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▶ 0:06:17the committee will come to order well good morning everyone ladies and gentlemen welcome to the first hearing of the 119th Congress for the house committee on agriculture examining the economic crisis in farm country and a crisis is exactly what hundreds of thousands of farm families are facing as we speak across the board commodity prices have fallen precipitously while
▶ 0:06:47input costs remain at or near record high levels for some Commodities returns have been in the red for several years producers are burning their hard-earned equity and being forced to have incredibly tough conversations with her lenders to just figure out how to hold on for one more year unfortunately for some there won't be one more year in fact the Agriculture and food policy Center at Texas A&M University which tracks the financial performance of 92
▶ 0:07:18representative Farms all across the country recently stated that in the 42 years of keeping records at the center there has never been a time where there has been such a bleak Outlook over the next 5 years for their representative Farms with every single major commodity deep in the red producers deciding what to plant this year aren't thinking about what rotation is likely to make money but rather what crops will cause them to lose the least thankfully at the
▶ 0:07:48end of last year Congress was able to come up come together and enact $ 21 billion in Aid to address weather related losses in 2023 and 202 24 and $1 billion to partially offset some of the economic losses experienced in 2024 obtaining that Aid was not easy uh but myself and dozens of other members and senators were prepared to lay down on the tracks to block the continuing resolution if economic assistance
▶ 0:08:18wasn't included that is a threat I didn't make lightly but because of extreme concerns from The Lending Community the desperation of the agriculture sector and the threat to the future of farm families across the country I could not in good conscious allow Congress to ignore the needs of our producers I want to thank speaker Johnson and members across both sides of the aisle that help make that happen I urge the Senate act quickly to confirm Brooke Rollins who I think will be the best secretary of agriculture
▶ 0:08:48of our lifetimes so that she can expedite getting that assistance out the door farmers and their lenders cannot wait downturns in agriculture nothing new new it is and always has been a cyclical business but it sure seems like the good times are shorter and not as profitable as they once were and the bad times are lasting longer and are more severe the needs of the industry have changed and this underscores the critical importance of enacting a new farm bill
▶ 0:09:19with a significantly enhanced safety net this won't by any means make producers whole but a but a bolstered and properly functioning safety net will help them to weather the storm I was proud of the work this committee did in the last Congress to advance the farm food and National Security Act of 2024 in a bipartisan way unfortunately for numerous reasons outside of my control we weren't able to get that bill across the finish line and America's producers are the ones paying the price we
▶ 0:09:49cannot let this year be a repeat of the last I look forward to working with my new ranking member congresswoman Angie Craig from the great state of Minnesota uh to get get the farm bill over the Finish Line this year it often times feels like here at the agriculture committee our job is to enact policies like the safety net that treat the symptoms while other committees have jurisdiction over the disease that is why I will be working around the clock with my fellow chairman to
▶ 0:10:19address the underlying causes of these record high input costs such as burdensome regulations uncertainty around taxes and harmful energy and environmental policies that are relics of the previous administration we'll also be working with the Trump Administration to expand markets and create demand for us agriculture products I know there's a lot of concern about tariffs and potential retaliation but as we have seen in just the past two weeks with Colombia Canada and Mexico access to the US
▶ 0:10:49consumer provides him powerful leverage to negotiate with foreign Nation he needs to use this leverage to advance the America First agenda I'll beeping Vigilant watch over these actions and where us agriculture gets caught in the crossfire I'll be the first to speak up on behalf of our producers I want to thank our Witnesses today each and every one of them have a a unique perspective to offer members of this committee that will help us understand where agriculture is where where things are headed
▶ 0:11:19and what this committee needs to consider as we work to enact a highly effective Farm Bill I'd now like to welcome the distinguished ranking member the lady from Minnesota Miss Craig for any opening remarks you would like to give thank you so much chairman Thompson uh and thank you for organizing this extremely timely hearing on the economic crisis in farm country thank you to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for your commitment to helping our nation's Farmers achieve our historic mission
▶ 0:11:49to feed clothe and fuel the world and thank you to our Witnesses here today to help us and more importantly the country better understand the crisis crisis we are facing and perhaps more importantly how the decisions we make as Leaders can support each of you this committee more than most has historically worked on a bipartisan basis to help give farmers and ranchers the certainty they need Mr chairman I look forward to working with you toward the goal of a bipartisan farm bill
▶ 0:12:20that can get the support of the majority of Republicans and Democrats in the 119th Congress I don't have to tell our witnesses that for most in farm country folks have been struggling my Minnesota Farmers tell me every day high input cost low prices stubborn inflation bird flu droughts floods changes in consumer behavior in General market volatility have made it increasingly difficult for America's Family Farmers we know that our
▶ 0:12:50farmers and producers across Rural America wake up wondering whether they'll get enough or too much rain this year suffer an early Frost get the credit they need by planning season or have their fuel supply impacted by a war halfway around the world and that's before the additional uncertainty injected into the conversation these past three weeks consider Grant dollars to Farmers appropriated by Congress and already under contract with USDA have been frozen
▶ 0:13:20trade Wars with our largest trading partners and largest export markets have been threatened food grown in America is rotting in a warehouse in Texas we all know just like before that trade Wars will inevitably lead to retaliatory tariffs on American farmers we know that cutting off foreign food assistance programs also cuts off a major market and farm income these actions hurt the rural communities and family Farmers we represent on this committee we know that Congress must
▶ 0:13:50also do its part to bring more certainty to Farmers and that brings me to the farm bill Farmers need a new farm bill to provide some semblance of stability for their business and their families one that strengthens the farm safety net Cuts red tape and provides new opportunities for new and beginning Farmers the best farm bill is not one that looks pretty on paper or makes promises that it can't deliver it's the one that has the votes to pass the house the Senate and get signed into law We Stand
▶ 0:14:21ready to negotiate a bipartisan Bill Farmers across the country whether they use PLC Arc or crop insurance need a farm bill to keep feeding our communities and the world Mr chairman this committee has always found a way for Democrats and Republicans to come together with the common goal of supporting our farmers and Rural communities and making sure our communities no matter where they live have food on the table my grandfather was a farmer I know it takes faith and a lot of hard work I want to
▶ 0:14:51thank the witnesses before us today for doing all that you do to help feed clothe and F fuel this country your time and perspective are greatly appreciated Mr chairman thank you for treating me to the Pennsylvania a show with you last month and with that I back the the chair would ask that other members submit their opening statements for the record so witnesses can May begin their testimony and to ensure that there's
▶ 0:15:21ample time for questions our first witness today is Dr John Newton uh the executive head of terrain our next witness is Miss Alicia swatner the owner of Eric and Alicia swatner farms in Miles Texas our third witness today is Mr Ryan tally a partner with Tally farms and Aurora Grande California and I'll now turn it over to the gentle lady from Illinois
▶ 0:15:51representative binski to introduce our Final witness thank you Mr chairman um for the opportunity to introduce our Final witness I am thrilled to welcome my friend Rodney weiner uh to this hearing today Mr wein Earl is a farmer from Stanford Illinois who has been operating his third generation corn and soybean farm with his wife for the past 26 years he brings with him a wealth of experience in the agricultural sector and an important outlook on the farm economy through his
▶ 0:16:21lived experience as a farmer in the top corn and soybean producing County in the nation Mr WI thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your testimony before the committee thank you Mr chairman thank G Le thank you to all of our impressive uh Witnesses for joining us today we'll now uh proceed your testimony you'll each have five minutes the timer in front of you will count down to zero at which point your time has expired uh Dr Newton please begin when
▶ 0:16:51you're ready chairman Thompson ranking member Craig and members of the committee thank you for inviting me to tell testify before you today my name is John Newton I the executive head of terrain terrain is tasked with analyzing agricultural economic issues for our partnering Farm associations I frequently meet with farmers and ranchers in the communities they call home to understand their challenges and opportunities my testimony today reflects these perspectives and is supported by
▶ 0:17:22analysis since the high income environment of 2022 we've seen A Tale of Two Farm economies over the last three years inflation adjusted net cash farm income for corn and soybean Farm families has dropped by 45% to their lowest levels in a decade and a half meanwhile record cattle prices and higher milk prices have contributed to higher levels of income for those Farm families providing an opportunity for them to finally rebuild their balance sheets from the pandemic era lows
▶ 0:17:52though other challenges remain usda's net farm income is a broad measure of the financial conditions across the US Farm sector and is the flagship measurement of the overall health of the US Farm economy driven by record agricultural exports increased domestic demand and pandemic related Federal support inflation adjusted net farm income reached a record high in 2022 at $198 billion the rise in farm income however coincided with historic inflation
▶ 0:18:23and farm production expenses as input cost reached a record $462 billion 2022 remaining near those historically high levels still today with input cost slow to decline pressure has been mounting as many Farm families have worked through their working capital and are now faced with tough decisions on how to reduce expenses without giving up hard-earned access to land or productivity since 2022 and excluding government payments US inflation
▶ 0:18:54adjusted net farm income has fallen by 43 billion or 26 % to 138 billion in 2025 we are witnesses to Historic volatility in the farm economy for many crop and especially crop Farmers margins have been tight or below break even for several years because of inflation and input costs and lower Farmgate prices through the foresight of this committee the American Relief act of 2025 provided USDA with more than 30
▶ 0:19:24billion to deliver ad hoc financial assistance to Farmers experiencing econom economic and natural disasters when including the ad hoc Federal support US inflation adjusted net farm income is projected at $180 billion up 26% from last year I know firsthand however that farmers would rather get their returns from the market but in today's Farm economy it's ad hoc support that is propping up their incomes these economic
▶ 0:19:54assistance payments offset only a portion of a farmer's negative margins and only a bridge until a new 5-year farm bill can be authorized by Congress as we've seen for the last decade us agriculture continues to face down unprecedented economic challenges that traditional Farm Bill programs were ill equipped to face and we RI too heavily on ad hoc support ad hoc support is unpredictable it cannot be counted on during times of economic crisis
▶ 0:20:24like we're facing today the next Farm bill can end the Reliance on ad hoc support with enhanced risk management tools with nearly 350 million people in the US the cost of critical Farm risk management and conservation programs is less than 8 cents per meal ask anyone in America if they would support additional investments into the farm bill to ensure farmers can produce a safer more sustainable and more secure food supply while also being economically
▶ 0:20:54sustainable themselves the answer will be a resounding yes Farm Credit is there for the farmer through the highs and the lows of the farm economy we know firsthand that the sense of urgency is real in farm country and the opportunity to enhance the 5-year contract with Agriculture and Rural America is now before it's too late healing an ailing Farm economy with a new 5-year farm bill would be an important first step for the longrun success of us agriculture
▶ 0:21:24our food security and our national security thank you very much for the opportunity to offer testimony before you today I'm thankful to every member of this committee for your time and attention and I look forward to in answering any questions you may have thank you Dr Newton thank you very much uh Miss swatner please begin whenever you're ready chairman Thompson ranking member Craig and members of the House agricultural committee I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to testify today on the
▶ 0:21:55state of the farm economy my name is Alissa schner and I am honored to speak before you as a mother a farmer the 2022 chair of the American Farm Bureau federation's young farmers and ranchers committee and a Texas Farm Bureau member who serves on the rynolds County Board my husband and I are third generation farmers and ranchers in Miles Texas where we grow cotton corn silage grain sorghum wheat and hay we also manage a small cow calf herd and sell beef directly to local consumers our primary motivation for working hard to ensure the future
▶ 0:22:25of our operation if they choose it are our four Young boys ages 6 3 and one they are why we do what we do I know many others who share the same passions and Visions for their own operations in hopes that their family Legacy can continue unfortunately without change in the trajectory of the farm economy I worry many of us will fall short farming has never been easy but the past three years have been especially challenging for Farm and Ranch families many of us have experienced extreme and unpredictable weather
▶ 0:22:55disasters inflation supply chain disruptions and international conflicts are also to blame for Rising input costs that cut into the already thin margins that we operate under the farm economy is at a Crossroads for perspective my husband's grandmother passed away two years ago and we came across receipts and invoices from his grandpa schwarner while cleaning out her house on these receipts Grandpa schwarner sold his cotton for 63 cents per pound just two weeks ago we were quoted 58 cents
▶ 0:23:25per pound that's 5 cents less per pound than 60 years ago yet in that same time we have seen application costs increase by more than 300% and Machinery costs go up by nearly 600% there are even new costs including the cost to purchase seed and crop insurance unlike many other Industries Farmers cannot pass increased costs onto consumers for a higher return we as farmers are price takers not price makers and we are at the mercy of increasingly volatile markets
▶ 0:23:55that are influenced by forces far beyond our control for example a small business owner may increase their cost to ship an item to a consumer if the shipping prices increase I cannot increase cotton prices to cover an increase in storage or Transportation costs usda's most recent Farm sector income forecast has shown a $41 billion decrease in net farm income down nearly 25% from 2022 since crop prices peaked in 2022 they have taken a nose dive corn and wheat are
