- Brent Johnson is Iowa Farm Bureau president and a fifth-generation Calhoun County farmer.
Meals safety begins on the farm.
As a fifth-generation farmer, offering for my neighbors, state and nation is one thing I take to coronary heart. Lengthy after I’m gone, the farm must be right here to meet this important position. Nevertheless, climate and market volatility, regulation and international occasions out of a farmer’s management could make that calling a problem. That’s what makes the farm invoice a big piece of laws for all People — not simply farmers — regardless of its title.
The passage of a modernized model of the farm invoice by Congress is important to securing our nation’s meals provide. The invoice additionally ensures the sustainability of household farms via danger administration instruments, conservation applications, investments in agricultural analysis and commerce alternatives.
Sadly, meals safety is being threatened by a patchwork of guidelines enacted by particular person states that restrict meals accessibility and affordability. For instance, current actions in California that dictate pork manufacturing practices have led to a ten% to 40% value improve for particular pork cuts, per U.S. Division of Agriculture Chief Economist Seth Meyer.
And that’s only the start.
If different states observe go well with, it is going to be unimaginable for farmers (and different companies) to stick to state-by-state rules and can damage America’s commerce alternatives. When interstate commerce is proscribed, progress on the farm is stifled leading to elevated prices for farmers to conform and elevated prices for shoppers on items like meat, milk, eggs and produce. Low-income households will bear the load of those actions when their fundamental human wants can’t be met resulting from their state limiting what forms of meals, items and companies will be offered inside their borders.
Because of this Farm Bureau has continued to work with elected officers to make sure state and native governments can’t dictate livestock rules outdoors of their borders to forestall detrimental impacts on American households and allow them the liberty to decide on the products and companies that match their way of life and finances.
Danger administration instruments via the farm invoice are additionally a vital piece of meals safety. Lately, farms have been slammed by provide chain shocks, leading to astronomical costs to develop a crop in comparison with the costs acquired for promoting the crop. Iowa State College knowledge exhibits the price of rising corn in Iowa rose from $3.91 per bushel in 2019 to $5.14 per bushel in 2024. This rise features a 40% improve in equipment prices and a 36% improve in seed and chemical prices. In the meantime, the USDA estimates that the common value farmers will obtain for corn this yr is $4.40 per bushel, leading to a forecasted 74-cent loss per bushel. Moreover, farmers have been affected by rising rates of interest, with charges for farm working loans growing by 39% since 2019. The up to date farm security web within the farm invoice is important to maintain farm households farming and defend them from elements out of their management that have an effect on the meals provide all of us depend upon.
Preserving the integrity of our land additionally ensures the success of those endeavors and Iowa farmers have made nice progress — main the nation in conservation tillage, grassed waterways, water high quality wetlands, bioreactors, buffer strips and pollinator habitats. Not solely do these practices defend water high quality however a lot of them enhance soil well being to maintain Iowa’s wealthy farm floor fertile for generations to return. A brand new farm invoice is required to make sure farmers have the most recent knowledge and instruments to proceed conservation progress.
The farm invoice impacts all American households and have to be prioritized. The Iowa Farm Bureau thanks Iowa Reps. Randy Feenstra and Zach Nunn for his or her work on the Home Ag Committee to cross the bipartisan farm invoice. We urge Home leaders to proceed the momentum with a vote on the ground, and we hope the Senate Ag Committee begins their course of.
On the subject of a problem as essential as meals safety, America can’t afford to attend.
Brent Johnson is Iowa Farm Bureau president and a fifth-generation Calhoun County farmer.