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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, March 31, 2025
The Agriculture Department has a lot of services, funding and tools for specialty crop farmers – including a new $100 million program to help producers sell their crops overseas – and the USDA wants to make sure that those farmers take advantage of them, Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small told reporters Thursday.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow expects to have $4 billion to $5 billion in new funding available to address issues with commodity programs and expand crop insurance options, she said in an exclusive interview with Agri-Pulse.
USDA is expanding and enhancing crop insurance product for fruits, vegetables and other specialty crops and considering some additional steps that could help address the sector’s priorities. But some additional funding and statutory authority may be needed in the next farm bill to make changes sought by growers, according to the Risk Management Agency.
As the costs of technologies go down and labor costs go up, farmers in all segments of agriculture see mechanization and artificial intelligence as opportunities to stay ahead. But numerous technological, regulatory and cost challenges will have to be overcome first.
Tropical storm Hilary brought high winds and flooding to farms in southern California, but fruit and vegetable growers in the impact zone say the damage could have been much worse had the storm struck just a few weeks later.
The Food Safety Modernization Act imposed new regulations on imported fruits and vegetables but appears to have had little impact on Mexican exports to the United States, according to an analysis by USDA’s Economic Research Service.
A House bill introduced Thursday would address one of the top farm bill goals for specialty crop growers by setting up a grant program to ease the cost of adopting automation in their operations.
Overall, American agricultural exports have recovered from the trade war with China that began five years ago, but many specialty crops still suffer from Chinese retaliatory tariffs.
The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are still several months away from voting on a new farm bill, but the major issues in each of the 12 titles are coming into focus even as lawmakers continue offering new proposals they’d like to see included. Here is a summary of the issues in play as well as notable proposals lawmakers would like to see included in the bill.
