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Unbelievable!
What is the Maple TAP act, you ask?
Here's the Schumer spin on it:
Schumer has long fought for this legislation which could help maple producers in the Hudson Valley and in Upstate New York to boost their production and become more competitive with places like Canada. Specifically, the Maple Tap Act would provide USDA grants of up to $20 million per year to states that create programs to encourage individual landowners to open up their trees to maple tapping. Schumer’s legislation would also provide grants to states to support market promotion, maple industry research and development, and education through leading institutions, like Cornell. Schumer today urged his colleagues in the House of Representatives to pass this legislation as part of the 2013 Farm Bill.
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Across New York State, there are over nearly 300 million maple trees with syrup-tapping potential, with local upstate farmers relying on it as a lucrative pocket in the agriculture industry. However, despite the staggering number of trees across the state, less than one percent of them are currently used for maple tapping, forcing the U.S. to import four times as much maple syrup as it produces. By contrast, Canada currently produces 85 percent of the world’s maple product, tapping into over one-third of their maple trees. New York has about 1.8 million taps, while Quebec, the epicenter of the Canadian maple industry, has nearly 40 million.
[....]
Across New York State, there are over nearly 300 million maple trees with syrup-tapping potential, with local upstate farmers relying on it as a lucrative pocket in the agriculture industry. However, despite the staggering number of trees across the state, less than one percent of them are currently used for maple tapping, forcing the U.S. to import four times as much maple syrup as it produces. By contrast, Canada currently produces 85 percent of the world’s maple product, tapping into over one-third of their maple trees. New York has about 1.8 million taps, while Quebec, the epicenter of the Canadian maple industry, has nearly 40 million.
Yes, yes, I know it's "small money," but that's not the point. This is one of a bajillion different little bits of pork stuffed into this one trillion dollar farm bill.
This HAS to stop!