By Collin Schopp and Camryn Cutinello
The 2018 Farm Bill’s expiration on Monday means the immediate end of some programs, while other critical services will receive a temporary expansion through December.
“A lot of our farmers here in Illinois use the farm programs in the Farm Bill as a true safety net,” said Andrew Larson, director of government relations and strategy for the Bloomington-based Illinois Soybean Association.
Larson is referencing crop insurance programs, meant to protect farmers’ investments in seed if a natural disaster destroys their yields. Crop insurance is meant to ensure farmers can recover and plant a new crop next year, keeping weather events from creating a significant disruption in food production.
“The farm economy is struggling a little bit right now,” Larson said. “We’re seeing, coming off of a couple years of higher prices and very high input costs in agriculture, and we’re still seeing higher input costs and a little bit lower prices now. So certainly, this is not the time, of any, to have uncertainty.”
The other program kept alive by an extension is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides help getting food for millions of low-income American families and is a frequent sticking point in Farm Bill negotiations.
Some programs that end immediately include biofuel and other research programs, as well as funding that assisted in accessing foreign markets.
“We rely on robust new and growing trade markets around the world to be able to send our commodities to,” Larson said. “And of course, we know that our corn industry and the pork and beef industry also rely on those heavily.”
The Farm Bill is renewed every five years. The 2018 legislation was extended for one year in 2023.
A new version of the bill stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives after the two parties clashed over cuts to SNAP benefits, as well as measures to combat climate change.
The House Agriculture Committee passed the $1.5 trillion bill on May 24. It did not include a restoration of nearly $30 billion in SNAP funding that had been removed from the bill.
The committee passed the bill, with four Democrats voting "yes."
Rep. Eric Sorensen was one of the Democrats to vote for the plan. He said in April that plans to cut funding to SNAP was a “non-starter.”
The bill passed by the committee also did not include certain measures to combat climate change proposed by Democrats, including a restoration of requirements that conservation money from the Inflation Reduction Act focus on climate-smart practices.
Sorensen, a former meteorologist, told WCBU on Monday that he sees an opportunity to pass those climate measures outside of the Farm Bill.
“Those are things that, when I talk with family farmers, they want in, but they want it in a different way,” he said.
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