implement this law, farm bill 

programs can be useful in helping producers meet these burdens. Just as conservation programs, like EQIP, have helped livestock producers meet their environmental burdens, so to can 

programs like block grants help fruit and vegetable producers meet their FSMA obligations. 

This is especially the case as programs explore, on behalf of large groups of producers, how best 

to educate on the requirements as well as evaluate new techniques for implementation. The 

farm bill can thus be a supplement for producers as they implement this law over the next few 

years. 

SUBMITTED STATEMENT BY STEVE BARNARD, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE

OFFICER, MISSION PRODUCE COMPANY; CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, WESTERN

GROWERS ASSOCIATION

Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Schrader, and Members of the Subcommittee, 

thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony to the House Agriculture 

Committee regarding the fresh produce industry’s priorities in the new farm bill. My 

name is Steve Barnard. I am the President and CEO of Mission Produce Company, 

located in Oxnard, CA. Since I founded Mission Produce in 1983, it has since grown 

to become a global entity in the avocado and asparagus industry. In addition to 

serving as President of Mission Produce, I also currently serve as Chairman of the 

Board for Western Growers Association, an agricultural trade association 

headquartered in Irvine, California. Western Growers members are small, medium 

and large-sized businesses that produce, pack and ship almost 90 percent of fresh 

fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in California and approximately 75 percent of the 

fresh fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in Arizona. Western Growers members 

produce in—and directly contribute to the economies of—over 25 states. In total, 

Western Growers members account for nearly half of the annual fresh produce 

grown in the United States, providing American consumers with healthy, nutritious 

food. Indeed, Western Growers’ has long had the slogan: ‘‘We grow the best medicine’’. 

As the Committee knows, growers in our segment of agriculture represent nearly 

20% of all of agriculture’s cash receipts. We also account for a significant segment 

of agricultural exports. The fruit and vegetable agriculture market segment is benefiting from the call from Americans to eat healthier and we are in an exciting time. 

As a mark of how our segment has done, we are one of the few sectors within agriculture in which young people and new entrants are joining the ranks of farmers 

helping to lower the age of producers. Yet with all the market forces at play within 

our industry, events in Washington are no less exciting today and 2013 might come 

to be seen as a historic year for the specialty crop industry. This year our industry 

faces the prospect of passing two significant pieces of legislation that will help our 

short and long-term prospects: the farm bill and an immigration reform bill. 

The new farm bill provides an opportunity to provide meaningful investments in 

specialty crops to enhance the competitiveness and profitability in this strategic 

area of U.S. agriculture. I want to acknowledge the efforts of Congressional champions who have over the years worked to ensure that our industry has a ‘‘seat at 

the table’’ within the farm bill. After years of hard work, we have the opportunity 

to maintain and build upon the work that has been done. 

How the Farm Bill Enhances the Horticulture Industry’s Competitiveness 

The Specialty Crop Block Grant Program is one of the signature achievements in 

the 2008 bill and we strongly urge you to continue, and even enhance, funding for 

this innovative approach that creates a Federal-state partnership designed to enhance the competitiveness of the industry. Producers are interested in this program 

because it is responsive to our localized needs, unlike so many other Federal Government programs. As designed the program is administered by state governments 

who are able, within Federal guidelines, to tailor competitively selected projects to 

the particular concerns of specialty crop producers in each state in a timely fashion. 

The program’s design is thus very flexible. For example California has used block 

grants to fund, among many priorities, several projects at the Center for Produce 

Safety at UC Davis. These projects addressed ongoing research needs to validate 

and improve on-farm practices to continuously improve food safety. With food safety 

modernization legislation now being finalized the flexibility inherent in the block 

grants are absolutely vital.1 California is not the only beneficiary of this approach. 

