Transcripts For CSPAN3 Agriculture 20240705

In federal farm offering this is about three hours. Good morning. The subcommittee on commodities, Risk Management and trade will come to order. Welcome to all of our witnesses. Senator hyde smith thank you to you and your staff working together with us to organize this hearing today. Chair stabenow and i believe Ranking Member boozman will be with us shortly but it would to thank them for joining us many thanks to the full Committee Staff for all of your help and support with this hearing. Thank you to everyone for attending. This morning is going to be a twopart hearing. Today was on the farm bill, the products title. On thursday will take on title v. The credit title in title 11 the Crop Insurance title. February the full committee the full Senate Committee heard from usda officials their family views of Risk Management and credit. Today we have the opportunity to hear directly from farmers, producers, stakeholder groups that work with farm Safety Net Programs every day. Hearing from you is extremely important is closest to the work you know best what is working and what can be improved. We are especially grateful you took time to be here with us at such a busy time of the year. And administer to warm up the fields are starting to dry out. My colleague senator klobuchar is he at work here at spring in many parts of the country we look forward to welcoming that to minnesota as well. I know all members of this can make sure the goal of passing a bipartisan farm bill reauthorization. A bill that meets the needs of American Farmers, ranchers and producers and every part that meets the moment. Farmers, ranchers, Dairy Farmers poultry and livestock producers the center of our economy. Our food assistant security. There is nothing more important than our country then a stable, secure, healthy food supply. That means leaving Stable Secure producers that have the tools you need to weather the ups and downs of agriculture my old friend Dave Fredrickson a farmer from former minnesota egg commissioner and head of the Farmers Union once told me farmers are the most optimistic people in the world. And also he added the most in touch with the potential disasters lurking around the corner, you have to be. That is with his farm Safety Networks come in. There are the tools to help weather the inevitable ins and outs that will be part of your life and your lifes work. Today of the prices are good the egg step faces many challenges today producers are struggling to start other operating costs this is especially true for small and mediumsized farms according to the usda 50 of farms have negative farm income. The high level of concentration in the egg sector combined with supply Chain Disruption has driven up input costs which are now outpacing Commodity Prices putting farmers and Small Farmers in a real bind. Climate change and extreme weather events are increasing risk for farmers as they deal with droughts, floods, wind, and hail it increase past the market is deploying new technology need farm safety that works for you to mitigate losses and even out the inevitable ups and downs. In minnesota 202,240,000 producers participated in art and plc minnesota Dairy Farmers relied on the Coverage Program and the sugar beet farmers depended on the program and thanks to the incredible Public Partnership minnesota 67000 farms and ranches created more than 16 billion in value, every member of this committee would have a similar story to tell about their own state the challenges the innovation and opportunity. Over the last year my staff and i held dozens of farmville sessions in minnesota what we learned many producers the farm safety net is working is definitely helping but we also heard there are gaps not of Risk Management and Safety Networks for smaller operations especially produce farmers the programs sometimes in a tweak here and there could really help farmers of color in a digit is farmers in particular struggle to find a safety net that works for them. Thats what todays hearing is all about an opportunity for the subcommittee to hear directly from you about whats working what not working and what needs to be improved there are a few issues i look forward to hearing about im interested in hearing about all of you and both panels what are your top order two priorities for farmville Safety Net Programs what can we do to make these programs work for small beginning farmers and nontraditional producers and how should the fda, excuse me how should the usda support you i hear constantly about staffing shortages at local fsa offices. I would like to hear about your experiences and what do you think we should do. How is the consolidation and agriculture in seed to processing affect the risks that you face as you run your operation. I look forward to hearing from all of todays witnesses about these issues and more and i look forward to a very productive discussion. Now i turn to senator highsmith. Good morning thank you, chairwoman smith and fellow Community Members and take all of you for being here today in the witnesses for being willing to testify and serve this is truly appreciated as a Ranking Member of the commodity Risk Management and trade subcommittees i am pleased that were holding this producer perspective on the farm safety net hearing its an honor to serve on this committee and sentence work is so critical to americas hardworking farmers im also grateful for chairwoman and Ranking Member bozemans commitment to this issue as well, today we have the privilege to hear from general farming organizations and a wide array of producers who provide insight into the challenges facing producers in miccosukee as well across the country as we discussed the farm safety net it is critical that we hear from producers directly to better understand the unique perspective and their needs, their views can help us ensure that our policies and programs are responsive and effective it in. I look forward to a productive discussion, as we all know american agriculture is subject to a wide range of challenges and uncertainties from unpredictable water under weather patterns to market condition to evolving trade policy and regulation, each challenge can have a Significant Impact on the viability of the market farmers many operate on thin market profit margin now this is why the farm safety net authorizes and entitles one in 11 of the farmville is so critical this committee must get this right in the 2023 farmville, there is no room for air. The farm safety net is the backbone of our nations Agriculture Policy and it provides protection for producers who may face unforeseen losses and setbacks that are beyond our control, the farm safety net helps protect the viability of a Rural Communities in the foundations agriculture, i want Young Mississippians to view returning home to take care of the family farm as a possibility and attractive option congress has opportunity to make this a reality by strengthening the farm Safety Net Program. When i visit with miccosukee producers i always tell them your priorities are my priorities miccosukee is home to large and small families and as my friend Ranking Member bozeman says this farmville will not neglect the small or punish the large, time after time i hear from producers that the current safety net is inadequate especially for seed, cotton and rice price for the Agriculture Risk Coverage that our program in the Coverage Programs are calculated the 2014 farmville using data from 2012 more than a decade ago, we know a lot has changed since then. Existing reference dont reflect recent global events that is disruptive to make an Agricultural Industry including the china trade wars, the covid pandemic in the war in ukraine. Increasing input cost many of which thanks to president bidens were in American Energy have also contributed to the inadequacy of Reference Prices. Listening to our producers in understanding the experiences and challenges we can identify these areas with a safety net can be strengthened or improved in ensure that it remains effective and efficient supporting agriculture producers. This approach will help to ensure our policies and programs are responsive and effective and ultimately support the longterm sustainability and prosperity of our nations agriculture industry which i think is all of our goals. In this hearing i look forward to having opportunity to hear directly from mr. Johnson in miccosukee and other guests to gain insight into the challenges and opportunities across the country, we will also explore ways to improve the strength and strength of the safety net to ensure it is responsive to the needs of everyone. President eisenhower once said farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and youre a thousand miles away from the cornfield. That is why this farmville will be developed for producers by producers this hearing is critical as we continue to engage with farmers to understand a unique perspective and need and ensure that the safety net is tailored to meet those needs. I look forward to todays discussion, thank you, chairwoman smith i yield back the remainder of my time. Thank you so much and welcome chair, were glad to have you with us this morning. Were going to begin our first panel. We have two witnesses on a first panel, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, mr. Devol i know senator warnock was hoping to introduce you but is not here yet so im going to plow forward, he served as president of the American Farm Bureau Federation since 2016 he is a thirdgeneration farmer from georgia he and his son operate a beef cow herd raised chickens a rather hey with the family for more than 90 years, welcome to the committee. I would also like to welcome president of the national Farmers Union rob leroux, rob is the president of the National Farm union and prior to joining the national Farmers Union he worked for over 22 years in congress and developing agriculture policies, rob worked for both representative Collin Peterson from minnesota in the late senator as president of the national Farmers Union rob is the national advocate on behalf of farmers and managers. President duval and president leroux uhf five minutes for your Opening Statement as the clock in front of you in your full written statement will be made part of the record, president you are recognized for your Opening Statement. Thank you so much chairwoman smith and Ranking Member highsmith we really relish the opportunity to come and speak to you. One of the things that you did not say in my bio i spent 30 years in georgia as a child in 30 years as a developed i have a long history of continue to farm their in georgia. We want to thank you all for your work that we do for farmers adventures across the country each and every day and in your opening comments, you are right on target with what youre hearing across a region in the country. As ive said before our country that cannot feed itself and its people is not secure the strong farm policy that supports a food supply truly is part of a Smart National security strategy, the most recent farm Sector Income sees a decrease in net farm income in 2023 of 18 when adjusted to inflation. The same report estimates farm and ranch production expenses that you mention chairwoman will continue to increase by 18 billion, this has a record increase of 70 billion in 2022. The short and longterm Interest Rates that are high and rising have doubled and tripled in some cases in the last few years. High Interest Rates is caused by high inflation and the feds inflation has led to the debt crisis and in the 1980s. We need to make sure that the doubling and tripling of Interest Rates does not cause the similar pressures on our farms and ranches because we already have Mental Health issues across the farm because of the stresses they are going to. Along with the challenges there is enormous opportunities in the market agriculture, innovation and research are helping us more with us, our advances in sustainability are nothing short of the presence. In order to seize the opportunity gain continued advancements we need strong farm policy much uncertainty remains related to the ability for farmers to ranch and access affordable supplies and to manage volatility into volatile markets and deal with the regulation and the weatherrelated challenges. Our growers need to have access to comprehensive Risk Management options such as those commodity title in the farmville through profit shares, in particular we need to see improvements and title i the taking account the current challenges facing production agriculture. Such as farm bureau support the following rentables to guide the development of the program in the next farmville, increasing the baseline funding, commitments to farm programs we already talked about the cost of production and it needs to reflect what it cost us to produce these products, to maintain a unified bill that includes nutrition programs and farm programs together the farmville should be named the food and farmville we need to prioritize the funding for Risk Management which included Crop Insurance and title i commodity programs, of course there are important investments throughout the farmville investments in Critical Research to feel the incredible innovation that is help farmers and ranchers do more with less. Investments in voluntary incentivebased Conservation Programs that have helped farmers achieve impressive sustainability and investments to ensure that those facing hunger and access that are farmers are dedicated to producing more and more are worthy programs in the farmville the 2023 farmville presents an important opportunity for you the lawmakers of our great country we urge you to Work Together and begin to pass the legislation of both security and allamericans and insurers the future success of farmers and ranchers that will also keep our National Security intact. Thank you for holding the hearing today look forward to the questions thank you now we turn to president leroux. Thank you so much transmit and Ranking Member highsmith the members of the subcommittee thank you for the invitation to testify the national Farmers Union is a general Farm Organization and for the Economic Prosperity of farmers, ranchers and their communities through education cooperation the legislation. We can all Work Together to ensure the next farmville is as strong as it can be through sound Crop Insurance and commodity programs. I also want to emphasize, the importance of diversified income and opportunities as well as the need for fair and competitive markets. Its been an eventful five years since the farmville became law. We seen disruptions with china a trade dispute with china increasingly frequent and Severe Weather disasters in supply and demand and russias invasion of ukraine usda predicts a 21 decline have identified the wellfunded Disaster Program for market disruption in extreme weather Reference Prices and loan rates should offset higher cost of production. In crop producers we support farmers voluntarily removing marginal nor sensible land through production on annual basis in exchange for Crop Insurance production we support a dual enrollment option for the tlc to safeguard against rheumatic losses. We support a voluntary update of say takers and want to find ways issue advanced payment to the revitalization plan should be enacted to better serve family Dairy Farmers and stabilize milk prices. We strongly support the farm and ranch assisted network and want to make sure it receives Additional Resources we strongly support farmville efforts that benefit beginning farmer veteran and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers the farmville investments in conservation Climate Renewable Energy and infrastructure can help ensure the vitality of our community be a part of the solution with practices that are voluntary, incentivebased and rooted in science. That is why we have partnered with farm bureau the National Council coop the Environmental Defense fund and dozens of other organizations to form the food and Agriculture Climate Alliance. The congress for the farmville in with her input usda is implementing the partnership from the commodities initiative. This project will have new Market Opportunities for family farmers and ranchers to climate focus programs and were excited to see the effort to get underway this year. The financial viability of our farms is dependent on a fair market, any conversation about the farm safety net should also address competition. We must create fair and more competitive markets. In order to drive innovation, increase choice and decrease input costs and boost prices for crops and livestock. In the spirit in a few months the furnace for Farmers