Walz Continues Fight To Give Farmers More Planting Flexibility

Says support of bipartisan Farm Flex bill builds on his success in 2008 Farm Bill

For Immediate Release
February 10, 2009

Contact: Meredith Salsbery
507-388-2149

WASHINGTON D.C. — Building on his successful push in last year’s Farm Bill to give farmers greater freedom to plant fruits and vegetables, Congressman Walz today announced he is cosponsoring the Farming Flexibility Act of 2009.

The Farming Flexibility Act of 2009 expands upon a pilot program Walz helped establish in the 2008 Farm Bill that gives farmers greater freedom to plant fruits and vegetables on their farmland. Many farmers in the Midwest are currently penalized by planting restrictions that discourage farmers from diversifying their crops. Walz said that these planting restrictions create an unnecessary cycle of reliance on federal farm program payments and make it more difficult for processing companies across the Midwest to secure a reliable supply of fruits and vegetables.

“Farm Flex is an overdue correction that will benefit family farmers and food processors,” said Walz. “Southern Minnesota’s processors need a steady supply of crops and Minnesota’s farmers want to diversify their operations. This legislation helps them both and prevents producers from being penalized for growing something other than traditional farm program crops.”

The Farm Flex bill would result in significant cost savings for the federal government, is supported by a coalition of food processors and family farmers, is consistent with free market principles, and improves World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance.

Understanding Farming Flexibility

2002 Farm Bill:
Under the 2002 Farm Bill, farmers who planted one of the big five commodity crops - corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice - automatically received “direct payments” for planting those crops. These payments were directly proportional to a farm’s base acres, which are a historical average of its planting of a commodity.

A farmer was not obligated to grow the crop to receive a direct payment for that crop, and could plant any crop except fruits and vegetables or no crop without losing these benefits. The prohibition against growing fruits and vegetables is known as the “planting restriction.”

The 2002 Farm Bill doubly penalized farmers who chose to plant fruits and vegetables on their base acreage. These farmers not only had to forfeit their direct payments for those base acres on which they planted fruits and vegetables, they also had to pay an additional penalty based on the market value of the fruits and vegetables they did plant.

Consequences of 2002 Farm Bill:
Most producers could not reduce their reliance on the farm commodity programs by rotating vegetable production onto their land and pursuing canning contracts. Processors experienced inadequate supplies of fruits and vegetables for canning.

2008 Farm Bill:
The 2008 Farm Bill slightly altered the restrictions put in place in 2002, but did not ease the duplicative financial penalties. At Representative Walz’s insistence, the Farm Bill contained a pilot planting flexibility program for fruits and vegetables that were grown for processing. Beginning in the 2009 crop year, seven Midwestern states have acreage caps allowing farmers to plant, on base acres, a limited list of fruits and vegetables grown for processing. However, the acreage caps do not cover all states and farmers who wish to plant fruits and vegetables for processing.

2009 Farming Flexibility Act:
The Farming Flexibility Act would correct the shortcomings of the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills by providing states planting flexibility for all fruits and vegetables for processing. Because vegetables grown for processing are wholly different from those grown for fresh market, it would not adversely affect fresh fruit and vegetable producers.