Measure includes retroactive funds for dairy farmers

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives gave approval Thursday to a proposed farm bill that will ultimately benefit Maine farmers.

The bill includes $3 million in retroactive payments to Maine’s dairy farmers, which will offset losses sustained by more than 400 state farms when the Northeast Dairy Compact expired and was not renewed last September.

The new farm bill maintains a nationwide price floor of $16.94 per hundredweight of milk, the same guarantee Maine farmers had under the original compact.

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 will aid older Maine residents through the continuation of the Maine Farm Share Program, said 2nd District U.S. Rep. John Baldacci, as well as by providing disaster relief funds and crop purchases for federal nutrition programs.

“This farm bill isn’t perfect, but it offers the promise of stronger farms and communities in Maine and throughout the nation. Our farmers, seniors, agriculture-related small businesses and environment will be better off because of this legislation,” Baldacci said Thursday afternoon from Washington.

The Senate will vote later this week or early next week on the measure and it is expected to pass. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe praised the bill on Sunday, saying, “It remains true to our goal of encouraging family farms and preserving dairy interests in rural parts of the Northeast.”

Although Baldacci and Snowe both would have preferred that the original compact legislation be renewed, Snowe said the new agreement “will provide the type of help farmers need.”

Last November, Snowe cast a pivotal vote that blocked further challenges of the dairy provisions in the bill.

As passed by the House, the new bill implements dairy provisions that are retroactive to Dec. 1, 2001, and they will remain in effect through Sept. 30, 2005.

The legislation targets smaller farmers, limiting payments to farms with herds producing up to 2.4 million gallons of milk annually, which is typically the equivalent of a herd of 135 to 140 cows.

Baldacci was particularly pleased that the bill included Farm Share funding, a program he worked to initiate originally. “This effort provides low-income seniors with local produce and offers family farmers another avenue for distributing their crops,” he said. The bill contains $15 million for the nationwide program.

Baldacci also noted key provisions to assist apple growers and other farmers who suffer losses as a result of weather conditions. A total of $94 million has been appropriated. Another $200 million will be directed to the national purchase of potatoes, blueberries and other specialty crops for use in the federal school lunch program.

President Bush has indicated he will sign the bill.