While there may be some progress on the farm bill, Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA-08), who also serves on the House Agriculture Committee, said the bill would provide two separate funds for agriculture and nutrition. He said he would like to see it split into separate bills. .
“I’ve been advocating for them to be separated for several years now. I think this partnership has worked for the past several decades. In this day and age, it just doesn’t seem to work for producers. To be honest, production “If less than 10% goes to agriculture, it is not a fair division,” he said.
Mr. Scott also pointed to the changing demographic situation in the country.
“The population growth in this country is happening in the metropolitan areas, so fewer and fewer people actually represent agricultural countries, and fewer and fewer Democrats represent agricultural countries. We are fortunate to come from a state with Congressman Ford Bishop (D-GA-02) and Congressman David Scott (D-GA-13), both of whom are excellent pro-agricultural Democrats. But in many states, that’s not the case. There are no pro-life Democrats. So people in the metropolitan area don’t understand what it takes to run a farm,” he said. “And we shouldn’t point that finger at Democrats when there are many metropolitan Republicans who don’t support the Farm Bill.”
Opponents of the idea argue that separate nutrition and agriculture bills would make it harder to pass either bill.
Nevertheless, Scott believes there is progress on the new farm bill and it could be ready for announcement within weeks.
“We want to create a five-year farm bill, and that five-year farm bill has to take into account the increased operating costs for American farmers. So it’s a difficult time for the Congressional Budget Office. According to their store, we currently devote less than 10 percent of the so-called “Farm Bill” to production agriculture and producer risk mitigation. And in the event of a commodity crash, that’s not enough to ensure you have the stop losses you need to stay in business,” Scott said.
