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Klobuchar hosts series of Farm Bill discussion meetings

A member of the Senate Agriculture Committee is gathering input from rural Minnesotans as interest in the next Farm Bill intensifies.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar says her staff is hosting a series of meetings this week aimed at identifying what works and what doesn’t in the current Farm Bill.

“Some of the things in the Farm Bill have been excellent.  We’ve had a very strong decade for farmers.  However, there’s been issues.  We’ve had issues with disease, like avian flu that should never have happened.  We’ve had issues with how some of the dairy programs work.”

She tells Brownfield the next Farm Bill must provide a proper safety net for farmers.

“There’s been some issues with how crop insurance has worked, with the choice of the two programs.  And we want to try to resolve those.”

Related to corn and soybeans, Klobuchar says renewable energy provisions must also be included.

“There’s been some pushback, both from the past administration and also from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress to try to roll back the Renewable Fuels Standard.  So that’s something else we’re really going to be pushing on to make things as strong as possible.”

Additionally, Klobuchar would like to see the issue of rural poverty addressed in the 2018 Farm Bill.

She says in some cases it’s worse than in urban areas.