By Samantha Depoy-warren
Maine's congressional delegation was divided over the 2008 U.S. farm bill, a $289 billion package that touches on a wide range of issues, from crop subsidies to broadband Internet access. Republican Sen. Susan Collins deemed it "wasteful" and voted against it last month, while fellow Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and Democratic Reps. Mike Michaud and Tom Allen helped Congress override President George W. Bush's mid-May veto of the legislation.
A clerical error recently required Congress to re-vote on the measure, but most policy watchers expect to see a repeat of Bush's veto and votes in the House and Senate to overturn that veto. That means the farm bill is close to becoming law.
But what does the 628-page amendment to previous farm bills mean for Maine? Fact is, the far-reaching farm bill includes plenty of items that should be of interest to Maine's agricultural community, from new rules on specialty produce to a change in how state-inspected meat can be sold. And according to Don Flannery, the executive director of the Presque Isle-based Maine Potato Board, Maine farmers and growers are busy strategizing to figure out how the state can reap the benefits sown by the $289 billion bill.
Not everyone, however, feels the bill attends to Maine's best interests. Sen. Collins tells Mainebiz that the Farm Bill is a "raw deal" for New England farmers. "There is a fundamental unfairness here. Why do you get subsidies if you grow rice and corn, but not potatoes and blueberries?" asks Collins. "On balance, this bill continues massive, wasteful taxpayer-funded subsidies at the expense of the average family and farmer in the Northeast."
But Marge Kilkelly, a former state senator who is now director of the non-profit Northeast States Association for Agricultural Stewardship, says this latest farm bill actually benefits Maine and the greater Northeast region well beyond what previous bills have. "It's steps ahead of where we were, say, two farm bills ago," she says.
Digging in
Of particular pride and promise for people like Flannery is a new chapter that speaks specifically to specialty crops for the first time in the farm bill's 75-year history. While the chapter doesn't extend to specialty crop farmers the massive subsidies the farm bill has famously provided to growers of commodity crops like sugar, corn and wheat, Flannery says it does authorize more than $850 million for such things as pest and disease management research. "In the potato industry, we've never gotten a lot out of the farm bill so this is the first step in getting that equity and it allows us to leverage what we are already doing," he says.
Specialty crops include fruits, vegetables and tree nuts and, according to the USDA, account for nearly one-third of the nation's crop cash receipts. In Maine, specialty crops like potatoes, blueberries and apples account for nearly all of the state's crop sales, and though it is unknown how many of those millions will come into the state over the five-year period the bill covers, farmers and agro administrators here say the state will be competitive for federal funding.
"I think Maine has a very good chance because of the uniqueness of our specialty crops, some of which, like blueberries, aren't grown anywhere else," explains Jon Olson, executive secretary of the Maine Farm Bureau. "This is an excellent first step."
And tucked among thick sections about peanuts and sugar are new inclusions that Kilkelly and Olson expect to be profitable for Mainers. Among them is a provision that would allow the inter-state sale of state inspected meat, opening many Maine meat processors up to 49 new markets. (For more on this industry, see Local flavor, May 5, 2008.) In 2007, some 600,000 pounds of meat passed the state's rigorous inspection process, but were only certified for in-state sales. When the new farm bill becomes law, that meat can be sold outside of Maine.
"The irony here is that 38 foreign countries can ship their meat into Maine, but Maine farmers cannot shop their meat to New Hampshire," Olson says. "They have the markets out there right now, they just can't provide to those markets."
The bill also includes measures to enforce regulations on softwood lumber imports, such as the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement, created in 2006. Enforcing that law ˆ which imposes taxes on Canadian lumber ˆ could make Canadian wood more expensive, and may boost sales of lumber from Maine and other U.S. states.
Economic development efforts also make an appearance in the bill, including the establishment of a Northern Border Regional Commission that will deliver roughly $30 million a year in economic and job development funding to counties in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.
The bill was written by Rep. Mike Michaud, who says if that money is doled out solely based on possible criteria like poverty levels and outmigraton, Maine would receive roughly 45% of the $30 million each year.
The commission, comprised of the four state's governors and a federal co-chair, can allocate funding to projects they feel will have the most positive economic impact.
Michaud says the commission's inclusion in the farm bill ensures that Maine's most depressed counties will get economic help in this Congress. "I am really excited about it," he says.
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