Campaign to shed light on the devastating impact that monopolies and near monopolies have on family farmers, ranchers and our communities. That is why were calling for competition title in the farmville to improve transparency and price discovery in cattle markets, strengthened the stockyards act, reinstate mandatory country of origin labeling and underscore the effective consolidation in the food supply chain. By building fair and competitive markets we address the root causes of financial instability for family farmers, finally we know the farmville Coalition Gets stronger by bringing in allies and supporters in the farmville coalition becomes weaker when it is divided. I want to reiterate our willingness for farmers and ranchers with the rural and urban they want to ensure the farmville includes Foreign Policy not only on the farm safety net but also for nutrition, energy, forgery, research and more. I look forward to working with you to address the issues and thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you very much to both of you we will now begin a round of fiveminute question for members of the subcommittee and let me start by asking both of you the folks on this panel in the senate add committee understand the farmville touches every part of life in america and as weve all said its essential to the National Security and the health and vitality of producers everywhere in the country understanding this is not a fair question im going to ask anyway if each of you could briefly talk about and highlight the two priorities that you think the subcommittee should keep in our minds as we move towards reauthorizing the farmville in 2023. I would have to say as i travel i spent half of my time here and half on the road speaking for grassroots trying to catch up. The first thing the first thing you hear about Crop Insurance stays intact and the second thing is they talk about the cost of the input and the title i Reference Prices do not match up with the cost of the production its really not the true safety net and we dont like to use the word safety net, it assures our American People that they could have food to fill their pantries as at a reasonable cost thats what farmville does it is assures our farmers can survive any disaster get to the next year end thats why the updates need to be made. I predict you getting here some themes that are common among a lot of the groups. Certainly Crop Insurance is something that is always front and center to make sure he remains very strong but the build and the strength of the private Public Partnership makes it more available with different markets may be much thinner markets in different Marketing Arrangements looking for ways to grow the success of the Risk Management tools to a number of diversified farms title i does need to reflect the changing conditions affect, we need to make sure the Reference Prices were other triggers that reflect todays circumstance, we need to make sure. More broadly making sure the farmville recognizes the dramatic shifts over the last five years and have more resilience in that going up and not down in minnesota im 65, but im very interested in hearing from both of you as we think about Risk Management strategies and the particular challenges that beginning farmers veterans, socially disadvantaged farmers have as her getting into agriculture and wanting to stay there, what particularly should we have at our minds for Risk Management Crop Insurance and other programs to support them. First i would say certainly efforts are currently in place to help beginning farmers and those historically underserved need to strengthen and goes beyond even the Risk Management tool that we have we need to make sure the developing markets and developing a marketplace that creates the future for beginning farmers there are a lot of new potential opportunity and usda is looking at building out local and regional markets in addition to making sure we have Risk Management that meet the needs of these emerging farmers and the next generation. At the same time we are creating a marketplace that creates option and potential and competition for their future. President of all. I would say the biggest challenge that young people have getting into agriculture is availability of land and credit. Of course the Risk Management are going to be a part of peace of the Business Plan to be able to get the credit to get into business and plan a crop making those problems more available to young people beginning farmers socially underserved farmers would be a huge help, young people ask me all the time where do i start and what programs are and usda that i can to convey to jeff, a lot of those programs like microloans that young people start with our cat in the cap to the level that none of us could get in agriculture or make enough money with the investment to be able to justify doing that all treated they did the day we have young people from all backgrounds coming out of the land grant colleges all across this country that want to be in agriculture but the Financial Sustainability of farming is not there, why would they want to come make it a farm and not know the be able to provide a living for their family. We have to find some way to make sure we can draw young people back to this industry because youre exactly right im 67 i am over the age of the average farmer and am very blessed to have a son and another young man working with me. But they have to have other jobs to be able to work with me. Thank you so much. Senator hudson. Mr. Duval you and i know the farm commodity and Crop Insurance programs have a significant return on investment and they do keep our food supply abundant and affordable, tell us why any proposal to decrease farm safety net resources are misguided and will not result in saving taxpayer dollars in the long run. If you take those problems away and brings more uncertainty to the market in those programs we mentioned as a publicprivate investment in agriculture which keeps food at a more reasonable cost to all the consumers across the country and also keeps farmers opportunity to continue to farm after a major disaster whatever it may be faced with. For the interest of the whole country in the consumers of National Security and everything we need to make sure we have the farmville the support not only farmers but the people that are in a part of their life where they need a hand up in a helping hand. Thank you your testimony indicates you have an interest in preserving the longterm viability of global america and i do too. Please expand on how congress should strengthen title i in title 11 Farm Bureau Programs to help preserve the longterm viability for Rural America. Absolutely. I appreciate the question it is at the heart of what farmville hopefully can accomplish in america. The farm safety net has already been mentioned is as much as anything senator brown providing reliability and certainly in the face of uncertain times. When we have trade warrant, climate weather events and farmers are used to trying to weather a lot of those market and weatherrelated challenges we need the safety net in place to be the reliable underpin to make sure that the farms cannot just farm this year but have the opportunity to put a crop at the ground next year end stay on the land as everyone on this committee probably appreciates that kind of effort feeds into the local communities in the local schools and makes a small communities much more valuable in the long run so whatever we can do to build on the successes in title i making sure that we update the price triggers in the Reference Prices making sure that we broaden in strengthening Crop Insurance i think will go a long way toward providing that certainty. Gerry you also noted in your testimony the latest farm income projection predicted 20. 7 decline in the income for 2023 when compared to 2022. What should this mean or how this committee one in 11 of the farmville. We can go forward under backwards we have to go forward and build a bill that is reflective of the current condition and for the next five years. In that sense we need to strengthen. Thank you, think about unterman. Thank you so much senator hydesmith i will turn to the chair of the ad committee were glad to have senator here and welcome senator bozeman thank you for coming to a subcommittee, senator you have the floor as the chair of the committee i thank you should feel free to take the time that you need. That is dangerous, good morning. Thank you very much im so glad you are sharing the subcommittee and a partner in senator hydesmith, thank you so much to both of you for your leadership in of course my partner right next to you senator bozeman good morning good to see you i appreciate a couple of questions to my good friend its good to see you. Always good to see you everyone here today, let me state the obvious farmers and ranchers across the country have experienced a lot of difficult challenges in the past few years that is for sure from the trade wars in the pandemic to the droughts to the floods and disasters, everythings been coming at her farmers and ranchers and Rural Communities. As we talked about another hearing theres been about 90 billion in ad hoc spending to respond to a variety of events in addition to the farmville as we look at this a lot of the emergency deficit spending which weighs in on what you are talking about and across the resources and support that has been there. I also want to say this is literally right now serious concerns about the potential default and get overheads in agriculture and i was hearing 20111th hearing Agriculture Committee when there was calls to cut spending in exchange for avoiding default and ultimately that ended up in acrosstheboard cuts to a variety of mandatory programs including her in plc which continues today eight years regardless of the current debate 5. 7 cut every year. Right now. I worry about the folks that have never done a farmville 240 people for the house and the senate never written a farmville are voted on a farmville and dont understand what this means for Rural America and what are the ways to get more assistance to farmers would be to repeal the 7. 7 which i would be happy to do. I know all of your will do the best we can i know the importance of addressing the challenges in the Ranking Member and i earlier this spring as the Budget Committee for budget flexibility so we can adequately address the needs of our producers. If we do not have additional funding on the baseline we need to focus on our Top Priorities in the best thinking on how we do this together to target this this leads me to my first question of Crop Insurance of a strong supporter both of you have talked about this. Its a core part of Risk Management and Crop Insurance is incredibly well for many producers to declines in revenue in new options and someone could we need to develop to make sure that continues. I wonder if you each might speak more specifically crops that are near and dear to my heart michigan and im glad we were able to get coverage but i know there is more that needs to be done. I wonder if each of you would respond to more specific enhancements you would suggest and Crop Insurance. In general or special crops, any additional thoughts on that . Of course the first thing that is funded correctly and we need to make sure that we protect it to make sure it doesnt diluted down to where its not effective to everyone. But to make it better is to be able to make it easier for people to use, if you talk about, i had a lot of crop farmers say is too difficult for me i dont really understand it, smaller farmers that are really understand how to participate in those programs. The difficulty in small and mediumsized farms is a challenge a lot of people look at American Farm bureau takes million members across the country and they look at us as representing a large farmer which is not true we surveyed the National Committee of voting delegates and the majority of the people that participate in the organization are small mediumsize farmers and what i just told you all the time we heard is difficult, hard to to give it a jump and sometimes cost prohibitive. Thank you. A couple of things, number one make each of the retaking full advantage of the 508h provision there to be creative whether that is tying in the practices, looking at ways to incentivize some of those current practices and looking at some of the programs that congress has put in place enter enter address the diversified multicrop and Risk Management and has struggled to really gain a lot of traction out there because it certainly perception that the paperwork are cumbersome process of having the coverage is ultimately not worth the effort. For specialty crops the challenges are immense for some of the crops that are traded with direct contracts that folks might not be aware that underworld in the development of additional products after but i would underscore of this with making sure first and foremost were not weakening the private Public Partnership. Thank you, one more question we know commodity is essential in Crop Insurance and other parts of the farmville are incredibly important and we need all the to make this happen in the national leaders, more broadly when we look all the components for the researching infrastructure, developing, diversified income streams through exports by autonomy. I wonder if you might speak about its all important we have to make sure we have all the pieces are, farmers want markets and whether through the bio economy, all of this is what will make our producers successful. Absolutely. The farmville coalition are broad in a broad range of support for very good reasons tremendous asset to the entire u. S. Economy. Whether supporting hunger programs and snap which has farmers we recognize also creates markets for us and also helping to feed her neighbors and family farmers when needed we want to make sure we reference competition items making sure the market that farmers have access to our truly fair and competitive author building out local and regional Market Opportunities so there diversified income streams, you mentioned the bio economy looking at ways to incentivize their Energy Programs or elsewhere in the farmville waives to encourage new systems but also ways to generate income from those efforts. I think probably its about building out market space in addition to the farm safety in creating opportunities for farmers in the future. Thank you. Two of the other areas i talk about a lot research and development. We are being outspent by other countries, especially china, 3 t dollars the statistics tell me in research and development is what keeps us more competitive across the world and keeps us more sustainable and makes us more friendly to the environment, all those and make their businesses more efficient. Having the new research coming down the pipe. Another area is conservation and climate discussion. For years as i farm the list of people as long waiting getting funded and many other programs that are offered to Conservation Program proper funding in the understand farmers very much appreciate that. What people dont realize if this market involuntary and sciencebased farmers will step up and take a vintage of into all the right things, it is a partnership to the tone of 140 million acres across america, farmers step up and they will continue to do that in conservation and in climate as long as his voluntary marketbased, those of the two areas that we need to focus on so the research and Development Projects also blended to climate and youre exactly right and all works together for a secure food system for our country. Thinking manager. Thank you, senator we now turn to set a bozeman, welcome. Thank you, senator smith senator hein smith for holding this very poor and hearing we had the opportunity to go around the country and visit with folks and i want to compliment you all i hear from your members and you are represented throughout the United States. And whatever gathering we have and whatever listening session you do a very good job, we appreciate that. Congress must protect enter protect from undue burden respect, and abilities to intimate and solve problems. Can you talk more about the current farm Safety Net Programs and how they afford producers the flexibility in any proposals that would jeopardize this. The Risk Management tools like us protecting their homes in their cars, and insurance policies go to the Risk Management products to be able to protect their farm and enough revenue to get to the next crop in the weeks of a disaster whatever that disaster might look like. It is absolutely crucial, we see the difficulty of people tried to get into agriculture the availability