Fight over Government “Raisin Reserve” Spreads from Courts to Congress

Fight over Government “Raisin Reserve” Spreads from Courts to Congress


First the California Raisins—the sunglass-wearing Claymation toons who sang “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and other hits in a series of TV commercials between 1986 and 1994—were defunded after a campaign by raisin growers. Now, Rep. Trey Radel (R-Florida) has introduced a bill that would kill the Raisin Administrative Committee (RAC), a Fresno-based body run by industry representatives under U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversight.

“In my opinion, this is nothing short of theft,” said Radel, who says he has no ties to the raisin industry, which is located mostly far away in Northern California.

The program started during the Great Depression as a New Deal effort to protect growers by giving USDA the power to operate reserves for raisins, almonds, walnuts, tart cherries and other products. After World War II, the other reserves were gradually eliminated, but the raisin reserve survived.

It works like this: in years when high raisin production threatens to cause prices to fall substantially, the RAC can decide that the government should seize part of the crop and keep it off the market by storing it in “reserve,” specifically in warehouses located in California. The result should be higher raisin prices.

http://www.allgov.com/news/unusual-news/fight-over-government-raisin-reserve-spreads-from-courts-to-congress-130728?news=850693