▶ 0:24:25down 37% soybeans down 28% % and cotton down 22% despite these lower prices payments to farmers are projected to be the lowest since 1982 another cause of the decline in farm income is failure to secure additional trade deals for agriculture we have experienced two years of record agricultural trade deficits with another one projected trade is vitally important to agriculture as more than 95% of the world's consumers live outside of the United States and nearly onethird of us
▶ 0:24:55farm income comes from exports the possibility of retaliatory tariffs on our agricultural products could impact Market access becoming detrimental to our bottom line as farmers and ranchers work to secure Equity to continue operating in 2025 the economic uncertainty has made it difficult for Bankers to extend credit for the first time in our tenure on our farm we will not be able to repay our previous year's operating line of credit in its entirety on its due date we are forced to have challenging conversations
▶ 0:25:26with our Banker regarding loan renewal and ultimately paying the high interest rates that come with it we are constantly looking to diversify our income while considering whether a future in farming is realistic for our family our farm and so many others will not endure these current economic conditions farming is more than an occupation it's a personal commitment and a passion for feeding and sustaining our nation and families we love what we do but without adequate policies and support we risk losing everything that we and past Generations have worked so hard for this includes
▶ 0:25:56the ability to pass on our Legacy and ession to the Next Generation for us that happens to be our four boys the economic and Disaster Assistance from the year in continuing resolution was certainly helpful and will provide many Farm and Ranch families with the ability to continue operating for another year we are grateful this committee voted in a bipartisan manner to advance a modernized farm bill last year however we still need Congress to take action and agree on significant investments in farm safety net programs to reflect current economic conditions as well
▶ 0:26:26as long-term solutions for Rising input costs and volatile markets our food system rural communities and our national security depend on it thank you for the opportunity to share these challenges and I look forward to your questions thank you Miss wedner Mr tally please begin when you're ready thank you chairman Thompson ranking member Craig and members of the committee although not directly under the jurisdiction of this committee I cannot testify
▶ 0:26:56before Congress without fur first emphasizing how V vital it is to the security of our nation's food supply and the future of the specialty crop production in the United States for Congress to enact a bipartisan solution to the workforce crisis in agriculture I am testifying today however on behalf of the specialty crop Farm Bill Alliance a coalition of nearly 200 organizations representing the entirety of the specialy crop industry
▶ 0:27:27in the United States we have come together to promote Common Sense initiatives that Congress should include in the next Farm Bill let me Begin by telling you a little bit about myself and my family farm my grandfather started tally farms 1948 which is located on the Central Coast of California and it has been in the family ever since that time I began working on the Family Farm during the summers at
▶ 0:27:57age 12 and have worked there ever since we recently welcome the fourth generation of our family to full-time positions on the farm while we are not the largest operation in our area we're certainly not the smallest we produce a wide range of fruits and vegetables on nearly 1,800 conventional Acres including more than 30 different crops on 75 Acres of certified organic
▶ 0:28:27soil if I leave you here today with one thing it is that investing in specially crops is a good value for the taxpayers money that will benefit all Americans our products account for nearly half the Farmgate value in the United States and the dietary guidelines for Americans recommend that fruits and vegetables should comp um comprise at least half of American diet yet under current
▶ 0:28:57law specialty crops receive a small fraction of their proportional share of the farm resources the Investments we're proposing are modest when compared to programs for other Commodities and when you invest in specialty crops which include nutrient dents fruits vegetables and tree nuts you're also investing in the long-term health and security of the people specialty crops is a term that consists of
▶ 0:29:28different Commodities grown in different seasons and regions in all 50 states despite this diversity the industry is confronted with common challenges that hinder our ability to compete our input cost are rising at an alarming rate with labor compromising nearly half of the cost of our production we have increasingly limited access to crop protection tools with few replacement under development
▶ 0:29:58for those who export we Face great uncertainty in foreign markets in our domestic markets competition is rising from Imports and significantly lower costs hurricanes drought and other severe weather occur with increasing frequency although USDA has dramatically improved its ability to provide ad hoc assistance to our Growers we need Congress to act a
▶ 0:30:28comprehensive bipartisan bill that invests in long-term competitiveness of our industry our proposal for the farm bill include new funding for research and development incentives for technology that supplement and enhance human labor resources to make our operations more resilient to extreme weather and Common Sense changes to the crop insurance that would provide the major majority of our Growers
▶ 0:30:59with a functional safety net for the very first time I don't have the time to walk through each of these proposal in my testimony but we have submitted written testimony for record which includes a copy of our 2023 recommendations we will provide updated recommendations to you in the coming weeks the alliance stand stands ready to work with each of you you on the next
▶ 0:31:30Bill thank you and I look forward to answering any questions Mr tally thank you very much now Mr wzo you are recognized please begin when you're ready chairman Thompson ranking member Craig members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to testify today in front of the house ad committee I'm Rodney weiner I serve as executive director of the Eloy Corn Growers and the Eloy corn marketing board but I also grow corn corn and soybeans in rur Stanford Illinois
▶ 0:32:00and I'm here today as a farmer I have farmed for the last 26 years following my father my grandfather on the same plot of land farming for the same landlord family since 1912 my wife and I begun transitioning our farm to our oldest daughter Gracie and this process has highlighted the challenges facing the next generation of family Farmers today the farm economy is struggling I believe two fundamental issues are driving the downturn lack of demand and Rising input
▶ 0:32:31costs regarding demand an Illinois Farmer's first priority is to drive profit from the market not from the government to that end we consistently invest in and Advocate the US government invest in the development of three major markets livestock ethanol and exports last year's house committee Farm Bill included an increase in funding for foreign market development and the market access programs targeting demand growth for from international buyers
▶ 0:33:01investment here could be very impactful to the a economy as we Face the fifth consecutive annual trade deficit in seven years export markets generate demand and profitability given more time I would love to dive into the opportunities available for family Farmers if the US built a vibrant high octane clean cleaner burning fuel standard which would allow the sale of more corn-based ethanol growing demand here would draft drastically impact the profitability proposition for the US corn
▶ 0:33:31farmer the second issue input costs Rose during a period of high commodity prices and have not yet returned to levels to allow family Farmers to be profitable my financials over the past 26 years reflect on two opportunities for the committee crop insurance and transparency and input costs particularly fertilizer costs I struggle to understand how nitrogen costs have risen dramatically over the past years despite the relatively stable price of the primary feed
▶ 0:34:01stock natural gas I understand that we operate in a global market in that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has created Supply challenges however throughout my career the fertilizer industry has twice had the opportunity to expand production to meet Market demands yet has not done so increasing Market transparency Andor creating risk management tools like Futures contracts on the Chicago Merkle exchange could help farmers manage input costs more effectively regarding crop
▶ 0:34:31insurance this program is designed to operate at a loss ratio of 1.0 meaning for every dollar premium paid in$ one paid out is$ One is paid out as an identity payment over 26 years my farm has only received 20% of what I should have received as a loss ratio of 1.0 most farms in Illinois are in similar predicaments if crop insurance rates were real value valuated particularly in the midwest we could generate hundreds of millions of dollars
▶ 0:35:02in savings I would encourage those savings to be used to improve crop insurance and support other Farm build titles because of my on Farm experience using conservation practices on our farm I see Trends worth exploring for further risk reduction potentially generating even more savings for crop insurance I believe our conservation practices noil and cover crops primarily have reduced risk on our farm making our so more resilient to drought and excess rainfall this in turn has led
▶ 0:35:32to fewer crop insurance indentity payments and lower loss ratios for our policies important to note our conservation adoption has been implemented without the aid of nrcs programs this is due in part to their practice standards being too rigid reducing my ability to innovate and often being too risky for my productivity and success nrcs could lead Farmers by providing diar needed technical support regardless of farm family's program signup status
▶ 0:36:02as I wrap up I would like to mention my wife and her 4 Club run the local food pantry in our small town I have seen firsthand the value and necessity of food assistant programs in our rural community the nutrition program of the farm bill is so important to communities like mine in food deserts or with significant need thank you very much for your time and consideration Mr chairman well thank you Mr weiner my apologies for uh uh butchering your name
▶ 0:36:33when I first introduced you um and uh and thank you to all of our Witnesses they set a great example for our members well under five minutes so yeah just keep that in mind uh gentlemen gentle ladies um at this time members will be recognized for questions in order of senority uh alternating between majority minor members and an order of arrival for those who joined us after the hearing convened you'll be recognized for
▶ 0:37:035 minutes each in order to allow us to get to as many questions as possible and I recognize myself for five minutes um Dr Newton you did an excellent job of laying out the current state of the farm economy um and as you pointed out farmers face all kinds of risks from prices to weather and everything in between with those risks in mind why why do we need both crop insurance and Title programs thank you for the question Mr
▶ 0:37:33chairman and that's you know I think it's important for folks to understand that with with crop insurance Farmers have very large deductibles that they take often times in excess of 15 or 20% deductible on crop insurance so at times farmers are taking very very deep losses before crop insurance ever triggers an Indemnity to the grower and so tital one programs have always laid on top of crop insurance and offered a cushion uh in the event of a a low
▶ 0:38:03price or low Revenue environment like we find ourselves in uh today um and so I think it's important for Farmers to have options uh for risk management tools the more tools in the toolbx so they can customize the risk management strategies that they need well thank you for that throughout my travels across the country Farmers have been asking me for Meaningful and robust support for title one can you explain why there has been such a focus on Title One in particular thank you again
▶ 0:38:33I think it's pretty clear from the witnesses here that uh input costs have gone through the roof uh Farm production expenses hit a record $462 billion in 2022 uh but the the support levels that we have in the farm bill the reference prices are based on information uh chairman that that's you know over a decade old and so when you travel around the country Farmers want to see increased ref reference prices higher levels of support to match the the environment that they're dealing with today with very very
▶ 0:39:03high input costs well thank you uh Miss wner uh I appreciate you being here today and your willingness to share the story of your family it's obvious the dedication you and your husband have to the future of your operation within your testimony you shared with us that you are constantly looking for ways to diversify your income but ultimately have still had very tough conversations with your lender are other um are there others farming around you who are experiencing the same hardships and what will be the
▶ 0:39:33impact on your community if there isn't a change in the direction the farm economy is headed thank you for your question um yes as new in beginning Farmers my husband and I have had some very challenging conversations with our banker and especially over the last three years as we H as we've had consecutively challenging years um and I we're certainly not alone I think I I saw that roughly 20% farmers and ranchers are having the same conversations with their Bankers across the country so it's a it's certainly a significant challenge
▶ 0:40:03um that we face and and it's important to note that the farm bill is not just for farmers and ranchers it's a rural farm bill it's for all rural communities and and agriculture supports rural communities we provide hundreds of jobs millions of jobs um to those in our local communities we support local businesses the cotton gens um the grain facilities uh grocery stores local meat processors You Name It We support support all of those local businesses to the farm bill and and getting across a modernized farm bill means not just supporting farmers and Ranchers
▶ 0:40:33but it means supporting the rural communities Across America well thank you very much for that uh Mr tally um thank you for your testifying before the committee today and during my travels um across U well aside from the U the broader Farm economy I've constantly heard that agriculture labor is the number one issue affecting our prod producers and um that's why we during the last Congress we established a bipartisan agriculture
▶ 0:41:04labor working group um Mr Tally what is uh what is has your experience with the h2a program been and from your perspective what reforms or improvements would you consider to be a priority thank you Mr chairman I I actually had a meeting with a then Secretary of Labor uh Sue and had this exact conversation and basically I started out by telling her in 2016 quite honestly the h2a program saved our
▶ 0:41:34our family farm we we didn't have Labor we couldn't we couldn't find it anywhere and so we signed up and we we became part of the h2a program but since then fast forward seven or eight years the cost has gone up 30 or 40% and as I explained to her in 2024 we did some numbers we CED some numbers at our family farm and each dollar that's added to the award which is the h2a wage it's a million dollars
▶ 0:42:04expense just in labor cost to our farm just instantly taken off the bottom line of our farm the h2a I started out saying that that could that likely saved our farm but now that could possibly spell the demise of our farm due to escalating wages yeah Mr T I look forward to offline having more conversations with you on that because it is high priority um now recognize the gentle lady uh from Minnesota the ranking member for 5
▶ 0:42:35minutes I'm going to talk fast before we get to snow mageddon here in Washington DC thank you so much for your testimony uh just illustrating how important it is that we get to a farm bill uh here in this session of Congress uh I want to talk about that but for a minute I want to talk about uh the threat of tariffs uh I would think that many of you uh as well as other Farmers would right now be trying to lock in your import dependent input costs ahead of time in case those
