Aug. 1, 2007 — The territory stands to benefit from the U.S. Agriculture Department's block-grant funding thanks to the Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007, passed Friday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The territory is eligible to compete for $100,000-a-year grants, said Brian Modeste, an aide to Delegate Donna M. Christensen, on Wednesday. The territories were left out of a 2004 Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act that supports the block grants for farmers, Christensen said in a recent news release.
"We in the Virgin Islands see a great opportunity to increase local production of specialty crops to serve our residents and visitors," Christensen said. "Eligibility in the specialty crop block-grant funding would greatly expand our efforts to expand and enhance specialty crop production in the Virgin Islands."
The farm bill also includes a provision mandating that only certain schools would be eligible for resident-instruction grants and distance-education grants programs for U.S. territories. Institutions such as the University of the Virgin Islands had faced competition from private institutions in the past for the limited funding in the two programs. They are aimed at building capacity and academic growth in the food and agriculture sciences within the land-grant college system.
The bill also provides $2 billion in loan guarantees for the development of refineries that process renewable fuels, a key step toward bringing more renewable fuels to market in America. It includes $1.5 billion for production incentives for ethanol and biodiesel made from agricultural, forest and waste-plant materials.
The farm bill also expands nutrition programs that help 35 million low-income families, including doubling the funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program so that food banks, soup kitchens and other emergency-feeding sites have needed resources.
"It's more money for food stamps," Modeste said.
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