farm policy

In the heart of Iowa's rural 4th district, Democratic hopeful J.D. Scholten is making a bid for conservative Republican Steve King's congressional seat, appealing to farmer interests to win support for his campaign, according to FERN's latest story, by Brian Barth, produced in collaboration with Mother Jones. (No paywall)

President Trump's best decision on agriculture was to put Sonny Perdue in charge of USDA, says economist Barry Flinchbaugh, a farm policy expert and Kansas State University professor. Perdue provides sound advice to the president, said Flinchbaugh, who gave Trump a "C" average on the four issues of farm bill, trade, immigration and deregulation, reported Drovers.

House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway endorsed Donald Trump for president, reports the website yourbasin.com in Conaway's district in Texas. The website quoted Conaway as saying, "As chairman of the House agricultural committee I feel like I have a duty to try and work with Mr. Trump in developing his agricultural policy which so far as not been particularly vetted in any of the debates."

The Iowa caucuses, often the high point for attention to agriculture, passed with little discussion of food or farm policy. Yet, "there are a num­ber of sig­nals that farm policy could con­tin­ue to be a factor in voters’ de­cisions all the way to the gen­er­al elec­tion, says National Journal.

The 2014 farm law ended the direct-payment subsidy and made crop insurance the major farm support. For most states, there is little difference in the state's share of the receipts.