▶ 0:43:05tariffs come into effect uh a month from now that urgent demand in and of itself could cause input crisis to rise even before the tariffs come into place at the Senate hearing last week we heard that suppliers of fertilizer and other goods are not only increasing their prices now for things farmers need but also limiting sales for delivery of products past specific dates because of the threat uh of tariffs uh can I ask the Farmers on the panel just to raise your hand
▶ 0:43:35how many of you are taking such steps to try to avoid cost later is there is there anybody uh are you are you hearing from other farmers who are doing the same Mr winel uh you're shaking your head so if you want to go ahead and tell me a little bit more about what's happening out there that'd be great yeah thank you um congresswoman Craig um so in our case being where we are in Illinois a lot of the fertilizer has gone down
▶ 0:44:06already this fall or this past fall there will be some applied this spring especially in Southern Illinois um particularly concerned with uh uh Imports uh from our neighbors to our North uh we import about 90% of our potassium fertilizer which is one of the three macronutrients that row crops need um I think there's a lot of concern this summer hopefully uh some of the uncertainty around
▶ 0:44:36trade uh we work through by the time egg retailers begin stocking up for this fall and we begin locking in contracts for this coming season thank you so much um let me just turn to I guess the question of um the conservation title and some of the money that we put into the inflation reduction C act for great programs like equip that farmers are uh have access to um we're hearing now and it's not often they get so many uh Farmers
▶ 0:45:07on the front page of the Washington Post or uh other newspapers across the country but we're hearing now obviously that some of the freezes that are going into effect uh with the new Administration have to do with um stopping reap funding stopping funding for uh good programs like equip at least putting a pause on them I'd just like to ask uh the farmers here uh if youve sign a contract with USDA do you expect USDA to to honor
▶ 0:45:37that contract Miss Schartner yes we do yes um we are I mean we're currently I'm aware of the the um article that you're referencing um and I've seen that it is certainly concerning um and for myself as a as a producer we've we are in the middle of equip contracts where we have you know $100,000 of outstanding funds with projects however we've never not been paid and and you know I'm I'm confident that President Trump um he's he's said that he would take care of farmers
▶ 0:46:07and ranchers and he's held true to that promise in the past and I'm I'm certain that we will get paid regardless of the current freeze that might be in place um but given the currently tight margins it's it's urgent that we figure out a path forward soon that's great I'm looking forward to secretary Rollins being confirmed so we can all have that that conversation um anyone else else have any outstanding uh Frozen funds or Noah folks who have not specific specifically to that but I would like to address the the AGI
▶ 0:46:38limitations and especially if the crops were unique where we have extremely high value crops and so a lot of us can't meet those that criteria and so the 75% of income derived from agriculture that fits much more into the specialty crop industry and then we're able to to take advantage of these programs thank you for that Mr winel I'll just end you uh mentioned about food deserts you mentioned about the need for a strong supplemental nutrition program uh here in the Congress would you say a little bit more
▶ 0:47:08about uh how the snap program impacts both your community and also your farm income well I can definitely respond about the need of food deserts um I'm not as familiar with the snap program but my wife and her 4 Club just had her food pantry this past weekend and they served about 25 families of uh with which would equate with 70 individuals in a small town of 700 uh a population of 700 so
▶ 0:47:39uh we have seen she has seen numbers go up thank you so much I uh I just got gaveled on my first set of questions so I'll I'll yield back to the chairman I'm going to gavel five minutes I think everybody's going to get gabbled you gabbled yourself Mr chairman you bet you uh now recognized gentleman from Oklahoma Mr Lucas for 5 minutes thank you Mr chairman and thank you to our Witnesses for testifying here today we'll spend a lot of time in this room talking about the negative effects of rising input cost on farmers and our Witnesses today
▶ 0:48:09represent different commodity groups different regions of the country but each witness listed Rises uh input costs as a significant problem in their testimonies whether it's labor fuels equipment land rent Farmers everywhere are feeling those strains so I want to begin today by Examining The Real World impact of these cost on producers Miss swiner can you share with the committee the specific input cost that are affecting your family farm and
▶ 0:48:39while you're thinking about that what sacrifices if any you have to make to keep your farm operational certainly uh thank you for the question um for perspective in in 2022 we were selling cotton for roughly a120 um and you know input costs reflected that increase in commodity prices and and since 2022 uh those commodity prices have been cut in half as I referenced in my testimony um you know just a few weeks ago we got quoted 58
▶ 0:49:09cents input prices have not come down in the same manner um they've maybe come down roughly 20% but they're certainly still high uh and and over the course of of years and years they've increased you know 300% 600% so Machinery costs seed costs is a huge one for us um those are all up and and commodity prices in the farm safety net don't recognize or they don't reflect current market conditions um and so at the risk of you know accommodating those Rising input costs we're we're looking at ways that we can come back in our operation and generally you know
▶ 0:49:39sustainability is important for us conservation practices are important for us but in no till situations we rely on chemical products to suppress weeds in our field as an example and so we're we're looking at ways to um reduce that input cost and chemical is sometimes uh one of the things that will reduce and at at the risk of that we're we're going in and we're doing tillage instead of the no till situation which then um you know contradicts the conservation practices that we've we've tried so hard to implement and I assume it also means you're restricting your capital investment programs no new tractors
▶ 0:50:10no new barns yeah it's hard to invest uh it affects the family lifestyle maybe no vacation this summer got to stay home uh those challenges we all face and by the way would anyone else on the panel wish to address that question since you are different regions different commodity groups so in our uh case Congressman uh in Central Illinois we're pretty much in a corn soybean rotation so our cost to put a crop in is probably around $700 variable cost $300 be fixed
▶ 0:50:40cost and so fertilizer is about $300 on an acre of corn so about 40 some percent uh is is our cost beans is less 15% uh nitrogen is the bulk of that $300 what what I see happening the last several years is we're able to build uh phosphorus and potassium levels in the soil and so we have a little bit of a soil Bank there that we can use and and so we can back off
▶ 0:51:10the rates of of those two types of fertilizers uh however once you pull that nutrient out you want to put it back in and anybody that saves money it's a lot easier to spend money than it is to save it back in soil so it's kind it's difficult need good times to rebuild those soil fertility rates Mr Mr T we've experienced that specifically to the fertilizer or carton cost or fuel in in the Years 20 uh 22 and 2023
▶ 0:51:41went up anywhere from 35 to 55% and the Mystery with those with those numbers is they really haven't gone down so they go up awfully quick and even though things have settled down in inflation supposedly at Bay we haven't seen a decrease and so we continue to pay elevated input cost and I've in the years that I've been farming which is 30 plus years I've never seen basically across the board all of our input uh expenses
▶ 0:52:11go up by a minimum of 35% like I think our highest was around 60% Dr Newton in my remaining moments do you ever see prices ever go down in your studies are in your life it's a fair question when you're trctor you know I think when you look across the farm economy you know you see again Machinery prices are up land prices are up labor prices are up every single input category is up um across the board and and I
▶ 0:52:41think we have seen uh some land values come down a little bit because of the where we are in the farm economy uh but but um I think we've entered a new level of where Farm inut costs are going to be from from here on out as I've told the chairman before one of my great OB reservations driving back and forth in the airport comeing to DC from the farm is watching how much equipment's on the equipment dealer Lots you back Mr chairman thank the gentleman now recognized gentleman from California Mr Costa for five minutes thank you very much Mr chairman the ranking member for this hearing this
▶ 0:53:11very timely today because Farmers ranchers dering men and women across the country are hurting as a result of uh input cost that has been testified here already inflation and other factors and um as um a third generation farmer I like to say here in this committee uh almost at every hearing that it's important that we remember that food is a national security issue it is a national security issue it's an international security issue as we see most
▶ 0:53:42recently with the proposed cuts from USI Aid which is an important part of America's uh smart foreign policy that's another issue but I want to focus uh Mr tally ran on on uh Mr excuse me uh with you because you represent California in the specialty crop industry I'm a third generation farmer and frankly the $59 billion last year that was at the Farmgate in California obviously the largest agricultural state of the nation we're very proud
▶ 0:54:12of um and uh your testimony I think reflected a number of the challenges uh you have a very good representative and uh Congressman uh carbajal we hope he will some point be a member of this committee sooner than later having said that uh I'm not a big fan uh generally speaking of tariffs California Farmers as we know are concerned about a whole host of issues but among the highest on the priority list is obviously water uh reliable supply
▶ 0:54:42of water reliable supply of of of Labor and a fair and level play playing field and I think the potential for tariffs with Canada and Mexico uh is very problematic not to mention other markets uh Mr tally uh what's your concern with regards to the general effect of um with our nearest neighbors I mean Canada is the largest uh purchaser of California wines Mexico is a large Market of California milk
▶ 0:55:13um the potential impacts if we have a full out tariff War uh to California Agriculture obviously thank you very much for for that question in especially with the crop industry we deal with a highly perishable Commodities um some aren't so much but I would say the vast majority are from maybe a shelf life of of around 10 days and so getting into a a tariff and trade war
▶ 0:55:43is could possibly decimate our agricultural Community specifically in California with fresh when we saw the impacts uh the last efforts of to use trade as leverage I mean tariffs as leverage every country has that leverage by the way and and that's why I generally don't think that trade Wars uh uh amount to the intent of the goal ultimately of providing that Level Playing Field that we seek right correct and and so let let's go on because
▶ 0:56:14we know in the last time we went down that road the commodity Credit Corporation really uh ended up providing a subsidy a floor for a lot of uh a production uh especially in the Midwest specialty crops though that did not benefit from that is that correct once again the AGI seems to always be the issue for us and that's why that 75% of income derived from from farming income is is imperative well and also when you look at and you noted and
▶ 0:56:44others did in their testimony the cost of crop insurance and of course we haven't set the uh production cost since 2010 we hope to rectify that in the farm bill and by the way I hope there is bipartisan support on the reauthorization of the farm bill we all need it throughout the farm belt would you not agree yes uh so how do we make the crop Insurance Effort more user friendly to the specialty crop industry which by the way is not just California but spread around the country absolutely
▶ 0:57:15in all 50 states like I said the specialty crop industry is so unique specifically in its insurance needs right now we're not really able to utilize that in my mind to its fullest because we do need to revamp that and and especially the crop industry would be more than happy to sit down and and discuss this with a USDA and unfortunately I don't think we have time right now to go through it um item by item but it is something that we feel that can be utilized as a safety net not only for
▶ 0:57:45us personally we use it in our lemons and all Mr I couldn't agree with you more and as a third generation farmer I think we need to do a better job in educating specialty crops after all are the food that we all love to eat right fruits and vegetables and the uh protein you know I mean we say they're special but they're the the common food that Americans have on their dinner table every night that correct that Farm Workers and farmers do to make it happen thank you my time's expired Mr chairman more to to be continued thank you
▶ 0:58:15all right thank you gentlemen I now recognize the vice chair of the full committee uh the gentleman from Georgia Mr Austin Scott for five minutes thank you Mr chairman and we too who uh want to get a a broad bipartisan Farm Bill done I um I'll tell you I do think that we have to put the farm back in the farm bill and I think that production agriculture should receive more than 10% of of total Farm Bill spending and I think uh until we get to that point uh just
▶ 0:58:45rural America's economy is going to continue to suffer until we have the adequate support that said on just just over a year ago secretary vilsack testified before this committee claiming that the previous three years of net cash income were the best three years in 50 years and I quoting him there the best years for net cash income ever he simply glossed over the the 2023 number at the time which we already had uh now we have uh 24 and we have estimates
▶ 0:59:16for 25 so Dr Newton the usda's latest farm income report shows a sharp increase in net farm income for 2025 are you familiar with this report yes sir it's largely driven by economic and Disaster Assistance it's where the income the increase in income comes from is that correct that's correct and if you follow the numbers 42.4 billion or 23.6% of
▶ 0:59:46net farm income is expected to come from disaster or assistance payments is that correct yes sir and so um yes sir for America the the reason that number is so high and this is what I'm so concerned about and I'll just read this from a Farm Bureau report uh the anticipated increase in Aran PLC payments is primarily due to projected declines in commodity prices for example USDA
▶ 1:00:16projects the 2025 marketing year average price for corn to be $3.90 per bushel which is below the effective reference price 426 a bushel and it goes on to name some other um Commodities in there as well so we've got tough years ahead of us we had a tough year in 24 we had a tough year in 23 can you just speak to what you think would have we would have seen um
▶ 1:00:46if Congress had not acted to provide the economic and natural disaster assistance to Farmers the last 2024 thank you very much for the question I mean we we've seen tight margins now in farm country for three straight years in a row and the the ad hoc support that you mentioned unfortunately is not going to make anyone whole even with that support even with the support from arkh and PLC uh we're still looking at at farms that are it's going to be a tough time
▶ 1:01:17uh to break even so I think this is uh helpful assistance uh as we've heard from the committee but we need a new 5-year farm bill we need a Moder modernized farm bill so that farmers have the tools they need in the toolbox uh to manage risk in today's Farm economy and I've said all the time when I travel the country our farm safety net is broken it does not work the way it needs to work and that's why we've had to rely so heavily on ad hoc support by my estimates over the last six years we've had about $130 billion do in ad hoc support
