U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be in Harnett County on Friday to meet with farmers and discuss agriculture issues. He’ll be joined by U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat. 

U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre touted North Carolina’s agriculture and alternative fuels while in Greece today for an international conference on energy.

McIntyre, a Lumberton Democrat, is a senior member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, which promotes security through human rights, democracy and environmental cooperation, reports Barb Barrett.

He spoke in Athens before about 200 parliamentarians from 49 countries who attended the fall meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

There, he talked of how farmers in North Carolina are trying to develop energy from resources such as animal waste.

“In my home state of North Carolina, the agriculture industry is already making significant progress in converting plant and animal waste, agricultural stover [residue] and woody biomass into viable options for alternative energy sources,” McIntyre said.

“We need to be flexible and forward-looking, using alternative fuels, new crop-tilling mechanisms and the latest research in irrigation so that farmers will continue to be a reliable source of food and fiber not only for their own families, but for the world.”

Terri Lomax says researchers sometimes tailor their requests.

N.C. State University's vice chancellor said that a lot of the earmarks the college requests are for orphaned research that does not fit into existing programs through the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Often, it's because it's not basic research but not yet commercially viable.

But it can also be because there is no federal program that covers the topic, she said, citing a National Textiles Center on campus that looks at new methods and markets for textiles.

"There's not a federal agency with a clear mandate for providing research on textiles," she said.

She said that researchers often look for ways to fit their research into existing programs, such as military research or even the NASA budget. That's how an earmark came about that would study the effects of the Martian atmosphere on plants.

"It has lots of other uses for agriculture, such as understanding how plants to respond to stress conditions in the environment such as drought or global warming," she said.

An earmark from three state Democrats would study sweet potatoes.

Reps. Bob Etheridge of Lillington, Brad Miller of Raleigh and Mike McIntyre of Lumberton, have all requested federal appropriations for research on the state vegetable at N.C. State University.

Etheridge and Miller both sought $300,000 to study Plectric aliena, an invasive grub that has the potential to decimate sweet potato crops.

"Though present in the U.S. for nearly a century, the insect remained relatively obscure until 2006 when devastating infestations occurred in several hundred acres of sweet potatoes in North Carolina," Etheridge wrote in his request. "Now, infestation is widespread and growing."

McIntyre asked for $800,000 to "carry out basic and applied research" on the vegetable.

"They are becoming an increasingly important crop with deployment in schools and being part of a healthy diet," he wrote in his request.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this afternoon that tries to crack down on excessive speculation on the oil futures market.

The bill was introduced by U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat. He is chairman of the Agriculture subcommittee that has oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Barb Barrett reports.

The bill would require the hiring of 100 new regulators, force transparency in some trading and close a loophole to require more regulation from overseas trades.

The bill, which passed 283-183, now goes on to the U.S. Senate.

Of North Carolina's delegation, all the Democrats, along with Republicans Walter Jones and Robin Hayes, supported the bill. The state's four other Republicans voted "no."

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr blamed House members Tuesday for delaying action on a legislation related to food safety.

The Winston-Salem Republican spoke to the AgFIRST! Forum sponsored by the N.C. Department of Agriculture at the N.C. State Fairgrounds, David Ingram reports.

He criticized U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, for proposing food-safety legislation that Burr said was too focused on regulation by the federal government.

Burr pushed a Senate alternative that he said would, among other things, encourage the use of third-party laboratories to certify the safety of some foods.

"I'm confident that third-party review will become part of the food-safety system in this country," Burr told about 200 health and agriculture officials.

Speaking earlier to the same group, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Salisbury Republican, criticized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not doing more to lower the price of food. This month, the EPA denied a request to cut a federal mandate on the use of corn for fuel.

U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr will be in Raleigh today.

The two senators will attend the AgFIRST! forum on food safety sponsored by the N.C. Department of Agriculture at the N.C. State Fairgrounds.

They will be joined by U.S. Reps. Howard Coble, Walter Jones and Brad Miller. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler is hosting the event.

The forum will focus on protecting state crops, responding to foreign animal diseases and developing programs for recalling tainted food.

Speakers include top officials with the Agriculture department, an assistant commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and representatives of Harris Teeter and Food Lion.

The event will be at the Kerr Scott building from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

Beverly Perdue claims membership in North Carolina’s farming community. Pat McCrory doesn’t.

On Monday, both major candidates for governor spoke to the 38th annual banquet of the N.C. Agribusiness Council and promised support for the agriculture industry, reports David Ingram.

“I’m not going to pretend I’m one of you, because I’m not and neither is my opponent,” said McCrory, a Republican and mayor of Charlotte. But, he added, he will listen to the industry if he’s governor and work with it because its workers “feed me at least three times a day.”

Perdue, a Democrat and lieutenant governor, said she represented farmers in the New Bern area while in the legislature and sat on agriculture committees.

“I actually consider myself part of the agriculture community in North Carolina,” she said. “I’m not a Johnny-come-lately to rural North Carolina, or to agriculture and agribusiness.”

Perdue dropped two names of particular importance to rural parts of the state: the late Jim Graham, a former agriculture commissioner, and Billy Ray Hall of the N.C. Rural Center.

Neither candidate has worked in agriculture. McCrory spent 29 years with Charlotte-based Duke Energy – which sponsored three tables at Monday’s banquet – while Perdue worked in education and health care administration.

Libertarian candidate Mike Munger did not attend the banquet. He is a political scientist, though he does have ties to agribusiness through his sale of timber from land in Chatham County.

Mike Easley has formed a task force to protect agricultural workers exposed to pesticides.

The task force comes after advocates for migrant workers said the state did a poor job handling complaints of dangerous pesticide exposure involving Ag-Mart, one of the nation's top suppliers of grape tomatoes, Dan Kane reports.

Two years ago, the state accused the Florida-based company of 369 violations of the state's pesticide law, but two judges recommended most of the charges be dropped because the state did not prove much of its case.

State Health Director Leah Devlin will lead the task force, which also includes N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. The task force will hold its first meeting next month and is expected to make recommendations to Easley in May.

More after the jump.

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Migrant workers can't complain about pesticides.

That's because few worker camps have telephones. Those that do have a way to complain often don't because of concerns about retaliation from their employers.

That was the message of public health advocates in a House committee hearing this afternoon.

The House Committee on Agribusiness and Agricultural Economy was discussing a bill by Rep. Dan Blue, a Raleigh Democrat.

Blue's bill would close loopholes in the law over pesticide reporting. Opponents of the legislation say it's premature and would hurt business.

More after the jump.

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