North Carolina's Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler says that it's good to see increased funding for specialty crop block grans and programs to fight invasive plant pests remain funded in the Senate version of the 2012 farm bill. The bill also continues funding for federal programs that help promote agricultural trade. These programs have been beneficial to North Carolina farmers and food businesses.
The US House is expected to take up their farm bill negotiations on July 11, and the conference committee could begin work to resolve differences in August.
Commissioner Troxler sees a couple of areas of disagreement which are likely to be commodity programs and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
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