▶ 1:01:48that's gone out the door Arc and PLC those programs that you mentioned have come in at about 20 billion so we're at 6 to1 uh ratio between ad hoc support and the support we get from Farm build programs that's why the safety net needs to get modernized I appreciate the question the reference prices no longer reflect the co the cost of production uh for amer's not and I I will tell you I'm concerned that they're moving so fast that that we the I truly
▶ 1:02:18think after this farm bill we probably need to get to a three-year cycle not a 5year cycle um on the farm bill because of because because of the the speed at which things are changing um Dr Newton I'll just stick with you since I'm down to one second I'm from South Georgia um can you just talk about what a downturn in the overall a economy means for uh all of the businesses and Rural America in general I mean I think
▶ 1:02:49you know we've heard it from the witnesses the the farm economy supports the rural economy it supports rural Main Street when farmers are not making money there's not turnback dollars that go back into the economy you lose jobs you lose schools you lose you know healthc care so the farm economy is the backbone of the rural economy I I only have about 20 seconds left Mr chairman but in in most of the counties that I represent the farmers are the ones that are paying the taxes that support the local government the school system
▶ 1:03:19police departments if if the local farmers can't make their ends meet then then nobody else is making their ends meet either in Rural America so we too want to get a good Farm Bill done but it's got to be more than 10% for for production I think thanks the gentleman now recognized gentleman from Massachusetts Mr MCG minutes Mr chair my my Farmers tell me that uncertainty uh complicates and frustrates their their livelihoods and we're living in a time of uh great uncertainty and
▶ 1:03:50uh just for the record I I don't think we can pretend like the last three weeks haven't even happened um we can't ignore what this Administration is saying and doing Mr chairman the state of the rural economy uh in this country is declining by the minute uh because Donald Trump has decided to let Elon Musk put billionaires first and America's America last I mean come on tariffs against our closest allies and a trading partners gutting science programs while bird flu rips through poultry and livestock
▶ 1:04:20freezing money that has been promised to Farmers for ongoing projects did my colleagues really think these are good for Rural America trying to illegally Purge the Korea staff at USDA who we all know try to help rural communities demagoguing programs that provide a legal immigrant Workforce for our Farmers uh destroying Global Food Aid programs that our Farmers rely on every day to sell what they grow and produce these things are not America First these are policies of people who do
▶ 1:04:51not care about Rural America at all so let me just say this as clearly as I can Mr chairman the rural economy of this country is in big trouble unless things change now let me make this as simple as I can for people us Aid purchases $2 billion doll that's billion with a B worth of us Commodities every year grown by who grown by American farmers that's soybeans rice wheat sorghum the vast majority of which are grown not in my district
▶ 1:05:21but in your districts in red States in many of your districts and then some weirdo named Elon who's probably never set foot on a farm in his life just decided to end it all to eliminate entire markets for our commodity Growers while prices are already low and spare me the rebuttal of quote food days was Exempted from elon's shutdown that's that's BS we we are hearing from people on the front lines that that is BS even the US aid office of the Inspector General just said yesterday and
▶ 1:05:51I quote uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible Communications with implementers has degraded usaid's ability to distribute and Safeguard taxpayer funded humanitarian assistance end quote so more than 475,000 metric tons of American food commodities valued at 450 million dollars that were scheduled or in transit are now at risk of being wasted and more than 29,000 metric tons of food commodities valued at $39 million
▶ 1:06:22are sitting on the floor of usaid warehouses in HST hon and I'm hearing reports that the so-called waiver of food Aid is not helpful because these waivers are impossible to obtain the freeze is already having dramatic consequences on Rural communities companies that buy massive amounts of soy and peanuts to treat childhood Mal malnutrition are shutting down and these shutdowns are going to hit Rural America like a ton of bricks so I'm just said to my Republican colleagues is this what America
▶ 1:06:52First means to you sticking it to your own farmer by ripping the rug out from under them great job I'm sure you'll go on TV talking about how great Trump is while he totally screws over the people we represent so with that uh I just I have a question for Mr weiner that I hope you can answer quickly a simple yes and no is is fine if usid is success is successfully is is successfully dismantled and stops buying uh commodities for Global Food Aid at over $2 billion would would that have a ripple
▶ 1:07:23effect on the farmer economy and do you think it would create uncertainty for our Farmers I do I am not an expert in this area there are a couple programs in US Aid that I do see of value which you mentioned one the Commodities um soy and there's actually a corn soy mix um I don't know if the amount there would be effective of the price but I think that's important right but I mean I mean Common Sense tells you if you know2
▶ 1:07:53billion dollar is taken off the table which is used to purchase Farm Commodities who makes up that market let me just say one other thing Mr chairman we have 47 million people who are hungry in this country uh and I had hoped that America First meant they we're going to try to feed them and I guess I was wrong because I hear that the Republican leadership is still pursuing $150 billion in cuts to snap to give more handouts to billionaires and I'd like to point out that some of the poorest counties in the country are in Rural America and among the largest number of eligible snap beneficiaries
▶ 1:08:24uh live in Rural America and the majority of them by the way they work um and I didn't come to Congress to increase hunger in this country I came to Congress to end it and I think I'm out of time but we we we we can't ignore what is happening in our country uh as we speak there's some really bad things some bad decisions that are being made that we have to speak out against thank you gentlemen now recognize uh uh gentleman from Aransas Mr Crawford for five minutes thank you Mr chairman um
▶ 1:08:56I want to talk about something I've actually worked on for several years and and it may may come as a surprise to some of you that you're hearing about this for the first time but with much of the farm economy in crisis from natural disasters to economic disasters I believe we ought to be looking at different options that allow producers to exert more control over their own operations that's why several congresses ago and again in this Congress I introduced the farm risk abatement and mitigation election act or frame act in my bill frame accounts would be like HSA for Farm
▶ 1:09:26in that producers could make tax deductible contributions up to $50,000 per year to basically to save for a rainy day such as now when they could draw from their account and not have to wait on government payments that may or may not come in time Dr Newton just hearing about the idea of a HSA for Farmers along this I mean I'm just throwing this at you you might have heard about this before um you think this is beneficial to Farmers across the country thank you for the question and Mr Crawford and
▶ 1:09:56I recall fondly the time that we spent with the Arkansas a council when I was with Senator boseman's office so it's nice to see you again uh this is a topic that we explored when I was at Farm Bureau uh many many years ago uh and I think the challenge that that we face with this is Farmers have to have money before they can put it in an HSA type account and where we are with the farm economy today the downturn that we're in uh you know there's not a lot of money to put into that type of account but it there is value to that concept uh that
▶ 1:10:26you can tuck away some money during good times to help offset the downturns in the farm economy that that we face well and to your point look a disaster in certain parts of my district may never be declared uh but it's no less a disaster for those Farmers could be that maybe another farmer sprayed something off label did damage to their crops and they've got to have some uh some support for that that's that's the kind of at the micro level I mean it's not just a macro type approach to this but um you know
▶ 1:10:57and and you said we got to have Farm we got to have you know funding to be able to fund those accounts I get it but every farmer that I've talked to in my district about this has without exception has said yeah where do I sign the other upside to this is that Banks actually get to administer these accounts and so that's that's um putting putting money in Banks and so on but to your point I get it the current state of the farm economy this isn't a situation that everybody's going to be rushing out saying yeah let me put $50,000 into my frame
▶ 1:11:27account had we had the foresight 10 years ago to do this now those frame accounts would probably be um beneficial so it's it's always the situation where we're fixing the roof while it's raining and and I I think we need to take that into consideration that yeah we're not going to fund these accounts today but we should see this as an opportunity to recognize that this won't be the last time this ever happens and so we should be thinking long long term about what we do to empower Farmers
▶ 1:11:58to help control their own destiny as it applies to their ability to mitigate a potential disaster while they're waiting for either a crop insurance adjustment or a disaster declaration in the associated funding so um I hope that you'll consider that and and um lend your support to the effort although I I'm it's too little too late today but I'm worried about the next one um and and it's not if but when and how bad and most people in agriculture will tell you that as as you well know and I'm concerned that um we're going to lose
▶ 1:12:28an awful lot of farmers in Arkansas's First Congressional District in uh in this cycle and and maybe this could have helped prevent that and maybe it can help prevent the next round um as it applies to that so um I appreciate y'all being here today I won't belabor the point but but just to say that um you know we need to get past the uh you know the standard reactionary posture and start thinking a little more proactively about what we do for the next one appreciate it and yield back gentleman yields
▶ 1:12:58back now recognize the gentle lady from Ohio Miss Brown for five minutes thank you chairman Tompson and ranking member Craig and thank you to our panelists today um your comments have been very insightful I'm glad that all of us on this committee uh agreed that we are living through very uncertain times from Reckless tariff threats and sudden USDA funding freezes that disrupt vital farm programs to looming cuts to critical nutrition the current Administration is keeping the entire food and
▶ 1:13:28farm supply chain in a constant state of uncertainty from Farmgate to the dinner plate these policies are destabilizing the very systems that farmers families and communities rely on and we have seen the story before four years ago Trump's tariffs and trade battles particularly with China left many US Farmers struggling to sell their crops leading to record high Farm bankrupt and closures while bailout bailout payments were issued
▶ 1:13:59to offset some of the damage they failed to provide a sustainable solution or address long-term losses in market share this is why passing a farm bill is so important last Congress I was ranking member of the general Farm Commodities rank risk management and credit subcommittee and the number one thing I heard from Farmers was the desire for a strong upfront investment in our farm bill riskmanagement and Market access programs and let me be clear investigate investing in agriculture
▶ 1:14:29doesn't just mean pouring resources into the largest most traditional Commodities it means ensuring stability and opportunity for all Farmers including small scale producers especially crop Growers Urban farmers and those using Innovative non-traditional methods a strong Farm economy requires certainty for every farmer not just the biggest players uh Mr call you are a specialty crop grower and it is my understanding that
▶ 1:14:59specialty crops do not qualify for Title One programs and that most specialy crops don't have access to crop insurance today so I'd like to get a better understanding of what improving the safety net would mean for Growers like you what are some of the changes that should be made to crop insurance programs to encourage access improve coverage and ultimately make the industry more resilient thank you yes and and and I alluded to to that answer a little bit before with Congress Costa where where it's a situation that especially the crops are so
▶ 1:15:29diverse and our needs are so unique that we need to revamp the the insurance program the crop insurance program and and we are willing to sit down with the USDA and go over some of the improvements that that may need to occur I know like I stated we currently have crop insurance on our on our lemons and avocados and that seems to work in that regard but when you talk kind of across the US with specially the crop
▶ 1:15:59Growers right now the system is is it's a little clunky and it's difficult to use and there's a lot of uncertainty as to limits and and that sort of thing and I just think going in revamping clarifying and perhaps explaining things a little bit better would make it more user friendly and and allow people to be part of this safety net which is which is invaluable thank you also want to make a point that when we talk about the uncertainty of the farm economy we
▶ 1:16:29often talk about it in a global sense but the reality is this instability doesn't just impact Farmers it affects every American Consumer especially those who rely on programs like Snap to put food on the table when grocery prices at the store are driven up it makes it harder for Working Families like the almost One in4 Snap ho households in my district to afford fresh nutritious food uh Mr weiner how does economic uncertainty in the farm sector whether from volatile input cost supply
▶ 1:17:00chain disruptions or policy changes directly impact food prices and access for lowincome consumers particularly relying on Snap so again I'm not a snap expert but anytime you have uncertainty you have much more volatility on prices Commodities and the food products that are made from those Commodities so uh yes that uncertainty a lot of times will drive higher prices Dr Newton perhaps you can add something to
▶ 1:17:30that absolutely I mean I think if you look at at what's driving the inflation in in grocery prices I mean a lot of its uh you know labor is is a big cost of of grocery prices obviously we're dealing with a historic outbreak of Aven influenza that's driving egg prices higher so absolutely inflation uh in food prices you know impacts the the ability for Americans to purchase food thank you very much I look forward to working with my colleagues on this committee to write a farm bill
▶ 1:18:00that offers farmers and families the certainty they need to keep food keep our food supply chain strong and resilient and with that Mr chairman I yell back thanks the Gent lady and now recognize the gentleman from North Carolina Mr Rouser for five minutes thank you uh Mr chairman um the question of uh uh food Aid and usaid came up a few minutes ago I just want to say it's always been my position that food AE should be under USDA not usaid so that's all I'm going to say about that for
▶ 1:18:31right now uh Dr nton your testimony ref references a 28% decline in net in net cash farm income for hog producers uh since 2022 uh can you speak to the impact of California's prop 12 and what effect that has had in that regard certainly and I believe that that usda's office of the chief Economist has has published an excellent report on the impact of of prop 12 but it's certainly driven up and we just talked about
▶ 1:19:01the impact of of grocery prices for Americans it's driven up um uh Port product prices uh in California but when you talk about the the decline in hog farm income uh it's been one of the toughest times for hog producers in this country they're slightly uh recovering now but over the last few years it's been pretty devastating so in the South switching gear slightly in in the Southeast in particular uh with specialty crops uh uh you know labor intensive crops
