INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A united front is what all sectors of agriculture most need to ensure a new federal farm bill not only passes Congress in 2018, but that it contains provisions and funding at least most can live with.

 

When Indiana Farm Bureau (IFB) President Randy Kron spoke with legislators during a trip to D.C. with other state Farm Bureau presidents, the presidents were told if ag organizations and lobbyists are too divided about what they’re requesting among each other, the industry overall “won’t get much of what you want” out of the farm bill.

So, trying to determine the basics of what crop groups might at least agree is important was the theme throughout the morning of July 26, when Indiana and national soybean and corn representatives came together for an Ag Policy Summit in Indianapolis.

“When we had the last farm bill (in 2014), things were in a lot different perspective, wouldn’t you say?” observed Anngie Steinbarger, an Indiana Soybean Alliance District 4 director and farmer in Edinburgh, in referring to that year’s relative economic good times compared to farm income decline since then.

For her, maintaining a healthy crop insurance program is vital to managing risk on the farm. American Soybean Assoc. board member Joe Steinkamp of Evansville, Ind., added even with good insurance farmers are going to want to also keep Agriculture Loss Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) in the new farm bill, to help when commodity prices are inadequate.

Steinbarger noted President Trump’s proposed cuts to the farm bill include doing away with the harvest price option on crop insurance and limiting premium subsidies to $40,000 per policy. That’s a figure a lot of farmers could reach very quickly, she warned.

“Crop insurance is not about making money – it’s about spreading your risk,” she said.

Steinkamp agreed, saying there aren’t many years he doesn’t collect on his policy. “I write a big check (toward the premium), but they write me some money back many years,” he explained. It’s like auto insurance, he said – “you may pay and pay,” but you want good service if you get into a wreck.

And, said Don Villwock, former IFB president, over a 10-year period crop insurance is actually a net gain to the U.S. treasury, according to the Congressional Budget Office. “The government makes money off of crop insurance,” he said, adding that should be touted more to the public and to Congress.

“If we want the next generation to come back (to the farm), we’re going to have to give them some of these tools,” said Kron, adding a number of young farmers have told him without crop insurance, they wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep planting after 2012.

He explained ag groups across the country need to have “tough conversations” about what programs they are willing to agree are most important to everyone.

Trade is critical for farming

Another valuable part of the farm bill are programs intended to help farmers sell their goods overseas. Steinkamp pointed to the Foreign Market Development (FMD) and Market Access Programs as examples of those used by soybean and other farm groups to boost exports.

For instance, China buys more than 30 percent of U.S. soybeans, and he said the FMD has been allowing the soy sector to work with Chinese farmers to raise more pigs and fish that depend on a steady supply of soy feed. As 60 percent of U.S. soy is exported, it is definitely in growers’ interests to see these programs’ funding renewed and even increased.

Steinkamp also said with the United States pulling out of the multinational Transpacific Partnership and Trump talking about seeking individual trade pacts with those nations, marketing efforts will need more funding.

“If we don’t have trade, we’re going to be drowning in corn and soybeans and pork chops,” Kron agreed.

He noted with the domestic ethanol boom of the 2000s some in U.S. agriculture “sort of lost sight” of the importance of courting foreign customers. He feels new USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue “gets it” about how critical trade is to the agricultural sector, and said he thinks Perdue was able to moderate Trump’s anti-trade pacts stance once Perdue was leading the USDA.

“It’s easy to blame NAFTA or some of these trade deals (for loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.), when maybe it’s not” only that, Kron said, noting perhaps those jobs weren’t all lost to trade but instead, in combination with technology like more worker-replacing automation over 20-plus years. “NAFTA’s been pretty good to agriculture.”

Steinbarger hopes NAFTA renegotiations go smoothly and that farm exports don’t suffer as a result. “I’m just afraid that we’ll be the scapegoat,” she said, but Kron doesn’t believe much will change for agriculture under renegotiation.

She said something else she’d like to see is an easier path for farmers who fall out of compliance with conservation program requirements to be able to regain favor with the USDA once they prove they’re able to again meet those guidelines.

SNAP judgments

The big question that comes up every time a farm bill is discussed is whether to keep farm assistance in the same legislation as nutrition assistance like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Roughly 80 percent of the farm bill is this kind of funding.

What Kron pointed out isn’t a new argument: In order to gain enough votes in the House to pass the farm bill – at least 218 – there needs to be a balance of interests. There are more lawmakers who represent urban districts than rural, and while some farmers may not like SNAP, some city residents don’t see why farm subsidies are necessary. Keeping them together better ensures funding for both will pass.

One farmer at the Summit said he likes the idea of “owning” the angle of SNAP with the farm bill, of farmers helping feed the poor. “We’re compassionate people,” he said, adding that local economies also benefit from recipients spending money on food in their communities.

This is important for farmers to keep in mind, said Alan Kemper, who farms in Lafayette. He is a member of the Farm Foundation, NFP’s Round Table, an invitationonly forum made up of U.S. farm leaders who, among other things, discuss challenges facing the industry.

Kemper said farmers need to quit thinking about voting numbers in Congress and instead focus on  agriculture’s image to win consumer favor. So often, he said, ag groups “get stuck in their own silos” and instead, should reach out more to non-traditional farm organizations and those which help SNAP recipients, for instance.

“At the end of the day, we all have a contract with the consumer to deliver to them good food at an affordable cost,” he said.