of land and credit, takes a lot of money to become a farmer, it is necessary to have the Risk Management tools there to make sure, that the red what might be tied to that required of a farmer to take a vintage of that. Those are real threats we need not to dilute the program, we need to make it better not to challenge you, we need to make it easier and more challenging, for example we should never take to a farmer you have to do this to get Crop Insurance, Crop Insurance is a tool in the Risk Management tool and protects the crop in the farm and it should be limited by other factors that might be attached to. We appreciate that, i agree the farmville, what are the underlying things if not the underlying thing for the agriculture for the Risk Management especially now in the difficult times that we are in regarding input costs, high Interest Rates, the list goes on and on even with the Banking Community as things get tighter there, i was going to ask you you and mr. Duval about time using specific climate or conservation practices in order to access the various Risk Management tools what impact would that have on these programs for farmers . The other thing that i learned traveling across the country is how different not only regions of the country but regions of farms, it can be a onesizefitsall, the other concern this is something that we could do we can cost money and save money much more effective is the paperwork and all that you have to go through in order to participate. You are absolutely right with this diversity of not only type of farm commodity use grown and you add parts of the country in climate conditions, you cant just put like it requirements over. One of the aspects of the food and Agriculture Climate Alliance that im particularly proud of is the fact all the recommendations that they made with impediment that is involuntary incentivebased marketdriven and based on various sound science thats why part of the recommendations related to Risk Management making sure that we studied fully the impact that climate practices have on things like Crop Insurance so decisions made to incentivize or better manage risk on her operation are based on the best available information and also earlier the 508h authority within Crop Insurance to look at the potential opportunities. Also Risk Management we want to make sure that we dont have, the rma is not putting restrictions in place that limit farmers from adopting climate practices that will help better manage in a little way very good points about not tying the hands of farmers. Thank you, madam chair. We turn to senator booker. To give madam chairman, thank you both. There is a lot of talk of strengthening the title i for commodity crop growers but we have a crisis theres no such program for them. A lot of beginning farmers really dont have an option and dont have a federal safety net at all. In the farmville we should move towards creating a comparable safety net instead of incentives for specialty crops this is nutritionally what we say the majority of our diet should be made up of you speak to me in the gaps in the safety net for especially crop farmers and congress can do to provide more support for specialty crop farmers. I appreciate the question one of the things of Farmers Union is pushing is making sure we are building on the success of the tools other than for many farmers. We do have many farmers who cannot access those for a variety of reasons, the tools that i referenced early whole farm revenue which was intended to try to capture some of the more diversified farming, specialty crop growers in different crops and unfortunately it is not working. Were not providing the right incentives. Looking for additional ways and flexibility which may require more direct input from rma as products are not being marketed properly and folks are not taken advantage or may not know about them or otherwise in impediment because the premiums are too costly. I think there are a number of ways but it should be the farmville that opportunity for diversified farms and specialty crop growers. I also want to thank you and folks from the nephew for their support with mike lee which will have a checkup programs you know this farmers are required to paint the checkup programs will ultimately too often they see their own dollar being used in waives that can hurt them. I would ask you a yes or no question do you believe its important for congress for the checkoff reform in the farmville. Very simple yes i would also add missy a lot of success and a lot of good work being done by checkoff and thats great we need to build on that success but any checkoff farmers are centered in that. Thats where this is disconnected farmers for a very long time has sought to improve checkoffs and i think there is a lot for them to do that were happy to support them. Diaper change that and transparency as well. Finally there is a lot of focus on capital hill about the form ownership of farmland which is concerning, i also want to talk about some ways the bigger threat the corporate ownership of farmland the buying of the farms big wall street hedge funds and pension funds, do you agree this is a problem and can you talk about the harm that the largescale purchasing farmland by Corporate Investors is causing . I think anytime farmland is out of control farmers we are headed in the wrong path. Anything that we could do to disincentive and keep farmers farming the land. I would also add in addition to corporate ownership, foreign corporate ownership of land that you also have where Food Companies and others further down the chain acquiring land, rented and not to farmers and the contract grower for the particular land using certain practices this is a trend that takes farmers out of the center affirming and they will be fighting every step of the way. My son traveled from North Carolina alabama to the midwest and across new jersey on some of the greatest american inspiring folks who have been on land for generations, the mass is not working for them anymore because of the new corporate ownership benefit from the programs intended to help farmers on and this is one of the reasons farmers are getting less and less in terms of the percentage of the consumer dollar, finding ways to recent your farmers and farm families that have been on the farms for so long has got to be the key spirit of the work that we do on the farmville, absolutely why were pushing for competition title, it allows them to steal the land which were easily and farming into the future. Thank you said a broker. Senator and, thank you Ranking Member and thanks to all of our witnesses for being here today and for your testimony while i traveled across iowa and visited 99 counties every single year in iowa. As a matter that county tour and we did a number of our bills, roundtables. What im hearing those farmers are excited about the future and in their consistently sharing with me about new science technology, innovation and thats all great but they also tell me about the challenges and certainty the farmers are facing supply Chain Disruption in high input costs of market volatility, its clear and over and over again Risk Management is their top priority for their farmers and they must continue our farm safety net, during the last farmville i introduced legislation to improve the county program and we were successful in passing several enhancements including the use upon under Crop Insurance instead of mass data and making payments for the physical location of the farm. Mr. Devol how has arc function with the changes in place and what suggestions do you and your Farm Bureau Members have to improve on the program. Its an important piece the Risk Management that are farmers use and i have not found very many complaints that is operating. I think i last farmville has operated very well and we took a change of how we develop a program made his work very well, i appreciate the feedback, we always want to make sure if there is room for improvement we are improving those programs and were glad we were able to work on the loss farmville is proving successful, mr. Devol there is a lot of disasters that we see happening across the United States that is impacting a lot of our farmers and ranchers. In iowa we had a derecho a couple of years ago that destroyed many iowa farms can you explain your farmers members experience with the maximum payment rate and how its limited assistance . Im not sure i speak to that. To have any thoughts on that . I think the maximums simply limit the ability that the programs have to be helpful when theyre called upon to be the safetynet. Without getting any deeper than that we certainly want to see this changed. That is because of some of the weather events that is extremely important to have the protections in place be my correct. Very much, Crop Insurance reacts a lot faster than ad hoc, when farmers participate in the Risk Management the claims are made and they get return on their investment a lot quicker than they would. Absolutely. I appreciate that and how important that Crop Insurance is and again, i hear that from our farmers and one thing that i stressed to people that arent in add country, for some reason they think the entirety of the farmville is Crop Insurance and i always had to make the point such an executive forget, not insignificant but a small amount within the farmville is Crop Insurance and the vast majority of the farmville is actually the food bill. I really appreciate your comments this morning and i appreciate the folks on this committee working very hard to make sure Crop Insurance stays available to those who need it. Thank you very much. Senator hogan. Taking madame sharon thank you for holding this hearing and thanks to the witnesses for coming today. My first question picks up on something that senator ernst just mentioned. Less than 20 of the farmville actually supports her producers isnt it vitally important that we make sure its adequate to support the producers that produced the highest quality lowest cost food supply which not only benefits all the folks on supplemental nutrition payments but everybody in america would you agree with that thats very important that we get to 20 that goes to farmers and is adequately resourced, would you agree with that. We would. Along those Lines Producers over and over tell me and others that Crop Insurance is number one Risk Management tool, would you agree and doesnt that mean we need to make sure its adequately updated and resource for them, would you both agree with that. Held about the safetynet right now we have arc and plc, do you both believe it needs to be updated, arc and plc so would provide the necessary support now . Would you both agree with that in any recommendation to doing that unless you dont agree with them i dont want to hear your recommendation. I certainly agree it is time to increase the reference parts and the price triggers in both programs we would advocate thank encourage the committee to consider a dual enrollment option. The flexibility is important. Absolutely. Mr. Duval. I would agree also is important that we recognize what caused to grow a crop on my farm this year. 300 more this year than last year who can absorb that to continue to operate. Both fuel and fertilizer inputs. Much higher for our producers and along those lines would you agree if we get this right, that reduces the need for ad hoc disaster. We hope, i understand were going to be there working with you. Getting this right should help you get that. You both agree with that. Our livestock producers, and transparency, would you both agree with that. S. Also talked to me about livestock programs and eli Assistance Program and should we do more with those two programs for the livestock producers they have some of the Risk Management that are farmers do indeed have recommendation on the livestock specifically. Mr. Duval i do not have the recommendations to give to you today we can do that through staff. I think its important to make sure our lifestyle producers have the same Risk Management tools and row crop areas. Thank you. Absolutely the need is there we are work to address it. For these programs to refinish the farmer friendly. They need to be farmer friendly so it actually helps the producer out there. They are the landowner, right . In terms of this program its very important they are voluntary. It is not a onesizefitsall. Started with you, would you comment in regards to those points . Yes. We mentioned earlier that all regions across the country differ. Different from one region to the other. Climate projects are different from one region to the other. One size does not fit all. We have to have that research and Development Dollars being spent to give us the right practices that we need to be in, and conservation but we need to make sure the monies are there and available. I mentioned earlier all of my working years have been long, long, long a lot of times i would get into it and a lot of times i would not get into it. Chris is a big diverse world out there in agriculture. Voluntary not onesizefitsall is vitally important for the success. Ask the success of that particular model of the flexibility has proven by the fact many of these programs have historically been oversubscribed and underfunded. To make sure you have the resources in there to service as many as possible is really important. Thank you, senator hoven. Senator grassley. Quick thank you madam chairman. First, i want to say in my longheld belief is Foreign Policy should be a limited safety had that helps farmers weather the storm of natural disasters. In any unpredictable thing that affects commodity markets. There are plenty of things like embargoes and things like that that do great damage. Anyway there is a lot of talk about the need to increase Reference Prices because of falling farm income. According to usda data we will see net farm income drop slightly this year. We have to remember 2022 United States set a record in farm income. Recent producers bottom line during times of relatively high Commodity Prices. As Ranking Member of the Budget Committee i care about how we are saddling future generations with our debts with the fundamental problem that we have not one up under taxation but overspending. And continue to hear we need to improve and strengthen the farm safety net. Do you have any idea of ways of doing that without spending. [laughter] i wish i did. Ill get the prize of the day. And by the way its good to see you and looking so healthy. Quick thank you. That is a tough question. How do we do it and not spend more money . I think weve got to make sure we determine whats going to keep our safety net strong and determine what is going to take to keep our farmers strong so we keep our National Security strong and to determine what that is, the amount of money is going to take to do that is really up to congress to do that. We are here to help you anyway to give you the information you need to do that. But to do it without any more money i do not have any suggestions in that area. Quick so we suggest to you, you come from southern agriculture that doesnt like grassleys idea of a limitation on what farm can get out of the farm program. So for you and mr. Leroux i have this question. But before i asked the question she must be actively engaged in farming to be eligible for commodity price programs were intended by congress to make sure farm subsidies made it directly to the hands of our countrys hardworking farmers. However in 2020 the usda rule exempt all family farms from the requirement which we know usda defined as 98 of all farms. So is it fair to the taxpayer in smaller farms that do not qualify to the extents included nephews cousins nieces, all receive the tune of 50000 annual from the federal government even though they have not done farm work over the last year . In your opinion how many hours would be needed for someone to be actively engaged in farming . Resend the biggest farmers get 70 of the benefits of the farm program. Leroux understands strongly supports actively engage provisions that limit payments to those who are truly invested in management and labor and provisions. We certainly would be willing to work to look for ways to ensure those rules are being met as intended by congress. The court agreed with that. We need to make sure that we understand farm operations, family farm operations do not look the same as they did 30 or 40 years ago. Just for the sake of efficiencies and family farm operations that are made up of cousins, and second cousins and sisters and brothers together using the same equipment overlapping work responsibilities. We need to make sure those people who are actively working are able to participate in those