▶ 1:19:31uh what percentage of um input cost is is labor I can't speak to the exact percentage of of what input cost or maybe Mr thally can but but I can tell you that labor costs have increased probably about 50 or 60% since the last time we did a Farmville Mr tally yes and labor cost anywhere from 46 to 50 % of the expenses related to to Growing uh specialty crops Mr wanzel last
▶ 1:20:01Congress you oppos this committee's farm bill from the position that it Advantage Southern producers over others is that an portrayal I think what we were hoping for is some improvement uh in title one as I look at the projections uh of of the bill we've lost about $200 per acre a corn Bean acre horns around 288 over the last 3 years beans are around 140 some and the
▶ 1:20:32changes that were being talked about would have been probably around $20 an acre uh in change and we were just trying to look for ways to better improve the program and and especially we're focused on Title 11 so you know many of my producers in North Carolina are unable to access low premium crop insurance coverage and you know have very different risk associated with growing their crops and of course uh the farm safety net and farm programs protect their ability to feed
▶ 1:21:02and en clode the world as I understand it and correct me if I'm wrong what percent uh of the Corn Market is due directly to the uh 40% from a net standpoint 27% but 40% of the corn goes into ethanol and then ddgs is sold not only in the US as a co-product but also throughout the world I would say the
▶ 1:21:32ethanol Market we believe is in Decline right now and that's one reason why we are advocating for another generation of biofuels policy around a high octane fuel standard what would the industry look like uh without the RFS I think the industry you know demand from a corn Bean standpoint is everything um I I believe that the when the RFS passed it not only impacted corn soybean
▶ 1:22:02Farmers really affected all row crops just because of the demand for Acres around biofuel so anything we can do that will turn that around from a corn standpoint will actually help we believe all row crops uh Dr Newton uh what if you did not have the RFS what what would the price of corn be today just general estimate if you can you know that's that's probably uh tough to to calculate on the Fly I'd be happy to
▶ 1:22:32to get back and answer that question but you're exactly I mean when you when you chew up 30% of the corn crop as a demand point it certainly helps to to support the prices yeah well the broader Point here and I'll just give an example my integrators they don't like ethanol at all uh they utilize corn and uh and other uh and other crops obviously for and uh the broader Point uh I want to make is there not enough of us to be opposed to each other we've all got to pull together uh
▶ 1:23:02we've got to get a farm bill done get it done this year and we all need to be United in that in that effort in its totality with that Mr chairman I yield back thank the gentlemen now recognize gentle lady from Oregon Miss Selenas for five minutes thank you to chair Thompson and ranking member Craig and thank you to all of our Witnesses today um I think a lot of folks in this room know that Oregon um Farmers produce over 220 recognized Commodities were home to Diversified nurseries berries of all kinds and grapes
▶ 1:23:33and hops that make some of the country's finest wine and beer we even produce about 99% of America's hazelnuts so clearly specialty crops are foundational to Oregon's agricultural economy my district is home as I just mentioned to some of the finest wine grapes in the world and Canada is by far the biggest export market for Oregon in the wake of of President Trump's tariff announcement Canadian leaders took a variety of retaliatory actions immediately starting on last Monday including
▶ 1:24:03pulling American alcohol beverages like Oregon Wine off of shelves across their country and wineries in my district immediately heard that prescheduled orders were being cancelled that their products would no longer be prioritized and that their Canadian Partners could no longer trust that they could rely on a stable trade partnership with us exporters whether the impacts are on end products like wines or Commodities themselves a trade war with Canada and our other largest trading partners would have severe consequences
▶ 1:24:33for us producers and clearly for those of us in Oregon so um for Mr tally and U Mr Newton specifically how badly would retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners harm Farmers bottom lines and then further how difficult is it to regain access to a market following a trade War if another competitor has already stepped in and entered that Marketplace to meet that demand
▶ 1:25:03no I I'll tell you it's it's really it's difficult to determine um basically what what would happen if if tariffs then the retaliatory and when we go back and forth but as I stated before it is a concern because retaliatory tariffs typically affect especially the crop industry and unfortunately we don't don't have the Shelf WIP we don't have the legs to withstand something like that and and so I recall last time you know USDA came up
▶ 1:25:33with some funding to help farmers especially crops for instance and and that's something that we may be looking to to the USDA to to um Implement if if need be but it is it is a concern and there's there's no doubt about that and it is something that that we are watching closely thank you Mr Newton would you like to respond I agree entirely okay thank you so one last question before my time expires we've heard a lot this morning about um labor costs and and I'm
▶ 1:26:04hearing it from my Growers as well what would happen and I recognize that we don't have a lot of jurisdiction with labor here in this committee but what would happen if 11 million undocumented workers Across the Nation were removed as president Trump has alluded to um what would happen to the cost of Labor in agriculture in the United States Mr Newton I mean with with 42% of of crop Farm Workers undocumented I think it would be very disruptive
▶ 1:26:34uh to the a sector if if they were to all of a sudden be removed hopefully it doesn't come to that and I think that's that's where you know our perspective in the analysis is just evaluating these things as they occur and that hasn't happened yet would anyone else like to respond I agree with with Mr Newton and also Alo that really emphasizes the uh portion of the farm bill that special Le crop really really relies on and that's the mechanization and autom automization of our
▶ 1:27:04crops and and our the labor and labor saving any sort of Labor saving device that that we can create not necessarily replacing labor because we're not going to replace them all together because there is no Silver Bullet but to make consistent improvements through mechanization to to help save our our labor force it it's imperative California spent over $16 billion last year in labor 23ds of that was just in harvesting
▶ 1:27:35harvesting is one of the most difficult factors in in Ro in in Road crops specifically Str the crops and it's it's a concern that that obviously impacts uh agricultural tremendously thank you I yield back thank the General lady and now recognize the gentleman from Illinois Mr Boss for 5 minutes thank you Mr chairman so I want to thank everybody for being here today and over the last few years American farmers have faced a number of challenges
▶ 1:28:05you know we've seen in cost rise inflation double and crops prices uh drop a few of you have noticed and and noted that your in your testimony that job this job isn't really cheap there's a lot of investment that goes on uh into this career and our new and beginning Farmers often rely heavily on loans however access to credit loan limits can be a roadblock to to these Farmers by expanding the FSA loan limits we can provide new and beginning Farmers with the ability of one get to the
▶ 1:28:35AG uh get into Agriculture and two remain competitive in the market you know I was happy to see the provisions included in the 2024 farm bill and was proud to support it Dr Newton can you speak to the importance of expanding and streamlining credit programs for uh producers who struggle with access to to uh credit it it's the Next Generation to come to the farm I mean anything to make farming easier uh access to credit improve risk tools you know the list is long to help those
▶ 1:29:06coming back to the farm um and as we think about the farm economy the impact on farm income I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that uh an issue from California called prop 12 while uh primary impact on on this is in the hog industry it's reaching implications for a economy for the whole o over the whole uh situation in our a economy uh Mr weiner in May of last year 90
▶ 1:29:36900 a organizations including the Illinois Corn Growers uh the uh committed to support the preemption of prop 12 uh to uh be included in the house farm bill as you know prop 12 threatens to consolidate the pork IND or or consolidate the pork industry and raise prices for uh consumers why would the Corn Growers be concerned about this thank you Congressman of course I mentioned that livestock is a very important market for us they're actually our largest market
▶ 1:30:07uh the pork industry is uh Illinois produces uh number four in pork production and we already heard on the impact of what prop 12 could do so anything that helps our livestock customers is very important to us so those are the questions that I had written out before now we're goingon to go into something else let me ask something of each one of you now let me get this right I know Ronney you are uh and Miss shamber sh Whitner I'm say it correctly schwarner
▶ 1:30:37schwarner um you are actually farming yourself the other two you are farming yourself both of you yes okay I am farming doctor okay then I'll ask the three of you have you felt secure in the last four years in the a industry no I would say in California since uh 2017 to 2022 we've lost over 7,000 farms
▶ 1:31:07and that amounts to about 300,000 Acres that have gone fow that pretty much answers my question from a financial standpoint as we look at the three demand sectors in corn um none of those sectors are very healthy if there is one bright spot I however small it would be ethanol exports actually to Canada as our largest customer right still from the from the uh usmca deal that was done during the last Trump trump Administration you know
▶ 1:31:38I I have watched my colleagues on the other side of the aisle over this morning many of them try to bring up the fact that they're concerned over the last three weeks now you just heard they've been concerned over the last four years now if we really want to talk about the problems that exist in agriculture it's not based on these last three weeks it's based on the fact that one we need to get a farm bill pass there's no doubt and give you that security but the reality of AG is that what we've been doing for years and a lot of our trade has basically hurt
▶ 1:32:08our farmers and our worst case scenario if you really study this issue has been China who actually plays games with the industry offers a price on bean says they're going to take it for that amount and then comes back and overloads the market where their PR prices drop where many farmers are broke so obviously our trade deals have not been really really really good hey I came from an a background in a in a in a business and I came from a background also in politics
▶ 1:32:38that I I was opposed to trade uh arguments but the reality is we've been failing and if we're willing to step forward and if you're just going to complain about the last three weeks we've got a lot to look at I would hope that this committee would walk back away from the partisanship and actually come together pass this farm bill and realize trade we should hold accountable those c those countries we're dealing with and get our trade deals right and hold their feet to the fire and with that I yield back thank gentlemen now recognize
▶ 1:33:08G A from Illinois Miss bazinsky for five minutes yes thank you Mr chairman thank you ranking member um I have prepared remarks but I do want to just pick up on my colleague Mr Bost um in talking about trade and just ask a quick question of the panelist before I talk a little bit about my district the proposed president Trump has proposed 10% tariffs on Canada specifically on energy Imports and I know potash I hear
▶ 1:33:38a lot about in you know input prices and he's paused that for 30 days but I would like to ask each of the panelists if that ended up being imposed this 10% tariff on Canada for energy Imports would that help create more certainty and help our Farmers yes or no and I'd like to go starting with Dr Newton and and answer yes or no question to that answer no no
▶ 1:34:09no okay thank you um to all of our Witnesses I want to say thank you for being here today Illinois's 13th congressional district is the home to some of the most fertile soil in the world and it is home to over 900,000 acres of corn and soybeans alone the thing I hear most from the hardworking farmers in my district is that in order to manage their operations during these hard Economic Times what they really need is a strong safety net many of my Farmers enroll in
▶ 1:34:39title1 programs like Arc and PLC but it it's not a reliable form of risk management for them farmers in illino 13th rely on crop insurance as their primary risk management tool but there are serious concerns about whether or not the federal crop insurance program is serving my Farmers as well as it can be in fact from 2018 to 2022 Illinois Farmers paid over $500 million more into the program than they received from it many
▶ 1:35:10meaning they are negative net beneficiaries of the program in a time of rising uncertainty for Farmers with tariffs being levied tariffs being threatened Grant recisions and Other Extreme Power grabs by the Administration we need these programs to work now more than ever especially since prices are low and costs are high I want to focus on how we can curve the uncertainty through the farm safety net Mr weiner based on your testimony I understand
▶ 1:35:40that crop insurance is your primary risk management tool for your operation is crop insurance functioning at the 1.0 level no it is not do you believe that crop insurance is a sustainable investment for your operation I believe with the changes that I think are needed it is a very important part for our operation and also for many of The Producers uh Illinois um and my final
▶ 1:36:10question Mr weiner is regarding the economic assistance that was passed by Congress at the end of last year was significant by partisan support these payments are being made on planted Acres crop insurance operat on planted Acres as you know but Title One payments pay out on base Acres leading to the potential for payments on acres for Commodities not even grown do you believe that payments on planted acres is a more thoughtful approach to commodity assistance
▶ 1:36:41so I think uh we had some uh apprehension relative to that program but on reflection plantet acres really aligns well with addressing the input costs that are affecting us on the crops that we're growing right now and with the payment structure being moved up the payment is going to hit when it it needs to hit not a year after our marketing year so I think it's worth the committee considering uh trying to figure out how
▶ 1:37:13reset align uh title one uh to be more responsive okay um and my last question is do Title One payments sustain your operations um we over time have received very little title one uh we probably won't get anything in 24 possibly uh in 25 there might be a title one payment um but it it's it it is not in our budgets uh from a cash flow standpoint
▶ 1:37:43and our lender wouldn't expect wouldn't expect it or would not want it to be in our cash flow statements thank you and I yield back Mr chairman thanks General lady I recognize a gentleman from South Dakota Mr Johnson for five minutes thank you Mr chairman uh I'm going to pick up Mr wierl where my colleague uh Miss bazinsky left off uh Illinois has a lot of planted Acres that are not eligible for the title one program she was talking about but Illinois is certainly not alone on that front I think yall are in the top five but there are a lot of States similarly
▶ 1:38:14situated so kind of peel back some of the onion give the members of the committee some sense of why is it a problem when you have this discrepancy between how Title One covers uh you know the countryside in Illinois um and it's not connected to to recent history of Acres so um original Acres used for title one was from 1980 to 1983 so my dad was farming I was
