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Trade and agriculture issues may play unusually prominent roles in congressional races this fall as Democrats look to seize control of the House and hang on to Senate seats they hold in farm states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016.

Industrial hemp could be a big winner if the House and Senate are able to resolve their differences and pass a farm bill before the 2014 version expires Sept. 30.

Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts plans to call the first formal meeting of the farm bill conference committee shortly after the Labor Day recess and hopes to make headway by then in settling differences with the House negotiators.

Advocates for local and small-scale farming faced a bleak future as Congress prepared to write a new farm bill, so they decided to broaden support by reaching across party lines.  

Some Republicans say the best thing Congress could do to help farmers withstand the turmoil in trade policy is to pass a new farm bill. But economists say the legislation is unlikely to offer much relief to farmers, especially soybean growers, even if commodity prices don’t recover from their current tariff-induced slump.