In Florida block grant funding was used to develop the next generation of pesticides 

and fungicides for avocados. Work funded in Minnesota helped increase the financial 

planning skills of specialty crop growers there. Funding in Oregon has helped promote consumption of specialty crops. Funds in Georgia have helped promote and deVerDate 0ct 09 2002 09:34 Jun 03, 2013 Jkt 041481 PO 00000 Frm 00043 Fmt 6621 Sfmt 6621 I:\DOCS\113-04\80841.TXT BRIAN
40

2 Canned, frozen and dried fruits and vegetables typically make up over 97% of the fruits and vegetables purchases by USDA/AMS thru Section 32 (roughly $400 million annually), and supplied to child nutrition programs; these types of fruits and vegetables are what are already typically served in school lunch and breakfast. 

velop local producers. Finally, funding in Oklahoma developed a curriculum to educate pre-K school children about the health benefits of eating specialty crops. All 

fifty states benefit from this program, and the Senate Committee version of the 

farm bill enhances funding for this critical program. We ask that the House do the 

same. 

The Farm Bill as a way to Address Pest and Disease 

Every year growers across the country face potentially devastating outbreaks of 

destructive pests and debilitating disease. Growers in California for example face 

outbreaks of an invasive pest or plant disease on regular basis—often from foreign 

countries (California’s ports process roughly 40% of all imports). We believe it is incumbent upon the Federal Government to support outbreak prevention efforts and

the economic impact of that these events may cause. 

Fortunately, farm bill funding in the form of the Plant Pest and Disease program 

is used for early plant pest detection and surveillance, for threat identification and 

mitigation of plant pests and diseases, and for technical assistance in the development and implementation of audit-based certification systems and nursery plant 

pest risk management systems. Farm bill funding through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) is used to help develop the next generation of crops and/

or technologies that will be able to better resist threats from pests and disease. This 

one-two punch of short and medium term efforts of identification and interdiction 

combined with long-term research is critical to our industry and must be maintained in order to combat current and future threats. As this Committee knows 

SCRI funding was suspended under the terms of the budget agreement passed at 

the beginning of the year. It is vital to place this program have permanent funding. 

Ensuring that Our Nation’s Children Access Fresh Fruit and Vegetables 

The 2008 Farm Bill created a firm commitment between specialty crop growers, 

and America’s children and those less fortunate via the purchase and distribution 

of our fresh produce through the nutrition programs. Fruit and vegetable growers 

view those programs as important for both feeding our less fortunate and our nation’s children who need assistance, while at the same time benefiting our industry 

economically. Our growers are proud to be part of those efforts and we want to 

maintain the increased role that specialty crop produce has had in nutrition programs since the 2008 Farm Bill as we move forward. We therefore view the Fresh 

Fruit and Vegetable program, specialty crop purchases in section 32 and the DOD 

Fresh program as important to our interests. 

I especially want to highlight the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (FFVP) program in 

that regard. As this Committee knows, this program by providing students with a 

fresh fruit or vegetable snack every day at school, increases their consumption of 

a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, creates a healthier food environment 

at school and positively affects family eating habits. This program is especially powerful when linked with focused educational efforts and can lead children down a 

pathway toward healthy fruit and vegetable choices. FFVP is a program that fruit 

and vegetable producers can and do support. While section 32 also provides funding 

for fruits and vegetables the overwhelming proportion of that money is spent on 

canned and frozen products.2

FFVP is an important outlet for children, especially those in need with the least 

means, to consume fresh fruit and vegetables—in some cases for the only time of 

the day or week and we therefore support keeping that program focused on fresh

product. 

Immigration Reform 

No discussion of American agriculture is complete without a discussion of labor 

needs and immigration reform. While I know this issue is not directly in the jurisdiction of this Committee or the farm bill, as representatives of agriculture every 

House Agriculture Committee Member should be vocal and aggressive spokespeople 

for the critical need to address labor issues. Agricultural producers across the country want a legal and stable workforce. Not only is agriculture’s role in maintaining 

a safe and secure food supply vital to our economic recovery, it is critical to the 

strength of rural America. Western Growers members and their employees are 

members of the very communities in which they grow, pack, and sell products. Without a workable agricultural program, growers in California and across the country 

face the very real prospect of not being able to plant their crops or harvest them 

41

if planted. Consumers in turn will be faced with grocery shelves devoid of fresh 

fruits and vegetables, or if product is available it will come exclusively from far off 

lands. 