▶ 1:38:44helping uh with that uh there's been a couple opportunities to update those Acres we actually updated ours uh back in 2014 to reflect our recently planted Acres of both corn and soybeans um but in some cases my daughter she she's going to have to live with what my decision was in 2014 uh there's many farms that are living with the decisions made by their grandparent so I you know I think looking at the very
▶ 1:39:14important ad hoc um that you guys helped support and move last fall um using recently planted Acres really helps the producers deal with the cost that they're uh getting involved with and and dealing with um because it's currently what they're dealing with from a cost standpoint on the crops they're growing and I know you're an expert on on growing stuff in Illinois and not necessarily growing stuff in South Dakota but uh I mean clearly the Corn Belt has pushed pretty substantially
▶ 1:39:45West uh in the years since you know your your father would have made those selections is this an issue that is exacerbating As you move closer to the middle of the country so from a from our region uh we've probably well it's actually affected this on our crop insurance ratings uh We've we've probably lost about 2 million acres to beans um which if if you're familiar with a corn Bean rotation there's
▶ 1:40:16tremendous Synergy in the two crops alternating every year from an agronomic standpoint from a yield standpoint and so again those bases don't reflect that update yeah and I would only observe that again in and we have seen quite a transformation in the middle of the country uh as corn and beans that kind of rotation has purchased Acres uh the Missouri River cut South Dakota uh in the middle used to be you just would never imagine
▶ 1:40:46having a large Corner Bean fields in that middle part of the state and now you really do and so uh similar to the kind of problem you have in Illinois in South Kota you have an even bigger problem in that you have uh selections elections data decisions made by somebody's uh dad or or or grandpa that have no real connection to the decisions they're making today about what to grow and it does mean that title one is really out of alignment with what we need now you mentioned you had some apprehension at the beginning of the policy formation process
▶ 1:41:16I think you said those concerns have been alleviated did I hear that right yes and my concerns relate to in a downturn it's very when Farmers don't have money they can't pay for the input cost and and input costs tend to be very sticky and it takes a downturn to force those input costs down and our apprehension is if absentee landlords who a lot of times live in metropolitan areas see that
▶ 1:41:46money flowing back they're not as quick to lower the cash rent payments that they're asking for from their tenants and that but the need is was there uh and that kind of overcomes that but we are going to be carrying higher cost into the next year because that downturn is not pushing input cost down well there are lots of differences between growing stuff in your neck of the woods Miss binsky neck of the woods and my neck of the woods y'all get yields that you just it's unbelievable uh
▶ 1:42:16you know you're you get it easy I know it doesn't really seem easy to you but you get yields sometimes twice what we get but one serious area uh of commonality of agreement is that we should be using good data to drive policy decisions and Title One coverage with that Mr chair I would yield back thank the gentlemen now recognize the Gent lady from Connecticut Mrs Hayes for five minutes thank you good afternoon and thank you to our Witnesses for being here today Connecticut Farmers have
▶ 1:42:46faced prolong droughts late season frosts hail storms tornadoes even this summer we had a weather phenomenon called a wet Micro Burst unpredictable and damaging experiences that I'm sure the Farmers on the panel have likely shared fortunately we got critical disaster relief for farmers in the continuing resolution passed by Congress in December the CR established the farm recovery and support block grant program
▶ 1:43:16to ensure that small and medium-sized Farmers like the ones I represent in my District farmers who are often overlooked by Farm safety net programs receive some sort of assistance this program will provide critical resources for states to distribute to producers the Connecticut Department of Agriculture is working tirelessly to to use this program to help as many producers as possible Mr tally as you know ad hoc assistance has been provided for specialy
▶ 1:43:47crop producers to address the gaps in the farm safety net program however because this type of support relies on the prevailing political climate ad hoc assistance is never guaranteed can you talk to the committee a little bit about how this type of ad hoc assistance dis uh distribution impacts your operations when determining contracts input purchases and other Investments and in your view should Congress develop an an alternative to providing assistance in a
▶ 1:44:17more predictable way for producers thank you congresswoman I as I had stated uh before the the assistance is is kind of intermittent and it's not necessarily consistent and the difficulty that we face and especially the crop industry is that the AGI limits a lot of times we're not able to to Really uh utilize these programs through the USDA and so
▶ 1:44:47that can be that can be problematic for for our industry and using that 75 5% um income agricult derived from from income derived from from agriculture is is imperative in these in these uh programs where we can apply for them and and be able to utilize those to the fullest extent thank you Switching gears a little the funding freezes that have been proposed in the last month by the current Administration are sparking
▶ 1:45:17widespread confusion yesterday the Washington Post reported that farmers are missing m millions of dollars in funding they were promised by USDA despite assurances from the Trump administ Administration that funds to individuals would not be impacted during the federal freeze Mr weiner can you describe how USDA factors into the planning for your farm each year and if USDA were to freeze funds that you expected to receive how would that impact your current
▶ 1:45:49operations so we have we are not using any funds that have been freezed but we have a lot of neighbors and just reading media reports of other Farmers uh I can see where that is very impactful to them um especially with equip uh there's many different types of practices within equip um a lot of farmers in Illinois maybe use it to start cover crops or something like that where the variable costs are not as high but in other practices where you've purchased equipment
▶ 1:46:19or perhaps M did major uh dirt work around water ways where you could easily have a h 100,000 or more dollars it it would be very devastating if that is not followed through thank you well I have heard from farmers in my district who have made necessary improvements so that they could qualify for these types of programs and they made those Investments on the front end with the Assurance from USDA that if they uh brought their Farm up to code on many of these different
▶ 1:46:49things whether it was fencing or irrigation or solar panel or whatever that they would then qualify for these programs and now to see those funds dry up or be at risk uh creates a dramatic impact on them also I mean under that same uh vein I've traveled and visited many USD us Aid sites throughout the world and one thing that stood out for me is those tiny peanut butter packets that address children with malnutrition
▶ 1:47:20around the world those packets that had the American flag on them and we're saving the lives of so many children that were produced by Farmers right here in America in Georgia I'm sure they are impacted by these Cuts that's all I have Mr chair I yel back thank the Gent lady I recognize G lady from Illinois Mrs Miller for five minutes thank you all for being here today I greatly appreciate your insights on the farm economy and I'm happy to see my fellow illinoisan and corn grower Mr
▶ 1:47:51Rod weiner here here today Mr weiner you mentioned in your testimony that you believe premium rates in Illinois for corn are too high what can we do as Congress to help ensure the risk management agency is able to balance the calls from producers to make insurance cheaper while still maintaining enough premium in the risk pool to help cover losses from catastrophic events like the drought in 2012
▶ 1:48:21that drove the L ratio for corn in Illinois to over six thank you con thank you Congressman um so we've made adjustments uh trying to lower our risk and you mentioned the what I would say is was an 80-year drought in 20202 uh what we noticed on our farm and we had substantial losses on the corn is our corn following soybeans we had no loss our continuous
▶ 1:48:52corn we did did so over the 3 years after that we actually changed our crop rotation trying to ourselves um and lower our risk now whether that will help to the degree of another drought of that magnitude we won't know and if it's an 80-year drought I won't be there um but you know we look at ways to reduce that we had uh we had a lot of rain back in 2019 um and I would have thought a
▶ 1:49:22drought would would be worse than rain well in this case it wasn't too much water was worse than not enough and so we began moving towards cover crops because we incre we increase the organic matter in the soil so we're building more resilient soil to have more water holding capacity but also the soil we're noticing especially at planting is more resilient and can take water faster because we're having bigger rain events so we're doing everything we
▶ 1:49:52can to mitigate risk and not use the program all we're asking is if if we're making these practices if we're becoming less risky somehow reflecting that in the rates that we pay thank you and I want to thank the Illinois Corn for advocating for the development of livestock ethanol and Export markets very important and I can say as a farmer myself that having a strong safety
▶ 1:50:22net very important strong policy very important and then also tamping down inflation and our borrowing costs another big item on congress's plate this year will be tax policy and debating the future of various expiring Provisions from the tax cut and jobs act which could have huge impacts on farmers and businesses all over our country for anyone who wants to jump in are there any specific Provisions
▶ 1:50:53that you all are tracking or have opinions on when it comes to tax policy I mean I think um seeing extensions to to all these Provisions that the the taxes are certainly any savings that we have on taxes is something that we can add back into Investments on our operation I would say specifically you know expanded tax brackets and and the estate tax um those are two areas in which were significantly impacted on on our operation particularly the estate tax
▶ 1:51:23um when passing our operations from one generation to the next um that is probably one of the single single most reasons that operations fail to continue on for one from one generation to the next so continuing to see those expanded brackets and and the estate tax extended would be would be great I agree I also agree with you on the importance of an unlimited stepped up basis for Farm and Ranch businesses as well as permanently eliminating the estate tax and I do want to say that President
▶ 1:51:54Trump cares deeply about our farmers and I think he has always taken care of us and he will continue to do so thank you and I yield back you yields back um sticking with that Illinois theme I recognize the gentleman from Illinois Mr senson for five minutes thank you Mr chairman um I'm honored to return to the house agriculture committee to represent uh the farmers the rural communities our smaller hometowns that often get overlooked
▶ 1:52:24my focus Remains the Same we must move quickly to pass a five-year bipartisan farm bill that supports Fair premiums for our Farmers prioritizes smart farming practices protects snap opens up new Global markets and expands and boosts our crop insurance farming is built on hard work determination and the ability to plan for our future but right now that future is looking more uncertain
▶ 1:52:55than it ever has been as you've heard today many farmers are finding it difficult to yield their way out of the current economic environment instead of driving down the cost of living this new Administration is imposing Reckless tariffs that will F that will force the American people to pay the price and we've seen this Playbook before from president Trump the trade Wars that he started in his first term cost
▶ 1:53:25American families and businesses billions of dollars just last week I received a call in my office from a farmer named Dave Gillan in rural Monmouth Illinois he told me he's deeply disturbed about the future of this industry in this country um he's in his 70s he knows a lot about farming um he's worried about these tariffs um which will hurt his business and he said Eric I'm still paying for the tariffs of
▶ 1:53:552017 you got to help me out diso despite owning his land outright he's making less money today than ever due to the high input costs and our key trading partners like China Canada and Mexico being pushed away from America he experienced firsthand how Trump's uh tariffs have disrupted markets and he doesn't want to see it happen again we've spent decades building relationships and securing markets
▶ 1:54:26for our crops only to see them dismantled by Reckless policies and this isn't just about soybeans and corn or wheat it's about the future of Rural America when Farmers struggle entire Community suffer equipment dealers like John Deere and deer in company which is headquartered in my district seed suppliers like whiffles hybrids in Henry County Illinois and small businesses in our smaller hometowns they all
▶ 1:54:56suffer tariffs don't hit corporate Executives they hit Americans pockets and negatively impact the men and women who get up earliest in the morning to Feed and Fuel our country so we must support our producers and Rural communities by passing a modernized bipartisan farm bill as soon as humanly possible one that will advance our Common Sense solutions that will actually look lower the costs for people and preserve our Competitive
▶ 1:55:26Edge so I want to turn to Mr weiner first um it's good to see you friend it's good to see a fellow Illinois farmer and also I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you I couldn't find my my Illinois Corn pen but the Illinois soybean Association will have to do Financial tools like crop insurance they're integral to helping Farmers keep food on the table and endure economic uncertainty and I've heard from many producers in our district and around the country
▶ 1:55:56that this program needs adjustments so could you discuss a little bit about your experience with crop insurance and what it means for the financial viability of your farm again thank you Congressman crop insurance is the risk management tool that we rely on uh farmers in your district has a very similar loss ratio as our farm so a lot of the things that they've been doing lowering their risk is also reflecting their rates as well and so anything we can do to
▶ 1:56:26help uh make those rates more competitive and lower their cost for those policies are very important so quite simply we're really good at producing these crops in our part of the world and we pay a lot in but we're not getting a lot out what do you think needs to be done here in this committee to change that and forgive the pun level the playing field so again I think farmers are act the practices they're adopting is actually lowering their risk and corn and soybean yields are both
▶ 1:56:56going up one of the thing negative things and I'll try and be quick when we went to a crop rotation our our average production history is based on 10 years of production so we just doubled that now we have to look at building an AP over a 20year period instead of 10 out of time but you know that would be one of the things of trying to relook at those rules thank you for your diligence we appreciate you and Mr i y back thank the gentleman now recognize the gentleman from Kansas Mr Man for 5
▶ 1:57:28minutes thank you Mr uh chairman and and thank you for hosting the hearing today you know I represent the first district of Kansas uh we raise a lot of wheat a lot of sorghum a lot of corn a lot of soybeans the uh the word I would use in and as I travel the district and talk to producers um when they talk about Farm country um the word I would use is um two words concerning and worsening uh when you really look at conditions and you know this is the time of year that our act producers are figuring out the books from last year are
