The U.S. Senate released its version of the next farm bill– the Agricultural Act of 2026– in late June, but since then no progress has been made on getting the new farm bill passed.
Megan EisenVos with Dakota Rural Action says she’s glad Congress is moving forward, but feels the Senate draft doesn’t do enough to help farmers who are dealing with price instability for inputs and crops.
“The Senate is not taking the necessary action to be bold in this moment of the crisis that our South Dakota and United States farmers are facing right now.”
Neither the Senate nor House bill includes mandatory country-of-origin labeling– or M-COOL– for beef, something EisenVos says is another letdown for both producers and consumers. Proponents say the labeling isn’t included because of concerns about international trade disputes….but EisenVos thinks it has more to do with large corporations that control the meat industry.
“Producers that are doing everything right here in South Dakota deserve to have the ability to label – and should have the requirement on the processing side – to label U.S.- born, raised, processed meat for consumers to be able to know where their money is going.”
EisenVos says it’s hard to know what will happen with the Farm Bill in an election year, so she encourages people to let their senators know what they’d like to see in the legislation.
“Especially as South Dakotans, we have an outsized voice in D.C. with our senator, John Thune, as the majority leader, and, on the ag committee, has a strong voice, and needs – in order to serve South Dakota farmers and communities best – needs to hear from us.”
The current Farm Bill, which was passed in 2018 and extended several times, expires at the end of September.
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