Tom Vilsack served as the 40th governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007, and as the 30th U.S. secretary of agriculture, under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2017. This essay reflects Vilsack’s personal views, not those of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, where he is president and CEO, nor Farm Journal.
Biden’s Plan will Build a Farm Economy Where Today’s and Tomorrow’s Farmers and Ranchers Can Succeed
by Tom Vilsack
“As farmers continue to rebuild from a disastrous trade war that has alienated both our allies and our largest customers, Joe will reverse course with a coherent, assertive trade policy that works for American farmers. He will expand new markets for farm products, and hold cheaters like China accountable without using our farms as collateral damage.”
Every business owner dreams of building something successful enough to be passed on to his or her kids. Nowhere is this more the case than on America’s farms and ranches, yet less than 30 percent of operations survive to pass to a second generation, and a mere 12 percent survive to a third. As farmers continue to struggle with depressed prices, lagging demand, tight credit, extreme weather, and other challenges, many of our best and brightest have left the farm to seek more opportunities in the city. For farms and small towns alike, this slow exodus of our young people is endangering the health of areas that are woven deeply into the fabric of our nation.
This week, Joe Biden launched “Our Kids,” an ad on rural radio stations around the country that speaks to the ability of vibrant rural communities to retain the young men and women who are so vital to their long-term success.
A successful farm economy is a civic engine that creates small-town jobs and drives commerce on rural main streets. As part of his plan for a vibrant rural economy, Joe Biden has a robust and common-sense plan to support and invest in the farms and ranches that help our rural areas thrive.
Important both for farmers and for our energy independence is Joe’s commitment to biofuels. He will uphold and enforce the Renewable Fuels Standard, and reverse the current administration’s tide of waiver handouts for Big Oil. He will invest $400 billion in clean energy research, innovation, and deployment, and he will use every tool at his disposal, including the federal fleet and the federal government’s purchasing power, to promote and advance ethanol, biodiesel, and other biofuels.
As farmers continue to rebuild from a disastrous trade war that has alienated both our allies and our largest customers, Joe will reverse course with a coherent, assertive trade policy that works for American farmers. He will expand new markets for farm products, and hold cheaters like China accountable without using our farms as collateral damage.
Because even the best trading relationships can’t be realized without a consistent and reliable supply chain, Joe will fund a complete revitalization of the infrastructure farmers need to move their products safely to market, including modernization of aging locks and dams; dredging, expansion and maintenance of ports; and much-needed repair and replacement of rural roads and bridges nationwide.
Joe will build on proven on-farm conservation practices—not ideology—to solve the climate crisis, giving farmers new sources of income in the process. He will expand and strengthen working-lands initiatives like the Conservation Stewardship Program to build healthier soil and cleaner water and help agriculture become among the first American industries to achieve net-zero emissions.
Also critical to meeting soil and water quality goals is making full use of precision agriculture tools, but that can’t happen without reliable broadband connectivity. Joe will invest $20 billion in rural broadband infrastructure to connect not just our farms and ranches, but our rural schools and hospitals and businesses too.
To keep young farmers on the land and attract new ones too, Joe will make it easier to access credit and capital by expanding the microloan program for new and beginning farmers, doubling the maximum loan amount to $100,000. Joe will also boost funding for the farm ownership and operating loans that help beginning farmers access the needed capital to get started. Off the farm, Joe will boost funding for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program to help rural entrepreneurs, and expand the number of Rural Business Investment Companies to help rural companies obtain capital.
Joe will invest in growing the bioeconomy that provides such a valuable market for bio-based products made from soybeans, corn and other crops and byproducts, creating demand as well as good manufacturing jobs in the places where they’re grown. He will expand the programs that help farmers access and grow regional food systems and local markets. He will invest in agricultural research at our land grant universities and provide for four-year scholarships for rural kids, and tuition free access to community and technical colleges that may be a better fit for many young people. And he will protect family farmers by strengthening oversight and enforcement of federal antitrust laws to ensure that farmers still have options in a competitive marketplace.
This year, more than a third of farm income will be in the form of payments from the federal government as a result of fallout either from the administration’s trade war, or its disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Farmers know that one-time rescue payments, though needed in the moment, do not signal a healthy or sustainable farm economy in the long term. For that, farmers need certainty, and Joe’s plan represents the structural investments they need to be competitive in the long run.
In my time as Agriculture Secretary under Vice President Biden, he and I knew that for young people to stay on the farm, they had to see a practical pathway to their own economic success. We were proud to work on policies that led to record farm income, farm exports, and prices for corn, soybeans and other crops. But in the years that have passed, that success has faded, and young people are again faced with the agonizing choice to leave home in search of opportunities elsewhere.
Joe has a plan to turn that tide, to help our farmers and ranchers reach that record success again, and most importantly, to keep our kids on the farm.
