Agriculture Policy

 The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Federal Grain Inspection Service today (June 29) published separate notices seeking comments on the current U.S. grain standards for corn, soybeans and canola. The U.S. grain standards for various commodities customarily are reviewed every five years, but the NGFA and North American Export Grain Association, among others, encouraged FGIS to expedite a review of the U.S. grain standards for soybeans to determine if changes are warranted – in particular because of potential differences in the methods used to determine foreign material in soybeans by ... Read More

The Senate passed its bipartisan version of the farm bill Thursday by an 86-11 vote, retaining federal crop insurance, nutrition programs and conservation provisions included in the committee-passed bill. “We are one step closer to providing farmers and ranchers a farm bill with the certainty and predictability they deserve,” said Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., after the vote. The bill includes an amendment introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that tightens commodity program eligibility rules. Farm operations would be restricted to having one non-farming ... Read More

House Republicans passed their version of the farm bill (H.R. 2) on a party-line, 213-211 vote Thursday. The bill is unchanged from the version that failed to pass in May, but it gained more Republican votes after House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., agreed to schedule votes on unrelated immigration bills. The farm bill failed to pass last month after Democrats and some moderate Republicans opposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the bill and some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus withheld their votes to force action on a separate immigration ... Read More

By Bobby Frederick, Director of Legislative Affairs and Public Policy Twenty-five NGFA members and staff, along with state affiliates from Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, and Texas, met this week with more than 50 congressional offices to hone in on priority issues important to the grain and feed community. NGFA’s June 13 fly-in occurred on the same day that the Senate Agriculture Committee marked-up its version of the 2018 farm bill, giving NGFA members the opportunity to promote reforms that target the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) towards environmentally sensitive land and hold the ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media The Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday (June 13) approved its version of the new farm bill by a 20-1 vote, sending the bill to the Senate floor for a debate by the end of the month. “We have the support of both leaders to bring the bill to the floor before the 4th of July break, and if we do that we will then give our farmers, our ranchers, our growers, and everybody connected to the great food chain we have in America certainty and predictability,” said Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan. Senate Majority Leader Mitch ... Read More

The NGFA issued a notice earlier this week encouraging its members to contact their senators to request that S. 2557, “Give Our Resources the Opportunity to Work” (GROW) Act, be included in the Senate version of the farm bill. Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., are expected to begin a farm bill mark-up during the first week of June and NGFA is using this opportunity to promote reforms in USDA’s conservation programs. NGFA has been working on conservation reforms that keep American agriculture competitive by preventing ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media Almost 31 million acres of agricultural land were lost to development between 1992 and 2012, according to a new report entitled Farms Under Threat: The State of America’s Farmland issued by American Farmland Trust (AFT). AFT, which advocates for protecting U.S. agricultural land, noted in its assessment that this loss over the course of “less than one generation” included almost 11 million acres of the land best suited for intensive crop production. “This is land where the soils, micro-climates, growing seasons, and ... Read More

The farm bill (H.R. 2) failed to pass on the House floor today after facing strong resistance from Democrats and some moderate Republicans who opposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the bill as well as the conservative House Freedom Caucus intent on forcing action on a separate immigration and border security bill. The bill failed 198-213, with 183 Democrats and 30 Republicans voting against it. Throughout the farm bill process, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, faced unified opposition from Democrats who opposed stricter work ... Read More