By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Tuesday, May 8, 2007; A23

After years of derision and obscurity, the nation's fruits and vegetables are finally getting the respect they deserve.

Long dismissed as mere "specialty crops" and all but ignored by the powerful lawmakers who fashion the federal government's massive farm bill every five years, fresh produce is now promoting itself in a major way and is positioned to be a big winner in this year's legislative sweepstakes.

"They definitely have more leverage," said Dana Brooks, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.

"They are much better organized," agreed Jon Doggett, a vice president of the National Corn Growers Association, a sometime inter-commodity rival.

In other words, the fruit and vegetable lobby is not small potatoes anymore. Nor should it be. Apples, grapes, oranges and, yes, potatoes are significant businesses. Fruits and vegetables overall represent nearly half the value of all commercial crops. But their lobbyists have lacked the killer-tomato instinct.

In the past two years, however, groups such as the United Fresh Produce Association, the Western Growers Association, the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association and the National Potato Council started to band together. Their goal: to make sure peaches, strawberries, limes and the like get a larger slice of the federal pie.

In official Washington, the big grains such as wheat and corn, along with cotton, sugar and rice, have dominated farming politics and, as a result, have received the bulk of price-support subsidies. This year's farm bill will lay out more than $700 billion over the next 10 years on programs including food stamps and commodity-based payments.

The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, a sprawling 90-member coalition, has been asking lawmakers to add to the bill a few billion dollars a year in benefits. It is seeking not direct payments to its growers, but rather indirect goodies such as block grants to states to help its farmers locally, expanded funding for scientific research and enhanced promotion of U.S.-grown produce abroad.

The other contenders for federal farm largess are less than overjoyed at the coalition's aggressiveness. "We have less money to go around and more folks who want it," Brooks said. "That is going to make things difficult."

Still, fruits and veggies are likely to win a lot of what they seek. The reason is their geographic desirability. Farm bills are often battles between Midwestern lawmakers whose grain-growing constituents benefit the most from the legislation, and lawmakers from other parts of the country whose constituents tend not to see the value of farm subsidies.

Many specialty crops are concentrated in these skeptical states -- the apple-growing state of Washington and the grape-producing state of California, for example. If these products are favored in the farm bill for a change, their elected representatives would be more likely to vote for the bill's passage.

At least that is what the specialty-crop strategists are counting on. "We add some value to getting a farm bill passed," said Robert Guenther, top lobbyist for the United Fresh Produce Association.

Fruits and vegetables could be very good for the farm bill's health.

The members and senior staffers of the Senate Finance Committee, one of Congress's most potent panels, have been hosting private discussions with influential people. With no press or public allowed, think of these sessions as the capital's most exclusive salon.

On April 17, a large bipartisan group of committee members and aides listened for 90 minutes as Thomas J. Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and John J. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, debated topics such as health care and trade.

The event was held in the committee's anteroom, which is behind the committee's wood-paneled hearing room, where public meetings are usually convened.

Earlier in the year, several Cabinet officers including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also appeared there in secret. So did Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization.

Participants call the practice an excellent way for lawmakers to ask tough questions without worrying about the consequences.

Others are not so certain. "It seems wrong," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Why wouldn't they have an open hearing? It sounds like they are trying to avoid public disclosure."

President Bush is excited about the prospect of devising and passing a comprehensive immigration bill this year. The conventional wisdom is that he will have to partner with a broad swath of Democrats-in-charge on Capitol Hill to find a workable compromise.

In fact, a large number of Democrats are likely to resist. Why? Labor unions, a fundamental constituency of the Democratic Party, are deeply divided on the topic.

Two sizable unions -- the Service Employees International Union and Unite Here -- are eager to include a program that would allow foreigners to work temporarily in this country and eventually win citizenship -- a plan similar to one that Bush has advanced in the past. These unions, which tend to represent lower-paid workers, foresee a lot of future members in that expanding pool.

But most other unions, including the AFL-CIO, go the other way. They oppose a guest-worker program, worrying that the additional foreign workers might take American jobs, including those their members hold.

How are Democratic lawmakers to choose? Some will go with the president; others will go with the majority of unions. That surely will complicate immigration reform.

Michael Gessel has been enchanted by L. Frank Baum, the creator of the Wizard of Oz, since third grade. And that was not yesterday.

Gessel is a 52-year-old lobbyist for the Dayton, Ohio, region. He is also vice president of the International Wizard of Oz Club and a former editor of the club's official publication, the Baum Bugle.

As editor for five years, Gessel featured stories about the first Oz-themed amusement park (Chicago, 1905), the geography of Oz and the late actor John Ritter's portrayal of Baum in a 1990 NBC movie about the author's peripatetic life.

In 2000, Gessel helped the Library of Congress with its exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of the publication of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." He lent items from his large collection of Baum memorabilia.

These days, Gessel does not spend as much time on Oz. "A rather intense job and three small children have strictly limited my journeys over the rainbow lately," he said. "But being familiar with the fantasy land of Oz does help in my understanding of Washington."

If you know of another lobbyist with an interesting sideline, let me know.

Please send e-mail to kstreet@washpost.com.