Legislative Updates

New USDA Grant Program Targets Agriculture Workforce Challenges

By Matt Mika

USDA has launched a program allowing up to $65 million in grants to address labor shortages, improve working conditions for foreign workers, and support lawful migration for workers traveling from Northern Central America (NCA). The Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program (FLSP Program) is open to agricultural employers who meet all Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security requirements for the H-2A program. The FLSP has three award levels based on how much employers commit to improving labor conditions through pay benefits and worker protections. The minimum award is $25,000, and the maximum is $2 million. Employers who attempt to find workers from NCA but are unsuccessful are still eligible. Any new benefits offered through this grant must be implemented for all employees in the same role.

The 2023 FLSP grant application period closes on November 28, 2023, but the USDA recommends you start the process two weeks in advance for this competitive grant. Join upcoming webinars (https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/flsp/assistance) from the USDA to learn more, or learn about the application process here: https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/flsp

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AmericanHort Joins over 220 Groups on Herbicide Letter to EPA

By Matt Mika

AmericanHort joined like-minded trade organizations in a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its recently proposed herbicide use strategy to protect endangered species. The letter highlights concern with the complexity of the proposal, the lack of compliance options for producers/applicators, the financial cost of proposed conservation practices, the anticipated harm the proposal will inflict on producers, agricultural communities, and the environment, as well as ESA and FIFRA statutory concerns with the proposal. We urged the EPA to use better data upfront as opposed to relying on overly conservative assumptions, which would help alleviate jeopardy risk concerns for species so that the agency may better work with stakeholders to develop more reasonable solutions for those species genuinely of concern.

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Pushing Back on the New Overtime Rule

By Matt Mika

AmericanHort joined the Partnership to Protect Workplace Opportunity (PPWO) and over 80 organizations representing private, public, nonprofit, and educational entities in letters to House and Senate lawmakers requesting they urge the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division to withdraw its proposed overtime pay regulations. The Department has proposed to increase the minimum salary level that an employee must receive to be exempt from federal overtime pay by an overwhelming 70 percent and has additionally proposed to increase the salary level every three years automatically. This proposal comes despite the Department updating the minimum salary level just four years ago in 2019, and the new proposed salary level is effectively 154 percent higher than the threshold in place before that 2019 update.

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House Republicans Urge Speaker to Move a Farm Bill

By Matt Mika

Sixty-one House Republicans pressed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) for speedy passage of the 2023 Farm Bill despite a grim outlook for the legislation due to limited floor time. Ahead of his election as speaker last week, Johnson circulated a priority list that included a December vote on a Farm Bill. “Begin negotiations as soon as possible” with the Senate on a final version of the bill, he wrote.

The letter was led by Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN-01), who is one of 27 Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee to sign the letter. House Agriculture Chair GT Thompson (R-PA-15) and Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK-01), the No. 2 Republican on the committee, did not sign the letter. Agriculture Committee Chair Thompson recently stated he has had good conversations with the Speaker about moving a Farm Bill this year and sees a path forward.

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National Meeting to Plot Strategy for Boxwood Tree Moth

By Michael Martin, Ph.D. and Craig Regelbrugge

The National Plant Board convened a late October meeting in Cincinnati, OH, to discuss boxwood tree moth status and next steps. Given Ohio’s central location, two areas of known BTM infestation, and great, industry-leading nurseries, Dan Kenny, the Plant Health Division Chief from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, offered to host this meeting, pulling it together in just over two months. Participants included state and federal plant protection officials, researchers, and industry.

Bennett Saunders, Michael Martin, and Craig Regelbrugge attended to provide a U.S. horticulture industry perspective. At our suggestion, Jamie Aalbers from the Canadian Nursery and Landscape Association also participated and provided a Canadian update. It is quite clear that this pest will continue to spread from the existing known infestations in New York, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts, and several eastern Canadian provinces. We emphasized that growers and regulators must determine how to live with this pest and keep boxwood a viable nursery crop and landscape plant. Meanwhile, we supported prudent measures to suppress the pest and slow its rate of spread, and enabling certification of “clean” plants.

Presenters covered the status of ongoing research and development of pest management tools. AmericanHort and the Horticultural Research Institute have directly funded and advocated for a multi-pronged research effort, which is proceeding and producing results. The long-term strategy focuses heavily on biological control; work continues on the HRI co-funded efforts to identify promising parasitoids from native habitats. Interestingly, the research community noted some parasitism by biological control agents previously introduced to control gypsy/spongy moth and predation by some native species. Cristi Palmer at IR-4 reported on the latest pesticide trial results. These trials evaluate pesticides for their efficacy and duration of control of BTM. The pesticides under evaluation include common contact and systemic pesticides currently available in the market. Data presented indicate there should be multiple pesticides with several modes of action to help control BTM.

There was much discussion regarding the challenge of developing and verifying systems approaches for plant certification. Growers already engaged in a structured systems approach program like SANC (Systems Approach to Nursery Certification) will have a smoother time implementing systems approaches for BTM. Federal and state regulators intend to have options for plant certification ready before the spring 2024 shipping season.

Meeting attendees also explored strategies for responding to spot infestations detected away from the “leading edges” of established populations. It is not likely that we will see the kind of area-wide response that we did with the gypsy/spongy moth, which threatened native forests and ecosystems as well as managed landscapes. Still, some interesting options are emerging, such as “mating disruption” using pheromone dispensers (experimental technologies not yet registered for general use). Such technologies may also have production nursery applications to mitigate risk. Watch for more updates as the BTM response effort continues.