Clinton: Farm bill should do more for produce growers

[William769]

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says a major new 5-year farm bill should make Americans healthier by piling more vegetables onto their dinner plates.

Clinton and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio say they'll push legislation to encourage small fruit and vegetable growers to get more customers in nearby cities which often don't have affordable, easy-to-find produce.

Congress is expected to pass a new farm bill this summer. The two senators want the legislation to include measures offering loans for the creation of more farmer's markets, and more fresh food to schools, seniors, and poor families.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=6532748&nav=4QcS

[Missy M]

1. This is good.....

I hope these measures are included in the legislation. This country has to keep supporting the small fruit and vegetable growers. I love to buy my produce from the small growers in my area when they are in season. The fruits and vegetables actually taste the way they should and are delicious. Not like those cardboard, tasteless tomatoes and giant strawberries with no taste that I have to buy the rest of the year.

[Tellurian]

2. Excellent! K&R

The Family Farmer needs all the help he can get to earn a decent living and send his kids to college too!

[Missy M]

3. Yes they do and the sad part is......

they are beginning to disappear. In my area the small farms are being bought by developers and turned into sub-divisions with tract houses. The small farmers can't afford the taxes and can't seem to compete against the big corporations growing the awful, genetically altered produce. I'm not sure the children of the small, independent farmers think they can carry on and survive.

[Tellurian]

6. This is very true and a serious issue for Farm Family survival..nm

[formercia]

4. Produce is a higher value-added crop

The main problem is labor cost. I think immigration and farm worker protections needs to be addressed as well.

I grow a major percentage of the vegetables we eat and know how much work goes into it.

[Zorra]

5. A good idea, but this legislation might be far more effective if it

also allowed for subsidies to small farmers that would take their produce into an urban area. Farmer's markets won't thrive unless it is economically lucrative for the small farmer to actually get the produce to the market while also keeping the price of the produce affordable for the consumer.

Transportation costs from more rural areas into urban areas are generally prohibitive for small farmers. Growing vegetables is extremely labor intensive, time consuming, and success is dependent upon uncontrollable variables such as weather, plant diseases and insect pests. Driving to, and navigating, urban areas with a truckload of produce is in many, if not most cases, difficult, expensive, and very time consuming.

It takes money to make money. A, say two-year, subsidy could give a small farmer the opportunity to accumulate enough capital to successfully continue this type of enterprise, but IMO a loan would make it much more difficult to continue this type of operation in the longer term due to the necessity of having to pay back the loan, which would deplete accumulated capital that could make or break the farm, especially when the farmer is faced with expenses and problems caused by natural occurrences.

I grew up in a rural agricultural area, I've grown vegetables for market, and have seen many long established family farms stop production in the past 15 years because they could not possibly compete with large agricultural corporations. While I think Senators Clinton and Brown are on the right track, I'm not sure if they are aware of the reality of the difficulties faced by the small farmer when transporting produce to a farmer's market in an urban area, keeping the price of the produce affordable enough for that market, and still garnering enough profit to make it worthwhile.

We subsidize Agribusiness, why not give small farmers a break?