Farmers to Congress: Keep ag safety nets, nutrition in farm bill

Aug. 03--MORGAN -- Congress should maintain crop insurance levels and keep safety nets in place for farmers in its next agricultural bill, according to more than 30 farmers and ag representatives at Farmfest Thursday.

Eleven U.S. representatives, including Rep. Tim Walz, D-1st District, listened to ag advocates, nonprofit workers and farm growers give advice on the upcoming 2018 farm bill.

That advice? Rethink proposed cuts to crop insurance. Keep nutrition programs funded and part of the farm bill. And keep improving trade opportunities with other countries.

"The farm bill is about risk management tools, a safety net for finances," said Kevin Paap, Minnesota Farm Bureau president and Garden City farmer. "Our safety net is our international market. Our safety net is that demand for the 96 percent of the people in the world who don't live in the U.S."

Members of the House Committee on Agriculture have been looking at potential cuts to crop insurance programs in response to budget proposals. President Donald Trump's budget proposal, released earlier this year, called for cutting more than $28 billion out of crop insurance programs over the next 10 years.

Farmers say those insurance programs are vital to protecting younger farmers and ensuring risk management.

"All I can say is please protect it," said Bruce Peterson, a board member with the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. "It's so vitally important to primarily young farmers, but with low prices, maybe you don't necessarily have to be so young to obtain credit. And it's a key component to obtain credit."

Dairy farmers in particular say changes to previous programs has created complications for their operations. The 2014 farm bill created a Margin Protection Program, which was supposed to help offset feed prices compared to milk prices if the margin was less than $4. Yet few farmers have received payments, which caused enrollment to decline.

Yet farmers also are looking outside agricultural concerns to broader U.S. policy discussions. Several farmers were concerned with the nation's relations with Mexico and other countries, in part because Mexico is a large importer of dairy products and because farmers need more labor from temporary immigrant workers under H2A visas.

"It's very difficult to find people to work," said David Buck, president of Minnesota Milk Producers.

Aside from ag concerns, the farm bill is also largely responsible for the United States' food and nutrition programs. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is the largest such program contained in the farm bill, which has drawn ire from conservatives in the past who want to keep nutrition programs separate from ag policy.

Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, the committee chairman, said Thursday he couldn't see a way to separating the two issues and getting a bill done before the current farm bill expires. Still, several advocates and farmers pressed representatives not to cut federal funding for SNAP.

Minnesota Department of Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper said almost 12 percent of Minnesotans receive SNAP benefits every month; 70 percent of those are seniors, people with disabilities and children.

"We know that food security for the hungry at the expense of economic security for the men and women who grow the food in the first place is a false choice," Piper said.

Conaway and Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, D-7th District, said they plan to introduce a bill by the end of the year. Peterson is the senior Democrat on the ag committee.

It remains to be seen whether the committee will have to deal with proposed cuts to the farm bill, however. Conaway said he'd wait and see how 2018 budget negotiations between the House and Senate shake out.

"I don't want to pick a fight with anybody that I don't have to have," he said. "If the $10 billion in cuts to the House bill don't survive negotiations with the Senate, then we'll move forward. But if it does, then we'll meet our goal that was put in there for the House budget."

Walz said he supports the committee's aggressive timeline. The Mankato congressman conceded there may be cuts to crop insurance in the next farm bill but said the committee won't make cuts lightly.

"I think it'll be a challenge, but I think all of us know how important it is," he said.

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