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Johnson says Farm Bill extension bad idea

National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson says an extension of the 2008 Farm Bill, in lieu of a five-year farm bill being passed this year, is a bad idea.

With time running out on passage of five-year farm bill, there’s increased talk of an extension. The American Farm Bureau Federation says an extension is “probable.”

But, Johnson says it would create “a litany of problems” that could not be easily fixed when a new farm bill would eventually become law. He says producers would be left high and dry because of the drought and disaster programs that have expired. He says there could be more pressure to cut corp insurance. Plus, 37 programs for conservation, energy, research and specialty crops have no baseline funding beyond this year that he says would likely have reduced funding or no funding in an extension.

Johnson says farmers and ranchers and the nation they feed would be “crippled by uncertainty” with an extended farm bill instead of a new five-year farm bill.

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