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 today 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% 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% 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.”
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