New Ag Chief Gets First Task to Help Farmers & Ranchers
Just hours after being sworn in as the 31st Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue had his first assignment before him.
Details
Does the Heritage Foundation Hate American Farmers?
We wish the Heritage Foundation and all opponents of farm policy would understand: there is no free market when it comes to agriculture.
Details
Our View: Stick Together & Keep Going
As Winston Churchill once said, “if you’re going through hell, keep going.” These days, there are plenty of reasons for farmers and ranchers to be anxious and feel like they are going through a similar journey.
Details
Praise for Perdue in Advance of his Confirmation Hearing
Farmers and ranchers have found a champion in Governor Sonny Perdue, the nominee for Secretary of Agriculture.
Details
Farm Advocates Ask Congress to Back Crop Insurance
A group of 59 wildlife, environmental, agricultural and farm credit advocates sent letters to Congress this week asking officials to back crop insurance during budget debates.
Details
EWG’s ‘New’ Database Used For Same, Old Purpose: To Attack Farmers.
It is more of the same as EWG tries to push another false story.
Details
Our View: 649,355 Reasons to Write a New Farm Bill
If we needed a reason for why a strong farm bill must be reauthorized without delay then this week provided one. Actually, this week provided 649,355 reasons.
Details
#ICYMI: Crop insurance helps multi-generational farm weather the ‘perfect storm’
“As we begin negotiations around a new Farm Bill, I for one will be an outspoken advocate for crop insurance. It is not just an ‘insurance policy’ for farmers, but also an ‘insurance policy’ against disruption and financial instability in the food production sector.”
Details
‘A World of Hurt in Farm Country’
“No one saw this large and sustained drop coming,” explained Dr. Joe Outlaw of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M University.
Details
New Year, But Same Outlook for Farm Economy
Americans still enjoy the lowest prices for food and basic necessities of any society due to our continued commitment and investment in sound farm policy.
Details
Our View: The Farmer Must Feed Them All
As we begin 2017 with a new president, a new Congress, and soon a new, confirmed agriculture secretary, as well as an expiring farm bill, we wanted to make certain this message made it to Washington.
Details2016: A Year in Review with Farm Policy Facts
With a new year on the horizon, Farm Policy Facts is taking a look back at some of the top stories of 2016.
Details
Fact Check: Corporate Farms Vs. Family Farms
Farm policy opponents love to rail against “corporate farms.” These operations, they say, have run family farmers out of rural America. But is it true? Not according to a recent report by the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).
It is true that modern-day farms in America are no longer one-or-two acre plots plowed by oxen and planted by hand — the inefficient, gothic scenes of yesteryear.
Details
Our View: “Fake News” is Nothing New for Farmers
Farmers and ranchers have been dealing with “fake farm news” for years – not only from the mainstream media, but also from special interest groups.
Details
Combest: Why Trump needs a strong Agriculture secretary
“A lot of what Washington does is harmful to American agriculture. And, what good it does costs very little” writes former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest.
Details
Rep. Cramer: How Critics of U.S. Farm Policy Have It Wrong
What if we could truly open up foreign markets and create a level playing field for our farmers and ranchers that actually passes the smell test?
Details
#FarmerPortraits
Farm Policy Facts is beginning a new series this month on its digital platforms called #FarmerPortraits.
Details
Our View: Hold the Thin Green Line
As the Secretary of Agriculture, during World War II, said time and time again: “Food will win the war and write the peace.” Or, translated for modern-day: “Hold the thin green line.”
Details
Losing Our Farm Families is a Scary Scenario
Halloween is big business these days. But how much of the record-setting revenue will be flowing to the sugar farmers that made the sweet treats possible?
Details
American Agriculture Remains Important Even if Not Discussed During Presidential Debates
There are no food lines. The grocery stores are all stocked. It is our investment in farm policy that enables this phenomenon and highlights how necessary farm policy is to our country.
Details
Our View: EWG Stoops to New Low, Resorts to Pure Fiction in Latest Attack
With crop insurance’s popularity rising in rural America and on Capitol Hill, and with the policy’s budget outlays falling, we’re guessing one of its harshest critics, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), is running out of believable critiques. So now it’s resorted to pure fiction.
Details
Chinese Subsidies Soar, Sales of Their Stockpiles Loom
On September 13, U.S. trade officials announced that the United States was targeting China in an international trade case over the legality of its rice, corn, and wheat subsidies. The U.S. agricultural community cheered, as U.S. negotiators showed a desire to start rooting out the trade-distorting policies that are so manipulating world commodity markets.
