Current House Farm Bill Fails to Meet Needs of Family Farmers — NFU Opposes Current Version, Suggests Significant Improvements

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee today marked up the 2018 Farm Bill, H.R. 2, sending the bill to the full U.S. House of Representatives for its consideration.

 

National Farmers Union (NFU), the nation’s second largest general farm organization, opposes the legislation as it is currently written, as it fails to provide an adequate safety net to family farmers and consumers, fails to support the long-term sustainability of family farms and ranches, and fails to ensure fair and diverse markets for farmers and ranchers. In a series of recommendations released today, NFU urged House members to make significant improvements on the floor prior to passing the bill.

 

“This bill is wholly inadequate for providing family farmers with the resources they need to endure the worst decline in the farm economy in decades,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “Congressional leadership’s directive to withhold any additional support has hamstrung the committee’s ability to address the six-year, fifty percent drop in net farm income. This bill lacks the improvements needed to provide sufficient farmer and consumer safety nets, it upends programs that improve sustainability, and it removes programs that aid the growth of fair and diverse markets for family farmers. Farmers Union is also deeply disappointed in the partisan nature of the House Farm Bill deliberations thus far. We urge members of Congress to make significant improvements to the bill prior to its passage.”

 

In its list of recommendations, NFU urged House members to significantly improve the farm safety net to reflect the current state of the farm economy. It noted the safety net needs to be improved to keep family farmers in business during down market cycles, yet the current version of the House Farm Bill does not provide enough support to help family farmers and ranchers make ends meet.

 

“Farmers need higher PLC reference prices for commodities that have been underwater for years,” said NFU’s recommendations list. “Dairy farmers need both price supports and a mechanism that manages our nation’s oversupply of milk. At the same time, these programs should be implemented responsibly by capping payments and directing them solely to family farmers.”

 

NFU also suggested the bill needs to ensure credit availability for family farmers and ranchers, whereas the bill currently does nothing to increase loan authority for FSA’s overall loan portfolio. And to ensure a strong consumer nutrition safety net, the NFU recommended the Farm Bill should maintain funding levels for consumer benefits under nutrition programs. “Unfortunately, the multitude of changes proposed in the bill would compromise food security for working families who currently use SNAP while adding to needless bureaucracy,” said NFU.

 

NFU’s second major recommendation is to promote the long-term sustainability of family farms and ranches. The organization urged the House to provide incentive-based working lands programs, whereas the current version of the farm bill cuts $5 billion from these programs over the next decade, and it eliminates the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). NFU also called for funding to energy programs to be restored, as Farm Bill energy programs help family farmers and ranchers lower their environmental footprint, reduce their energy usage, and improve their bottom lines.

 

“Sustainability is critical for farm productivity and the health of rural communities now and for generations to come,” NFU said. “The House Farm Bill must be improved to provide family farmers and ranchers the tools they need to be the best possible stewards of our natural resources.”