problems. Thank you med and sherman. Quick thank you, senator grassley. Senator fu i believe you are next. [laughter] not officially on this subcommittee at madam chairman thank you for the opportunity to be here to ask questions. Thank you to the panelists here today. Obviously agriculture is important to our state. The farm bill always an important conversation. I hope as we move forward we connect policy will be good for the prosperity agriculture Rural Economy in this country. And i like to if i might ask a couple of questions with regard to title i of the farm bill, the commodity title. What thoughts or suggestions you might all have. You could at least reiterate your thoughts about what we do with arc and plc prune of Crop Insurance is a cornerstone in terms of the event too. Those programs complement that. A lot has changed in suite live the less farmville and respect to Reference Prices. Could you give us perhaps your thoughts about what we might do to shore up that aspect of her Foreign Policy . I appreciate the question. In terms of the safety net and plc in particular we think they are basically strong provisions providing support that we feel it needs to be updated to reflect additional costs out there. Raising a Reference Prices is critical in them. It would help late in spite of the land grant economists models of what farmers should potentially choose, from many producers is still a bit of a guessing game is it youre going to look like which is going to provide better support for my operation . , while the yearly election is important, farmers unit like the committee to explore a dual enrollment of arc in plc is one of the additional options that we part of the sleep. Mr. Leroux has represented very well. I would reiterate the best bcs and the cost of production for the cost of us producing the products. So, to make sure the safety net is accurate, it needs to be updated as to what the real cost of production is very quick to continue to support annual election . Wheres union is dual basically as opposed revision we had included i work to get included in the 2019 farmville. It is available of course and 22 and 23 as well. Mr. Leroux and your testimony you discuss the soil in Income Health Protection Program which i offered to the 2018 farmville. Shipper has provided producers with shortterm option to conserve the least productive land which like the crp Program Requires a commitment 13 five years. Could you maybe describe how ship reauthorization and expansion can help producers enhance our operations . Absolutely. First of all thank you for the leadership and the vision in this provision. It has enabled producers to have a great deal flexibility in that region. Land that is marginal and should not be in production. So, providing the shorterterm contracts in exchange for partial rental payment there has really enabled producers have the flexibility of production in a given year or series of years. We start with support and authorization of that. Possibly looking expanding that model to allow that same sort of flexibility of taking marginal land out of production on a shorterterm basis to larger parts of the country. Quick, that would acknowledge and most would as i said earlier, the Crop Insurance is a critically important tool to mitigate risks associated with production, agriculture, and maybe you could briefly describe the ideas to improve that program . Crop insurance . Yes. Looks like we said earlier we need to make sure we have funding and support for. Need to broaden it and improve it and run it by making sure all commodities have access to affordable Crop Insurance. It has to be funded at a level that does not dilute down to effective Risk Management. Quick thank you manager. Thank you for your indulge and spread my time but it would like to perhaps you both on the record if i can with regard to some of the crp changes that were proposing i along with that or klobuchar are proposing to make in this bill. To make it in a more lens or any program in her Foreign Policy. If i can get you a have a couple questions for the record. Quick thank you manager. But thank you very much. Seeing no further members joining the committee for this first panel will close down the first panel and welcome the second panel to the table here. Thank you very much a president leroux and president of all we greatly appreciated your testimony and answering our questions so ably. I. [background noises] good morning welcome to the second panel. We will start with witness introductions and will begin mrr stabenow is introducing mr. Ackman today be quick thank you so much its great to see you. Thank you again chairwoman for the opportunity to introduce my constituent greg who has hails from michigan this farm for 38 years grows and dried beans, sugar beets, corn and soybeans today is joint as a past chairman of the michigan dean and delegate to the dry being counseled. Thank you so much for being here. Look forward to hearing your testimony. Welcome cody carson past chair of the sorghums producers. Cody and his wife operate a farm in texas where the growth wheat and produce counter. Cody currently serves as past producers, welcome. Then ill like to welcome mr. Brent cheney am i saying her name correctly . Thank you. President and association of wheat growers. Mr. Chen we gross president s, a farm organ or heat races wheat and barley and alfalfa and think next welcome to mr. Blake thank you very much. Vice chair of our coops. Like his family operate a 500 cow dairy infarct 1200 slogans in the art. Currently serves as vice chair be cooperative. We have mr. Rich hillman of hellmanns parts on behalf of the rice federation. Consider both mental introducing. Quick thinking manager to honor to introduce rich would tell you it with he is a sixth generation farmer in arkansas. Where he grows rice, soybeans and corn reason he could be testifying today is because the seventh generation is back home running the farm. We are grateful you can make it you are so wellpositioned issues affecting the broader needs of farmers in arkansas. Rich serves on the u. S. Ate rice farmers board of directors as vice chairman board for ricin foods it represents his state well. The president of the arkansas farm bureau. I was tell people back in the state to grab me by the lapels and let me know of Congress Needs to be doing better. Each budget rich takes that literally silly oppression very, very much like people he took time away from the farm to be with us today. Thinking that in a chair. Thank you very much would like to welcome mr. Patrick johnson will be introduced by pastor heidi smith. Think it made him chairwoman. It is my pleasure to introduce mr. Patrick johnson a cotton producer from mississippi. Mr. Johnson serves on the National Cotton Council Board of directors and shares the american Cotton Producers Farm Policy Task force. He wears a lot of hats hes also currently a member of the epa pesticide policy dialogue committee. Director farm bureau and a commissioner from Mississippi Department of environmental quality. He has held previous rolls in many other organizations recently completed a term as president of delta counsel be speaking at i think this year. Economic development and Agriculture Organization mississippi delta. We certainly appreciate center boozman dissipating for is a graduate of the university of mississippi joint is currently operation in 1996. Lives in with his wife emily. Welcome home i certainly look forward to your testimony today. Thank you so much. Wed like to welcome secretary of the soybean association. His environment for the magnolia, kentucky he farms 400n welcome to the committee. Mr. Neil rock sent welcome to the committee. Vice president of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association. Fellow minnesota he and his wife elizabeth farm near eta, minnesota they raised wheat, soybean, corn sugar beets on land once farm by three other grandparents and three great grandparents. Neil currently serves as president of the red river valley sugar beet growers board of directors serves as Vice President of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association board of directors. Welcome. Miss carla Baker Thompson welcome to subcommittee she is Vice President gt farms in georgia integrity farmers. She is a farmer living in georgia an attorney by training. She previously practiced business and Insurance Law before moving to southwest georgia to work with her husband on his family farm. There farms in georgia and florida where they grow peanuts, speaker, green beans, bloomers and sugarcane. And last but least my friend philip minnesotas first Vice President of the National Park versus creation. Harold is from minnesota or i have visited. He is transitioning his farm met her front seat tillable land which is about 1700 acres. He also has 200 acres in the crp program in cga first Vice President serves as the first vice President National corn Growers Association foundation on the finance committee and on the state level there is a past president kroger is welcome so much to the committee. Now, each have five minutes for your Opening Statement for there is a clock in front of you to help guide you through. We will certainly take your full written statement to be made a part of the record. You are recognized for Opening Statement. Given that introduction senator. First off i like to take this opportunity to thank you for being able to testify here today and to represent the driving growers across the u. S. As a senator said my name is greg i farmer from michigan. Past chairman and that michigan being commissioned current delegate our family farm currently grow slovenes wheat including navy beans, black beans and small red beans. Driving production fits really well under our operation and has unique sustainability story tell. They are short season crop this does not mean much water or fertilizer. Dry beans typically grow between 90 and 100 days from plant to harvest. Meaning implant in the first of june a carcass in the first week of september. That short of the season crop, it allows us to benefit by utilizing cover crops in our rotation to build soil health. In addition we are proud to be producers of very healthy nutrient dense plant based superfood. Many studies have shown that when dried beans are using human diets is proven to lower the risk of cancer improvement gut health and lower the risk of obesity. I believe beans are part of the solution to solve world hunger and also climate change. The federal policy priorities for our industry include we talked quite a bit about was maintaining funding for Crop Insurance for this is a small farm safety net per dry being producers. This program should be maintained and expanded where possible. Federal support for insurance premiums increases participation for coverage. Married by growers for the more participation and coverage provided through Crop Insurance the less there is for Disaster Assistance. I beans are not part of farm program it firm built makes the federal Crop Insurance even more vital for our growers. Increase funding something is not heard of yet here today, striving counsel is 70 other agricultural organizations received map and fnc funds. Both programs or authorize the farm bill the spending level have been flat for 20 years. Inflation administrative fees all reduce the real funding available to these organizations. Continuation of the international for education and child nutrition programs, this Program Supports education, child development, and Food Security in the Program Office of the farm bill provides for the donation of u. S. Agricultural commodities including dry beans. As well as financial and Technical Assistance eating and maternal child nutrition programs. Continuation initiative u. S. Dry being counsel requests we authorization on the National Initiative under the farm bill for the gold of nsi is to employ a coordinated Research Strategy to minimize the devastating effects are not as white mold which causes serious Economic Loss by negatively impacting crop quality and yield that impact the growers bottom line. This is also impacts the soybean producer as well. Finally, trade. Since this includes trade issues we would like to take this opportunity to urge you to renew support for expanded trade and new trade agreements. With the competitive environment changing, particularly post pandemic will be a trade advantages. We continued to suffer from lost markets in the eu and the uk as a result of years of retaliatory tariffs. 2 30 two tariffs. Part of the tariffs he knew it was a large importer of u. S. Dry beans. This to me. As representing anti striving counsel he personally had the opportunity to attend back to back trade missions to the eu and the uk. While the turks were placed remote government officials and international trade, usda foreign eggs service, treat them back u. S. , and the director general for trade of the european commission. We also met with many end users typically use our products. A couple of the large ones you may have heard of would be craft, heinz, princess foods. Virtually dry beans were evicted stemmed from the retail tory tariffs. These tears were eventually removed in june of 22, our industry was thinking immediately back in the u. S. Market. But that is not been the case today. Once you lose these markets and let others in, build those relationships and figure how to compete not only on the production side but on the quality side of the u. S. , it is hard to earn those markets back. Please consider these priorities as humans to the complexities of this farm bill and thank you again for the opportunity to testify here today. Quick thank you very much. Mr. Carson . Good morning. Thank you chairwoman smith and rankings met member for the opportunity today as previously stated by name is cody carson and i farm in texas presumes the immediate past chairman of nationals producers board of directors. And i think with the exception of dairy and rice i either grow or have them growing every crop represented here today but very few of the farmers from these cultures. I appreciate my colleagues being here. It is an honor to be here today but i testimony on behalf of National Sorghum producers but more importantly as a farmer, will be helpful to you. I like to begin by giving a brief statement for the sorghum industry currently is. Sorghum farmers across the plains they are facing exceptional drought. We have been for several years now. Farmers in these states have been hammered with Intense Missions heading as the harvest of last summer and those conditions remain as we head into this years planting season. Hundreds of sorghum acres that got planted last year i literally harvested one field. Yield was the lowest our industry has seen his. In addition to the drought impacting our Operations Market volatility, inflationary pressures in higher expenses coupled with lower projections for crop cash receipts are only adding to the stress and uncertainty we facing Agricultural Production today. We are fortunate to have tools that can help sorghum producers to these extreme events are beyond our control. In order to stay in business. Such as title i, Crop Insurance, and congressionally authorized ad hoc Assistance Programs have been invaluable in the stressful times. Due to the increasing severity of the we face, we believe farmers and ranchers need a stronger farm safety net to provide predictability and certainty for producers and lenders. Also cleared more resources will be necessary to enact a strong farm bill theyre simply a major shortfall the safety net funding compared to our historic levels. The cost of production has also increased. The order of 50 one. 100 some inputs up to three 100 higher. The changes in the 2018 farm bill have been helpful, given the level and speed at which these costs and increase, statutory plc Reference Prices are now far too low to prevent an effective support in light of that many risk factors we are currently facing. The same is true of marketing loans which remain an important cash flow tool for farmers. But now they are also low relative to your current risk. Organ producers are grateful for the wisdom of this committee. Tying to the market with an escalator and the 2018 farmville pleasant will create some improvement to the level of certainty and confidence of sorghum farmers for them and spiraling input there is room for improvement in that as well. Crop insurance is vital for sorghum producers the tools been critical in helping manage ongoing Drought Conditions that are decimating the sorghum belts. And have it really local impact on we believe the community can take members improve in this area. You just sorghums ability to withstand short periods