A press release issued by the office of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, hailed the agreement as a bipartisan, bicameral agreement. Stabenow said the five-year Farm Bill would reduce the deficit and help farmers and business create jobs in agriculture, while eliminating the direct payment subsidy program, streamlining and consolidating other programs, and cracking down on fraud and misuse.
“This bill proves that by working across party lines we can save taxpayer money while at the same time strengthening efforts helping to create jobs,” she said. “Agriculture has been a bright spot in our economy and is helping to drive our country’s economic recovery.”
The agreement is expected to result in an $800-million annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps.
Food-safety talking points in the “Agricultural Act of 2014″ include:
A modified version of the Benishek Amendment: The bill calls for scientific and economic analysis of the produce safety rule issued under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), along with a plan to systematically evaluate the impact of the final rule on farming and ranching operations and evaluate and respond to business concerns. This final version eliminated the House provision prohibiting enforcement of the regulation and now simply requires that an analysis of the information used in promulgating the rule be released alongside the final rule.
No King Amendment: The proposal to forbid states from imposing their own higher standards or conditions on food produced or manufactured in another state did not survive negotiations.
No significant changes to country-of-origin labeling (COOL) requirements: It does apply regulations to venison and calls for an economic analysis of the final rule, which was adopted from the House provision.
The “Comprehensive Food Safety Training Network”: A grant would be awarded to an institution “for purposes of establishing an internationally integrated training system to enhance the protection of the food supply in the United States, to be known as the ‘Comprehensive Food Safety Training Network.’”
