Economic conditions on the farm are getting worse, yet Congress has failed to agree on a new farm bill. And that has many farm policymakers concerned.
Congress is back this week, but only for three weeks before returning to the campaign trail. Most of that time will be used trying to avert another government funding cliff, not necessarily to pass a farm bill. That’s upsetting to farm leaders like American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall, who complained for months that the 2018 law likely to be extended a second time is no longer working.
He says, “The farm bill can’t continue on as it has. It’s got to be modernized. It’s got to come up and reflect the true reality of what’s happening on the farm, what it cost us to produce it.”
Soaring input inflation and plummeting crop prices have erased profit margins, and a majority of farm economists surveyed last month say the sector is now in a recession. Iowa Senator and farmer Chuck Grassley agrees, saying “The inflation in agriculture is obvious since 2018, like increase in diesel, interest rates, parts for your farm machinery repair, seed, chemical, fertilizer.”
USDA says net farm income is down by 23 percent since 2022, and AFB’s Joe Gilson says farmers are fed up. “They’re telling us they need a better farm safety net, that inflation and interest rates have really cut into their earning potential,” says Gilson.
Duvall says all of this will make it harder for farmers to secure operating loans next year. “That operating loan comes from a bank that depends on what the farm bill safety net looks like,” says Duvall.
Duvall says as Congress returns, kicking the can down the road again on the farm bill won’t work. For some farmers he says, “there’s no road left.”
Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau; courtesy of NAFB News Service
