2023 Farm Bill Update

• Congress is currently having discussions about the next Farm Bill, and drafting is expected to begin after the August recess.
• Both Tennessee Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau have established Farm Bill Working Groups to prepare and advocate for the next Farm Bill.

1. Has there been any discussion in your community about the 2023 Farm Bill?

The farm bill is an omnibus, multi-year authorizing legislation which governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It is typically renewed about every five years. The 2023 Farm Bill is expected to contain 12 titles encompassing commodity price and income supports, crop insurance, farm credit, trade, conservation, research, rural development, energy, and foreign and domestic food programs, among others.

The current operating farm bill extends through the 2023 crop year and will cover the 2023/24 marketing year crops. Dairy provisions of the farm bill will expire in calendar year 2023. Congress is currently having discussions about the next farm bill. Now is the time for Farm Bureau leaders to think and discuss about what changes are needed to the Farm Bill structure.

Both Tennessee Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau have established Farm Bill Working Groups to prepare and advocate for the next Farm Bill. American Farm Bureau has developed a website with information about the Farm Bill and has recently launched a nationwide campaign to educate and grow support.

Farm Bill passage and implementation has a unique timeline with serious consequences if lawmakers fail to adhere to it. Its five-year lifespan provides lawmakers the opportunity to update the programs, so they are relevant to current market and economic conditions. There have been 18 farm bills since the 1930s. If the farm bill were to expire without a new bill in place or if programs were not granted an extension by Congress, all of the programs would return to the 1949 bill, meaning reverting to support price programs for the limited number of commodities covered by the 73-year-old law. Adjusted for inflation, these support prices would be far above even the current elevated market. This helps drive the urgency farmers-and Congress-feel about passing this legislation in a timely manner.

As of summer 2023, the Farm Bill is projected to cost $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years (FY2024-FY2033). For the 2023 Farm Bill, American Farm Bureau Federation aims to:
• Increase baseline for farm bill program spending;
• Maintain a unified farm bill which keeps nutrition programs and farm programs together;
• Any changes to current farm legislation must be an amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 or the Agricultural Act of 1949;
• Prioritize risk management tools and funding for both federal crop insurance and commodity programs; and
• Ensure adequate USDA staffing capacity and technical assistance.

Tennessee Farm Bureau Farm Policy (Partial)

A national farm policy should contain the following concepts:

• A market oriented policy allowing farmers the freedom to make production decisions based on markets.
• Strong and effective safety net and risk management programs that protect producers from catastrophic occurrences.
• Affordable, practical and effective insurance products to further protect individual risks.
• Compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements.
• A marketing assistance loan program with loan rates that better reflect market values.
• Recognition of the needs of livestock, poultry and specialty crop producers.
• Full funding for conservation programs to assist landowners with federal environmental regulations and conservation goals.
• Increase funding for agricultural research and extension.
• Support for rural economic development including, but not limited to, access to quality and affordable broadband internet.

Priorities for reauthorizing future Farm Bills should include the following concepts:

• Increased funding for farm programs to reflect the current farm economy. Congress should at a minimum work within baseline funding without making cuts.
• Top priorities for funding should be crop insurance, commodity programs, conservation, and trade.
• Commodity program funding should not be shifted to conservation programs. Priority for conservation programs should be given to working lands programs over retirement land programs. We support a more efficient use of funding and spreading practices across more acres. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) should be reviewed to consider whether highly erodible land is the primary focus given the current farm economy.
• We support the seed cotton program.
• Farmers should have the option to update yields and base acres.
• If a farm permanently ceases active agricultural production, the associated base acres should be used to update county base acres.
• We support payments based on historic acres rather than planted acres to remain compliant with WTO.
• We support a cost effective risk management tool for livestock producers with less complexity and more flexibility.
• We support modifying the “actively engaged” rules to define the term “family” to include non-lineal familial relationships.
• We support the concept of a tax deferred farm savings account available for producers of all commodities to use as a risk management tool.
• Farmers should be automatically enrolled into both Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) with payment determined by the more beneficial coverage plan.
• We support a reference price increase for all Title 1 commodities.
• We support increased funding to the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The EQIP should allow for flexibility in addressing local and regional resource challenges, including groundwater sustainability and drought relief, resilience, and preparedness.
• We support a collaborative effort to provide cyber security resources to farmers and the agriculture industry.
• We support Beginning Farmer programs. We support the program lasting 10 years from the first filing of a Schedule F or until the individual is 35 years old, whichever is longer.
• We oppose any restrictions in overall funding for the Farm Bill.
• We oppose separating nutrition programs from other titles of the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is the United States’ food security policy. We believe it serves the nation well for Congress to enact legislation ensuring a safe and abundant food supply along with access to food for those in need.
• We oppose decreasing payment limits. We oppose adjusting means testing in a way that captures more participants. We oppose applying payment limits and means testing to crop insurance premium discounts.

Foreign Trade (Partial)

Our government should give U.S. citizens and companies access to world markets. Retaliatory subsidies for our agricultural exports should be carried out if necessary, to give U.S. farmers an equal chance to compete in world markets. We support the use of export market development programs and export subsidies to recapture foreign markets taken from us by subsidized exports. Market development is key. The Farm Bill authorizes four programs to promote U.S. agricultural products in foreign markets, including the Market Access Program (MAP), the Foreign Market Development Program (FMDP), the Emerging Markets Program (EMP) and the Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops Program (TASC). Each program should be funded and used to the maximum allowed by law in an effort to increase our foreign markets.

See also full Farm Policy, Risk Management, Conservation Compliance, Wetlands, and Commodity Specific policies.

American Farm Bureau

For more information on American Farm Bureau’s Farm Bill Priorities, scan the QR code below: