WASHINGTON — By a strong, veto-proof majority, the House passed a $290 billion farm bill with increased subsidies for farmers and food stamps for the poor amid rising grocery prices, while sprinkling in pet projects that lawmakers can take home to voters this election year.

Fruit and vegetable farmers would reap new money in the bill, which, for the first time, includes significant expenditures for produce growers.

The 318-106 vote for the five-year bill gave supporters 28 more votes than they need to override a promised veto from President Bush, who has complained the measure is too expensive and generous to farmers now enjoying record earnings. "A bloated, earmark-laden bill," his agriculture secretary said after the vote.

About two-thirds of the bill would pay for nutrition programs such as food stamps and emergency food aid for the needy. An additional $40 billion is for farm subsidies, while almost $30 billion would go to farmers to idle their land and to other environmental programs.

Money for traditional commodity subsidies, food stamps and other programs in the $290 billion bill still dwarfs spending on so-called "specialty crops" — fruits, vegetables, nuts and nursery products, which together account for about half the country's crop value.

Nonetheless fruit and vegetable producers and their allies said they'd made a landmark advance. The bill would spend more than $1 billion directly on specialty crops through grants and other programs, while hundreds of millions more would go for related programs, such as a $1 billion fresh fruit and vegetable snack program for schools.

Senate Democrats calculated the total specialty crop spending in the bill at around $3 billion.

"For the first time the farm bill makes an historic investment in specialty crops especially important to my state of California," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on the House floor. "The producers who account for more than half of all crop value in the United States are now represented in our farm bill."

California, with its grapes, pears, avocados and almonds, is the country's top specialty-crop producing state, followed by Florida, Washington, Texas, Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Arizona, according to the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance

The alliance represents 120 groups of growers and producers that came together over the past few years to lobby for inclusion after the last farm bill, in 2002, once again mostly ignored specialty crops.

"What we've tried to do is create and support programs that are going to help a broad cross-section of our industry," said Robert Guenther, senior vice president of public policy for the United Fresh Produce Association and spokesman for the specialty crop alliance. "California agriculture is finally getting the respect and treatment it deserves," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, who helped negotiate the bill.

According to the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., California's top specialty crops along with their 2006 value are grapes, more than $3 billion; nursery and greenhouse products, $2.7 billion; almonds, $2 billion; lettuce, $1.6 billion; strawberries, $1.2 billion; tomatoes, $1.1 billion; and floriculture (flowers), $1 billion.

Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., both planned to support the bill when the Senate votes, possibly today.

Of California's House delegation, all but three of the 34 Democrats voted "yes" on the bill. The three who voted "no" were Reps. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, Pete Stark of Fremont and Jane Harman of Venice.

Of the 19 California Republicans, most voted "no," but there were four "yes" votes: Reps. John Doolittle of Rocklin, Wally Herger of Marysville, Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley and George Radanovich of Mariposa. Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, didn't vote.

The big crop subsidies still go to rice, cotton, wheat, soybeans and corn, which most local farmers don't grow, said Susan Johnson, Ventura County's chief deputy agricultural commissioner. Johnson said it was hard to say how much the bill would affect local growers at this point.

There was a hope — and lobbying — for more funding for exotic pest detection and eradication, she said. The bill does include a steadily increasing amount of funding for pest control.

Various groups also encouraged more funding for conservation programs and nutrition programs.

The bill includes an amendment to encourage school food plans that include locally grown foods where available.

"Nutrition programs, as long as they allow schools to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables, would be a help," Johnson said.

—Star staff writer Allison Bruce contributed to this report.