Farmers Market Subsidies Appear Destined to Be Uprooted

The people of North Berwick, Maine, are not accustomed to getting federal farm subsidies. But then the government started paying farmer David Tuttle last year to give some of his tomatoes, strawberries and other produce to 200 senior citizens in the area.

“You can’t imagine what a joy that was to me,” said Alice Eaton, who received $200 worth of produce, including several bushels of tomatoes and string beans. “I had all that beautiful stuff all summer and I’ve enjoyed it all winter long, frozen and canned.”

The Bush administration now wants to abolish such subsidies, which allow poor pregnant women and new mothers as well as low-income elderly people to buy produce at farmers markets and fruit stands.

The administration, which is pushing Congress to expand eligibility for food stamps, believes the farmers market program provides too little help to too few people.

Last year, the 2.7 million people who participated in it received an average of just $12 worth of fruits and vegetables per person.

Eric Bost, the Agriculture Department’s undersecretary for food and nutrition services, told a congressional committee recently he would be “happy as a peach” if lawmakers continued paying for the program.

But he said the government needed to focus its spending on “broad-based, more universally established” programs. “We accept the need and responsibility for making tough choices,” he said.

The administration included no money for the program in the Agriculture Department’s 2003 budget and has resisted increasing spending to meet demand this year.

Several states that participated last year, including Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey, are not expected to get any money for the portion of the program that benefits senior citizens.

The produce subsidies, however, are popular with many lawmakers, especially those from outside the grain and cotton states that traditionally have dominated federal farm spending. Virtually all of the $20 billion in direct farm payments the government made last year went to producers of corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans.

The farmers market program “is the difference between a small specialty farmer near an urban area being able to stay in business or not,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).

The subsidies started in 1989 as a pilot program that allowed participants in the department’s Women, Infants and Children nutrition program to buy produce at farmers markets.

Last year, the program was expanded to subsidize purchases by senior citizens. This subsidy would become permanent under bills passed by the House and Senate to reauthorize agriculture and nutrition programs.

The average purchases under the program are low because many of the beneficiaries lack the transportation to get to farmers markets, said Zy Weinberg, director of the National Assn. of Farmers Market Nutrition Programs, an organization that represents state and tribal agencies.

“We’re very concerned about increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income people. These programs, as small as they are, do provide that opportunity,” he said.

Tuttle, the Maine farmer, received $20,000 through the program last year after signing up Eaton and 200 others who agreed to take his produce.

Although the money represented just 5% of his revenue last year, the cash came at just the right time, in the spring, to help cover the cost of planting his crops, he said. He hopes to add 50 more people this year.

At the end of the season, Tuttle must provide the state an accounting of how much food he distributed.

“The senior citizens win and the farmers win. I love programs where the taxpayers’ money is just doing so much good,” he said.

About 14,600 farmers participated in the program nationwide last year.