Farm Bill Listening Sessions: Same Things Keep Being Repeated

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During Wednesday’s session, farmers and ag industry officials raised many of the same concerns they have during other meetings on the new farm bill. They included:

• Congress needs to modernize the crop insurance program.
• Lawmakers must update Title I to reflect higher input costs and volatile commodity markets.
• “Keep the importance of access to SNAP and the adequacy of those benefits top of mind throughout farm bill discussions.” Celia Cole, chief executive of Feeding Texas, a network of 21 food banks, said SNAP should be expanded to include low-income college students. Cole also said, “Work requirements are not an effective tool to improving employment outcomes.” Conservative lawmakers are expected to seek stricter work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries this year.
• Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, said payment limits should be addressed along with the rules that deny subsidies to people with high incomes. If three-fourths of their income is from agriculture, there should be no barrier to eligibility, he said.
• “A permanent disaster program would be beneficial,” said Murden, because crop insurance is not available for all crops. "We need disaster assistance, better crop insurance and we all need stability with our own water resources," Murden said.
• Brett Erickson, who represented the Texas International Produce Association, the Texas Vegetable Association, and the International Fresh Produce Association, asked the lawmakers for more specialty crop insurance options.
• Jerry Moody, a poultry producer from Omaha, Texas, urged the committee to consider creating flock insurance to protect revenue for poultry growers. He said a common misconception about the poultry industry is that growers don't have any risk, a notion that he said "cannot be further from the truth… There are so many things that are out of our control, whether it be disease [or] no antibiotics anymore," Moody said.

House Ag Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) said he wants to enact a new farm bill before the 2018 farm policy law expires for some provisions this fall.