In a 15-minute address to hundreds of members of the National Farmers Union, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue emphasized the need for a strong farm safety net and diverse trade partners for U.S. agricultural producers. He also reiterated his support for expanded work requirements to qualify for food assistance benefits in the farm bill.
The address came at the start of the NFU’s three-day annual “fly-in,” during which 350 farmers visit with all 535 congressional offices and lobby for the organization’s farm priorities, including payment limits on subsidies and ongoing funding for several sustainability programs in the farm bill.
Perdue began by discussing the current state of the agricultural economy. “The good news is we’re not where we were in the ’80s,” when the farm economy was in a state of crisis. But “the trend lines are not helpful, not encouraging.” He noted the need for a strong farm safety net, and an export economy that doesn’t over-rely on one trade relationship. “There’s nothing more sustainable than profitability in agriculture,” he said.
Perdue discussed the United States’ “painful” trade situation with China, saying that President Trump, “to his credit,” understands that “China has not been playing by the rulebook.” While acknowledging that farmers have “borne a disproportionate share of the retaliation” in the trade war, Perdue offered no prediction or outlook for future negotiations.
Perdue then moved on to the farm bill, which he said “over the past several iterations has become more of the food stamp or the food nutrition bill than the farm bill.” Nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, account for more than 70 percent of farm bill spending.
Perdue restated his support for the Republican-backed expanded work requirements for the SNAP program. “[Americans] want to help people who want to help themselves,” he said. “People who want to stay on food stamps indefinitely I think are saying to me, ‘I don’t really want a job, I just want you to take care of me.’ And the generosity and the compassion of the American people has a limit.”
The House version of the farm bill would limit SNAP benefits for able-bodied adults without dependents who don’t work 20 hours each week or participate in a job training program. Estimates have predicted that as many as 2 million people would lose benefits under the plan.
Perdue closed with a call to “[grow] America’s greatness around the world again.”