Immigration American Fruit and Vegetable Processors and Growers Coalition advocates an immigration policy that would provide growers and processors adequate seasonal labor to harvest and process crops. Most fruit and vegetable farmers and processors are located in remote rural areas where temporary seasonal labor in large numbers is simply not available. The current H2A program for agriculture is overly bureaucratic, time consuming and difficult to utilize. It is particularly unworkable for a small family farm operation that does not have human resource personnel or other expertise on hand to work through the regulations of H2A. The H2A program is not available for processors to use due to seasonal labor definitions contained in labor law. A simple trackable temporary visitor agriculture worker program is needed to supply American agriculture and off-the-farm food processing with an adequate labor supply.
Inclusion of Canned and Frozen Fruits and Vegetables in Government Sponsored Nutrition Programs Repeated food science studies prove that the nutritional value of canned, frozen and dried fruits and vegetables meet and often exceed nutritional content of similar fresh produce. The American Fruit and Vegetable Coalition promotes inclusion of processed fruits and vegetables in school lunch programs, WIC, food stamps programs and other government sponsored food relief programs. Processed foods are highly economical alternatives to the spoilage and high cost "fresh" produce pilot programs. Processed food products offer the greatest efficiencies to government tax sponsored food assistance. Canned and frozen foods afford important labor savings to school cafeteria staff.
American Fruit and Vegetable urges strengthening the School Snack Program by revising its rules to permit schools access to all nutritionally appropriate fruits and vegetables.
Bio-Energy Fuel Production Land availability in many locations on which to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables has become acute. This is due to planting restrictions contained in federal law. In addition, a newer demand for acreage has risen with the increase in fuel prices. Farmers are finding it more profitable to grow commodities to be sold to bio-energy energy production and are moving away from fruits and vegetables. This makes it more imperative that Congress lift planting restrictions contained in farm policy.
Buy American American Fruit and Vegetable advocates that tax payer sponsored food programs purchase American grown and processed foods when possible over same or comparable imported processed foods.
Export and Trade American Fruit and Vegetable supports free trade policies and agreements that lower artifical trade barriers for export of American grown and processed foods.