The Farm Bill is a comprehensive package of legislation that is passed roughly every five years and contains both agriculture and nutrition programs. Funding for nutrition programs comprises roughly 80% of the bill, so it could more accurately be called a “Food and Farm Bill.” There are a multitude of programs in the Bill, covering everything from crop insurance to research to beginning farmer programs—and most of them don’t seem to have anything to do with horticulture—so why should we care?
Regardless of how visible or invisible Farm Bill Programs are to our industry, we SHOULD care. If the Farm Bill went away—or reverted to the permanent legislation enacted in 1938 and 1949, which is what will happen if the current bill is not extended—we WOULD notice. AmericanHort is our leader on Farm Bill issues, and has white papers on four areas of importance to our industry that are affected by the current and upcoming Farm Bills: Workforce Solutions, Research & Innovation, Pest & Disease Management & Disaster Prevention, and Safety Net Programs for Horticulture. I think we can all agree those are areas that are important to our industry.
Workforce is constantly on our minds—and on the minds of every other industry, it seems. This will continue to be an ongoing concern, and we can use every tool we can possibly get to help the problem. AmericanHort’s priorities in the Farm Bill for workforce are: research funding for mechanization and automation, and help with the cost of housing for ag workers.
Research and innovation may be the Farm Bill program most of you have heard of—CNGA has had multiple Specialty Crop Block Grants in the past for the Plant Something program, and we have one currently to help support our education efforts. This funding all comes from the Farm Bill. American Hort’s priority for research in the Bill is to increase funding for “core” research programs, including the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, and Plant Protection Act.
We are all too aware of increasing pest problems. Colorado seems to have had a great weather year for troublesome insects. The Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention program in the Farm Bill addresses these threats. The program has been successful, but inflation has effectively decreased funding. Additional funding is needed to maintain effectiveness. The Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention Program is currently funded at $75 million annually, and AmericanHort is asking for an increase to $90 million. When you consider losses based on crop damage and disrupted access to markets, funding preventative measures is an important investment.
Horticulture doesn’t get the headlines in Farm Bill testimony compared to crops like corn and wheat. However, the crop insurance programs used for risk management and disaster-relief programs, which are part of the Bill, are also important. The horticulture industry doesn’t utilize these programs as widely as commodity crops do, but the primary reason for this is that the programs are not cost-effective. Then, when a disaster does happen, growers rely on disaster relief programs, which may take years to get payments to growers. American Hort is asking Congress to:
- Create a permanent disaster relief program (this is widely supported across all agriculture).
- Enhance existing crop insurance options that could apply to horticulture.
- Reform Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limitations that disproportionately keep growers in the green industry from participating.
With one Congressional representative saying the Farm bill will be ‘biggest political dogfight in modern history,’ and many ag groups resolved to the fact that the last couple of Farm Bills have been extended, and a new one not passed for several months, we are just in the 1st quarter of what could be a very long game.
