Time To Pass A Farm Bill

As we give thanks this holiday season, it’s important to remember the family farms that produce the food we will enjoy with friends and relatives. But farmers’ hard work deserves more than recognition — Congress owes it to farmers here in the Valley and across the country to swiftly pass a final farm bill.

Among all sectors of our economy, agriculture, the largest industry in Virginia, is unique for a simple reason —  its output supports our very lives. The market may wax and wane, but we will always need food.

A drought or a heavy flood means a bad year for the farmer, whose output is reduced, and a bad year for the consumer, who has to pay more for groceries. In any given year, the impact of unpredictable events on agriculture could send a domino effect of either prosperity or hardship through the economy.

This inherent volatility means it is in everyone’s interest to ensure there is a stable, predictable market for agricultural goods. That is why farm bills have traditionally maintained a system of payments tailored to the varying needs of different regions and crops along with federal support for crop insurance premiums. Clear flaws in this system have emerged, such as direct payments to millionaires, or to property caretakers who aren’t even farmers but qualify for payments through legal loopholes.

I’m pleased that along with other important reforms, both the Senate and House farm bills end direct payments, expand crop insurance, and restructure the commodity title. But that won’t help if we fail to pass a final bill —  or if we pass another one-year extension. Whether it’s peanut and cotton farmers in Southside or poultry growers in the Valley, farmers deserve certainty from their government.

That’s why I was proud to support a farm bill in the Senate last summer that passed with 66 bipartisan votes. I’m disappointed that negotiators won’t be able to work out the differences between the Senate and House bills before the end of the year, but it’s critical we pass a final package in early January to restore this certainty for Virginia farmers and to protect consumers from possible price increases.

One major area in which the Senate and House bills differ is in treatment of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. The Senate bill I voted for saves approximately $4 billion by tightening loopholes in the SNAP benefit calculation, while the House bill cuts $40 billion by reducing SNAP eligibility.

The difference is between curbing program misuse and curbing actual use by the neediest Americans. I hope the final bill maintains SNAP benefits that keep millions of children, disabled, and elderly people out of hunger. Moreover, nutrition support makes economic sense as a way that food commodities produced by American farmers reach hungry people at home and abroad.

Additionally, the final farm bill will likely contain incentives to bolster support for local food networks. Consumers deserve to know where their food is coming from, and farmers deserve policies that enable them to sell to local consumers and businesses. I support expanding farmers markets and access to local, healthy, and organic foods. This issue resonated with me this year when a report found that my hometown of Richmond contains the most “food deserts” – areas without easy access to fresh food – of any city of its size in the nation.

Congress must do all it can to support farmers as they put quality local food on the tables of Virginians, over the holidays and every day. For the sake of our family farmers and consumers across the country, it is time to pass a farm bill.