Spratt tours Pee Dee farms with House Agriculture chairman

Congressman John Spratt will tour several 5th District farms Wednesday, accompanied by U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota. They will meet with farmers and agribusiness representatives to discuss agriculture issues.

Spratt says the farm bill that Peterson managed to get passed in the House will do a lot:

The farm bill will apply to the USDA and the forestry program. It will bring some price supports for row crops. It will apply to conservation, and any number of things. It’s a mixed bag of different things.

Spratt says he doesn’t know if the farm bill would have passed the House without Peterson and that some lawmakers were doubtful that another farm bill could pass.

But agribusiness experts say the national budget will be a challenge to the legislation. The budget baseline for many farm bill programs has decreased since the passage of the last farm bill in 2008.

Spratt will show Peterson his district because, “I want him to see what the strawberry farmers are doing, what the cotton farmers are doing. He’ll hear firsthand the problems they’re coping with in the farm world today.”

Spratt and Peterson will visit the Player Farm in Bishopville, the Galloway Farm in Darlington and Clemson University’s Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence.