USDA chief says Congress must pass new farm bill

After touring the Catholic Multicultural Center on the city?s South Side and seeing fresh, local produce processed for school lunches, Vilsack announced $101 million in grants ? including 19 for Wisconsin ? to support specialty crop producers. But Vilsack said all that grant money is on hold until a new farm bill is passed. Two grants totaling about $6 million were awarded to UW-Madison. One focuses on encouraging more farm-to-school programs like the Research, Education, Action and Policy Food Group?s farm-to-school program, which supplies area schools with fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables that it prepares and processes at the Catholic Multicultural Center. The food produced by REAP is sustainably grown and comes from just one acre of land.