For information or to sign up for a irrigation license exam training class March 8 & 9, click this link: License Exam Training Class

Make plans to attend the March 17 PAC Fundraiser in Asheville. See the details in the invitation below and use the registration form to attend or donate to the PAC!

ASHEVILLE PAC INVITATION

ASHEVILLE PAC REGISTRATION FORM

 
Friday, February 26th 1:00-3:00pm Wilson, NC 
Wilson Agricultural Center 1806 SW Goldsboro St.
http://wilson.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=contact directions

Tuesday, March 2 11-12 pm Pinehurst, NC
Moore Co. Agricultural Center, 707 Pinehurst Ave. Carthage, NC 910-947-3188;
 http://moore.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=contactHYPERLINK “http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=34222176&msgid=358430&act=LYD6&c=524530&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fmaps.yahoo.com%2Fmap”

 Monday, March 15 1-3 pm Wilmington, NC
New Hanover Arboretum Auditorium, New Hanover Co. Extension
6202 Oleander Dr. Wilmington, NC 28403
http://newhanover.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=contact directions

Thursday, March 18 6:30-8:30 pm
Bo Thomas Auditorium - Blue Ridge Community College
180 West Campus Dr. Flat Rock, NC
http://www.blueridge.edu/about_brcc/map2campus.php directions

Blue Ridge Community College is a tobacco free campus

Click this link for the Feb. newsletter: http://ncgreenindustrycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/feb-newsletter.htm

________________________________________
February 12, 2010

New Guest-Worker Rules Seek to Increase Wages
By JULIA PRESTON

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced new rules on Thursday for the temporary immigrant farm workers program, saying they would raise wages and strengthen labor protections for foreign and American workers.
Under the new rules, growers will no longer be able to attest that they tried to find American workers to fill jobs given to migrants, but will have to prove they conducted job searches. The Labor Department will establish a national electronic registry of farm jobs to assist the effort.
American farm worker organizations hailed the changes, but growers’ groups said they would be costly and could be prohibitively cumbersome for many farmers, particularly smaller producers.
Growers “are just beside themselves that these rules keep changing; it just makes it impossible,” said Craig Regelbrugge, a spokesman for the American Nursery and Landscape Association.

Many of the new measures restore previous procedures for the program, known as H-2A for the type of visa that foreign workers receive, after the rules were changed in the last days of the Bush administration. Farm worker organizations strongly objected to those changes, arguing they had rapidly lowered wages for American agricultural laborers.
Labor officials said Thursday that the method of calculating wages for temporary foreign workers introduced by the Bush administration had reduced farm workers’ wages by an average of a dollar an hour in the year they were in effect. The new rules, which take effect on March 15, revert to the prior method for setting wages.
“The major change is that we are asking employers to prioritize those American workers that might be available,” Ms. Solis said. “And we are trying to make it realistic in terms of wages that can be earned by the farm workers that are currently out in the fields.”
The rules restore the role of state workforce agencies in carrying out inspections of farms seeking temporary foreign workers, including mandatory inspection of the housing that employers are required to provide.
“We are very grateful to Secretary Solis for her willingness to spend the time and resources to ensure that the most vulnerable workers are protected,” said Bruce Goldstein, executive director of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy group in Washington.
In California, growers said that new restrictions on the jobs guest workers in the program could perform were too inflexible for the rapidly changing conditions of agriculture. “I am not optimistic that any significant numbers of growers are going to be able to use this program,” said Bryan Little, Director of Labor Affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation.
The new rules require growers to provide contracts to foreign guest workers before they leave their home countries, to protect against abuse by recruiters.

While the Department of Homeland Security runs the program, the Labor Department approves growers’ requests for foreign workers. In 2009, labor officials said, the department approved 94 percent of the applications growers submitted for H-2A workers, bringing 86,014 foreign migrants to the United States.
The program supplies only a fraction of the about one million farm workers in the United States. At least half of those workers are illegal immigrants, labor officials have estimated, with many farm employers hiring those immigrants instead of dealing with the slow-moving guest worker process.
While sharply divided over the new rules, growers and farm workers agreed that the Obama administration should press Congress to pass legislation overhauling the immigration system. Most versions of that legislation include a bill that creates a new guest worker program that all sides in agriculture have long supported.

