Agri-Pulse recently held a webinar to talk about the top issues facing rural America this year and what might be ahead in the 117th Congress for potential answers to those challenges.
One of the speakers was South Dakota Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson. He said the Agriculture Committee has typically done business in a bipartisan fashion, but he worries bipartisanship may be harder to maintain in the new Congress.
“I’m dedicated to maintaining it. We all know that farm country does better when we don’t engage in the kind of partisan bickering that so many other committees have as their standard. But I think we are entering a potentially more difficult environment because there are a lot of folks who want to use a lot of ag policy vehicles to also attack environmental issues and address climate and carbon. Of course, we want to be good stewards and there is plenty we can do together on that front. But it is going to be more difficult to craft bipartisanship if we’re not focused just on ag policy in the Ag Committee.”
He said residents of Rural America need to tell their representatives that bipartisanship is the key to success in farm country.
“For all of you folks in farm country, try to reinforce to your members of Congress and thought leaders that we do need an ag policy that continues to be bipartisan because that’s really good for the whole country.”
Johnson says three key issues need addressing to keep rural America on the right track.
“We have mandatory price reporting that the House Ag Committee is going to need to address, and I think that will give us an opportunity and a vehicle to talk about livestock issues that probably need addressing. Number two is trade. I think we have a lot of opportunities to increase market opportunities for American producers. We’ve had a great price rally on the row-crop side, and we’ve had some recovering prices on the livestock side, and if we’re going to keep that good news coming, it’s going to be because of more market opportunities. Finally, I know the farm bill seems like it’s an eternity away, but it really isn’t. We are laying the groundwork today for the next farm bill.”
He says it’s a big year when it comes to developing the next farm bill.
“This is going to be a key year to the extent that members are putting down markers, to the extent that they’re trying to carve out policy arenas they want to take some ownership of, to the extent that they want to crowd-source these ideas with the ag community, this is going to be the year where so many of those seeds are planted. We want to make sure we water and cultivate them so that when we get to the farm bill, we have something that’s going to be predictable, and something is not going to surprise or pinch the ag community.”
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