OSU Extension’s Stan Smith discusses the drought
OSU Extension’s Stan Smith discusses the drought
Ohio farmers worry how bad things might get for themselves and their neighbors if the U.S. Congress fails to pass a farm bill this month.
A sudden lack of farm bill protections could force some to sell farmland that has been in their family for generations, said Ty Higgins, director of communications for the Ohio Farm Bureau.
“I have heard time and time again from farmers across Ohio that, if it weren’t for the farm bill programs, farmers that are struggling this year would not be farming,” Higgins said.
The existing farm bill expires Sept. 30, a tempestuous timeframe for farmers who are harvesting a crop withered so much by drought that some fields are producing barely half of their expected yields.
“If there was ever an example of why we need a farm bill, what we’re seeing in Ohio with the drought is a prime example,” Higgins said.
‘New law that makes more sense for 2024’
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 was supposed to expire in September 2023, the typical five-year lifespan for a farm bill. Rather than work on a new farm bill, legislators last year passed a one-year extension.
“The thing that really should take readers by surprise is we’re under a farm bill that was created before heavy rains in the spring of 2019, where a million and a half acres of Ohio corn and soybeans didn’t get planted,” Higgins said. “We didn’t know that a global pandemic was going to hit our society. … We didn’t know inflation was going to hit the levels that it has in recent years, and we’re under a farm bill where we didn’t know there was going to be global unrest on the other side of the world causing input prices for farmers to skyrocket.”
More: 2018 Farm Bill https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-bill/index
That’s why, Higgins said, Farm Bureau members from across the Buckeye State are begging congress for a new farm bill, not another extension.
“There are so many things that have changed since 2018,” Higgins said. “We really need to push lawmakers to understand the importance of modernizing the farm bill and getting new law that makes more sense for 2024 passed as soon as possible.”
Improved crop insurance policies would help protect farmers from decreased yields, especially when prices have fallen.
“For us it all comes down, really, to those risk management parts of the farm bill,” Higgins said. “Farmers are not only getting lower yields for their crop, but they’re getting lower prices for those commodities as well. So the crop insurance program will certainly help.”
‘We’re heading into a perfect storm’
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture heard similar testimony this summer from a panel of witnesses who “warned of the dire outlook facing our agricultural supply chain,” according to a committee news release.
Farms are facing plummeting crop prices, rising production costs, interest rates that have doubled, tightening credit, depleted working capital and numerous natural disasters, Dana Allen-Tully, Ph.D., family farmer and president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, told legislators.
“Unless conditions change, I believe we’re heading into a perfect storm, a storm that I don’t think will be fully appreciated until early next year when farmers try to get loans but are unable to do so because they cannot demonstrate the ability to cash flow,” Allen-Tully testified.
David Dunlow, chairman of the American Cotton Producers, told Congress that inputs such as labor, supplies, equipment, parts, fuel, land rent, fertilizer and seed have increased in price, some nearly doubling.
“My margins have narrowed over the last several years,” Dunlow said. “Things have gotten so bad that these days a bumper crop is required just to break even.”
More: ‘Risk of death by suicide’: Ohio farmers can now access mental-health resources 24/7
Net farm income across the country is forecast to drop this year by 25.5% − 27.1% after accounting for inflation − according to an income forecast released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
It would be the second year in a row of severe profit reductions after farms nationwide experienced a 16% drop in net incomes from 2022 to 2023.
‘There’s too much on the line’
The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture passed a new farm bill this summer, but no further action has been taken.
“It’s been sitting there waiting on the House to take it up on the floor,” Higgins said.
Farm bills typically are protected from partisan politics because of their importance − while about 25% of the bill is designed to help farmers, the other 75% deals with food assistance programs.
The House would need to pass the bill before it can advance to the Senate. The new farm bill eventually would need to be signed by President Joe Biden this month.
“We’ve pushed close to the deadline,” Higgins said. “Last year we were up against the deadline and they decided to extend it until the end of September this year.”
Another extension is not something Ohio farmers want to see.
“It’s not acceptable this time around,” Higgins said. “There’s too much on the line, especially for Ohio farmers and the challenges we’re seeing here. We need to make sure that we protect our farmers, protect our nation’s food supply, and get a new farm bill passed that makes sense for 2024, not for 2018.”
‘This bill should not become a political gimmick’
U.S. Rep. Max Miller, a Republican who represents Ohio District 7, said he is trying to make sure the new farm bill gets passed this month.
“U.S. and Ohio farmers, ranchers and producers depend on a farm bill so that they can produce for America and strengthen our food and economic security,” Miller told the USA Today network of Ohio.
Miller serves on the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, which is chaired by Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Republican from Pennsylvania District 15.
“We have crafted a strong farm bill that bolsters our agriculture industry and will be good for American consumers,” Miller said. “This bill should not become a political gimmick. Congress needs to act timely, and I am doing everything I can to support Chairman Thompson and others in keeping this vital legislation on track.”
If Congress takes no action, then neither the new bill nor the existing one would be valid.
“They go back to 1934 policy for the farm bill by law,” Higgins said. “If they don’t do anything and the farm bill expires, we go back that many decades to those types of programs. So that’s worst case scenario.”
He said the Farm Bureau encourages everyone to call their U.S. representatives and senators and urge them to take action.
“Let them know that kicking the can down the road is not helping anybody in this situation,” Higgins said. “We need a new farm bill before it expires at the end of September.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-11 12:59:00
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