YOUR AD HERE »

Peterson: Horticulture more popular than ag commodities subcommittees

-The Hagstrom Report

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said Thursday that members’ preferences on what subcommittees they will join show how much agriculture has changed in recent years.

Peterson said he had a hard time getting members to sign up for the General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over commodity programs and crop insurance that cover most of the farm acreage in the country.

Democrats have more members than Republicans on the other five subcommittees, but General Farm Commodities and Risk Management will have five Democrats and five Republicans. Only three Democrats signed up to serve on that subcommittee, and he had to recruit the other two members, Peterson said.



In contrast, the Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research Subcommittee is so popular it will have 12 Democrats and nine Republicans.

Peterson noted that when the Democrats last controlled the House and as House Ag chairman he established a subcommittee with horticulture in the title, he “got grief” that he was highlighting horticultural products.


[placeholder]