NOTE: This is the text of the letter. Recommend printing PDF letter with signatures from 36 State Departments of Agriculture.
September 25, 2007
Dear Senator:
As work continues on crafting the 2007 Farm Bill, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) writes to reiterate our support for mandatory funding for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program in the legislation. The House version of the bill provides $365 million over 5 years for the block grant that in the past has funded programs of great importance to the specialty crop industry to ensure their competitiveness now and in the future. The block grant has provided critical resources in the areas of food safety, marketing and promotion, research, agricultural education and pest and disease prevention.
We just concluded our annual meeting in Seattle, Washington, and we wanted to encourage you to continue the successful collaboration that exists in the program between the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and state departments of agriculture. State departments of agriculture are uniquely suited to provide the accountability and transparency on how the funds are expended to ensure they are being utilized in accordance with the congressional mandate upon which they were given. Not only are they subject to their own state audits in addition to federal audits but, as state agencies, their paperwork is subject to public records requests for anyone who wishes to review them. They also ensure efficiency within AMS since they will serve as the single point of contact in each state. State departments of agriculture will bear the responsibility for ensuring that recipients of funding adhere to all auditing, disclosure and information sharing that the current regulations guiding the block grant program require.
House farm bill provisions provide a base grant of $100,000 to each state with further disbursement of funds based upon each state’s value of specialty crop production. The funds must be used to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops (defined as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and nursery, floral and horticultural crops). We believe the Senate has an opportunity to determine a base minimum grant amount at a higher level that suits the needs and priorities of the various States and its specialty crop producers.
We envision States working in cooperation with their agricultural communities to direct future funding to areas that would provide the greatest overall benefits to their state citizens and specialty crop producers. We look forward to working with you in achieving those benefits.
Sincerely,
Signed by 36 State Departments of Agriculture at the conclusion of NASDA's 2007 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington