Peanut’s Perspective on the Farm Bill
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
With calls for no new funding as well as expectations for the most expensive farm bill in history, there’s a whole lot that needs to go on between now and September 30th in constructing the next 5-year legislation. I spoke recently with Don Koehler, Executive Director of the Georgia Peanut Commission. He said it’s going to be a struggle for not just peanut farmers, but all farmers…
“We actually have an economist that we fund a project with him doing what are called representative farms. So he has 22 farms across the country that all include peanuts but they have all the other commodities as well that they would grow.”
The economist takes a farmer panel in a geographic area. Together, they design a farm that would be representative of what the farms are in that spot. Then they look at the economic well-being…
“Right now, on all 22 of the representative farms, those farms off equity because we’ve had a paradigm shift in cost without an equal paradigm shift in price.”
As for the calls to have this be a no-new-spending farm bill?
“Frankly, I don’t see how we do it without adding money, but I can tell you that I don’t see how we ignore the fact that this is a food security issue. It’s a national security issue. Congress is going to have to find a way to do it.”
Don Koehler, Executive Director of the Georgia Peanut Commission.
