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Polk Lawmakers Work the Field for Farms

Lakeland Ledger – April 21, 2008

Agriculture, especially the type found in Florida, has often been ignored on the national level as the big grain crops get all the attention from Congress.

State Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven and a potential candidate for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture in 2010, has warned of the neglect of government on agriculture in Florida.

U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, from a family deeply involved in the agriculture industry and himself a grove owner, has now been assigned to the Congressional Conference Committee on Agriculture in which members of the House and Senate try to iron out differences in the national Farm Bill, a bill that is designed to set agricultural policies for the nation for five years.

In that bill, Putnam said, he hopes to even the playing field for farmers and growers who grow produce, fruit, citrus and nuts.

“These crops, 40 percent of American agriculture, are referred to in federal government parlance as ‘specialty crops,’ ” he said.

The general agriculture crops, which reap the benefits of subsidies and additional research are the grains, corn, wheat and rice along with soybeans,

“They get the subsidies and the extra treatment for the high-energy, consumptive ethanol,’’ Putnam said.

It is a theme that the Bartow Republican, the third-highest official in his party in the House, has reiterated many times – that ethanol from corn and other grains does not reduce energy use because of the amount needed to produce the gasoline alternative.

He has stressed the need for additional research into bio-fuels made up of all organic matter, including citrus and vegetable byproducts that do not have to be grown especially for fuel and therefore can serve two purposes.

Putnam said he also wants to persuade the conference committee members that additional help and research for specialty crops, particularly diseases, is needed.

The push fits well into his other legislation to protect the country from unsafe food coming from other nations, much of which has been stopped by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or been recalled after coming into the country.

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