Congressman John Spratt will tour several 5th District farms Wednesday, accompanied by U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota. They will meet with farmers and agribusiness representatives to discuss agriculture issues.
Spratt says the 2012 farm bill that Peterson is securing votes for in the House will do a lot:
The farm bill will apply to the USDA and the forestry program. It will bring some price supports for row crops. It will apply to conservation, and any number of things. It’s a mixed bag of different things.
Spratt says he doesn’t know if the farm bill would stand a chance without Peterson and that some lawmakers are doubtful that another farm bill will pass.
Peterson and his committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee have begun working but have taken no action on the 2012 Farm Bill which they want to pass next year. But agribusiness experts say the national budget will be a challenge to the legislation. The budget baseline for many farm bill programs has decreased since the passage of the last Farm Bill in 2008. The Farm Bill is updated every 5 years. The last one, which was to be the 2007 Farm Bill took so long to pass that it became the 2008 Farm Bill.
Spratt will show Peterson his district because, “I want him to see what the strawberry farmers are doing, what the cotton farmers are doing. He’ll hear firsthand the problems they’re coping with in the farm world today.”
Spratt and Peterson will visit the Player Farm in Bishopville, the Galloway Farm in Darlington and Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence.