of drought and heat, better than most other crops farmers do tend to deploy sorghum more aggressively when our Production Outlook is pretty. This exposes the crop to extra environmental stress in higher risk situations. As a result sorghum transition yield suffer as to our insurance product rating inc. Cost to participate compared to some other crops. Fortunately announced a new Crop Insurance last year for irrigated sorghum farmers that is now available in 2023 growing season. This benchmark sorghum to corn for higher guarantee for less money ocs Pilot Program to farmers in certain counties in kansas, oklahoma and texas. We continue to work closely and look forward to work with this committee to build upon these efforts to provide Meaningful Solutions to sorghum farmers. Im back up to look at bigger pictures sorghum with acreage just by outright market. Most of that competition was soybean and corn in the portion of the belt are simply better than those i just described with suspected cotton in the south they have options of higher levels of coverage at higher levels of premium cost sure we do not have and i would ask for parity. Sorghum needs the ability to buy to compete for acres. Resources are returned to help address her parity in her acreage competition concerns. We appreciate weather disasters through improvements is a worthwhile pursuit. Look forward to work with this on commodity organizations i like to personally thank this committee for that letter sent on the Budget Committee. In very valuable information i appreciate all the thought process of ascent into that. With that met in i just want to say thank you forward to National Sorghum producers being able to assist you in any way we can be quick thank you so much. I think of the chair and Ranking Member and members of the subcommittee for the opportunity to testify and provide a wheat farmer perspective on the farm safety nets. My name is brett im a farmer from oregon. Right operate a certified century farm with my son. We pride ourselves on creating quality product and my son is committed to carrying on the Family Tradition business of working hard and being a good steward of the land. I also currently serve as a present of the National Association of wheat growers. That represent week which producers in washington d. C. Our members feel it is essential to testify today. With rising input costs, decreasing net farm income this most winter wheat crop since the 60s it is very important we take this opportunity to enhance affirming safety net. They come out of it Crop Insurance play an Important Role in preserving Rural Economy keeping food supply stable heaping farmers on the family lands. Number one priority is protecting Crop Insurance. Cuts were made in previous farmvilles in an effort to be more fiscally conservative. This directly led to increase Disaster Programs as affirming safety that came up short. It is imperative we avoid similar cuts in the future. Not only does Crop Insurance protect farmers, it protects the banks and Small Businesses that help supply them and make Rural Communities and economies thrive. My firm utilizes a yield protection policy with the coverage of 80 . We have a stake in the premiums and helps protects us in the case of disaster or yield loss. We like to ensure the farm at a higher level the policies are too expensive. Congress should take a hard look at this issue and make the program more affordable at higher levels of coverage. In short Congress Makes a good program better. Plc Reference Price never change prices have risen to a point takes a 38 decrease before triggering a payment. An industry that leaves us over a of its prices struggle to survive. I will guess this committee significantly increase the week plc Reference Price so that it better reflects the current state of the agricultural economy. Like Everything Else in the economy, funds for print trade promotion like map and fmd has lost their effectiveness from inflation in frustration. The funding double for these programs and thank the senators here who would sponsor the expanding act. These programs have excellent return work to expand the markets for our products. In a time when our competitors are investing in expanding their markets we need to be doing the same. While ad hoc programs running to fill gaps left by cuts in the firm safety net these programs were afterthefact and lacked longterm certainty. Many times the programs led a long time to reach the ones that needed the most. Farmers cannot rely on these programs to mitigate the risk. Its imperative congress strengthen these farm Safety Net Program that are predictable and effective. These requests require money. However, the farmville receives spending cuts in the past. The affirming safety net makes up only two tenths of 1 of federal spending. It is essential to keep food supply stable and rural economies thriving. This is why we joined with over 400 other agricultural organizations in the letter to the Budget Committee requesting resources. It would be a waste of an opportunity to not make these investments in the farmville. Wheat farmers across the country are experiencing high prices. But at extreme risk. My written testimony shows the impact that inflation, Interest Rate and severe drought are already having on the farmers bottom line. High prices are meaningless when there is nothing to harvest which many farmers in winter wheat producing areas of the country are experiencing this year. Congress must act now to enhance the farm safety. Thank you for the opportunity to testify at this hearing. I even more greatly look forward to the opportunity to work with you on the upcoming 2023 farmville. Thank you so much next we have asked chair smith come Ranking Member hyde smith. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is blake my family and i own and operate between milt farms and theory in northern new york. I am proud to be vice chairman of agora market, its very cooperative owned by more than 500 dairy farm families in new york and new england. I am test today on behalf of the National Milk Producers Federation of which egger market is a member. Im pleased to offer comments on gerry policy. When this committee began its work on the last farmville dairy policy was much less effective than it is today. The previous version Protection Program while well intended fell short of providing the protection required of the valuable farm safety net. Further, unlike row crop farmers Dairy Farmers lacked access to the Risk Management options that can help meet their unique needs. Dairy farmers are grateful for the work this committee did to reform the safety net in both the 2018 farmville bipartisan budget act of 2018. I am grateful to all of you for advocating for producers nationwide. The dairy margin Coverage Program is a major improvement and has performed a strong safety net for Dairy Farmers during difficult times. Since the program was implemented in 2019 my firm has consistently purchased the maximum coverage. The next farmville provides another opportunity to make improvements. Mcs underlying production history calculation is outdated. Theory from the opportunity to update the production history to reflect more current production levels. We are grateful to this committee for enacting supplemental dairy margin coverage payments to compensate farmers for incremental increases as of 2019. It is called this adjustment be continued and failed. National milk Economic Policy committee is reviewing other potential to tmz. The program currently allows producers to pay lower premiums for the first five columns. Reformers in the northeast to nationwide. Where a critical theory farmers now have access to Crop Insurance to just degree in revenue last october splurging. These programs into adapter Risk Management to their needs. Smart affordable all producers. Participation departments and federal permitting ordinances to provide significant safeguards. Farmers, cooperatives and processors. Elite marketing conditions for farmers. However the industry changed since the last factor National Milk ive worked extensively over the past year through the process to modernizing order assistant. After more than eight meetings including Dairy Farmers and cooperative experts looks board of directors gave unanimous approval in march to a capri. And yesterday we submitted our petitions to usda. National hearing proposal addresses issues including my last one. Intended to be revenue neutral. Nationwide more than 900 million in 202022. We are grateful for the pandemic reimbursement at the end and congress provided. For dairy farm policy in place to record government to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every technique to perform 812 manufacturing costs have increased clearly. Many Dairy Farmers and myself are of cooperatives and processing plants therefore make the amounts at the right level. This context we hope to work with community require usda mandatory plant cost studies to port the results information you need to consider requesting to make elaborate updates. My written testimony covers key issues of the subset of conservation, trading, nutrition, near and dear to my order form stress progress. Thank you again for the opportunity to test everything he went out of her and i am happy to answer any questions you may have. Next mildred hillman. Good morning Ranking Member by mike. Then 125. The field provide critical habitat for migratory waterfowl and other wildlife and contribute substantially to biodiversity. More than 3. 5 billion people worldwide depend on rice is a stable food. 3. 5 billion people. U. S. Rice grown is accessible, affordable and nutritious. Rice is not as fortunate as other commodities that saw a large run up in the market prices during 2020 and 21. Rusted increasing cost of production. Texas a m University Study in 2022 predicted two thirds, two thirds of rice farms would have negative net farm cash income in the 2022 crop year. Usda also reports more than 30 increase in operating cost which we talked about here this morning. On our farm it was even higher. Thank you all in particular senator boozman providing assistance to rice farmers and for the 2023 omnibus appropriation bill. It was truly critical for rice farmers, senator. The current cost of production is extremely higher than the cheap 12 levels with current Reference Prices was calculated and established in the 2014 farmville. That makes the Current Program not a true safety net for rice farmers today. In 1986, a long time ago, i purchased my first combine for 40000 or thereabouts. The stress of that dead because leap and a lot of worry. Although i was fortunate to have my father as a backstop, i was make that payment and pay that machine off. My son, who is a seventh generation farmer and my brother and i all have greater pressures and challenges today. 750,000. The importance of that story is the economies of scale that we have they have only become more evident. To keep pace with capitol and other costs we must farm more land and take on a lot more risk. As a highcost info across crop subject to severe Global Market distortions due to predatory trade practices of Foreign Countries u. S. Rice farmers are more vulnerable to the impact of inflation and global events that have caused increasing cost of fuel, fertilizer, labor as well as the highest Interest Rates and many of the farmers, especially our Young Farmers have ever experienced in their careers. A strength and safety that would ultimately be more costeffective for farmers and taxpayers then continued ad hoc program sprayed the plc program has traditionally been our true safety net. Especially for rice farming. It has allowed us to better compete im global Playing Field impacted by forward subsidies, tariffs, and nontariff trade barriers for indians subsidizes its rice producers upwards of 90 . 90 injected billions to offset escalating input costs. This is only one example of many trade practices used by foreign competitors. We continue to ask the u. S. To address blatant w po violations. Usa rice strongly believes a Reference Prices under plc need to be increase in index to provide a safety net that remains relevant over the long haul to ensure the longterm viability of the u. S. Rice. The work that you all do in this subcommittee and on the senate Egg Committee is extremely important to the families that i represent. It is important to me and my family. And please, never underestimate what you do here and our nations capitol because it is so critical to those family farmers. I appreciate all of your hard work and appreciate your work this morning for a quick thank you very much mr. Helm and johnson you were next. To testify. I can start. This type. This tip to keep this patient to light. Night36. 8 interest cap. Lewis cotton industry. However despite higher production costs the maximum level of the loan rate has remained 52 cents since 2002 and should be increased to better reflect cost of production and recent market prices. Furthermore various loan repayment permission should be modernized to better reflect the Global Market higher storage and logistics costs. These improvements include allowing storage credits to better reflect actual storage charges. Determining a globally competitive adjusted price based on the three Lowest International prices. Limiting the amount of the annual decline in the cost to market values. In creating a 30 day window for finalizing the awp. We should also remember that not all cotton is the same. The 2018 farmville continued Important Programs which is grown in parts of the west. The 2023 farmville should increase the loan rate to a more reflective level of pricing and cost of production. To ensure this commodity remains competitive abroad the next farmville should also add marketing loan functionality to the loan and maintain both the cotton competitiveness Payment Program and contrast fund. On the domestic manufacturing fronts, economic adjustment assistance protects tech salvos as lead investments in equipment and technology thereby reducing cost, increasing efficiency and allowing u. S. Mills to be more competitive. To support American Manufacturing we urge congress to restore the rate of 4 cents per pound which was in place prior to 2012. It is vital to our industry which is why the Market Access program in foreign market Development Program are so important. Our industry supports the coalition to promote u. S. Agriculture, exports proposal to double funding for both rapid fmd. Finally our industry as opposed to any further tightening of payment limits and Program Eligibility requirements we encourage commerce does recognize this reality in recent Disaster Assistance by including increase payment limit levels for producers who realize the majority of their income from their farming operation. The same consideration should be given to title what agreement limits and the next farmville. In closing i encourage the committee to write a farmville that provides longterm stability for the future that addresses the challenges continue to be faced by our industry. Thank you for this opportunity and i look forward to answer your questions. Quick thinking mr. Thompson. Good morning chairwoman smith, Ranking Member and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the invitation to provide testimony as you develop the 2023 farmville. My name is kayla i am a ninth generation farmer for magnolia, kentucky. By farc soybeans, corn and wheat with my wife leanne and our three sons charlie, cory, carter. I am testifying on behalf of the american soybean association. Asa represents more than 500,000 soybean farmers across the three primary soybean producing states. Nationally u. S. Soybean farmers produced over 4 billion bushels last year on over 87 million planted acres it is a busy season across living country with farmers working hard to get this years crop in the ground. We hope that this Time Next Year we will have a new farmville in place that provides farmers a strong safety net that is stronger than what we have now. Effective safety net is a vital it should give us farmers confidence to put out a corrupt and know we can keep the lights on when hard times hit. In the next farmville we need to priorities with the firm safety net. One is protecting Crop Insurance is improving title i firm safety net for soybeans. We must protect Crop Insurance. This is most effective and important component of the firm safety net for swimming farmers. Without Crop Insurance the risk of the more than many farmers and lenders can stand. It certainly would be for me and my family. Asa urges you to protect Crop Insurance from harmful amendments may arise. We must improve the title i firm safety net. A predictable effective