An ag organization called the omission a missed opportunity
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
An ag organization believes President Biden missed a chance to call on Congress to pass a new Farm Bill during his State of the Union address.
“Currently, we are operating under a one-year farm bill extension, and coming off NAWG’s annual meeting, passing a long-term farm bill that supports farmers is one of our priorities and is at the top of our wheat growers' minds,” Chandler Goule, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, said in a statement. “The 2018 farm bill was a high watermark for bipartisanship. As Congress and the Biden Administration continue to work on a long-term farm bill, we must build upon the 2018 Farm Bill by strengthening the farm safety net, enhancing our trade promotion programs, and supporting the voluntary conservation programs that work for wheat growers.”
Congress passed the extension in November 2023. It continues authorizations until Sept. 30, 2024, and for the 2024 crop year.
President Biden did make mention of some ag and rural items during his speech to the nation.
In a part of his address about how his policies are benefitting the American people, the president touted “providing affordable high-speed internet for every American no matter where you live: urban, suburban or rural communities – in red states and blue states.”
This is the only time the word “rural” appears in the president’s speech.
The president also indirectly mentioned Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
Vilsack’s work and the president’s policies are helping family farms remain that way.
“Because of my investment in family farms, because of my investment in family farms led by my secretary of agriculture who knows more about this than anybody I know, we’re better able to stay in the family for those farms, and their children and grandchildren won’t have to leave home to make a living. It’s transformative,” the president said.
Those are the only times the word “farms” appears in the speech transcript.
Past presidents have mentioned ag and farmers in their State of the Union addresses.
Here are a few examples.
President George Washington – Jan 8., 1790
“The advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by all proper means will not, I trust, need recommendation; but I can not forbear intimating to you the expediency of giving effectual encouragement as well to the introduction of new and useful inventions from abroad as to the exertions of skill and genius in producing them at home, and of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our country by a due attention to the post-office and post-roads..”
President Thomas Jefferson – Dec. 8, 1801
“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the 4 pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed.”
President Theodore Roosevelt – Feb. 9, 1909
“To improve our system of agriculture seems to me the most urgent of the tasks which lie before us. But it can not, in my judgment, be effected by measures which touch only the material and technical side of the subject; the whole business and life of the farmer must also be taken into account.”
President Bill Clinton – Jan. 27, 2000
“There's another part of our American community in trouble tonight, our family farmers. When I signed the farm bill in 1996, I said there was great danger it would work well in good times but not in bad. Well, droughts, floods, and historically low prices have made these times very bad for the farmers. We must work together to strengthen the farm safety net, invest in land conservation, and create some new markets for them by expanding our programs for bio-based fuels and products. Please, they need help. Let's do it together.”
President Donald Trump – Feb. 5, 2019
“Our new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — or USMCA — will replace NAFTA and deliver for American workers: bringing back our manufacturing jobs, expanding American agriculture, protecting intellectual property, and ensuring that more cars are proudly stamped with four beautiful words: made in the USA.”