Recall that back in February, a House Agriculture Subcommittee explored issues associated with the direct marketing of specialty crops; a brief overview of that hearing is available here.
Also in February, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition took a more specific look at federal programs that are aimed at increasing low-income families’ purchasing power for fruits and vegetables.
The topics of these back-to-back hearings illustrate that lawmakers are paying acute attention to the emerging sector of specialty agriculture and that some policy ideas can serve multiple goals simultaneously: The direct marketing of specialty crops, tied with federal incentives to consume them, can serve a dual public interest aim of reducing hunger and improving nutrition for low income households, while adding support to local farmers.
This week, the USDA indicated in a tweet that, “The # of SNAP-authorized farmers, roadside farm stands & farmers markets accepting SNAP have grown dramatically!”