firm safety net is needed for the duration of the next farmville. In a february report usda projects 21 decline in net cash farm income in 2023 relevant to 2022. This is a major cause for concern for farmers. Soybean growers have already experienced firsthand the challenges of an effective safety net. I will share with you my experience during the trade war with china in 2018 and 2019. The largest importer of soybeans in the world is china. Even with the ongoing efforts to diversify an open new markets almost one third of all soybeans grown in the u. S. Are destined for china. During the height of the trade war with china u. S. So i stopped flowing to the Chinese Market our peak export. That fall. Soybean prices drop significantly. We received no plc benefits a little from the program. Usda stepdad with ad hoc temporary support to farmers. If the trade war that shrunk soybean demand over 30 hardly triggered the firm safety net provided in the current farmville of it is difficult to envision a scenario that would provide meaningful assistance without significant improvements to the current Reference Price and program elements. Another challenge impacting the accessibility and effectiveness of the firm safety net is a significant disparity in recent soybean planted acres compared to base acres. Which are in plc benefits are provided. In 2022 soybeans were planted nationally on over 87 million acres. By comparison soybean based totals 53 million acres. The intent of the program to tip. That is increased by base acres a quarter of my farm is now protected by n payable to the next family. Welcome to take a more distorted would provide access to a standards combined with other to the programs. Make improvements in title i funds that will require. When built and will be difficult to navigate. The committee Budget Committee requesting funding for a successful farm. They lived but sufficient sources to write a meaningful farmville. We ask you keep agriculture in my order on multiple fronts. Thank you for hearing from farmers to date opportunity to share testimony in your work to develop the 2022 farmville. Thank you. Mr. Rocks dead. Chairwoman smith, Ranking Member and some members of the subcommittee, good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before on behalf of the American Sugar alliance. My name is neil im a farmer along with my wife elizabeth pretty fine in minnesota raceway, swimming, corn and sugar beets were fourthgeneration our family to farm with any luck i hope my daughters will have the opportunity to become the fifth grade my family his race sugar beets for 75 years i served as Vice President of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association. This theory is important for sugar beet and sugarcane farmers title i of the farm belt represents a critical safety net for our Farming Families and the employees of her sugar processors throughout the country. The u. S. Sugar industry generates more than 151,000 jobs standing 24 states and introduces 23 billion annually to the u. S. Economy. American consumers also benefit from high quality safe reliable and affordable source of sugar that natural sugar is used as a sweetener, preservative and booking agent 70 of packaged foods. Additionally our industry me some of the highest labor and Environmental Standards in the world. Through Continuous Improvement best Management Practices we have made a huge striped efficiency and sustainability. In fact free sugar production by 14 using 8 fewer acres in just 20 years. I would like to make three points today. First, American Farmers are threatened by less efficient subsidized, dumped foreign sugar that usually sells well below the exporters cost of production this makes the world sugar market the most distorted commodity market in the world. Due to existing trade agreements United States is already the Third Largest importer of sugar accounting for about 30 of the u. S. Need. Yet as Global Supply Chain Disruptions from the pandemic and they were in ukraine have taught us, we must not become even more dependent on those foreign suppliers. This might effective sugar policy maintains a strong domestic industry is essential to the Food Security of our nation. Second, sugar policy is structured to operate zero cost to the u. S. Taxpayer. It is operate zero cost for 19 of the past 20 years usda project so operate zero cost for the next 10. That said the loan rates refined sugar if not kept up with the rising costs. Operating margins for our producers are being squeezed through to rising input costs. For example farmers today 87 more for diesel fuel 141 more for fertilizer than they did compared december 2018. The bottom line is the current loan rate value is no longer provide a realistic safety net for our producers. Since the early 1980s we have lost 68 processing facilities. The most recent closures happened just this year in northeastern montana. It is not whether or production causing exposures it is economics. Once a facility closes down it does not reopen. Those communities, those regions and those people face drastic changes. We would support examining on the farm safety net can be updated to better match actual operating costs for our producers. Third, our producers are exposed to Severe Weather disruptions. While power farmers do some Insurance Products available to us is not as welldeveloped or affordable as they are for similar commodities. Her sugar beets policies are limited to yield basic coverage they do not benefit from the revenue based product. For sugarcane the hurricane Insurance Program has been an invaluable addition but it prevented planting provision is needed. We would encourage the committee to provide help to improve Insurance Coverage options. Additionally our producers have participated in with plus erp in the past. We are thankful usdas work with texas sugarcane farmers and beet farmers on disaster aid. Youre certainly receptive to new efforts to provide sanding disaster coverage in ways that do not undermine Crop Insurance. Short and provide adequate safety net for American Farmers at zero cost to the taxpayer. Radical a strong policy remain in place to counter heavily subsidized reliable foreign suppliers whose environmental and labor standards simply do not measure up to our own. Members of the committee, on behalf of of more than the 11000 sugar beet and sugarcane farmers the United States and the employees of her processing facilities, i thank you for supporting strong u. S. Sugar policy and i welcome your questions. Thank yous. Next we will hear from ms. Baker thompson. Church smith, Ranking Member, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to provide the pete producers perspective on the firm safety net. My name is Carla Thompson i currently farm in a Family Business with my husband and my extended family in southwest georgia. We have a diversified farming operation we grow peanuts, fruit and vegetables. My family has been through a lot over the course of our time is American Farmers. Covid make in particular really triggered a series of events on our farm and those like it. Since 2020 we have seen supply Chain Disruptions, inflation on key farm inputs and labor shortages. And even prior to 2020 the peanut industry arty face difficulties. We had low prices due to trade issues reduced market in china and it not sure trade barrier in europe and the uk. In addition to the Financial Stress of low market prices and increased input costs, we have had to spend significantly on equipment straight peanut permit requires only your traditional farming equipment, but also high cost very specialized equipment that is extremely expensive to purchase and maintain. Doctor Stanley Fletcher of abraham Agricultural College and Professor Emeritus at the university of georgia has developed and maintained representative farms. From 2000 elemental today. We currently have 22 represent a farm spread across the country. Doctor fletcher reviewed the peanut representative farms 2020 when cost of production compared to 2022 cost an event significant increase. From 2021 until 2022 the total cost of production per ton increased by 26 . To this 2021 represent a farm update the peanut Reference Price of 535 per ton to provide effective safety net for growers that according to doctor fletcher date Reference Price is not been a functional safety net since the 2021 crop. Total variable input costs have increased 33 from 2021 until 2022. Where 2020 when cost of production was 546 per ton after fletcher reports 2022 cost of production at approximately 668 per ton. So on our farm relate many of our expenses have almost doubled since 2018. For instance youve heard about fertilizer costs, are zip actually skyrocketed on supply shortages directly translated to price increases. So our fertilizer expenses have as much as doubled. Labor costs have been particularly challenging. We really believe in taking care of our teams out labor costs are always a primary focus of our Financial Planning and since 2019 is become increasingly difficult to plan for and cover those costs. The reasons im really proud to be an american peanut farmer is because im helping to provide nutritious food for consumers. Peanuts contain 19 essential vitamins and minerals there are one of the most affordable Protein Sources for consumers. In fact not far from my firm is a processing facility for na na or manage nutrition. The Nonprofit Organization that produces a ready to use therapeutic food made with fortified peanut paste. Its a great example of how my family and peanut growers across the country can be part of the solution for hunger. So, what you need for the 2020 farmville . First usp federation supports an increase in the Reference Price. Growers, shelley, my points are unified enterprise Coverage Program is included in the farm bill with the Reference Price increase. While the 2018 farmville price last Coverage Program has worked for peterborough as the rising input costs and cost of production necessitates Reference Price increase if the program is to remain relevant at the firm safety net. Second usp and operations of bulger update includes growers with and without current peanut base acres. I like to thank all the Committee Members for all your doing on the farmville importance of the farm safety net cannot be understated for my familys work as American Farmers. I thank you for allowing me too testify and forge any questions you might have. Thank you so much. Exterior tina smith Ranking Member, members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to testify today. My name is harold i am a family farmer in minnesota were i am transition farm to my son thereses point and soybeans i currently serve as first Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association. Farmers across the country are busy today planting seeds and preparing for a strong crop and future harvest. The committees continued outrageous thing critical for strong bipartisan farmville. Corn growers are as optimistic for this process as we are for this years harvest. This morning ill focus focus my testimony in cga top farmville recommendations for Crop Insurance and the commodity titles. The areas of emphasis for corn growers are summarized in our key principles protecting federal Crop Insurance, strengthening the producer safety net, both street u. S. International Market Development efforts, and supporting voluntary Conservation Programs. Our farmville recommendations seek to make usda programs more effective and responsive to Strategic Investments and policy enhancements. Federal Crop Insurance has a proven track record of helping producers quickly respond to natural disasters. Corn growers consistently rank Crop Insurance as the most Important Program and title of the farmville. We strongly oppose any efforts to restrict, producer access to Crop Insurance products and impose harmful program cuts that would negatively impact Crop Insurance products, their delivery or the sound structure of the program. One area were Crop Insurance can be improved is the cost and coverage to producers. In cga broadly supports increasing the affordability of Crop Insurance. Many corn growers purchase endorsement policies and higher levels of buy up coverage. But for others the individual cost of purchasing coverage can discourage higher levels of coverage. In the commodity tile the agricultural risk Coverage Program provides important countercyclical revenue coverage for farmers. Farmers have identified two places to improve the programs effectiveness. Currently our county payment rates may not exceed 10 of the county benchmark revenue. This maximum payment rate has limited the assistance provided to producers. In cga supports increasing the maximum rate above 10 in order to provide increased assistance to growers who experience significant revenue losses. 12020 growers across iowa suffered major losses due to the. Yield losses were widespread and deep enough for our county to trigger payments in multiple counties. But the programs effectiveness was restricted due to this limitation. In cga recommends increasing the coverage level for our county above the current 86 of the county revenue benchmark to make the program more responsive to revenue losses. The price lost Coverage Program plc provides important price protection for farmers. Corn growers by the plc program is an option particularly during periods of sustained than average prices for the current statutory Reference Price for corn is 370 per virtual well below current market prices and longterm historical averages. In cga support strengthening the effective Reference Price escalated which allows more responsive price protection. The provision is capped at one or 15 of the statutory Reference Price. For corn the escalator is capped at 4. 26. For corn growers effective Reference Price is expected to trigger higher levels of price protection for the 2024 crop. In cga support strengthening the market oriented mechanism by raising 115 gap or modifying the formula to beat more responsive to changes in market prices. In the trade title supports increasing funding for that Market Access program in the foreign market Development Program. The conservation title in cga supports three initiatives to make the existing working plans program more effective in combating weed resistance reducing nutrient losses through farmer lead collaborative watershed projects speeding the development and adoption of innovative conservation practices based ration practice standard program. In closing corn growers stand ready to provide additional feedback and support as the legislative process moves forward toward a successful farmville harvest this year. Thank you so much to all over palos today. Were going to be an amount of questioning for members of the subcommittee about five minutes each. I will start. Harold i will start back with you. We have heard from many of the panelists today but how increasingly Severe Weather events are having an impact which of the additional risk farmers are experiencing them think about our home state of minnesota which set a slew of snow this year. The impacts of the snow and rain is planting delays because of all this weather. But you talk a little bit about how prevented plenty planting coverage under federal Crop Insurance how this works . Whether it is an important strategy to maybe talk a little bit about the importance of flexibility run planting dates and acreage reporting . Rex preventive planning is a very important part of Crop Insurance. Several years ago minnesota assemblies 2019 was affected wet soils. I am optimistic that will not happen this year. But, in that instance when farmers were unable to get into their fields prevent planting, providing them a level of coverage for those acres they were unable to plants. That was extremely value flexibility around the plant dates appreciated. I think they work fairly well now. But it is a very important part of the Crop Insurance program for books thank you very much. Mr. Roxanne would like to join in on this and think you mentioned your testimony briefly about prevented planting provisions for sugarfree. Sugarcane specifically is looking for preventative planting option sugar beets are low bit different we have prevented planting however where the farmer owned cooperative new process of sugar we do everything we can come even to late dates to make sure the crop is the ground we could adequately supply the market for quick thank you very much. Another question in the dozens of listening sessions ive had with minnesota farmers and ranchers and producers ive heard a lot about how much they rely on local fsa offices office of the challenges and rent usda filling vacancies in those offices. Want to give an opportunity