2023 Tennessee Farm Bureau Policies
Policies which will guide the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation advocacy efforts in 2023 were adopted and finalized by the House of Delegates at the 101st Annual Meeting on December 6, 2022.
Several new policies were added by the voting delegates representing the diverse farming operations across the state. In addition, other existing policies were amended to reflect law or regulatory changes. Below are some of the more significant policy changes.
Farmland Loss
The delegate body recognized the rapid loss of farmland occurring in our state and commended the work of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and the University of Tennessee for their initial work on collecting data. Policy was added to urge TDA and UTIA to continue their study and evaluate possible solutions for farmland loss.
Farm Policy – 2023 Farm Bill Priorities
Soon the 118th Congress will be sworn in and is scheduled to begin their preparations for drafting the 2023 Farm Bill. Priorities established for the 2023 Farm Bill include:
- Full funding for conservation programs to assist landowners with federal environmental regulations and conservation goals.
- Increased funding for agriculture research and extension
- Support for rural economic development
- Allowing farmers the option to update yields without adding base acres
- Automatically enrolling farmers in both Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, with paying out the more beneficial of the two options.
- Increasing reference price for Title I commodities.
- Increased funding for Conservation Stewardship and Environmental Quality Incentives Programs.
- Support a collaborative effort to provide cybersecurity resources to the agriculture industry.
- Supporting Beginning Farmer programs
Funding Local Governments
Language was added to support policies which aid local government’s ability to handle the fiscal impact without negatively impacting agriculture, especially as population grows in Tennessee.
Packer Concentration
The beef commodity advisory committee recommended language supporting legislation which would:
- Utilize USDA to provide producers with increased key details on cattle trade with packers and stockyards.
- Require packers to report increased terms of marketing agreements with producers.
- Provide research opportunities to increase understanding and transparency or fed cattle market trade and its impacts on the U.S. cattle industry.
University of Tennessee
UTIA plays a key role in the lives and businesses of Tennessee farmers, thus farmers want to ensure the entire UT system is functioning at its highest level. TFBF has the utmost desire to maintain our formidable association with UT and will work with stakeholders, including the General Assembly, to ensure UT realigns the focus on agriculture in the state.
These policies were all recommendations from the delegate body, commodity advisory committees, as well as the 2022 Resolutions Committee, which met November 10-11 in Columbia, Tennessee. Special thanks to those who took time out of their schedule and played a key role in the policy making process.