Securing a legal workforce is not a new challenge for agriculture. We’ve been 

working towards this goal for over 15 years. But Congress’ failure to pass immigration reform, combined with a diminishing labor supply, threats due to I–9 audits 

by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and now mandatory E-Verify legislation 

emerging at the state and the Federal levels, it is clear that U.S. agriculture will 

be decimated without a workable mechanism to hire and continue to employ the 

labor we need. Today in Congress, American agriculture has an opportunity to resolve this long-standing problem. 

Real, substantial, and effective immigration reform is being discussed in the halls 

of Congress. American farmers, from every region of the country, producing different 

products with very different employment structures have come together with a package of ideas. In turn, those agriculture employers have been able to negotiate a good 

faith package of reforms with agriculture labor that we believe will ensure access 

to a future workforce and allow existing labor to come out of the shadows.

• The agreement reached between the Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) 

and United Farm Workers Union (UFW) includes provisions to allow experienced but falsely documented workers to gain legal status and continue working 

in agriculture for several years before adjusting to permanent resident status.

• The agreement also includes the creation of a new agriculture visa program 

which is intended to mirror the current agriculture labor market. The program 

includes both an ‘‘at-will’’ and a ‘‘contract’’ employment option. The H–2A program has been a bureaucratic failure for many reasons, but one significant 

cause is that the program has been operated by the Department of Labor. The 

new visa program moves operation of the program to the Department of Agriculture.

While the agreement is not perfect, it represents a significant and historic 

achievement, bringing a unified agriculture industry along with the farm labor community in support of the carefully negotiated proposal. We urge the Agriculture 

Committee’s support for this landmark agricultural labor reform agreement and encourage that language representing this agreement be included in whatever the 

House passes. We need each Member of this Committee to be a strong advocate for 

agriculture and pass this agreed to language. 

Potential Growth in Crop Insurance 

Specialty crop producers across the country have become increasingly familiar 

with crop insurance and this certainly has been a hot topic during this farm bill 

debate. While fruit and vegetable producers are interested in exploring how crop insurance could be useful to our industry, we also want to ensure that changes to the 

system do not distort normal market cycles. From that perspective we want to first 

make sure that any newly developed crop insurance products ‘‘do no harm’’. Why 

do we have concerns? We are worried that ill-conceived or overly generous crop insurance products might distort market signals. In 1999 RMA authorized a watermelon program in several states—a program that had disastrous national consequences. When that program rolled out watermelon plantings and production in 

Florida and Texas increased dramatically causing the national watermelon market 

to collapse in turn adversely impacting many, including producers in California and 

Arizona. While we know that this program was not properly implemented and agency changes have been made since 1999, this example serves as a cautionary tale to 

us about how an expansion of crop insurance could lead to market distortion and 

cause a functioning market to collapse. With very tight balances between supply 

and demand, and limited shelf life, over-supply driven by a poorly designed crop insurance product is a real concern. 

Given these concerns, we are pleased that last year’s Senate version of the farm 

bill put some boundaries and speed bumps in place. The Senate bill ensures that 

when new products are developed, they are accompanied by (1) econometric modeling which could help evaluate market impacts of the new product, as well as (2) 

industry survey data to determine how much of the industry is interested in developing a product. With safeguards like these, we believe that insurance products developed in the future will not repeat failures of the past. We strongly encourage the 

House to adopt these provisions as well. 

In addition to ensuring that new products ‘‘do no harm’’, we want to see crop insurance products developed that are useful to our industry. One critical area of concern that fruit and vegetable producers would like to see is products tailored to help 

42

growers deal with food safety and quarantine issues-something crop insurance to 

date has not fully addressed. 

On behalf of Mission Produce, Western Growers, and the specialty crop industry, 

I am appreciative of this Committee’s willingness to examine the issues that affect 

us and how the farm bill might be beneficial in helping our industry thrive. We look 

forward to working with you.

Æ