Delivering a farm bill worthy of America’s hardworking farm families
Rep. Randy Feenstra
The success of our economy depends on the success of our farmers. According to the Department of Agriculture, agriculture contributed roughly $1.3 trillion to gross domestic product in 2021, with direct farm output reaching nearly $165 billion. The 2023 Feeding the Economy report also confirms the importance of agriculture to the economy, finding that nearly 43 million jobs, $2.3 trillion in wages, and $7.43 trillion in total food and industry economic activity are tied to agriculture. In other words, nearly 20% of the economy and roughly 30% of jobs are connected to agriculture in some way.
When it comes to agriculture, my philosophy is simple. The government should support our farmers when in need, but otherwise stay out of the way as much as possible to let our producers do what they do best: feed and fuel our country and the world. As policymakers, we should never hinder agriculture; we must ensure that our farmers have the tools, resources, and support that they need to succeed. This also happens to be my motto for the farm bill.
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Among many important priorities, I am focused on lowering costs for our producers, exploring opportunities for new export markets, and helping our farmers invest in cutting-edge technologies that facilitate farm productivity and profitability.
Thanks to President Joe Biden’s wasteful spending policies, inflation has hit our family farms hard. The price of basic inputs such as fertilizer, seed, and feed has increased, energy costs have climbed, and interest rates show no sign of receding. But inflation isn’t the only challenge. Burdensome regulations such as the Biden administration’s expanded definition of President Barack Obama’s Waters of the United States rule and California’s absurd Proposition 12 mandates have caused uncertainty and added costly expenses to farmers’ already tight budgets. In my conversations with my Agriculture Advisory Board and producers at my farm bill town halls, the cost of land and doing business is prohibitive, particularly for young and beginning producers.
I believe that the most effective way that we can help our farmers, especially the next generation of producers, weather the impacts of inflation and costly red tape is to protect and strengthen federal crop insurance programs. When a bad storm destroys crops or commodity markets take a turn for the worse, crop insurance is a vital lifeline that keeps our producers afloat. Our young producers cannot afford to forgo crop insurance policies, and we need to ensure our beginning and veteran farmers can afford this expense. To rectify this issue, I introduced the Crop Insurance for Future Farmers Act, which would apply a 15% discount on crop insurance policies for beginning and veteran farmers’ first two years in operation and eventually ratchet down to 10% for their fifth to 10th years in business, helping our young producers and our servicemen and women join the breadbasket of the world. It would also extend crop and livestock insurance protections to 10 years for new and beginning farmers from the current five-year standard.
According to recent estimates, 34% of all U.S. producers are over the age of 65, while only 8% are younger than the age of 35, which means that approximately 40% of farmland is expected to change hands over the next two decades. By supporting our young producers during their most vulnerable years, this legislation will encourage the next generation of farmers to plant their roots in rural communities and simultaneously keep American farmland in the hands of American farmers, where it rightfully belongs.
I am also working on a three-pronged legislative approach to open new export markets and ensure that our agricultural products can be safely exported during a foreign animal disease, or FAD, outbreak. The first leg is my Fortifying Refrigeration Infrastructure and Developing Global Exports (FRIDGE) Act, which will help develop much-needed infrastructure, particularly cold-chain facilities, to ship our beef, chicken, turkey, pork, grains, and other perishable goods around the globe.
I have also introduced the Safe American Food Exports (SAFE) Act to codify the USDA’s role in negotiating regionalization agreements that allow livestock, poultry, and other animal products from unaffected areas of the country to be safely exported in the event of a FAD outbreak.
The third prong of my trade strategy is the Agriculture Export Promotion Act, which I helped lead with Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA). This legislation doubles funding for the Foreign Market Development Program and the Market Access Program, which both promote American agriculture exports in foreign countries and ensure that our farmers receive top dollar for their high-quality products. I believe that these three pieces of legislation are vital to our farmers’ long-term prosperity, and they are top priorities of mine in this upcoming farm bill. While Biden and his Cabinet repeatedly drop the ball on establishing new trade agreements with the outside world, I will continue to do my part to open new markets and support American farmers.
Finally, ensuring that our producers can benefit from advancements in precision agriculture technology remains a priority for me. Last year, after attending the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, I introduced the Precision Agriculture Loan Program Act to help our farmers invest in precision agriculture equipment, which possesses the unlimited potential to lower input costs, increase productivity, reduce inputs, and lessen the time-intensive nature of agriculture.
This legislation, which I also reintroduced this Congress, would establish the first-ever federal precision agriculture loan program in the USDA’s Farm Service Agency and provide our producers with low-interest loans to purchase precision agriculture technology. Under my bill, farmers can access loans of up to $500,000 between three and 12 years in length at interest rates of less than 2%. Equipping our producers with the capital that they need to invest in their businesses is just another tool that we can leverage to help our farming community thrive.
The farm bill reauthorization is right around the corner, so there’s no time to waste. We need to get this must-pass legislation across the finish line as quickly as possible while supporting the needs and priorities of American agriculture. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both the House Agriculture Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee to deliver a farm bill worthy of America’s hardworking farm families.
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Randy Feenstra represents Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.