Details
Standing Up for America’s Farm & Ranch Families
Our nation’s farm families provide us with the safest, most abundant, most affordable food and fiber supply in the history of the world. A fact that is so true it has become a cliché.
Details
ICYMI: Nurturing the next generation of farmers
When it comes to farming, it seems the critics always have the easy answer. They portray this line of work as if every day brings blue skies and no worries. The reality is the farming business comes with a fair share of challenges; chief among them is the unpredictability of weather and markets. Anything can and will happen.
Details
The U.S. Files WTO Complaint Against China on Behalf of American Farmers
Thank goodness we have lawmakers and officials in Washington who understand that free markets can’t exist in a world of bad actors. Thank goodness these lawmakers understand that we must not only stand up to these countries, but we must also maintain strong farm policy, in part, as a pragmatic and realistic response to those who refuse to play by the rules.
Details
Todd Van Hoose: A Competitive & Innovative Farm Sector Requires a Sustained Investment
“Agricultural production in this country is the envy of the world. One of the reasons it has been successful is because of the investments we have made in farm policy and crop insurance through the years.”
DetailsOur View: Heritage Recycles Old Proposal to Nix Risk Management Tools for Farmers
The Heritage Foundation has long opposed U.S. farmers and ranchers having any kind of meaningful safety net to protect against weather disasters, volatile markets, and predatory trade practices abroad. So, the fact that they published a report suggesting the elimination of farm policy is not new or noteworthy.
Details
Our View: Where Would We Be Without Our Farmers?
Where would we be without our farmers? It’s a question we never want to have to answer.
Details
Brandon Willis: Expanding Coverage for All Producers
As farming and farm products change to meet market needs, crop insurance will continue to adapt and expand to meet the needs of our producers.
Details
Farm Policy (Finally) Gets a Fair Shake from a Major Media Outlet
“We find people who are vital in this country, doing something great, doing something that this country depends upon, who don’t have a voice for political reasons, or political forces organized against them and we go in there and make sure they have a platform for millions of people to hear their voices.”
Details
New Videos Illustrate Support for Farmers & the ‘Dire Consequences’ for Gutting Farm Policy
A pair of videos, released this week from agricultural groups, seeks to educate Americans on the bipartisan support for America’s farmers.
Details
Foreign Subsidy Schemes Sour Markets
India’s massive sugar handouts have kept inefficient producers in business, promoted overproduction, and helped depress global prices, according to a new study.
Details
Our View: A Big Fat Farce Returns
Crop prices are low, which means it’s high time for farm policy critics to trot out one of the most absurd criticisms of farm policy ever used.
Details
New Study Reveals a Shocking Lack of Knowledge about Farm Policy at Farmers’ Expense
A major medical journal with a private vetting process published a study from authors with a clear agenda to attack one part of farm policy by using old data and one title of an even older farm bill to make a dubious association between farm policy and obesity.
Details
Our View: Remembering our Ag Roots on Independence Day
Agriculture continues to be a source of national wealth, an integral part of national security, the foundation of civilized society, and the pride of American families.
Details
ICYMI: Farm Policy, Crop Insurance Wise Investments for All Americans
What I have learned during this time is this: farming is an enormous game of risk management. It’s not if something bad is going to happen, it’s when.
Details
Voluntary, Incentive-Based Conservation is the First Line of Defense Against Burdensome Regulation
Farm Policy Facts is pleased to publish a guest editorial on why the farm bill is critical for growing our food and fiber supply while also protecting our natural resources.
Details
Farming needs strong policy and crop insurance
As farmers, we have no control over weather. We have no control over markets. We have no control over our foreign competitors. We cannot just turn our operations on or off. We have to take care of the land 365 days a year. We need a safety net when commodity prices fall. We need affordable and reliable crop insurance to protect our yearly investments.
DetailsICYMI: In Defense of the Farm Bureau
Earlier this month, Heritage Action CEO, Michael Needham, wrote an op-ed playing their old song that trashes farmers and farm policy that was published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This time, in an incredible act of duplicity, Needham tried to portray the Arkansas Farm Bureau, a grassroots organization if there ever was one, of being part of “the establishment” in Washington, D.C. Friend of Farm Policy Facts and Former Congressman Larry Combest wrote a response in kind to set the record straight as to who is the real Washington insider.
DetailsOur View: With a Depressed Farm Economy, America’s Agricultural Producers Should Be Able to Count on the Farm Safety Net
Farmers like to call themselves the eternal optimists, but these real world conditions that Chairman Conaway and others have described have provided plenty of reasons to keep them up at night. The ability to count on farm policy to get them through a tough year or more shouldn’t be one of them.
Details