February 2019 - 7

President Donald Trump signs the 2018 Farm Bill. Photo: White House Communications
A screen capture of live video feed of the U.S. House of Representatives' vote on the
2018 farm bill. Photo: Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
Farm bill benefits specialty crop growers
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
A farm bill happens but once every
five years, so a bill made law before
Christmas was a timely present for
American specialty crop growers.
The Agriculture Improvement
Act of 2018 passed the House of
Representatives with an overwhelming
majority of 369-47 and the U.S. Senate
by 87-13 - the largest Senate majority
vote in the history of the farm bill.
Officials say many provisions in the
law will benefit growers of vegetables
and fruit.
The farm bill governs and funds
a variety of federal agriculture
programs. Many of the renewed
programs, such as the Specialty
Crop Block Grant, will continue to
support specialty crop agriculture.
Other new provisions include
language supporting research into
agricultural mechanization, beneficial
trade policies and an expanded crop
insurance program for fruit and
vegetable growers.
Mechanical labor
For instance, the bill contains
language opening the door to
mechanical harvester projects being
further supported by grants.
" First, the bill supports development
of technologies for specialty crops
in several research programs and
may be used to research mechanical
harvesters for blueberry and cherry
growers, " said Jess McCarron, a
spokeswoman for the Senate. " In
(Specialty Crop Research Initiative)
SCRI and (Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative) AFRI, the bill
allows research funding to be used to
develop new mechanization tools. In
(Agriculture Advanced Research and
Development Authority) AgARDA,
there is a priority that research
funding through the program
go to projects that support new
technologies for specialty crops. This
may include research on technology
that is used to improve producing,
harvesting, packaging, distributing or
transporting specialty crops. "
Mechanization of labor-intensive
activities such as harvesting in
strawberries and other crops could
reduce specialty crop growers' reliance
on foreign seasonal workers.
" I do think that is the intent of
See BILL, page 8
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February 2019

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