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The bill, for instance, adds canned, frozen and dried products to the fresh fruits and vegetables offered through the existing federal school lunch program. In a victory for some California olive oil producers, among others, the bill also adds imported olive oil to the list of imported commodities that must meet domestic quality standards, if the industry ever sets up a marketing order that establishes quality standards.
The olive oil provision is targeted for elimination by an amendment, one of 228 that have been proposed.
Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., has an amendment that would replace a farm bill provision that undermines California’s cage standards for egg-laying hens, adopted by the state’s voters through Proposition 2 in 2008. The House Agriculture Committee rejected Denham’s earlier effort during mark-up of the bill.
“I have a number of concerns that still need to be addressed,” Denham said.
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., has an amendment to eliminate the $20 million Farmers Market Promotion Program. A conservative whose redrawn congressional district includes several central Sierra Nevada counties, McClintock calls the program “duplicative” and unnecessary. Last year, records show that it helped fund expansion of the West Modesto Farmers Market, as well as markets in rural Siskiyou, Plumas and Shasta counties, among other locations.
Other amendments resurrect farm bill debates going back decades.
Several lawmakers have amendments, once again, to eliminate the $200 million-a-year Market Access Program, which funds overseas advertising and marketing. The program regularly funds California organizations representing the state’s wine, almond, strawberry, walnut and raisin producers, among many others, and it just as regularly fends off congressional skeptics who try to cut off funding.
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