▶ 1:57:58trying to figure out their operating loans for this coming year um those that can get financing um which are most of them certainly we are eating into operating Capital working capital as uh as we all um know so we need a farm bill and and I think it's important that that this commy remembers and we all remember um why are we even having the conversation about a farm bill um why aren't these permanent and the reason they're fight years in my view is 5 years is long enough to provide some certainty but short enough to adjust and change
▶ 1:58:29with the times and the biggest change between now for production Agriculture and 2018 is where input costs are uh you can't dramatically increase input costs and think that the farm safety net um doesn't also need to be looked at and adjusted um so my top priority as we think about the farm bill this year and it's not going to certainly solve all of our producers problems but we've got to get a five-year Farm Bill in my view that strengthens crop insurance um which I would argue is is the most effective um costeffective
▶ 1:58:59public private partnership in history um we we've never man has not devised a better way to deliver a robust steady safe food supply than than crop insurance and we need to strengthen it and uh and protect it and make it better so a question uh for you Mr nton um please if you would Dr Newton highlight the challenges that are AG lenders are facing when we're working with producers given um these current times and specifically um what does
▶ 1:59:29it do to the lender when you look at ad hoc Disaster Assistance versus working with producers on more certain long-term programs like crop insurance thank you so much for the question I can tell you that that Farm Credit is there with the producer with the farmer in the good times and the bad times and I recently last week spent time with many of our uh staff across the far our partnering Farm Credit associations to help them understand how Arc and PLC are going to work for the 2025 crop
▶ 1:59:59year uh we're starting to incorporate uh the expected returns that they may receive from those Farm program payments uh into their outlooks they're incorporating the the Farm Act uh ad hoc assistance payments uh into their Outlook so we're we're constantly working with our customers again uh in the good and bad times to help them understand how all of these risk management tools work uh and we're also we work with them very closely on crop insurance our partnering Farm Credit associations have developed a crop insurance
▶ 2:00:30a tool called Optimum that helps the farmer make the most informed uh crop insurance decision for their operation so when you combine the crop insurance the ad hoc support and the tital one programs our partnering farm credits are are working with the producers to put together a comprehensive uh plan for them as they consider uh the challenges they're facing this this growing season yeah thank you um next question for you uh m m schwarner as the situation with the farm economy worsens which we've been talking about this morning
▶ 2:01:00it'll obviously have impacts not just you know for for your farm but for the community as well what does a downturn in overall a economy mean for the business and local communities that the areas that you live there in Miles Texas sure thank you for your question um I I mentioned previously you know Agriculture and and farmers and ranchers are are really the backbone of our community ities um without farmers and ranchers plenty of our local businesses can't stay in business um we provide hundreds of jobs for for local community
▶ 2:01:30members um we also support those local businesses the cotton gens the grain uh facilities local Beef Processing facilities the schools um so so so many of those businesses in our local communities are supported by farmers and ranchers so the farm bill truly is not just for farmers and ranchers it's it's to impact all of all rural communities Across America so it's it's vitally important that we get a mized farm bill that supports farmers and ranchers so that our local rural communities can continue to be supported as well I agree you know and so I think we just got to keep in context you know as we
▶ 2:02:00talk about farm bill it's it's our act producers but it's the the banks in town it's the hardware store the grocery store we've got to keep our rural Communities going um where the basic values that make America America are still alive and well and it's I'm coming upon this committee to make sure that we strengthen the egg sector um to make sure that Rural America doesn't just um survive but grows and thrives so uh thank you for having us hearing Mr chairman with that I yel back gentleman yels back now recognize the gentleman from Virginia Mr
▶ 2:02:30vinman for five minutes thank you Mr chairman thank you rank member and thank you for to the witnesses for coming here today I'd like to start by saying I'm excited to join the house agriculture committee not only because this committee has a long history of bipartisanship but also because Virginia's 7th District includes significant rural uh counties and contributes over 66,000 jobs and 9.7 billion to economic output in Virginia as the only member from Virginia on the agriculture
▶ 2:03:01committee I'm excited to represent farmers and ranchers across the Commonwealth two weeks ago I met with producers from around the district in cul Pepper for a round table we covered a lot of ground challenging economic pressures and weather events what's happening extending the dairy margin coverage program past 2025 crop insurance programs and updating our forign Market development program to grow existing
▶ 2:03:31markets and reach new ones for Farmers to sell their crops Beyond traditional trade partners and conservation programs Animal Health in light of the Aven flu and so much more I'm excited to tackle these challenges head on with my colleagues on this committee and to help producers back in my district but if I had to pick a single unifying factor in my conversations with Farmers to bring here today it's lack of certainty farmers face enough challenges
▶ 2:04:01each day without their government making them guess what tomorrow will bring will we pass a farm bill that updates practices and payment rates that are becoming more and more out of date as input costs rise will government tackle labor shortages or let another year go by while costs go up will there or won't there be a trade war with our northern and southern neighbors our biggest trading partners that makes it harder for Farmers to find markets to sell their crops the
▶ 2:04:31way I see it the committee has three key responsibilities ensure that American families don't go hungry American consumers are able to access high quality food at reasonable prices and that family farmers and ranchers Across America have stable economies so they can succeed without food security is National Security yesterday my local paper The Washington Post published an article outlining
▶ 2:05:02how Farmers across the country are facing significant budget gaps after USDA froze payments on a range of programs Mr chairman I ask for unanimous consent to enter the following Washington Post article into the record objection uh one of the president's first executive orders was to freeze congressionally appropriated funds from the inflation reduction act however when Farmers sign up for programs they often are required to front a
▶ 2:05:32percentage of costs a few examples a farmer a flower farmer in Maryland signed a contract for USDA to cover half of a $72,900 solar panel installation she's already on the hook for a loan she took out to cover the other half a cattle farmer in Eastern Missouri signed a 24 $40,000 contract in December under the Environmental Quality incentive program pronounced equip and had already spent $80,000 on fencing
▶ 2:06:02and a well that he expected to be paid partly paid back by USDA Mr weiner in your testimony you outlined the input costs are rising while commodity prices remain break even at best with Farmers already operating on tight margins what do you think will happen to Farmers or when farmers who budgeted carefully who made deals with the US government and who spent their own money to keep their end of the bargain what will happen to these Farmers that the US government
▶ 2:06:33reneges on that deal by freezing their funds do the banks care if the USDA has frozen funding or if Farmers still liable well F if Farmers have signed a contract or have already expensed the money they are on the hook for that so hopefully you know the uncertainty goes away and we move forward on reimbursement it really will depend on how
▶ 2:07:03using the term wounded that farm farm family is relative to what they've been losing over the last couple money mon uh years relative to what the extent of the impact's going to be and just briefly do you anticipate even if the freeze is lifted in 90 days that there are still B bills to pay during that period of time or projects that are put on hold is that going to have an effect on Farmers I would expect most of them to have good lend lenders backing them those relationships have probably been long term
▶ 2:07:33and and I would expect most of them um to be able to maintain their current Equity position on those projects thank you Mr Warren it's clear that current policy is only increasing uncertainty and making it harder for Farmers to make ends meat and uh with that I yield back Mr Weed from Wisconsin I think we can all agree that many conversations we have As Americans in recent years is how can we become
▶ 2:08:04healthier as a country becoming more healthy citizens needs to start with having access to the most highly nutritious highquality American grown food ensuring the American Farm economy is strong will help ensure that we are raising healthier families and protecting National Security we cannot make America great again without making sure those feeding America are supported in their mission as a former business owner I know firsthand that uncertainty that costly inputs and uncertainty elsewhere can cause strain and stress not knowing if you'll be able
▶ 2:08:34to continue operating a business that has lasted Generations let alone passing it down to the next generation is not a position I envy I look forward to beginning my work on this committee and learn how we can provide our American farmers and ranchers more certainty in a rough agriculture economy so that they can plant the seeds for us to make the healthiest decisions for our Americans and families and ultimately make American agriculture great again I would like to thank the chair for putting on this hearing today and all the witnesses for sharing
▶ 2:09:04more about your operations today so quick question Dr Newton is just tell me about exports is that is that something that you know are we in a a deficit Surplus what's the state of exports as it relates to Canada Mexico China and otherwise absolutely in fantastic asked a question number one Mexico is our top agricultural export Market uh Canada's number two China's number three uh you round out the top six with Japan South Korea uh and the European Union
▶ 2:09:35but agricultural exports have fallen sharply over the last few years we're now in a situation where for fiscal year 2025 we're projected to have an agricultural trade deficit of nearly $46 billion that's the largest trade deficit uh in in agriculture history uh but we we had record agricultural exports in 2022 largely on the back of record purchases by the Chinese under the phase one agreement uh usmca that was renegotiated and the
▶ 2:10:05the renegotiated agreement uh with Japan all contributed to very very strong agricultural exports several years ago so what what has happened in these last two years well the value of our agricultural products as we're in this current downturn in the Farm economy with lower corn prices lower cotton prices uh that's contributed to a lower value of our agricultural exports uh at the same time agricultural Imports continue to set new records uh every single year uh we're importing
▶ 2:10:36uh you know uh Spirits imported beers Horticultural products Americans want yearr round access to fruits and vegetables so our agricultural Imports I believe I don't have the exact number but I think are exceeding $200 billion this fiscal year okay so do you think we could do better in in negotiating Freer and fair fair trade as it relates to agriculture AB the world absolutely I just see that on you know this is a I'm very excited
▶ 2:11:06to be on this committee I do see though this that the partisan of coming in and talking about this current Administration for only several weeks and making all of these things that have happened and I think this has been something in the issues we're dealing with today have haveen it's been far longer right these aren't things that have happened in two weeks Mr tally I agree with your thoughts that we should be investing more in specialty crops and that we have a unique opportunity to grow in this sector you mentioned that you grow both conventional and
▶ 2:11:36organic with concern for the farm economy can you paint the picture as to how your family decided to move into this organic sphere yes well originally uh we were we were predom well we were completely and so it was a decision that we made to step into the organic Arena when we uh started our CSA program which is a direct to Consumer um like a harvest box program prescription b or subscription based uh program where it's a
▶ 2:12:06weekly delivery and we found that through um extensive research that people were looking for to your point uh more organic oriented in that in that cost sector where they wanted organic produce and so we serve the needs of of our of our clientele and uh it's it's been a wonderful operation now we're in partnership with SNAP where we're able to to Really um open up that new market for people who couldn't necessarily afford um fruits and vegetables
▶ 2:12:37in the organic nature and so now they're able to to enjoy the the fresh fruits and vegetables and and like the statistic reads nine out of 10 Americans they don't eat enough fruits and vegetables and so to to serve the less serve population if you will with with u our box program organic programs has been a a tremendous benefit to us and hopefully our clients well thank you for all you do in feeding America and I yield back thank you thank the gentlemen now recognize the general a
▶ 2:13:07from Michigan M McDonald rivet for five minutes thank you Mr chair um uh this question is directed to Mr wer apologies on the name butchering uh so I'm from Michigan and uh live in the heart of sugar beat country uh my grandfather was a farmer and so much of our economy in Michigan depends on our Farms but in Michigan with Canada being only a bridge Trip
▶ 2:13:37Away many of our Farmers rely heavily on the accessibility of trade for things like pot ash and other fertilizers with planning for many of our Farmers right around the corner we've heard a lot about that today they're navigating a field of uncertainty when making business decisions for the future can you share with me um and the committee how the uncertainty of what tariffs are going to go into effect will place impact on those decisions for you as well uh and other farmers and what impacts
▶ 2:14:08have you seen with trading partners thank you yes thank you congresswoman um so Canada again we import 90% of our potassium fertilizer or po as from Canada I believe the impending tariff is 25% um you know a soybean or corn farm is probably putting on around1 to $125 worth of pottassium
▶ 2:14:38per crop um and so right there that would be $25 an acre impact um mentioned earlier uh over 23 from 2023 to 20 2024 and projected 2025 we're estimating that we'll lose about $288 for a corn acre across those three years40 some dollars from a bean acre um you know that $25 across
▶ 2:15:08all those acres in one sense doesn't seem a lot uh but Farmers make their money on a margin and we're already have a negative margin and that negative margin will get large larger so it is it could be is very worrisome uh hopefully things get worked out before we're all putting a lot more fertilizer on our expected crops in the future but uh it does add a lot of uncertainty uh to our propability so we're
▶ 2:15:38in the middle of February when does planning season start so from our standpoint we'll start planting beans in uh early to mid April uh we'll follow with corn we have already put down our pot as or pottassium uh last fall there's probably some operators that are probably going to put some on in the spring but it's probably already booked our concern would be as our a retailers begin to replace their uh
▶ 2:16:09stocks of fertilizer here as we go into the summer that they'll be building in those higher prices for us uh this coming fall thank you in in Michigan uh 60% of our jobs pay less than $50,000 a year and I say that because of the context of what families have to spend on food uh not to mention the income that our family farmers are are actually need um with their Crop Production so very concerned about the um uncertainty
