Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue wants people who don’t like the idea of “America’s Harvest Box” to know that they are very serious about the idea. He says House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway is open to considering a small-scale pilot program in the 2018 Farm Bill.
The Secretary has faced a lot of criticism since the proposal came out last week as part of President Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget. However, Perdue and his team are defending the idea.
A Pro Ag report says they might be finding some open minds on Capitol Hill as well. “We think it’s our responsibility to create new, innovative ideas of delivering food to the people who need it,” Perdue says, “and this is one area.” During a recent tour through California, he did say there are some logistical concerns to the idea but called it “a real idea, not a sham.”
Conaway has a great deal of the House Farm Bill already written, but he’s not ruling out the idea of a pilot project in the program. A committee aide says, while Conaway is open to the idea, no decisions have been made yet. Perdue says that’s encouraging because new ideas often need to be introduced on a small scale to see if they’ll work as intended.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.