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California Association of Wheat Growers (CAWG)

June 15, 2007

FARM BILL.  NOW IS THE TIME.  NAWG has established an internet site to painlessly send a letter to your Congressional representatives regarding the Farm Bill, specifically regarding direct payments.  Please take a look at the previous CAWG Update (4/30/07) for detail on the direct payment.  If you have an internet connection, the NAWG site provides a quick painless method to send a message to your Representative and Senators.  Go to:  http://capwiz.com/wheatworld/home/.   

FARM BILL:  HOUSE COMMODITY TITLE OUTLINE RELEASED, MARK-UP SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 19th. 

An outline of the House’s Commodity Title was released on Thursday that proposes an increase for   target prices and loan rates, but funds them by decreasing the percentage of acreage eligible for payments; the current percentage is 85%.  The size of the proposed acreage cut is still being worked out as the CBO has not scored the options. 

• Target Price and Loan Rate.  Wheat’s target price is increased to $4.15 per bushel, an increase of 23 cents above the 2002 farm bill price, and the loan rate is increased to $2.94 per bushel, a 19-cent increase.

• Planting Prohibition.  The outline maintains the prohibition against planting fruits, vegetables and other specialty crops on subsidized land.  In response to the food processing industry in the Midwest, the outline establishes a one pilot project in Indiana under which farmers could plant a program crop one year and a specialty crop the next; likely tomatoes

• Payment Limitations.  The outline doesn’t include major changes to farm payment limits to individuals, but the issue will certainly be addressed at the full committee level. 

The proposed wheat target price and loan rate are disappointing.  NAWG is stepping up communication to members of the General Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee; especially from wheat growers with members on the Subcommittee.

AGRICULTURAL ASSISTANCE ACT OF 2007.  EXCERPTS FROM THE FSA FACT SHEET.    On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed into law the “U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007” (2007 Act). The 2007 Act provides approximately $3 billion in agricultural disaster aid for America’s farmers and ranchers. The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) will promulgate regulations to govern the programs for publication in the Federal Register. In addition, the agency will design and develop software for sign-up and payment processes.

In the coming weeks and months, USDA will develop individual fact sheets on CDP, LCP, LIP and DDAP that provide additional information about program provisions. USDA will also revise the EFCRP fact sheet. Fact sheets for ECP and MILC can be found on the FSA Web site, http://www.fsa.usda.gov; click on Find FSA Fact sheets.

Crop Disaster Program (CDP)

CDP provides benefits to farmers who suffered quantity and quality losses from natural disasters and related conditions that occurred in 2005 and 2006 and for 2007 crops if the crop was planted before Feb. 28, 2007, or in the case of prevented plantings would have been planted before Feb. 28, 2007. Producers who incurred qualifying losses in 2005, 2006 or 2007 must choose only one year to receive benefits. Producers may apply for benefits for losses to multiple crops as long as the losses occurred in the same crop year.

Only producers who obtained crop insurance coverage or coverage under the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) for the year of loss will be eligible for CDP benefits. Producers must have suffered quantity losses in excess of 35 percent to be eligible for CDP.

The payment rate is set at 42 percent of the established price. The payment quantity for quality losses will be equal to the lesser of: (1) the actual production of the crop affected by a quality loss; or (2) the quantity of expected production of the crop affected by a quality loss. The quality loss must be at least 25 percent of the value that all affected production of the crop would have had if the crop had not suffered a quality loss. Assistance, together with any crop insurance or NAP payment received for the same crop and including the value of the crop production not lost, must not exceed 95 percent of the total value of the crop absent the disaster.

Farmers may receive a maximum of $80,000 in CDP benefits. Producers eligible for CDP can also receive benefits under LIP, which is described in this fact sheet. USDA will announce and conduct sign-up for CDP as soon as possible. Producers will be able to enroll in CDP at their local FSA Service Center.

SCIENTISTS WORKING TO TACKLE ALLERGENS WITH BIOTECH.  Barry Morton, Ph.D., NAWG Director of Science and Technology

Increasingly, a large portion of our population suffers from allergies. Some of these allergies are immune system responses to proteins found in such common foods as milk, eggs, wheat, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts and soy. All known food allergens are proteins, but only a very small number of proteins are allergens.  

Biotech companies avoid using genetic material from plant foods commonly associated with allergies. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration requires that companies that use genes from a known allergenic source should assume that they will produce an allergen and perform allergenicity tests on the food product. 

Recently, biotechnology has become a tool to remove allergens from foods. Experimental rice has already been modified by removal of allergenic proteins. Research is being conducted to remove or neutralize allergenic proteins from other foods, such as peanuts. The future development of allergen-free foods will expand the choice of wholesome foods available to allergy sufferers.