NCFB National Legislative Update
Jake Parker, National Legislative Director
Friday, February 12, 2010

Record snowfalls in the Washington metro area almost shut down Congress for the entire week. As a result, the U.S. House cancelled its legislative work week; however, the Senate met for a couple of days to debate executive branch nominations. Neither chamber will be in session next week as members of the House and Senate return to their states and districts for the Presidents Day district work period. Congress will come back to Washington during the week of February 23rd. Despite the snow, the Senate did some preliminary work on a jobs creation package (a.k.a. an economic stimulus bill). As you may recall, the House passed a $150 billion jobs bill before leaving Washington for the Christmas and New Years holidays. Yesterday, the Democrat and Republican leaders of the Senate Finance Committee announced a bipartisan agreement on an $85 billion jobs and tax cut bill, only to have that bill pushed aside for a very narrow $15 million jobs bill, which is focused on “immediate job creation.” This slimmed down jobs bill was proposed by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and it is likely to be the main economic stimulus package debated in the Senate when the chamber returns to Washington after the district work period. According to Capitol Hill based news reports, Senate Finance Committee members were surprised by Reid’s decision to back a smaller stimulus package, especially because he had earlier expressed support for the bipartisan Finance Committee proposal. One Finance Committee member in particular, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), the Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, expressed her concerns about Reid’s decision. Specifically, she said that Reid needed to include her ad hoc agriculture disaster proposal in the jobs bill. Lincoln’s bill would provide approximately $1.5 billion in assistance to farmers across the country. The vast majority of those dollars would be direct payments to producers in “primary” disaster counties as determined by USDA. The remainder would provide funds to aquaculture, livestock, poultry, and specialty crop producers. First handlers of cotton could also receive disaster assistance under Lincoln’s bill. It’s not clear whether Lincoln’s bill will move in the Senate, but it is very important to remember that according to many political experts she is the most vulnerable Democratic Senator in the nation this election cycle. My gut tells me the Democratic leadership will try to help her anyway they can. Stay tuned.

That’s all for this week. I’ll be in touch with you at the end of the week of February 23rd.

Jake Parker
National Legislative Director
North Carolina Farm Bureau
PO Box 27766
Raleigh, NC 27611
(919) 788-1054 (direct)
(919) 783-3593 (fax)

Information Regarding an Increase in N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services-Plant Industry Division

Nursery Certification Fees

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS)-Plant Industry Division is the lead state agency for the registration and certification of nurseries.  This regulatory program ensures that nursery stock produced in this state meets both state and federal quarantine requirements for intrastate and interstate shipment.  As defined, nurseries are those locations where nursery stock is grown for distribution or sale.  Nursery stock includes all wild or cultivated plants, including trees, shrubs, vines, bulbous plants and roots.  Excluded from this definition are annual plants, cut flowers, and tree, field, vegetable, flower and other true seed.

The fees associated with the Nursery Certification Rules have not been changed in over 20 years.  After review and consideration, the NCDA&CS-Plant Industry Division has implemented a fee increase effective October 1, 2009, in part to meet a budget deficient and to ensure North Carolina’s fees are in step with other states.  The proposed fee increases will require final approval by the N.C. Board of Agriculture.

The following increases were implemented October 1, 2009:

Nursery Type                                                            Current Fee                 New Fee

1. Certified Nursery (Any nursery that is

       one acre in size or more or that produces

and distributes/sells nursery stock outside

the state).

            First acre or fraction                             $10.00                    $100.00

            Each additional acre                              $2/acre                  $ 3/acre

1. Registered Nursery (Any nursery that is

less than one acre in size that produces, but

does not distribute or sell nursery stock

outside the state).                                                 $6.00                       $20.00

The fee for a collected plant certificate issued by NCDA&CS is also proposed to increase from $1.00 to $20.00.  Those individuals who dig or gather collected plants shall be required to possess a collected plant certificate.

There is no proposed fee increase for Nursery Dealers.  Nursery Dealers include those individuals or businesses who maintain no regular nursery, but handle nursery stock grown in regularly certified or registered nurseries.  The Nursery Dealer fee was updated in 2004 and will remain at $50.00.

