After U.S. Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) called for an immediate “economic aid package” to grant farmers economic relief on his fall farm tour with Gov. Sarah Sanders, Congress has responded with a new bill that would ease financial pressure for American growers.
U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, a Republican from Mississippi, put forth the Farmer Assistance and Revenue Mitigation Act of 2024 last week that would provide assistance to farmers when revenues decrease below production costs due to circumstances beyond their control. The FARM Act has 48 co-sponsors, including Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford.
Congress has not passed a new farm bill in years, instead extending the last one that was enacted in 2018. The last extension expired at the end of September.
The FARM Act would direct the agriculture secretary to provide row crop farmers growing corn, wheat, soybean, cotton, rice, sorghum, oats and barley with financial assistance if the income generated by each acre falls short of the cost of production. Emergency payments would be disbursed to producers through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a government owned corporation that funds commodity insurance for farmers.
“I agree there is an urgent need to address economic losses from the 2024 crop and provide emergency assistance so farmers can secure financing for next planting season. The situation for Arkansas farmers is dire. Hardworking farm families can’t work their way out of weather-related losses and low commodity prices,” Boozman said in a statement Wednesday to the Arkansas Times.
“Farmers need updated risk management tools to help them through difficult times like this. That’s why I’m championing improvements to strengthen the farm safety net, while working with my Senate colleagues to deliver immediate help,” the Senator said.
Boozman serves as the ranking-member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and has led Republican efforts to pass a five-year farm bill. He originally called for action in a speech on Sept. 17, and also told the Arkansas Times he “hopes” a new farm bill would be in place before the end of the year.
The FARM Act would not be a five-year farm bill that sets long term agriculture, nutrition, rural development and conservation policies, but rather a short term economic aid package for row crop farmers. As the Arkansas Times previously reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects farm incomes in the Arkansas delta will decline dramatically this year.
Sources of the decline include hurricane damage, falling crop prices and increased inflation and costs for farmers.
Congress is currently in recess, but could advance the FARM Act and a long term farm bill when they return to Washington D.C. Nov. 12.
“This relief would play a crucial role in stabilizing the state’s farm economy, which is projected to drop 10% in 2024, compared to the expected 6.2% decrease nationally,” Dan Wright, president of Arkansas Farm Bureau, said. “We’re thankful to co-sponsor, Rep. Rick Crawford, for his ongoing support to ensure the continued viability of our state’s top industry, agriculture.”
The Arkansas Farm Bureau also released an economic analysis of the FARM Act showing projected payment rate to farmers by different crops, including a projected payout of over $200 per acre of cotton. While farm trade associations are supporting the FARM Act, other groups are less certain about increasing funding for crop insurance subsidies.
The proposal would call for all producers of row crops to receive compensation, however the Environmental Working Group noted that only 20% of Arkansas farmers currently benefit from crop insurance subsidies. Progressive groups like the Environmental Working Group criticize crop insurance subsidies for mostly benefitting the largest, and most wealthy, farm operations.
“Only 20% of farmers in the United States use crop insurance,” Anne Schechinger, midwest director at Environmental Working Group, said. “It’s already set up where most of the small farmers can’t use the program. And then when you look at the 20% who do use the program, most of the money goes to the largest farms and especially commodity farmers.”
Schechinger further explained that crop insurance and commodity subsidies make it easier for larger farms to outcompete smaller farms..
“The people who actually need the support do not have a safety net with the way the current programs are set up,” she said.
Farm bill politics revolve around SNAP and crop insurance
While delta farmers look for an aid package, Arkansas’s food-insecure population finds itself in the middle of the politics preventing a farm bill from passing.
The farm bill was scheduled to get done in 2023, five years after the 2018 and most recent farm bill passed. But a one year extension of the bill was passed in 2023, and Congress allowed that extension to lapse in September of this year.
“As lending season approaches, farmers must work to secure credit for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, credit is drying up as producers face climbing farm input costs and a decline in net farm income,” Crawford said in a press release touting the FARM Act. “Congressional Democrats have been unwilling to compromise on a new farm bill that provides long-term certainty for farm country, and so House Republicans are stepping up once again for our ag producers with this critical economic assistance.”
While Crawford claimed Democrats were unwilling to compromise on a farm bill, the Republican farm bill proposal passed the House Agriculture Committee in May with bipartisan support. But the House bill and Boozman’s own farm bill proposal in the Senate would also limit the Department of Agriculture’s ability to adjust the Thrifty Food Plan in the future, leading to an estimated $30 billion cut to SNAP benefits.
SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a program that provides grocery assistance benefits for low-income individuals and families. In June 2023, Republicans pushed through program eligibility cuts to the program in debt ceiling negotiations with President Joe Biden and Democrats.
Proposed cuts to the SNAP program could be the hang up in negotiations over the next farm bill. U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, currently chairs the Senate agriculture committee.
Stabenow’s farm bill framework does not include any cuts to SNAP, and strengthens the Thrifty Food Plan, a part of the farm bill which was used by the Biden administration in 2021 to make a cost of living adjustment to SNAP benefits.
As the inaction over the farm bill has continued throughout the year, Stabenow released press releases criticizing the Republican farm bill proposals.
“A strong farm bill is one where all farmers benefit – not just the largest farmers or a handful of commodities,” Stabenow said. “The only path forward is to hold together the broad food and farm coalition that has always been the foundation of a successful farm bill.”
In Boozman’s farm bill proposal, released in June, crop insurance subsidies would increase by an average of 15% to incentivize farmers to buy insurance.
But Stabenow is retiring in January, and Republicans are predicted to retake the Senate majority in next week’s election, increasing Boozman’s chances of chairing the Senate agriculture committee in 2025.
Depending on the outcome of the election on Nov. 5, negotiations over the farm bill and FARM Act could change dramatically in the months to come, even as congressional leaders hope a bill can get done by the end of the year.
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Publish date : 2024-10-31 10:57:00
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