American Farm Bureau Leaders Taking Aim at the Next Farm Bill

(Delta Farm Press) – American Farm Bureau Federation leaders are working to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership during a lame-duck session of Congress. But they’re also taking aim at the 2018 or 2019 farm bill as another vehicle for helping farmers through tough economic times.

American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall says the AFBF has established a farm bill task force or working group that is looking at white papers and weighing options for what might be included in the legislation Congress is scheduled to write in 2018.

“We’ve had a number of people in to discuss the shortcomings of the 2014 farm bill and what we can do to address those,” said Duvall, the keynote speaker for the Southern Crop Production Association’s annual meeting in Amelia Island, Fla., on Nov. 7-9. More than 200 members attended the SCPA’s 62nd annual meeting.

Duvall says financing for 2017 will be another issue that will have to be addressed soon because of the “potential disaster” producers are facing in the wake of significant price declines and the failure of input prices to follow suit.