Rural America Doesn’t Just Want a Farm Bill This Year- It Needs One

By Dana Allen-Tully

Plummeting crop prices. High input costs. Rising interest rates. Tightening credit. Severe and chronic natural disasters. Record U.S. agricultural trade deficits. A global economic downturn. A record fall in net farm income. An outdated farm safety net.      

At long last, something’s got to give.

The 2018 Farm Bill was extended for one year in 2023, and this extension is set to expire on Sept. 30, though the real deadline for farm bill action – either new legislation or another extension – comes at the end of this year. 

Deliberations on a 2024 Farm Bill have continued this year, but the momentum has hit a wall. In May, the House Agriculture Committee advanced its Farm, Food and National Security Act of 2024 on a bipartisan vote. All eyes are now on the Senate to follow suit.

But as we wait for action, the situation in farm country paints a very grim picture.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates net farm income is on track to fall drastically again this year. In fact, the change from 2023 to 2024 represents the largest year-to-year decrease in net farm income ever recorded.  

Adjusted for inflation, net farm income in 2024 is projected to be $43 billion lower than 2023 net farm income, an over 27 percent decrease. This comes after a nearly 19 percent decline from 2022 to 2023.  

In all, net farm income will have declined over 40 percent from 2022 to 2024 alone. 

In its first quarter Agriculture Credit Survey, the Kansas City Federal Reserve found tightened farm income and credit conditions, declining farm loan repayment rates and farm incomes retracting at a sharp pace.

Meanwhile, commodity prices are still dropping, and there is no relief in sight.  The situation is unsustainable, but don’t just take my word for it. USDA also estimates a record agricultural trade deficit for Fiscal Year 2024 of $32 billion – almost double that of Fiscal Year 2023.

I note these things not to discourage lawmakers, but rather to sound the alarm. The optimal time to have completed a farm bill was before Sept. 30, 2023. The next best time is now.

America’s farm and ranch families – the ones who put in the work, sunup to sundown, to deliver the safest, most abundant, most affordable food, feed, fiber and fuel supply in the world – don’t just want a farm bill this year. They really need one.

And not just any farm bill, but one which strengthens the safety net for our farm and ranch families.   

American families and families around the world who rely on the food, clothing and fuel produced by U.S. producers also need a farm bill. Inflation has already racked them. Failure to pass a farm bill and the real potential for another farm financial crisis cannot help tame inflation or mitigate a bad economy.    

A strong new farm bill would be a shot in the arm to the spirits of dispirited farm and ranch families, to the agricultural economy and our rural communities and to the national economic outlook.   

For the sake of everyone and everything riding on a farm bill, it’s past time to get the job done.  

Dr. Dana Allen-Tully is president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association and the owner and operator of Gar-Lin Dairy, a diversified family farm operation in Eyota, Minn. This opinion column was originally published in Agri-Pulse on July 11.