NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. said what was supposed to be the 2023 Farm Bill isn't going to be that, for sure.
"Fortunately, Pat Roberts left us a good farm bill," Marshall said. "We have done an extension on that. That will go through the next fiscal year, which would expire Sept. 30. Here's the problem. This farm bill, as we see it right now, is led by Democrats and it's a nutrition bill. We budgeted $60 billion to spend on food stamps and we're spending $180 billion a year right now on food stamps. The Democrats want more money for food stamps, but no more money for our farmers. We want to put the farm back in the Farm Bill."
Marshall wants to see more money for Title I funding. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, risk management tools like the shallow-loss coverage programs in recent farm bills are vital to farmers and ranchers being able to mitigate the volatile nature of farming. The 2014 farm bill created the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs, and the 2018 farm bill reauthorized and strengthened them. While farmers and ranchers have faced unprecedented circumstances the past few years, from record prevented-plant acres in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to record-high input costs and now inflation, the one thing that has stayed consistent is the need for a variety of risk management options like ARC, PLC and marketing assistance loans that fit farmers’ and ranchers’ needs.
"We feel like we've suffered the seven plagues of Egypt," Marshall said. "Two years of drought, then this White House gave us high fertilizer prices and high diesel prices and high interest rates. That's really what I'm hearing the most about from producers. Their interest rates have went from 2% to 9% for a million dollar operation loan and therefore they are not making any money."
The economic conditions are squeezing out the few small farmers left.
"With this, the economy in today's agriculture, we're going to be losing more and more farmers," Marshall said. "They simply just can't make a go of it right now. That's what the purpose of the farm bill is, is to help these farmers through years when we have drought or get hailed out or have insects, or whatever is causing the problems."
Marshall honestly doesn't see much hope on the horizon for months on a farm bill. He would not be surprised if it were at least late summer of 2024 before there really is much movement on the issue.
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