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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, May 20, 2024
Congress chose the Prairie Pothole Region to try out shorter-term Conservation Reserve Program contracts, infusing the 34-year-old program with lower-cost alternatives for farmers wanting to idle their least productive cropland.
The new farm bill largely preserves the commodity and conservation programs but it includes some significant improvements for dairy producers and also would raise price floors for sugar and other commodities.
Rep. Collin Peterson expressed confidence Wednesday that a new farm bill would be enacted before the Minnesota Democrat regains the chairmanship of the House Agriculture Committee in January.
The average farmer probably won’t notice anytime soon that the 2014 farm bill has expired, but producers who try to sign up for some conservation programs could be turned away, and some commodity groups will have to go without some trade promotion funding on which they have counted.
The No. 2-ranking Senate Republican is urging the Senate’s farm bill negotiators to consider tightening food stamp work requirements in line with provisions in the House-passed version.
When House and Senate negotiators sit down in coming days to start writing the final version of a new farm bill, they will find that many of their sharpest differences will be over how far they should reshape and fund conservation programs.
If history is a guide, there’s little chance Congress will enact a new farm bill this year. Congress hasn’t enacted a farm bill in the same year it was first introduced since 1990, which is what lawmakers are trying to do this year.
Unlike most jobs, the last person leaving the office doesn’t turn out the lights – in farming and ranching, Mother Nature will take care of it for you.
Leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee this week will seek to get a strong bipartisan vote for their farm bill draft from the panel, giving the measure momentum as it heads to the Senate floor in the following days.
