Time is running out for Congress to agree on the new farm bill, now a year overdue, but a “common sense, reasonable, practical” package is still possible, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday, declaring himself an optimist. “I think there’s better odds than not that we get it done,” he said at a White House conference.
“The reality is this has got to be done before the end of the year,” said the secretary. The Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees are engaged in discussions — “a good sign.” In Vilsack’s view, the major question was how large an increase was possible in crop subsidy spending.
Progress on the farm bill has been deadlocked for months. The Nov. 5 general elections could help resolve the impasse by deciding which party will control Congress. In 2018, for example, House Republicans conceded on their proposal for large SNAP cuts after the mid-term elections gave Democrats a majority for the new session. The lame duck session approved the resulting agreement, and President Trump signed it into law in December.
Vilsack discussed the farm bill outlook during a “Farmers and Ranchers in Action” event to trumpet Biden administration initiatives in rural America, such as expanding access to high-speed internet service and road, bridge, and river navigation projects. About 100 farmers and state agriculture officials attended the session on the White House grounds and at USDA headquarters.
“A common sense, reasonable, bipartisan approach is the only way to accomplish this,” said the agriculture secretary. Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, a fellow Democrat, has said that if Republicans want broad support for the farm bill, they should drop proposals for a $29 billion cut in SNAP and letting climate mitigation funds be spent on conservation practices that would not slow global warming. House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson says the 2018 farm law skimped on agriculture and it’s time to put more farm in the farm bill.
The USDA will seek suggestions from the public on ways to improve price discovery in the slaughter cattle market, announced administration officials including White House economic adviser Lael Brainard. Options will include alternatives to using prices in the cash market in setting benchmarks for so-called alternative marketing agreements (AMAs) that cover more than 70 percent of cattle marketing. Less than one fifth of cattle are sold on the spot market. The USDA said it wanted to ensure “base prices in fed cattle AMAs are broadly representative of general market conditions” and are not vulnerable to manipulation.
“For too long, consolidation in the agriculture industry has been swallowing up family farms, lowering incomes and choices for farmers, and raising prices at the grocery store,” said Brainard.
Besides seeking public comment on cattle prices, the Agriculture Department said it would encourage researchers to make seed germplasm more widely available to plant breeders as a way to expand seed diversity, and it released an interim report on competition in retail meat merchandising. The report found “pricing practices that potentially obstruct access to markets for smaller producers and processors,” said Vilsack. The USDA said it would continue an investigative study of meat merchandising.
“We commend USDA for continuing to promote competition across our agricultural markets,” said the National Farmers Union.
The anti-monopoly Open Markets Institute said the USDA interim report exposed “all the anticompetitive and exclusionary tactics that new packers are up against: Slotting fees, opaque accrual fees, category captains, and kickbacks.”
But the 25,000-member National Cattlemen’s Beef Association dismissed the White House event as “a pep rally to prop up their failing Bidenomics agenda.” The NCBA says administration proposals on cattle marketing could destroy the marketing agreements that pay a premium for top-quality carcasses or reward practices such as limited use of antibiotics. Small and independent producers say the marketing agreements and packer ownership of feeder cattle put them at a disadvantage when their stock is ready for sale.