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Klobuchar gathering farm bill feedback

A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee is gathering input on farm bill priorities.

Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar tells Brownfield she’s been to 23 counties so far in 2023 and most of them are rural.

“So what I basically heard is you don’t want to fix what’s working, but you can improve it. So a lot of parts of the farm bill that we’ve known have been changed over time and improved (and) are continuing to be strong.”

She says examples of that are crop insurance, incentive-based conservation initiatives, and a robust livestock vaccine bank.

“So it’s overall, what we know is working with the crop insurance, with dairy, with sugar. And then the disaster assistance, especially when it comes to livestock and poultry.”

Klobuchar is hoping for an on-time farm bill because she says if negotiations drag into 2024, election-year politics could be a major impediment.