America’s farmers and ranchers need a new, modernized farm bill, a strengthened farm safety net, and open trading markets. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall traveled to the Capitol to emphasize those priorities to the Senate Agriculture Committee this week as he testified in the hearing “Perspectives from the Field: Farmer and Rancher Views on the Agricultural Economy, Part I.”
“Farm families across the country are grateful that you recognized the incredibly hard times across the agricultural economy and included much-needed economic assistance and emergency aid for communities devastated by natural disasters in December’s Continuing Resolution,” Duvall said. “Despite the assistance in the CR, farmers still are looking to you all to pass a modernized, five-year farm bill as soon as possible.”
President Duvall took questions from lawmakers, including Chairman John Boozman (R-AR), who asked about the challenges farmers face without a new, modernized farm bill. Duvall said, “We are hearing that maybe 20 percent or more of our farmers are having difficulties getting operating loans. We’re in a time where that should have already been done, and they should have seed in the barn, ready to start planting. And, it’s really hitting them at a hard, difficult time. They’re telling us they’re losing money per acre – corn over $100 an acre losing. They’re having to make a decision to plant and not to plant.”
Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked about the impact of tariffs. “We need more access, not less,” replied Duvall. “We need this administration– because we haven’t seen it for almost a decade – really getting fair trade deals to be put in place and stick with good rules and keep people working under it. The other issue is the cost of production. I think you said it yourself, over 80 percent of the potash comes out of Canada that goes on our cropland. And, that would be devastating to our farmers – just that one example is difficult for our farmers.”
As public discussions increase about efforts to make the food system healthier, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) asked President Duvall to elaborate on the importance of maintaining scientifically proven farming methods. He responded, “It is absolutely critical that we continue to have faith in the system that provides the science-based tools that we use on our farm… It takes almost 11 years to get a product to the market. They got 350 scientists at the EPA … making sure that those things are safe. And, our farmers apply it according to the label.”
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) observed that some farmers are not eligible for risk management assistance. President Duvall said access to the farm safety net needs to be expanded, “Any farmer out there that’s putting a crop in the land, and depending on the good Lord to give him things to grow it with, and with the markets like they are deserve to have some risk management program. Now, the difficulty comes by making it very complicated. And, the smaller farm it is, the more difficult it is. It needs to be simplified. A lot of people aren’t going to do it because it’s just too difficult. They’re in the field working. A lot of these are farm to table, farm to market people, and they deserve a shot to be able to have that risk management tool, too.”
Read President Duvall’s testimony as prepared here.