2019 in Ag

2019 in Ag

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
The American Farm Bureau Federation looks back at a challenging 2019 and reflects on victories for agriculture.

2019 will be remembered as one of the toughest years in recent memory for American agriculture. But FB administrators say there were many bright spots too.

"Seeing the Waters of the U.S. Rule get rolled backward and the new Clean Water Rule moving forward. We saw the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement pass the House. We saw the Japanese government come together with the United States and come up with a new agreement that puts us back in the game. Seeing the disaster bill coming forward and the trade mitigation payments. We welcomed that extra assistance to get us through a very tough year," said Dale Moore, executive vice president of the American Farm Bureau.

While there were victories in 2019, a long list of challenges dominated the headlines and Moore says the weather was at the top of that list.

"We had rough weather getting crops in the ground, we had rough weather throughout the growing season, whether it was blizzards, late winter, spring floods, the hurricane season, the wildfires, Mother Nature has just not been cooperative. This ongoing trade war that we’ve had with China, with some progress toward ratcheting back tariffs that have hit all of agriculture so hard here in the United States," said Moore.

The AFBF says that farmers and ranchers stepped up to help each other through some of those serious weather disasters in 2019.

"Certainly, the flooding in the Midwest, we had multiple state Farm Bureaus and others contribute to special funds to help farmers and ranchers that were hardest hit. Some of the same states that were hit with flooding were helping other states that were hit with hurricanes. Go back over the last two or three years, it’s something that makes me very proud to represent the men and women who farm and ranch in this country," said Moore.

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