Agriculture and Forestry

Congressional Hearings Leading up to the 2023 Farm Bill: Part 4

By Anna McGinn

July 25, 2023

This article is one part of a series of articles tracking Congressional hearings leading up to the 2023 Farm Bill. To view all of the hearing tracking articles, click here.

To see all of EESI's resources on the 2023 Farm Bill, click here.

 

Producer Perspectives on the 2023 Farm Bill

The House Agriculture Committee held this hearing on April 26, 2023, to hear testimony from 10 commodity crop associations representing corn, cotton, dry peas and lentils, rice, canola, soybeans, sugar, wheat, sorghum, and peanuts. Key themes included the challenges associated with applying for and receiving federal support and repeated calls for more robust crop insurance. 

Policy highlights from this hearing:

 

Commodity Programs, Credit, and Crop Insurance - Part 1: Producer Perspectives on the Farm Safety Net

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee held this hearing on May 2, 2023, to discuss the ways in which producers use USDA’s commodity programs, credit, and crop insurance. In particular, witnesses emphasized crop insurance as one of the top priorities for this Farm Bill, especially in light of the increase in extreme weather events.

Policy highlights from this hearing:

  • Both Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, and Rob Larew, president of the National Farmers Union, said that producers are looking for tools to increase the climate resilience and sustainability of their farms. 
  • Larew discussed the new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program and the pilot projects recently supported by the first round of funding from this program. 
  • Energy programs, such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), allow farmers to diversify their sources of income.  
  • USDA’s conservation programs are oversubscribed. Many producers have applied for support, but are waiting to be moved through the process to receive it.
  • Programs that support conservation and other specific practices need to be flexible so that they can be applicable in different regions and climate zones. 

 

Commodity Programs, Credit, and Crop Insurance - Part 2: Industry Perspectives on Risk Management and Access to Credit

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee held this hearing on May 4, 2023, to continue the discussion from the May 2, 2023, hearing with additional witnesses and a focus on loans and credit. One theme of the hearing was how to support the next generation of farmers and small farms. Southern AgCredit in Mississippi is focused on making loans to these young and beginning farmers and also providing scholarships to students in agriculture-related programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. 

Policy highlights from this hearing:

  • Many witnesses underscored that crop insurance is the primary risk management tool for producers. 
  • “Crop insurance and climate-smart agriculture intersect in positive ways,” explained Jason Meador, head of Rural Community Insurance Services at Zurich North America. Meador provided suggestions for how to better integrate climate considerations into the design of crop insurance. 
  • James Korin, of NAU Country Insurance Company, suggested conservation practices are important for producers to implement, but that funding for these programs should not come from the crop insurance program. 

 

To Review the National Forest System: Supporting Forest Health and Confronting the Wildfire Crisis

The House Agriculture Committee held this hearing on May 16, 2023, to discuss wildfires. 

To learn more about forestry in the Farm Bill, watch EESI’s briefing The Future of Forestry in the Farm Bill. For more information about wildfires and forest management, read EESI’s article, “Q&A: Learning from the Past to Chart the Future of Fire in Western Forests.”

Policy highlights from this hearing:

  • Members of Congress and Randy Moore, chief of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), discussed a suite of tools to manage wildfires including prescribed burns, forest thinning, rehabilitating burned areas, building fuel breaks across jurisdictional boundaries, creating incentives for wood products, and using more advanced technology such as drones and automated cameras. 
  • Wildfire, disease, and pest issues all need to be dealt with at the landscape scale. 
  • The USFS is currently implementing its 10-year strategy, Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests. 
  • Forestry programs that support the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS’s) ability to address wildfires include the Insect and Disease Treatment Authority, the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, the Wood Innovations Grant Program, and the Landscape Scale Restoration Program. There are also new Tribal Forestry Demonstration Projects that are designed to deal with wildfires. All these programs were also discussed during the March 1, 2023, Senate hearing. 
  • The Farm Bill’s support for mass timber, a type of building material, is beneficial for forest management and creates jobs. According to Moore, there are 12 mass timber plants in the United States. 
  • Wildland firefighters face many challenges. There is no longer a fire season, so workers can be called on all year round. The USFS is seeing this lead to worker recruitment and retention issues. 

 

Rural Broadband: Connecting Our Communities to the Digital Economy

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee held this hearing on May 17, 2023, to discuss expanding access to rural broadband. According to Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), about one third of people in rural areas in the United States do not have high-speed internet. 

To learn about the connection between broadband and climate solutions, read EESI’s issue brief, Closing the Digital Divide: How Rural Broadband Benefits Communities and the Climate.

Policy highlights from this hearing:

  • USDA has two major programs on broadband, ReConnect and the Community Connect Program.
  • Roger Nishi, vice president of industry relations at Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom in Vermont, emphasized that USDA should invest in “scalable and future-proof networks [to] support public safety, small business growth, education, and telemedicine needs while enabling precision agriculture, powering 5G technology, and allowing for real-time, two-way communications by many users at the same location.”
  • Broadband networks in rural areas enable a smart grid that can be more energy efficient. 

The ReConnect program offers a loan option, a grant option, and a loan-grant combination option, and these are appreciated by recipients. Justin Forde, vice president of government relations at MidContinent Communications in North Dakota, recommended that the threshold to qualify as “rural” should not be expanded and that USDA should streamline the process to make it easier for applicants to access ReConnect funds.

 

A Review of Animal Agriculture Stakeholder Priorities

The House Agriculture Committee held this hearing on May 17, 2023, to discuss programs authorized by the Farm Bill that specifically deal with livestock. 

To hear more from livestock stakeholders, watch EESI’s briefings, Pathways to Regenerative Agriculture: Farm Policy for the 21st Century and Grow Organic: The Climate, Health, and Economic Case for Expanding Organic Agriculture.

Policy highlights from this hearing:

  • The Livestock Indemnity Program and the Livestock Forage Disaster Program are designed to help producers recover from the impacts of adverse weather and drought, respectively. Drought, in particular, is a challenge for livestock producers because it impacts the livestock directly and it impacts the ability to grow feed.
  • The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is popular among livestock producers. Livestock and crop producers need to be treated differently by this and other conservation programs. 
  • Laurie Hubbard, Region I director for the American Sheep Industry Association, said that the industry appreciates consumers' interest in sustainability because it allows the industry to highlight conservation and land stewardship. Kelsey Scott, director of programs for the Intertribal Agriculture Council, also expressed that the council sees its members as serving as both food producers and landscape stewards. 
  • Local processing facilities are not always available to producers. In the case of Hawaii, cows are shipped to the continental United States for processing, and then shipped back to Hawaii, which is expensive and carbon-intensive. There is also a need for more investment in local processes for Indigenous rural communities. 
  • Ranchers who practice regenerative agriculture should have access to risk mitigation support. 
  • Scott Hays, president of the National Pork Producers Council, reports that some producers are choosing to change their practices to be climate-friendly because they see the long-term economic benefits and the benefits for the land.

 

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