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Farm Bill discussion needs to begin now

A Farm Bureau policy specialist says it isn’t too early to start talking about the next Farm Bill.

Jack Irvin with Ohio Farm Bureau says it’s time – even though the makeup of the policy makers will change after this election.  “What our priorities are and what programs are working well and what programs are not working well – those are the kind of conversations we can start having as an industry regardless of who is going to be President,” he says.

He tells Brownfield a top priority for farmers in the Corn Belt is a safety net program that works.  “Certainly lower commodity prices and all types of swings from Mother Nature this year – it has been a challenging year,” he says.  “I think that helps highlight the importance of a lot of these safety net programs.”

Irvin says as discussions being on the next Farm Bill – Congress needs to understand that a one-size-fits-all safety net isn’t effective.  “Anytime we have these discussions we try to look at it from a broad perspective,” he says.  “Recognizing that each farm is so different and so unique in so many ways that we try to have programs that can cover as many scenarios as possible.”