Cotton Producers Talk Policy at Summer Meeting

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

The summer meeting for the American Cotton Producers was held recently in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nathan Reed, chairman of the American Cotton Producers of the National Cotton Council…

“Senator Boozman was kind of the highlight. He zoomed in. He’s the ranking member of the Agricultural Committee and talked about maybe hopefully getting a farm bill written next year.”

He says farm labor was also an issue discussed…

“H2A Visas/bringing in foreign labor has become something that farmers have been forced to do because of the lack of help in a lot of places. The National Council has a political action committee, a Cotton Action Committee. We’ve had a good year raising funds for that. These political action committees are very instrumental especially this is a midyear election term. We’re going to have lots of new members of congress. This political action committee is very important to be able to educate these new members in congress and sit down and have a discussion about why the farm bill is so important and a substantial safety net for American farmers.”

Again that is Nathan Reed. He is a chairman of the American Cotton Producers of the National Cotton Council. It’s an organization of 24 cotton producer leaders elected by their peers from across the Cotton Belt. Reed himself from Marianna, Arkansas. He touched briefly on the farm bill. The current farm bill to expire September 30 of next year.