Agriculture Update - April 2

SB442 by Sen. Key exempting raw farm products sold at farmers markets from the sales tax passed the Senate 34-0 and the House 95-5.  Now it’s on the Governor’s desk!  Congratulations to Delta Farm and Community who brought this issue to the Congress and worked it through the legislature.

HB1451 by Rep. Hoyt creates a Milk Stabilization Board and Fee to help dairy farmers survive periods when the wholesale price of milk drops below their production costs.  It’s funded by a small fee paid by milk producers.  It passed the House and Senate – usually a good sign – but Governor Beebe is opposed to the milk producer fee, so he asked the bill sponsor to pull the bill BACK to the House and he pledged to release one-time money from current programs intended for bio-fuels to get the milk stabilization off the ground in the next two years.  The grocery and restaurant industries opposed this bill heavily because they claimed the producer fees were really taxes on milk – but the University of Arkansas’ own study shows that milk prices will rise much higher if Arkansas few remaining dairies go out of business and all of our milk is trucked in from New Mexico.  Governor Beebe provided a short-term fix after a long-term one was reached – we’ll be back at this in 2 more years.

SB349 by Sen. Laverty to give rice farmers more of a fair voice in how their rice check-off dollars are spent on research and promotion failed to pass the Senate Agriculture Committee.