President’s Podium: Food and Farm Bill

The farm economy is struggling. Auction listings are showing a scary number of complete liquidations, many of them multi-generational family farms. This indicates that even well-run operations that have survived at least one, if not several generational transitions are under pressure. I have talked to several of our members who have been crawling along the last few years as persistently low commodity prices and increasingly high input costs are chip away at their equity. Now, they are questioning if they are going to be able to get full operating loans next year.  

Since the 2018 Food and Farm bill first expired and was moved to one-year extensions, over $45 Billion has been given as ad-hoc disaster payments to the agricultural industry. This money was absolutely necessary to keep family farms in business, but it is not what farmers want. Farmers want a fair chance to make a fair wage with an economic safety net for those (ideally few) times major events outside their control occur. It is apparent that is not the case right now. 

The first step in fixing a problem is to realize that there is a problem.  

This week the Senate Ag Committee held a hearing on the 2026 Food and Farm Bill.  While some improvements were added (including bipartisan support for a MCOOL amendment!) it still falls far short of the need. The base policies and programs remained the same as the 2018 Food and Farm Bill which have absolutely failed family farmers, as indicated by our current crisis. 

If a Food and Farm Bill is passed after the August recess—and if it resembles either the House-passed version or the stalled Senate version—we can expect the policies carried over from 2018 to produce the same results over the next five years. That means at least $100 Billion in ad hoc disaster payments, while family farms continue to disappear.  That reliance on ad hoc payments means that lenders will continue to tighten credit availability. The total dollars passing through farms will continue to increase, while the ability to make a living farming continues to shrink. The stress on our family farmers will continue to intensify, accelerating the already-worrisome downward trend in farmer mental health and well-being. 

It is an uncomfortable feeling to be the President of RMFU and asking our federal legislators to vote NO on a five-year Food and Farm Bill, but legislators must understand that more of the same failed policy will lead to more of the same expensive ad hoc payments. It will create the same mental stress on our farmers, the same decline of rural communities, and more of the same loss of family farms. 

I will continue to push for our legislators to realize that there is a problem, and then work closely with legislators, other farm organizations, economists, and everyone else that can help us fix the problem, not perpetuate it. A simple one-year extension and real bipartisan discussions on a Food and Farm Bill to replace the failed policies in place is the best path forward. 

RMFU’s influence is strong because of our members, and now is the time for you to add your voice. I encourage you to contact your members of Congress and tell them what current farm policy is doing to your operation and your community. Ask them not to settle for another five years of the same failed policies. Family farmers need, and deserve, a Food and Farm Bill that gives them a fair chance to make a living from the work they do.