to focus on the panels response that is it something you are seeing . Any comment youd like to make about the importance of the local fsa offices . Local fsa offices critically important to Dairy Farmers and row crop farmers in getting the word out to help our cooperatives, help our board of directors help everyone get the word out on how and when to sign up. It needs to be within driving distance you can get there between chores. I think one of the key things to me as a producer that i would suggest to the committees keep the county committee intact. The local hand at the helm is a very steady effect. The local people know the problems we cannot expect someone from out of the area with no understanding of our trials and tribulations to be able to assess and make the correct decision regrets everyone has been saying today everything is local when one size does not fit all the offices needed support that. Doing a jump your . Rex yes i serve on my local county committee. But sadly ive never been able to attend that in my own county. In my career ferment with never had our own office we lost several years ago. I echo the, the county committee is vitally important for the local touch and understanding of what is going on. I would further echo we need to provide help to fsa getting the word out better. When we dont have an office in each county is harder for some folks to truly understand the options are available. Social media now we have lots of electronic waste to get messages out. We need to do more than letters and wordofmouth and so forth. But we also need good staffing. There is a shortage and it is difficult. That goes back to money. Quickset is great, thank you, thank you so much. One last question. You mentioned in your testimony about how important working land Conservation Programs are. Would you just maybe say a bit more direct its my understanding those programs are dramatically oversubscribed to have many people who want to be participants and are able to do what you say a word more about why you think that is important for farmers . You are absolute correct. Our working plans program are oversubscribed. On my own farm i have 200 acres of crp and it provides multiple benefits as to the other working plans programs. I crp provides wildlife habitat, wind and water erosion control. And it sequesters carbon which is increasingly important to our society. So, Conservation Programs, working plans programs are vitally important. Thank you. This is not exactly the topic of this committee hearing. But the flexibility especially csp equipped to meet the needs farmers have on the ground i think is real value so thank you. Very much im going to direct my question my first question to mr. Johnson. You farm cotton and other row crops in the fertile mississippi delta but many who are not so familiar with growing cotton in the southeast may think people like you just have it made in the shade which cannot be further from the truth. Because raising cotton is hard. It costs a lot of money and the risk that you take year in and year out should make anyone nervous. So based on your testimony meetings with many farmers from mississippi that i have done across the country over the past year i get the impression u. S. Egg producers feel strongly that congress should increase Reference Prices for the price loss Coverage Program commodities in the next farmville. Would you please elaborate on the need for congress to raise Reference Prices it also shares of the personal challenges that you have faced in recent years with respect to inflation . The rising cost of production weeks and past threats that our southern producers face. Sure come appreciate those comments in the question. You know, if we look back over the past weve seen a dramatic increase in cost of production. Neighborhood of 160 an acre which can vary depending upon where you are. That puts our production costs nearly 48 cents per pound of seed cotton. And the Reference Price is 36. 7 cents per pound. You have a really wide gap could venture into a prolonged period where production costs are higher than with the market provides. But there are still no support provided by the plc payment with current Reference Price. So we do feel like that is critical. Challenges that we face in the field, or cotton grows well a lot of other things thrive. It is laborintensive and capitalintensive. Its a challenging crop to grow. And certainly we depend on having the support of adequate plc Reference Price. Thank you very much for that. It is challenging and expensive to grow cotton in the south. Do not know which one is more difficult or more expensive is cotton or rice . It is true mike is it true it can cost you well over 1000 per acre to grow rice in arkansas that the cost to produce 1 acre of rice could cost you perhaps even 1500 . Quick senator, thank you for the question. Right now the costs are out of control. Certainly fertilizer. A lot of the inputs that rice and cotton have, have exceeded anybodys guess. A lot of that depends certainly on input costs. Labor costs is extremely high. Also when you talk about the difference between cotton and a lot of the cut is irrigated. But rice is an aquatic crop. It requires a lot of water. We recapture that water, recycle that water very sustainable. But the cost of the water can grow ever exceedingly through the year. The cost of diesel fuel or electricity to run those pumps can run the cost up even higher than what we talked about. Boxing could you share for the subcommittee some of the Financial Risks and challenges you face on an annual basis to justify the need for strengthening our support programs for title i . Some going to give you a complicated answer to a simple question. Search and label me talk about rice and specifically in our area with irrigated crops, Crop Insurance is one of our tools in the box. Certainly my fellow farmers here at the table, we need good Crop Insurance. Title i specifically plc is a bigger tool for me and bigger tool for my fellow rice farmers not only arkansas but across our nation. For two reasons. I mentioned irrigation. As far as her droughts coming in affecting our crop, more than likely it wont. But it will affect my bottom line if i have to irrigate during a terribly dry season. The second reason is and i alluded to it in my test, rice farmers across the United States are some of the best on the face of this earth. We can compete against any other farmers across the globe. We cant compete against his foreign governments in. Sometimes those governments not truly allies of the lighted states. When those governments step in, i need a safety net thats above ground level. In those two reasons are why the plc is really one of my strongest tools that i have. Excellent out of time. Thank you very much madame chair and to all of you. No its not easy the beginning of may to leave your operations and come here for a couple of days. We very much appreciate your perspective. That is how we work hard to get it right. So we know we are in a Continuous Improvement mode to be able to support our farmers and ranchers. We really appreciate your perspective. I note with the soybean perspective as well as others you pointed out in testimony the critical importance of our Conservation Program and all of you have talked about how they need has exceeded what we have been able to do to support growers our programs have been oversubscribed. I think that highlights the importance of the recent conservation investments hopefully it will be much better able to meet needs in this area of Risk Management and that is good news. I think its also important to remind ourselves again there is no consensus on how to address of the programs because different regions have different responses. This is always a child of the farmville. I tell folks the partisan exercise more of a regional exercise based on what you grow, where you are. Our challenge is bringing together all those needs to address the south, the north, the midwest and so on. That really is our challenge. That also means is not onesizefitsall in the commodity or Crop Insurance just like every other part of the farmville so we need to be listening closely. I didnt want to say before asking questions i think its important to acknowledge some good news you have been through so much. Their recent reports in the kansas city Federal Reserve and the u. S. Department of energy that despite 2022 which was horrible on input costs, prices for several major inputs have actually dropped in 2023. Hopefully you are experiencing that are going to experience that. We know the administrations strong response to russias invasion of ukraine, that really contributed to stabilize the markets around fertilizer and diesel fuel. I am hopeful you will feel that we are hearing and the reports, diesel fuel being down 25 from last year. And projected to go down and fertilizer prices down 35 from last year. And some are going to watch closely because hopefully 22 is an anomaly and we look over 10 years hopefully this is just something that happened because of a number of bad circumstances coming together. You can never make money on Crop Insurance so for dry beans in particular they are covered anywhere else other than Crop Insurance. Other than that we have a complete disaster than ad hoc kickstand. To buy the high stadium by his 85 to 85 Crop Insurance will cost us about 40 an acre or 45 an acre so gets to be pretty high. Most growers buy it in the 70 range and remember you by 70 yet to take a 30 hit before it starts kicking in and thats where all your higher end is. So in all commodities you have to make that decision but we try not to over insure because it typically doesnt make sense for us but we do need that in place. Its very important for us because we as dried bean growers have no other option. And i was tell folks that criticize Crop Insurance you are given a payout unless you have Business Insurance so thats very very important. The one final question you talk about enhancing the agriculture rift program and of course we know was designed to address the shuttle losses and i wondered if you might, given project constraints and work Commodity Prices are now can you talk about the most important conclusion you can make when considering the ark program this specifically we need to keep higher covers levels that reflect the inflationary cost of our input and production in taking a look where we can with what they is as well. I realize its shallow losses but as we look at the inflationary cost are farmed prices are up to but thats inflationary as well so when you look at expansion along with that to reflect what is changed in the whole picture. Thank you very much. As i said in my testimony expansion of the 10 cap, my example in iowa when those producers qualified for the program their losses required more than what that 10 was so the 10 is the limiting factor and in addition to the 86 payment rate. So the combination of the two really limits the effectiveness of the program was trying to compensate for some of those disastrous losses. Thank you so much and thank you madam chair. Thank you senator stabenow. Senator tuberville. Saying thank you are much and thanks for being here today. My producers in alabama and im not going to beat a dead horse are concerned about Crop Insurance and prices. Mr. Johnson in 2022 in alabama there were over 221,000 acres enrolled in coc and 100,000 acres enrolled in eligibility limitations only 23 of my producers werent told that they were permitted to enrolled in arc. Do you think there would be a significant increase in this nation . Thank you for that question. The short answer is yes. The fourth 2018 cotton was not a covid commodity. We had the stax program which is an areawide revenue Insurance Program and that works well and there had been years when i purchased that in some years when i havent purchased that. Linseed cotton was added in 2018 there was a prohibition participating in it at the same time and it would be helpful if we could remove that and give growers the flexibility to participate in both. Thank you. Ms. Thompson in my home state over 558. 9 Million Pounds of peanuts are produced annually. If the peanut prices too low the cost of production is approximately 668 per ton and some growers are signing contracts for less than 600 . Thank you for that question. Let me grab my notes here and over and through that with you. Theres a few reasons why create one of the reasons why is our compensation. Crop rotation. Crop rotation is highly important for the health of our land so a lot of are planting decisions are governed by that. We may have to sign a contract for peanuts at a certain price that we dont like to protect the health of our planet because thats what we need to grow. We have some farmers that maybe the bank will require a contract before giving them the loan so theres not a lot of negotiating power airport a lot of us just hope that high yields will offset low prices and that does not always happen. And finally there a lot of members like myself that are members of grower owned coops and we received a loan value of the peanut harvest and for helping to capture profit as they are shelled and sold to manufacturers later on. Ms. Johnson americas cotton export is over 80 of u. S. Grown cotton yet the assistant loans rate has not increased in over 20 years and we hear a lot about this. Could you explain how changes to the loan repayment calculation would allow cotton to move more efficiently collects first the fact that the payment rate hasnt changed in such a long time really would like to see that raised a little bit even though its nowhere close to production costs that would be helpful from a cash flow standpoint and the other provision we are suggesting with regard to the marketing loan really creates more value for the producer when prices fall below the loan price and ensures that cotton moves smoothly and efficiently through the supply chain and they dont give any incentive for cotton to stagnate thats the goal with the changes we are proposing bear. What would anybody else like to chime in on that . The no volunteers . Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you senator tuberville tuberville. At her gillibrand. Thank you madam chairwoman. In your testimony mr. Gendenbien you noted the class 1 mover formula. Can you talk more about this . Yes. The new mover was wellintended but it has a ceiling of 74 one class 3 and four are identical so well we like to do, but it has no floor so it really causes a problem and in 2020 and in 2022, the divergence in three and four cost the farmers about 900 million so really bit like to go back to the original higher up which would eliminate those massive losses. I couldnt agree more. In your testimony you also discussed the Mental Health and stress hardship faced by members in our room at communities and im actively working on legislation to make Mental Health resources widely available to our farming and ranching in Rural Communities. Expand beyond the regional scope of the farm network to create a National Hotline. Where National Hotline for distressed farmers and ranchers help us to address this complicated problem . Yes, i believe it would. We need to reduce the stigma around Mental Health. All of us here are under a lot of stress. Some of us are seventh Generation Farmers and when things are tough who wants to be the farmer after seven generations that could make it . Theres an incredible amount of weight on her shoulders and depression is a real thing. We need to talk about it and we need to have resources to help us get through it. Thank you. I have been working on legislation that Dairy Pricing opportunity act to return to the class on pricing. Can you talk about how returning to the higher up would help you. Returning to the higherups would have to increase my price over 2020 and 2022 and up would it reduce the need for special payment or unique payments to farmers which were very grateful for that we dont want to ask her millions of dollars every time class 3 in four different. It just doesnt need to be that way. So we want to stabilize the price. Talk a little bit about how the disruption in our supply chain over the last two years has affected your business and any recommendations you would have two this committee about hardening art supply chain or improving our supply chain instruction. I do have to comment that the supply chains are resilient at agriculture and im so impressed because we have all worked so hard to do the right thing. However i thought more of the cooperative level trying to find film for wrapping the cheese and getting our product to market and thats where it struck home. Could increase costs to our cooperative and therefore reduce