By Clint Thompson
The plan to implement the Protecting Our Produce Act is for Sen. Jon Ossoff and Congressman Sanford Bishop (GA-02) to include it in the next farm bill. When that bill gets passed remains a point of contention for legislative leaders, with the elections this week.
Ossoff and Bishop voiced their concerns over the looming farm bill, which could get passed during the Lame Duck Session.
“That’s our objective, to get this included in the farm bill. Congressman Bishop and I, for the last two years, have been pushing with everything we’ve got to get a good farm bill passed. The issue is politics getting in the way; partisan politics getting in the way,” Ossoff said. “We’ve got to bring republicans and democrats together to do what’s right for Georgia agriculture. In this political environment where there’s so much division and so much hatred, that is very challenging, but it is our goal.”
Bishop added, “The needs of agricultural producers are not republican needs or democratic needs, they’re American needs. Our Georgia growers need help. It’s not a partisan issue at all,” Bishop said. “Agriculture is really regional, and it’s national when it comes to being able to feed the people in our country. We want Americans to be able to produce the food and fiber that we consume every day and then have enough to export. It’s something we’ve got to work together on.”
The bicameral bill would establish a five-year pilot program to provide support for producers of blueberry, squash, bell pepper, cucumber and asparagus when that crop’s national average market price falls below its five-year average price (reference price) if the difference is caused by unfairly priced imports.