Farm Bill Safety Net Pt 2

Farm Bill Safety Net Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. The 2023 Farm Bill needs a safety net that will protect ag producers from additional and unforeseen expenses in the coming crop seasons.

As costs keep climbing, Senate Ag Committee economist, John Newton says stability in the farm bill safety net is more important than ever …

NEWTON … “When folks are spending so much money to put a crop in the ground, to not see a safety net that's reflecting that reality is something that, I think, we want to address, and it's a big priority of ours on the farm bill.”

This farm bill will top $1 trillion, but Newton says, that’s just one of the challenges legislators face with the new Farm Bill …

NEWTON … “A, this is the first trillion-dollar farm bill that we're ever going to do and B, how do we find the resources that we need to do to address all the various issues in agriculture, whether it's shoring up the safety net, shoring up crop insurance, and ag research is a big deal. For trade, we're gonna have a record-large negative trade balance this year, negative $15 billion, so how do we boost funding for MAP and FMD programs? How do we address things like the bird flu? This is the worst bird flu outbreak we've ever seen. So, we've got a lot of challenges ahead of us. We know we need additional financial resources, but again, with a farm bill over one and a half trillion dollars, that's going to be the dynamic that we have to deal with.”

For example, prices for corn and soybeans are projected to fall 30% and 2%, respectively, making ag that much more challenging for U.S. farmers.

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