The U.S. House of Representatives passed the long-awaited Farm Bill last week that includes help for Central Coast farmers specializing in organic crops along with cuts to food stamps. The legislation is expected to pass the Senate as soon as this week, and President Obama has said he will sign the measure.
“No piece of legislation is more important to the Central Coast’s economy than the Farm Bill,” said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, in a statement. “Today’s vote ends years of uncertainty for the agriculture community.”
The vote was 251-166 – with Farr voting with the majority – and came after two years of partisan wrangling over the farm bill’s subsidies and money allocated for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps. Instead of $40 billion in cuts advocated by the Republican-controlled House, the measure would cut food stamps by $9 billion. Back in July, the House voted for a farm bill that separated the SNAP program funding from the larger bill. The bill Wednesday restored the funding to the larger SNAP program.
According to the latest Census figures, about 9 percent of San Benito County residents use the SNAP program – or more than 6,000 people. California’s name for the SNAP program is CalFresh. For CalFresh, the bill would provide $100 million in SNAP payments to the Central Coast.
The bill also would provide $800 million to the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, $290 million for Specialty Crop Block Grants and $100 million for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development program. Specialty crops saw the largest gains in agriculture production in 2012, along with romaine, spinach and salad mix.
Still, 2013 was the driest year on record for Hollister and the county with just over 4 inches of rain the entire calendar year. Farr recently announced that farmers would be eligible to apply for federal disaster relief funds – additional dollars and aid that would be expanded in the current farm bill.
“The farm bill has programs to defer the cost of feed (for rattle ranchers),” said Val Dolcini, the state executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency, which oversees USDA farm programs and policies in the state. “It also has emergency loans (to ranchers to farmers for drought assistance).”
He said the agency is looking to open some state lands to grazing for local cattle ranchers to use, especially in San Benito County, where ranchers and farmers have been hit hard by the drought and lack enough grazing land to keep up with drought conditions.
He said he was “hopeful” the Senate would take up the bill soon.
“It (Specialty Crops Block Grant program) is a great tool for our farmers and ranchers,” he said.
