Farm Bill Passes Through House Committee; Advocates React

May 29, 2024

By Clayton Baumgarth

Local organizations are reacting to the House version of the Farm Bill, legislation that entails food assistance programs as well as programs for the agriculture industry. 

On Friday the House Committee on Agriculture approved the bill, known as the Farm, Food, And National Security Act of 2024. 

Lawmakers and interest groups have been sharing their opinions on the 900-page Republican-backed legislation since then. 

Emily Weikert Bryant, the executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, said her organization is concerned about cuts to the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps, in the $1.5 trillion bill. 

“This farm bill would eliminate the ability to appropriately adjust and re-level those SNAP benefits to the tune of nearly $30 billion in SNAP assistance impacting all future SNAP recipients,” she said. 

House Ag Committee Democrats said it would be the largest cut to the SNAP program in nearly 30 years. 

During the mark-up process on Thursday, an amendment was added that would make illegal the sale of THC products derived from hemp such as Delta-8.

The Midwest Hemp Council said in a statement that while the amendment was “terrible,” there is a long legislative process that must play out before the law is actually changed.

Meanwhile, Brantley Seifers, the director of government affairs for the Indiana Farm Bureau, said he’s pleased with some of the more farmer-centric portions of the bill including a provision that would solve issues brought up by California Prop 12, which limited pork producers from selling in the state. 

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Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.