Farm Bill Delays Are Costing Central Coast Farmers - Central Coast News KION/KCBA

SALINAS, Calif. -- Farm Bill Delays Are Costing Central Coast Farmers. The U.S. Farm Bill doles out $100 billion a year to so many different things related to food, we can't begin to list them all. Now, Congress wants to cut back on funding certain areas. For the Central Coast that could mean losing funding for specialty research projects. 

Norm Groot has been at the Monterey County Farm Bureau for more than 32 years. He says every time there's a Farm Bill it's always a waiting game finished at the last minute. "Here you have something that needs to be done where the timeline is set at September 30th and they're off on their recess," said Groot.

Between $200 to $300 million of the Farm Bill goes to the Central Coast for new technology, water conservation, fertilization and pest control. "There's a lot of research dollars in there and there's a lot of dollars that help the crops that we grow here, the vegetables, the leafy greens," said Groot.

It may seem like a lot of money but 80% percent of the total bill goes to food stamps and other assistance programs for the poor, not to actual growers. So what the Central Coast ag industry does get, it wants to hang on to. "We're competing with other nations too that more and more of our food imports are coming from across the ocean now," said Groot.

With budget cuts the Senate wanted to reduce the new bill by $23 billion over the next 10 years. "That reduction looked reasonable. I think the house is maybe taking it a little bit too far and making those cuts really go to the bone," said Groot.