WASHINGTON, D.C. — Late last month, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the junior Democrat senator from Michigan, announced the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee has created a subtitle for specialty crops, such as fruits and vegetables.

“This is a big win for Michigan growers and producers,” she said in a written statement. “For too long, the farm bill has not included proper support for this important agricultural sector. Agricul-ture remains Michigan’s second largest industry, creating jobs throughout our state, and I am pleased to have been able to lead the fight in the Agriculture Committee to deliver for our state’s farmers and families.”

The fact that there is a subtitle is really a measure of the importance of fruits and vegetables and other specialty crops in the new farm bill, said Brad Carroll, Stabenow’s press secretary. The bill is broken up into titles and subtitles. There is a conservation title, a trade title, a nutrition title, a research title and so forth.

For the first time, specialty crops is a subtitle of the commodity title. The Senate is expected to take up the farm bill this week. It could be on the Senate floor for one to two weeks. The bill will then go to conference to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House versions of the legislation.

Stabenow is hopeful the specialty crops provisions she helped write into the farm bill will remain intact. Among those provisions are:

•$270 million in state block grants for the specialty crops program, which is designed to encourage the consumption of fruits, vegetables and other specialty crops;

•$200 million for pest and disease prevention; these funds will be used to start a program to assess “foreign threats” to specialty crops’ production, such as bio-terrorism;

•$120 million for tree removal assistance. These funds will help increase payments to qualifying growers for tree removal and replacement as a result of damage caused by natural disaster. Current payments do not reflect the actual costs for removal and replacement;

•$20 million for a National Clean Plant Network to help ensure that nurseries provide safe, virus-free plant materials to orchards, vineyards and other growers;

•$19 million for trade assistance; these funds will be used to help remove specialty crop trade barriers;

•$27 million for organic crops, to help growers to transition to organic crops;

•$80 million for organic research;

•$15 million for asparagus. These funds will help support domestic asparagus producers in Michigan, Washington and California who were hurt by the Andean Trade Preference Act. The market loss program will compensate the growers to help them plant new acreage and invest in more efficient planting and harvesting equipment;

•$30 million for farmers’ markets, to support direct farmer-to-consumer marketing activities and transactions such as farmers’ markets, roadside stands, on-farm markets and community-supported agriculture; and

•$7 million for healthy food, to be used to deliver affordable food to low-income communities.

Other specialty crop provisions are included in the farm bill. For a more complete list, visit http://stabenow.senate.gov and click on Stabenow Delivers Major Victories for Michigan.