Should you need additional information regarding these proposed changes, please contact Dr. Stephen Schmidt, Plant Pest Administrator, NCDA&CS-Plant Industry Division at Stephen.Schmidt@ncagr.gov or 919-733-6932.

NCFB National Legislative Update
Jake Parker
National Legislative Director

Friday, February 05, 2010 

This week’s NCFB national legislative update covers three issues: 1) President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget, 2) the U.S. Senate negotiations of a “jobs” bill, and 3) the U.S. House’s passage of legislation that would raise the federal statutory debt limit.   

1.  Obama’s FY2011 Budget Would Re-open Farm Bill, Reduce Payment Limit

On Monday, President Obama released his administration’s budget blue print for the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1^st.  Overall, the budget projects that the U.S. government will spend $3.8 trillion in FY2011.  As you know, the President’s budget is merely a proposal, and Congress is ultimately responsible under the Constitution for appropriating funds to operate the government.  Therefore, many of the proposals offered will not become law.  However, some may be enacted so it’s worth mentioning of a few of the ones that could impact North Carolina farm families. 

First, the President proposed significant increases in nutrition funding.  Specifically, the budget proposal outlined $8.1 billion in discretionary funds (recall these are funds designated by Congress for specific programs) for the Womens, Infants and Childrens (WIC) Program, which is up $400 million from FY2010.  It would also provide $10 billion for the reauthorization of the child nutrition program.   

Second, the proposal would reduce the cap on direct payments for commodity programs by 25 percent and reduce the payment limit eligibility level by $250,000 (for both non-farm and farm income).  Thus, the direct payment cap would drop from $40,000 to $30,000 and the payment limits for non-farm income would go from $500,000 to $250,000 and the payment limits for on-farm income would be reduced from $750,000 to $500,000.  It would also cut crop insurance subsidies by $8 billion.   

Third, the proposal would provide the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) $10 billion to carry out its regulatory agenda.  According to the budget summary, this funding amount is “a substantially higher amount than request under any previous administration.”  Of course these funds will be used to implement the agency’s mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rule ($21 million) and its efforts to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act ($43 million).   

Remember, all of these provisions (and many, many more) are proposals, and in most cases, they require congressional action to come to fruition.  This is particularly important regarding the second set of proposals I’ve highlighted because enacting them would require Congress to re-open the Farm Bill.  Farm Bureau strongly opposes re-opening the Farm Bill, and we will work closely with our congressional delegation to oppose the proposals to cut direct payments and reduce payment limits. 

2.  Negotiations Continue on Jobs Bill; Outlook for Introduction Unclear

The Senate spent most of its week working on executive branch nominations and developing the provisions of a Jobs bill (a.k.a. economic stimulus/tax relief bill).  As of this afternoon, the Senate Democratic Leadership had not released formal information about what provisions would be included in the package.  There is some talk about addressing the estate tax issue in the bill, but details are few at this point.   

3.  House Passes Statutory Debt Limit Bill; Goes to President for Signature

Yesterday, the House passed legislation by a narrow (and largely party line) vote that would increase the statutory debt limit by $1.9 trillion dollars.  This action is the equivalent of increasing the credit limit on a personal credit card.  Thus, it enables the federal government to borrow the money required to pay its foreign debt.  The bill would also require Congress to adhere to statutory pay-as-you-go rules, which means that all proposals considered in Congress must be fully paid for with either appropriate budget cuts or tax increases.  There are, of course, some exceptions to the rule for certain issues, including the estate tax fix.  The bill now goes to the President for his signature.

 One final note, a severe winter storm – no a blizzard – is going to hit Washington, DC this weekend.  Depending on how much snow and ice they get (in addition to the five inches they got earlier this week), Congress may not come into session next week.  As always, I’ll be sure to keep you informed. 

That’s all for this week. 

Jake

For details use this link: http://ncgreenindustrycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/invitation-front.pdf

To find our more information on HB 1408 - NC Contractor’s License Bill, visit this site: http://www.nclandscapecontractorslicense.com/index.html

You can also find this link under “Industry Resources” and “Inside the GIC” on our home page.