The Senate Labor and Agriculture Committee unanimously approved a "Farm to School" bill to promote buying locally grown produce in the public schools Friday, after experts testified the bill had praiseworthy aims but duplicated existing programs and needed funding to be effective.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Sprauve, would create a Farm to School program with Agriculture tasked with four goals: soliciting local farmers to sell their products to the schools; developing a database of farmers, crops and harvest periods for the schools; facilitating school purchased from local farmers; and providing outreach and guidance to farmers to help them sell to the schools.
Also, the Education Department would be encouraged to buy local produce and establish a week-long "Virgin Islands-Grown for Virgin Islands Kids Week," in September or October, promoting Virgin Islands agriculture and foods to school children.
"We feel that the bill is well intended and has much potential to encourage increased production and marketing of agricultural commodities," said Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Luther Renee. "But, the department already has a semblance of the marketing initiative as proposed in the bill. The department has not done more because of limited personnel and money."
Renee offered up a short list of personnel, with salaries, and equipment which, he said would allow him to implement the bill’s mandates. In the past, programs had been set up and funded initially, only to later wither and become moribund because funding dried up, he said.
Pressed by Sen. Usie Richards on what programs were already in existence that duplicated the bill’s aims, Renee listed off each of the bill’s goals, saying the only one not already being done was a database of both farmers and products. "We don’t have a database of products, but we do have a database of farmers," he said. "So three out of four of these are already being addressed by Agriculture. The only limitations are resources and personnel to do a full-fledged program."
Kofi Boateng, assistant state director of the Cooperative Extension Service, read testimony from the service’s director praising the bill’s goals. He said some of its details, like creating a detailed crop database, would be invaluable. Farm to School programs have been very successful in thousands of school districts in 43 states, Boateng said. Boateng also raised the specter of unfunded mandates.
"If this is the route that has to be taken for the local farmers to sell their produce to the school then I wholeheartedly go along with it," he said. "However it is easier to fund the unfunded mandates which already exist and allow the marketing program which does exist to function."
Later, Boateng said funding was "noticeably missing from this Act."
In written testimony, Education Commissioner LaVerne Terry said her department supports the bill, would like to buy more local produce and finds local produce "more desirable compared to the fruits and vegetables currently being shipped into the territory." Education already buys some local produce, but to greatly increase the amount will require more predictable and consistent supply, she wrote.
"It is critical that contracted service providers be capable of providing the necessary commodities thus ensuring that the Department is able to prepare meals pursuant to U.S. Department of Agriculture Standards," she wrote.
Renee and other Agriculture officials agreed this was a major difficulty and one which they have been working to address through its new "Assess and Assist" consulting service, educational programs aimed at getting farmers to treat it as a business, and cooperative efforts with organizations like the V.I. Farmer’s Cooperative.
"We need to be working cooperatively so, for instance, not all tomatoes are coming in at once," Renee said.
As an example of small-scale ongoing efforts to do just that, Deputy Commissioner Erroll Chichester recounted a recent seminar sponsored by the Extension service on pruning mango trees to get them to produce whenever you want.
Sen. Shawn Michael Malone asked Renee how long it would take to get a Farm to Table program and all the bill’s components up and running.
"if it is funded properly, I can see this program being fully operational within a year," Renee said. Voting yea on the bill were: Malone, Richards, Sens. Craig Barshinger, Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Nereida "Nellie" O’Reilly and Sammuel Sanes. The vote was unanimous and all members were present. Sprauve, the bill’s sponsor, is not a member of this committee. Next the bill will be debated and potentially amended in the Rules and Judiciary Committee and if successful there, it will then go on to the full Senate for a final vote.
