Fruit and Vegetable Planting Flexibility Act of 2017

Fruit and Vegetable Planting Flexibility Act of 2017

This bill amends the Agricultural Act of 2014 to modify the effect that planting fruits, vegetables, or wild rice on a farm has on the acreage eligible for payments under Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity programs.

Under current law, payments acres on a farm must be reduced by specified amounts in any year in which fruits, vegetables (other than mung beans and pulse crops), or wild rice have been planted on base acres on the farm.

For each year in which there is a reduction in payment acres on a farm due to the planting of fruits, vegetables, or wild rice on base acres, the bill requires USDA to maintain the commodity program eligibility of those base acres by considering the acres to be planted or prevented from planting to a covered commodity when USDA recalculates the base acres for the farm under the commodity programs.