By Macy Byars
About every five years since 1933, Congress has passed a Farm Bill – a large piece of legislation including farm safety net programs, food and nutrition access, conservation, trade and more.
Much, much more.
The current U.S. Senate draft of the Farm Bill is nearly 1,000 pages long. In a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee hearing on the legislation last week, senators had over 200 amendments to propose – though only a “manager’s package” of 34 was approved.
But the future of this year’s Farm Bill is uncertain. Senators were unable to move the bill out of committee last week.
Partisan arguments over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the absence of the Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell for a vote and an ongoing Senate recess have stalled a path to a floor vote.
Congress passed the last major Farm Bill update in 2018. Since then, it has been given three one-year extensions without major changes.
John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said recent history is repeating itself.
“If you look at the structure of current farm policy, it is not adequate or appropriate as a risk management tool to help farmers deal with unprecedented year after year of higher ag input costs and ag commodity prices that are well below the cost of production,” Hansen said.
Amid a sluggish farm economy, Hansen said the time for new policy is long overdue.
“If the farm or ranch business is in financial crisis, the farm or ranch family that owns it and operates it is not far behind,” he said. “It's all kinds of crises – from marital to financial to all of the problems that happen to people who are under enormous stress.”
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