By Jessica Domel
Congress is back in session after the August recess, and Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) is urging lawmakers to take action now on the farm bill.
“Farmers, ranchers and families across the state and the nation continue to wait for the certainty a new, five-year farm bill provides,” Laramie Adams, TFB associate director of Government Affairs, said. “We are quickly running out of time for Congress to act and ensure agricultural safety net, conservation, nutrition, crop insurance and other programs are adequately funded. If no action is taken, I’m afraid we could see more farms and ranches close their gates and families go hungry as funding remains at pre-pandemic, pre-inflation levels.”
Since the 2018 Farm Bill was passed into law, farmers and ranchers have seen increasing uncertainty due to the pandemic, record-high inflation costs, rising supply costs and global supply chain disruptions.
Unfortunately, the triggers figured into the 2018 Farm Bill that provide support to farmers and ranchers when their commodity prices fall below a certain threshold have not kept up, underlining the need for a new bill.
“Farmers and ranchers are facing inflation just like every other American family, but we’ve also got a great deal of severe weather around, plummeting crop prices and constant changes in regulatory requirements,” Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) president, said. “Our labor, interest expense and property taxes are at a record level. On top of all that, our farm safety net that was designed to help our farms manage risk is so outdated that in many cases, it won’t even trigger to help family farms face the drop in income.”
In early September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast 2024 net farm income in the U.S. will fall 23% compared to 2022 due to the factors Duvall mentioned.
The report indicates 90% of farm households continue to require off-farm income to support their families and their farms. USDA says that means consolidation and farm loss will continue.
“The House Agriculture Committee already passed a bipartisan farm bill that can help American farmers and ranchers weather these storms. We’re just awaiting its consideration on the House floor,” Adams said. “Senate Ag Committee leadership released outlines of legislation, but we have not yet seen a text from them. We need action in Congress, and we need it before the end of the year.”
If a new farm bill is not passed by the end of this Congressional session, work on a new farm bill must begin again in the next Congress—further delaying any aid farmers, ranchers and foresters may need to stay in business amid higher input costs and low commodity prices.
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