payments to members and increase cost to members of our coop so supply Chain Management is absolutely critical and it would be a National Safety and security issue and it would help our farmers locally. Thank you. In the absence of her chair and Ranking Member on the subcommittee we are going to vote and well come right back but i turn to the Ranking Member of the full committee. Thank you madam chair as always. Again we so appreciate your being here. Its a great hearing and i apologize for running out that well have three or four important hearings going on and thats why you see us coming and going that one of the things i feel very strongly about in the first panel also came forward with this is the world is very different now than it was five years ago after the last farm bill. Things were stable then and now the world is different than it was two or three years ago so we need to make sure the riskmanagement tools that we use and we have a variety of riskmanagement tools. Making sure you can be in a situation where you can go forward to the next five years. A lot of this data goes back to 2012. The world is truly different now and again trying to forecast going up and down, the escalators to go up and down. To me this is the fundamental thing and the other thing is making sure as we go forward with these programs they are not mandated by some practices in order to participate. Does anybody disagree with that . Certainly dont disagree. We keep talking about our reference and their long classes being of that data takes a tremendous amount of money to get those where they need to be. We call it the safety social net and its doing the farmer a lot of good. I dont have the answers. We talked about bringing Young Farmers and. With the loan and reference process where they are it doesnt give any farmer or underserved farmer stability from their supplier. Another thing we evolve constantly just is the rsa issue and how vital vital Crop Insurance this. Ive unique situation where i met. Of experience for generations of the drought. While i would not be sitting here today if it wasnt in place one shortcoming i have is that i cannot venture myself out of the disaster. Every year i have a disaster my aph is lowered in my costs are increased. Can we buy coverage . The yes but its those that drop im paying 1 dollar per dollar in one covers so there are some shortcomings in our system that can definitely be improved even though all of this thought adamantly we would not be here today without those. With their budget restrictions and what you are trying to do to balance with the administration in a bipartisan bicameral bill that we need desperately we have got to find funding. I dont think they are enough creative creative ways to bring our reference and their loan process prices up and shore up our prices without additional funding. Anybody else want to comment . Especially as a young farmer. Thank you. My comments would be regarding soybeans. Her current prices 8. I looked yesterday at november soybeans for this crop that we are pointing out and we are 1275 on futures Big University donors said the average cost of production is 12 for the 2030 crop so we are looking at roughly 56, 57 of the Reference Price compared to what it cost to produce the crop and thats a lot of. I would bring to light the swan event that we have no control over has a huge bearing on her prices. They halved the risk of the economic situations that we cant control the Crop Insurance is a vital tool. As a young farmer i cant function without this strong Crop Insurance program in title i. Anybody else . I am not of time. The chairwoman will yell at me so i will yield back. Thank you. Before turning to senator warnock i want to underscore something you said you cant insure your way out the disaster. Thats why its so important we support the efforts to deal with the disasters. Thats why we have additional money for ways you can keep carbon in the soil instead of having it go into the atmosphere and creating all the storms and so on. Thats the reason weve been focused on that. Thank you for those comments. I truly believe in my heart the farm bill is not for farmers. Its for the hungry children in our underserved u. S. Population has a safe and steady supply of food. They have got to work handinhand in the farm bill is not for the farmers its for the american population. And its for National Security. Thank you. Senator warnock. Thank you so very much madam chair. George accounts for half of the peanuts annually in the United States. We are proud of that. Thats more than 2 billion pounds a year. Producers of peanuts and other designated crops are eligible for the Marketing Assistance Loan Programs. This Program Provides financing to producers so commodities can be scored after and then when mark her prices are typically low, when mark her prices are typically low and later on the market picks back up what if the producers arent able to sell their crops at that higher price they have to forfeit their crops as collateral so the stakes are always high for this program. This happened to peanut farmers often. We have seen a lot of peanut crop forfeitures. Historically they are typically under 5 and to run through the past few years 2017 and 2018 they were around 3 . Those years crops had some unusual production commodity issues but then in 2019 there were zero for pitchers in 2020,. 17 in 2021 as of january of this year there havent been any forfeitures on record. Thank you. I take that to mean the evidence the Marketing Assistance Loan Program is working well. Yes. And thats good to hear and thats what i look forward to supporting the program in this years farm bill. Nationwide the cotton industry employs over 150,000 people and contributes more than 22 billion to the United States economy. Cotton is also a Major Economic driver in georgia with an estimated Overall Economic impact of 3 billion. The 2008 farm bill originally authorized assistance for textile mills program. Currently it provides threefifths per pound of cotton to domestic cotton mills for Capital Improvements like new technology and equipment to help keep them competitive with foreign mills. This is provide stability for the domestic cotton industry and if so can you talk about it . Yes, thank you for that question. We do feel like thats been a very successful program. If you look back prior to 2008 the u. S. Textile industry struggled for decades and that has stabilized since that program was instituted in 2008. There is a great example of the success of that program in your home state and one of the most technologically danced text will melt in america is in georgia and the funds that are provided by the program allow mills to update their technology and equipment and make them more efficient so its been very successful and we would love to see that continued success. Im glad you brought that up because of something as you pointed out that his created stability and we did see that reduction in the 2020 12 2012 farm to produce heavy think restoring that rate to 4 cents per pound how would that help u. S. Cotton industry . The textile industry is such an important industry for National Security and they also, i think just bring a net payment rate back up to 4 cents would allow more efficiency and make the u. S. Textile industry more competitive and that is the goal. Its great to be able to take the cotton is grown in the u. S. And see it used and manufactured here. Theres no question that its a Major Economic driver in the state of georgia and we see it up close and rural towns like jefferson and this program is vital for ensuring it will remain competitive globally. I hope we can revisit that farm bill and ill do everything i can. Thank you so much. Thank you. Saying thank you senator warnock and i believe senator hydesmith is deferring to senator fetterman because i believe she needs to go someplace so senator fetterman you may go forward. Thank you so much. Mr. Ragland i appreciate the work of all generations of farmers to help feed the world. I have a particular concern of young and beginning farmers and agriculture. Senator fetterman thanks for the comment. As a somewhat young farmer still im departing from that. Sadly. Its getting increasingly hard to establish roots as a farmer due to constraints with Land Availability and availability of funding. Theres more risk and higher stake than theres ever been so it is difficult. One comment i would make along those lines are Service Agency has a Great Program through loans that are helpful to farmers and one thing i would encourage with that based on personal experience in hearing from others when need to make sure those loan programs work in a way that is effective and timely for our producers. One of the biggest obstacles ive seen their is how long it takes to get loans approved and how long it takes to get land deals done. Sometimes that the farm comes up for sale you have a matter of days or hours to get it done in some of these loans can drag out for months. I have one that took 14 months and these programs are wellintentioned but we need to be more efficient at rolling the mouse so Young Farmers can take those opportunities to do that. As a young farmer we have greater access to the farm safety net and is that significant for you . I think its important not for just us. All farmers that we have a stronger safety net. As i mentioned its greater than its ever been and their lenders have to have the confidence that they will get repaid and as i mentioned with the increase in particular with updates the combination of all these things we need to look at all of these things and together they will make a Significant Impact for Young Farmers in particular. Do you have any thoughts on how you can encourage more young people to go into farming . Well i think there is opportunity and there needs to be a path forward and they think these things i have mentioned making the loan programs better, having greater tools for riskmanagement and to create those opportunities. I see a Bright Future for agriculture and i see a lot of bright folks that want to get into the industry. I dont see a crisis for a lack of folks interested that we need to make sure they have the resources at their disposal in order to be effective when they do enter the agriculture industry. Thank you. Mr. Gendenbien i know the dairy industry continues to evolve and im sure you are familiar with the state we are in pennsylvania. Some part but the farm bill picked up the pace of the need of a small farmer and the belief they do and in southeastern pennsylvania Lancaster County is one of the largest counties in the nation and is comprised of mainly small successful family dairies and its very important that the farm bill helps both large and small producers because we need them both. It would be very important. The dairy safety net works well for all. What can we do to stop the trend of losing small dairy farms . I think its very important that we stand behind the program that works and a modest increase in the program would be very beneficial. Also helping farmers understand the dairy revenue protection because that is a terrific program as well and that is for large and small producers. Sometimes small producers dont have the time to rap their arms around these programs that we need to make them easy and we need to make sure they understand how they work. Thank you. Thank you senator fetterman. Senator hydesmith. Thank you so much. We need to protect our Small Farmers and our large farmers and every farmer in between. As we have discussed it can be rather expensive to put a crop in the ground especially on a large scale. A couple of thousand acres or more. We you please provide the subcommittee with rough numbers of the financial risk so many u. S. Farmers take every year . Piece of equipment was referring to that i purchased 1996 and i think what we talk about will not risk, economies to scale are not only the equipment but also the Interest Rates we have right now, all of the inputs also with labor so when you talk about costs an acre going back to my early career, son of the calls in a different price for soybeans or corn is what land is going for so the risk involved going out there when you have economies of scale of having to farm more, it helps some of those costs but increases the risk family farmers are taking so its a tugofwar when we talk about the economy youre dealing with and the numbers. I got a few more minutes. You lived in economic challenges from china for the largest export market for crop birth. Five. Discussions in the current farm bill, as a former, how you view the status quo title i . As we alluded to earlier, we need an increase, we need the opportunity for volunteer as well. Farmers have a small percentage and programs of title i, difficult with budget restraints but the cost of production we need significant increase in these prices so we can be competitive and Disaster Assistance within title i. You provide the subcommittee with rough financial numbers youve experienced and risks should take every year . I think a lot of my comments, we are not too far apart. The cost. I do think, when you think about farming efficiently, who brought up the example on harvester right now cost is about a Million Dollars and really needs close to 2000 acres making that purchase. When we look at fuel, labor, seed and crop production, thats how we end up in the dollar a pound great for Cost Reduction so we are under a lot of pressure to be efficient. I appreciate that, thats the kind of memory. You have dilemmas i feel about farming, theres enormous pressure on you to be quote sufficient. It puts enormous sure on small family farms. When a voice wrestled with is an appreciation for agriculture so much for people who live in the area benefit by custodians of the landscape yet the need to have go up the smaller firms. This is what we face, hardly maintain in our culture, values it represents not just out of sentiment but local environment, the local economy, values embedded in the firm family culture when theyre getting totally pressured to be efficient so that we somehow have to trade. In terms of playing that role, the program has been helpful but 60 of firms the last 30 years, i would ask about the program, the concerns fetterman was speaking about, a similar situation what we have in vermont so let me ask, how did dairy margins cover the program help . It helped a great deal. Its very important for smaller farmers but whats happening is the definition of a small farm is changing so its not like 1000 and more, its 500 to 800. The nc program could be modestly enhanced to the bottom tier one is increased by about 5 Million Pounds. That would really help. The forms are still family farms, margins are tight for everybody but i understand what youre saying where the market the unit is so slim some of these farmers cant even afford Liability Insurance so to buy dairy written production theyre not going to do that either so dairy revenue production, they are very Important Programs, reducing them more accessible to more people. One of the other issues, the margin is a function of what the cost is is a great deal of concern about crime issues and way to find ways to make it impossible for agriculture to make the contribution of releasing Carbon Emissions is just an example of being on a farm where i am. Does that approach have promise that would be beneficial in the prosperity of small dairy farms . I believe it does. Digesters are fantastic technology and the community digesters will be could share will be very important for smaller farmers. Which would also help with the runoff issue. It would and farmers, we want to participate in every Sustainability Program sometimes the cost outweighs the benefit. Thank you very much, i yield back. Thank you so much. I believe we have no further questions from this panel so i would like to thank all of our witnesses again for your time and attention and excellent testimony. We often say on the Agriculture Committee that we are left partisan and other states in washington certainly have regional differences but the purpose of this particular hearing to get out all of the differences, people are in the concrete, not abstract is it important to understand how the differences come into play with Risk Management goals so i want to thank senator heitzman and staff including full Committee Staff hearing works so well. For senators who wish to submit questions for the record, there one week from today, tuesday may 9 for witnesses you have two weeks to respond to questions for the record. Thank you and with that, this hearing is adjourned. Bob. [laughter] in almost conversations. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]