Opinion: Rural America Doesn’t Just Want a Farm Bill This Year – It Needs One

The following opinion piece originally ran on Agri-Pulse on July 11, 2024. Plummeting crop prices. High input costs. Rising interest rates.  Tightening credit.  Severe and chronic natural disasters.  Record U.S. agricultural trade deficits.  A global economic downturn.  A record fall in net farm income.  An outdated farm safety net. At long last, something’s got to give.…

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What’s in a Farm Bill?

The long-awaited 2024 Farm Bill is picking up steam as both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees press forward, releasing key documents and proposals. In fact, the House Agriculture Committee has scheduled a full Committee mark-up for May 23. The last Farm Bill was negotiated, passed, and signed into law in 2018. More than half…

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Farm Bill: Rhetoric vs. Reality

*NEW PODCAST EPISODE* “Farm and food security is national security, and good farm policy isn’t written by D.C. bureaucrats for D.C. bureaucrats; it’s written by farmers in rural America for farmers in rural America.” This powerful statement came from Congressman Brad Finstad (R-MN) during a House Agriculture Committee Hearing on February 14 – laying bare the…

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Recipe for a Sweet Holiday Season

This holiday season, America’s farmers and ranchers are at the top of our nice list for growing and raising the crops and livestock that keep us all fed. The family farmers who grow sugarbeets and sugarcane – and the workers who transform these plants into the sugar in our holiday desserts – are an essential…

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Corn Growers: Feeding and Fueling the World 🌽 New Podcast Episode

Last summer, corn had a golden moment when seven-year-old Tariq was interviewed about his love for corn in a video that permeated pop culture. That same year, nearly 90 million acres of corn were planted across the United States, providing a valuable food source and driving economic growth in rural communities. We recently called up Richard Syverson, a fourth-generation…

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