Every five years the US Congress brings forth a new Farm Bill and since the last one came about in 2018, this is the year for a new one. According to North Dakota Senator John Hoeven, farming itself is only about 20 percent of the actual Farm Bill, the other 80 percent deals with numerous other programs, like SNAP (formerly known as Food Stamps) for example.
Hoeven is one of the authors of the new Farm Bill being constructed by a bipartisan standing committee, the Committee on Agriculture, first formed in 1825 and in continuous existence ever since. He explained that he’s the second ranking Republican member of the Committee that is chaired by Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Within the Committee on Agriculture, the subcommittee that Hoeven sits on focuses on livestock, dairy, poultry, local food systems and food safety and security.
Hoeven took some time to visit with this reporter by telephone earlier this month beginning his conversation asking his own questions about Devils Lake and how things were going here. Normally it was expected that his office would send a press release on the topic at hand – National Ag Day, March 21 – but he had heard that the Devils Lake Journal was now locally owned and that a former editor (me) had come out of retirement to help out, so he wanted to talk to that individual personally. (We go way back!)
He asked about the city’s plans for improved health care facilities that he’d heard rumblings about and other projects ahead for the community, stating, “It’s been a while since I visited Devils Lake, so I’m going to see what I can do about that.” This reporter wouldn’t be surprised if he came for a visit in the not-so-distant future. Stay tuned for that!
Farm Bill
Hoeven said that in the upcoming Farm Bill they are working on strengthening what is already good in the present Farm Bill taking into consideration the influences that a world-wide pandemic, trade wars and weather issues have had on farming. “We want to improve where we can, but it’s not about recreating the wheel.” He added that they’ve had a good hearing already and have been meeting in round table discussion groups and commodity groups for input.
One of the concerns they are addressing is maintaining and strengthening crop insurance. North Dakota farmers benefit because of diversification, where other states, like Iowa, Hoeven pointed out, they have one major crop but North Dakota leads the nation in over 14 different commodities. We have the benefit of the Ag research and development done through NDSU that helps produce much more emphasis on crop diversity. Hoeven talked about how important the ARC and PLC programs are to North Dakota farmers.
The Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs were authorized by the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills. The ARC and PLC programs provide financial protections to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices or revenues and are vital economic safety nets for most American farmers.
According to the USDA website the election and enrollment period for the 2023 Crop Year opened Oct. 17, 2022 and closed March 15, 2023. Producers could make or change election and enroll for the 2023 ARC or PLC, providing future protections against market fluctuations. This provides a safety net to manage risk.
Hoeven also brought up disaster assistance and the need to build support for that, “We’ve seen this happen around the world as natural disasters affect us all.”
America’s is the highest quality food in the world, Hoeven said. We have the best choices and the least amount of our paychecks dedicated to food in the world. Agriculture is the heart and soul of America and all of the country will continue to benefit from a healthy farm economic climate.
Hoeven also touched on two government programs that benefit agriculture in the country and North Dakota specifically, the US Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). In North Dakota, we have both thanks to work being done through NDSU and the land grant university research.
He summed up his conversation about the 2023 Farm Bill from his perspective in the issues of strengthening and supporting the crop insurance safety net, trade programs around the world, access to markets, livestock producers and pricing, market concerns leading to a cattle contract library providing more information on selling cattle and trade supports, conservation programs that are farmer-friendly and not mandatory, reducing the regulatory burden, like WOTUS, for example. In his opinion the current WOTUS regulations are bad for farmers and an example of government overreach.
From a recent press release on this topic – “Hoeven has been working to ensure North Dakota producers have the opportunity to give direct input as the next farm bill is written. To this end, the senator hosted Senator John Boozman, Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, in North Dakota last year for a discussion with local producers and commodity groups. Hoeven continues to meet with North Dakota farmers and ranchers to gather feedback and help ensure their concerns and priorities are addressed.” From the wording of this press release, dated March 17, it appeared to this reporter that the Senator (or his office) had nearly word for word duplicated or combined our telephone conversation into a press release where Hoeven urged the US Dept. of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to support efforts to maintain and strengthen the safety net for US farmers and ranchers. It doesn’t really matter which came first, does it? As long as the message gets out.