▶ 2:16:39and the instability as well as the very real potential of uh putting some of our family Farmers out of business with these Rising coughs with the Terra so thank you so much for being here today I Y back G lady yields back now recognized a gentleman from Indiana Mr Mesmer for minutes Mr M I think your mic's on there we go now I got
▶ 2:17:09it h thank you chairman and thank you all for your Insight and uh and sharing your time with the committee I'm also happy to be here with a fellow alumni from Purdue uh as I talked to my hoers back home I hear time and time again the problems Family Farms face who are looking to pass down the generational Farm in effort in an effort to keep the family farm in the family that fight against barriers to succession that Main Street business owners may never encounter uh miss m Schartner you mentioned that your boys are your are your driving reason for your efforts to
▶ 2:17:39preserve your operation would you explain how the policies uh that promote Farm Farms succession like those seen in the farm food and National Security Act would help ensure the future of your family F certainly uh thank you for the question and of course spoiler up um but yes uh you know if they so choose it our our boys are would be fourth generation Farmers um for our operation you know started by my husband's you know grandfather and and his father and and now him um and so if they choose it you know we certainly
▶ 2:18:10want to do everything that we can to provide them the opportunity to be able to continue the farming operation uh as is today um and so you know to answer your question um there's so much that goes into into that right you know there there's there's the estate tax that I mentioned previously that's a huge huge deal um for farmers and ranchers because of the capital that goes in to farming operations and the expenses that we have um and and essentially the the assets that we acquire over time and so handing that down or passing that down from one generation to the next becomes problematic um with things like
▶ 2:18:40the estate tax if it's not uh appropriately positioned to address you know farmers and ranchers and and the assets that we do have you know additionally there's there's so many other things that go into it as well you know I mentioned in my testimony we're currently having challenging conversations with our our Banker to acquire qu credit or to lock in credit for the upcoming um farming and ranching season um something that's not easy to do and it's very humbling to to be having that conversation and to be in this situation um but it's so important that in those conversations we have programs
▶ 2:19:10that we can reference um such as you know a modernized farm bill with with ensuring that crop insurance programs are set in place for us um certainly ad hoc payments are are help helpful but they don't necessarily provide the certainty uh in those conversations with our our lenders so again you know modernized farm bill that that uh reflects current market situation um is certainly helpful when we have those conversations with our lender uh in in hopes of maintaining an operation that we can pass down to the Next Generation thank you now
▶ 2:19:40I want to shift to input cost you all spoke so much about uh the USDA estimates that in 202030 fertilizer cost occupied the fifth largest expense line on the average Farm budget falling just behind labor costs in the midwest less than onethird of ammonia demand is supplied by producers within the region instead Farmers depend on uh in my district pay high cost to import import fertilizer from foreign producers or transport ammonia from domestic producers outside the Midwest while
▶ 2:20:10nitrogen based fertilizer is critical to American agriculture holes in our domestic Supply supply chain leave farmers in my district vulnerable vulnerable to Market volatility input scarcity and price hikes for which the family but Farm budget really has no room uh for the farmers here today would you share how much of your input cost are devoted to fertilizer expense and to what extent your operation would benefit from greater availability of American americanmade fertilizer within our region so from a
▶ 2:20:40corn acre standpoint probably about 42% of our uh input costs are fertilizer soybeans is around 15% um but but the largest share of that 42% would be nitrogen fertilizer okay thank you my numbers would be uh similar specifically in in California where we grow specialty crops I would say our our cost would probably be around that 35% and basically
▶ 2:21:10a nitrogen based is as well um echoing much of what has already been said for cotton I would say the fertilizer input cost is roughly 20 to 30% % of our overall input cost for for fertilizer in particular um and so that very similar to what has has been stated already thank you all right um and for any any Witnesses here today if the uh if Congress fails to pass the committee's farm bill uh and and merely an act another extension
▶ 2:21:41in September what would that mean for your operation um fa failure to pass a modernized farm bill um provides so much uncertainty um for us and I realize we're we're running out of time here but you know it's imperative so much has changed since 2018 um 2018 was a good farm bill but I it's so urgent during this time with commodity prices where they're at and input prices while they're at that we receive some some relief
▶ 2:22:12um through a farm bill that provides certainty thank you thank you chairman I'm excited to get to work on a farm bill and I yield back my time very good gentleman's time is EXP insired and now we're going to go to the uh the state of New York uh Mr Manion thank you chairman and thank you ranking member for holding this important meeting I I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I left the room briefly and when I returned I uh came in with a distinct smell of fertilizer as I entered
▶ 2:22:43so I'm not blaming anybody but uh it was clear you know as a representative of very large agriculture a community and a member of the Agricultural committee on the state legislature and coming from a family of farmers I understand the essential role that agriculture plays in our economy and our communities our Farmers work tirelessly to make sure there's food on our tables that rural jobs are provided and that uh we drive Innovation for sustainable
▶ 2:23:13agriculture I was also an AP biology and chemistry teacher for almost 30 years I taught bot um life cycles ecosystems anatomy and physiology ecology Evolution nitrogen fixing um so uh I'll say this there's no better scientist than a farmer micro macro scale you understand the scientific
▶ 2:23:44method you understand the impact of variables you understand that stable systems are essential for your success and the overall agricultural success what we've seen over the past several weeks is an input of multiple variables at the same time which create disruption to systems uh those variables
▶ 2:24:15include unpredictable labor tariffs changes in Workforce uh commitments that are not going to be potentially followed through on so I'm going to start with Workforce uh upwards of a third of the workforce are individuals that are undocumented underdocumented or have overstayed their visa Dr Newton in the past few weeks do we have any
▶ 2:24:45data regarding absences of members of the AG ultural Workforce or anecdotes related to that I'm not aware of any no sir would any other members of the panel share any details that you might have regarding absences in the workforce as a result of new executive orders certainly so I had an experience with with our crews after Trump got elected I I went around and
▶ 2:25:16basically um kind of highlighted what his policy was in that he was going to deport criminals felons that sort of thing I personally visited along with our harvesting supervisor and went around to each crew giving the message and the message was actually well received they actually supported the fact that that we wanted to get rid of felons and criminals and the Bad actors sort of thing and in all honesty we haven't missed
▶ 2:25:46a day in any of our crews even I believe it was a week or two ago there was kind of a strike if you will in our area a life in a day without an immigrant worker where all Crews were encouraged to stay home and we had 100% attendance that day well I will say in my district whether it's Dairy Farmers or onion farmers there are great relationships that exist between the farmers and their employees um on in that vein
▶ 2:26:16uh you mentioned the h2a program and the inreasing costs related to it uh what adjustments in my conversations with my local farmers there seems to be like some logical adjustments that would enhance that program do you have any ideas uh Mr tally for the h2a program and how adjustments could be changed to make it more favorable uh for both the uh farmers and the workers yes I I think as I
▶ 2:26:46as I started uh to state earlier today about about a meeting I had with with then labor U secretary um Sue and the conversation that we had and basically my my opinion was listen we need to tap the brakes on the award and it's becoming economically unviable I mentioned the fact that each dollar rise in the award for us personally on our farm is a million dollars in labor costs additionally off our
▶ 2:27:17bottom line so I would definitely be a proponent of of freezing that because if you recall we're also in charge or or of the of the housing as well as the transportation and depending on who you talk to that adds an additional $5 to10 an hour on top of the award thank you all so much I appreciate it I thank the gentleman uh now we'll go to the gentleman from North Carolina Mr Harris for five minutes thank you Mr chairman and thank each of you on uh the
▶ 2:27:47panel that have come to to share with us today uh must say as a freshman member it has been eye openening to witness how this branch of government government often neglects to do its job year after year we failed to conduct proper oversight and authorized programs which leads to where we are today and producers are only seeing a rise in income because of federal disaster spending and the accumulation of ad hoc spending far exceeded any estimates of the farm bill programs and even now we're two years
▶ 2:28:17behind uh on the farm bill and I I just want to ask one of our producer Witnesses Mrs swatner um I'll go to you would would timely reauthorization of the farm bill actually improve your ability to do your job and if so how so thank you for your question certainly timely reauthorization would help you know times change so quickly in the world that we live in it's been roughly what six seven years since we've seen an update to the farm bill
▶ 2:28:472018 farm bill was good um however reference prices are outdated programs that were included in that farm bill are outdated um and so you know some of the things that have been included in the farm food National Security Act are certainly going to be helpful um so some of the proposals we certainly appreciate you know the increase in reference prices the the increase in expanded Market access programs in fmd are certainly helpful um but reevaluating those more frequently gives us an opportunity to better reflect current market conditions which is always helpful for us great
▶ 2:29:18Mr tally or Mr w would you uh offer any any thoughts uh to add to that absolutely for us it's the automization and the mechanization um labor as has been often discussed here it's it's a real issue for us when close to 50% of our cost has to do specifically with labor and just that consistent flow that consistent invest investment and especially crops is imperative to us
▶ 2:29:48I always say consistency always beats intermittent intensity it's that consistent drip of I was going to say spending but actually spending no it would be because when I spend something I don't expect a return but when I invest something I expect a return and so it would be to your point an investment because it it's needed in agricultural exactly Mr W the only thing is I would put emphasis as was already mentioned on expanded funding for
▶ 2:30:18foreign market development and Market Access program uh we all see exports are really in the news right now and having those resources to maintain those customer relationships and to build new customers are ultimately important to market demand gotcha well thank you Dr Newton another top priority for me is making sure that we respect uh taxpayer dollars and spend responsibly so let me ask you do you think that timely reauthorization of the farm bill would help control federal
▶ 2:30:48spending on agriculture and lessen the need for extra ad hoc disaster or emergency spending thank you for the question I think that timely reauthorization is is one element of it the the second element of it is is it enhanced uh the farm bill is a 5-year contract with Agriculture and Rural America as we've heard the programs and support levels are extremely outdated uh the support that we have for map and fmd funding has been stagnant for years so
▶ 2:31:18just a regular Old Farm farm bill is not going to cut it it has to be an enhanced farm bill that's what agriculture needs and if the farm bill is supposed to provide a safety net can we really say that our safety net is working if we're spending twice as much on supplemental Aid absolutely not and in my previous role in the Senate we had a a producer tell us that our safety nets about 2 Ines above concrete uh that's where we are today so we need to make those enhancements in the Farmville
▶ 2:31:50very good and one final question uh Mr T I want to come to you thanks for being here today and sharing the challenges that uh that your farm is currently facing can you just please in the last few seconds we have paint us a picture of how much Capital you put at risk year after year and how the impact of even a small change in your profit margins can affect your ability to secure an operating loan that's a that's a great question uh it's as
▶ 2:32:20you all know agriculture is a very Capital intensive um industry and and the land cost all of our input costs the way they've escalated over the past four or five years has been nothing like I've ever seen before and it really hamstrings our availability of financing to to get loan when when everything is just costing 30 to to 60% more the available
▶ 2:32:50funds are no longer available got you thank you sir thank you Mr chairman I yield back I thank the gentleman now please recognize Dr Adams from North Carolina for five minutes thank you Mr chairman and ranking member for organizing this meeting and thank you uh to each of our Witnesses for your testimonies uh first of all I I do want to shout out to Dr Newton as I also earned my PhD from the Ohio State University uh which feels especially relevant now that I'm on the research a sub
▶ 2:33:20research subcommittee and it would be nice to see some more 1890s graduates up here but I don't think I'm allowed to say that anymore but let me just say that the economic crisis in in farm country spans the food Fuel and fiber Supply chains even in my most uh Urban uh district and like many here today I have received hundreds of calls over the past two years or two weeks uh in response uh to the Trump administration's memo uh
▶ 2:33:51from uh om announcing a pause in in all federal funding press coverage has focused on the lawsuits uh filed to stop this nonsense and and how this memo uh was rescinded but funding uh pauses at at the time of this hearing remain in effect including at USDA and so I feel that these pauses are really just cuts by another name for example a food Hub in my district has not been able
▶ 2:34:21to get its awarded funding under programs like the local food promotion program which operates on a reimbursement basis so even with signed contracts organizations are in the red for spending money uh USDA was on the hook for uh to cover and it's affecting the crucial services that they provide to hundreds of smallscale Diversified farmers in the Carolinas and it's been nearly
▶ 2:34:51impossible to get answers from USDA uh adding more uncertainty to the crisis you know if it's all right with the chairman I want to enter uh this letter from fresh list of food Hub uh in Charlotte in my district into the record well let me let me ask my first question to Mr tally uh thank you for your testimony and expressing support for title 10 horiculture Horticulture programs and as I just shared president
▶ 2:35:21uh Trump's funding freeze has impacted participants in programs like lfpp who are expanding Regional food economies building new markets and improving food sa safety and so I understand that your farm uh does not export uh produce internationally uh as a representative of the specialy crop Farm Bill Alliance can you tell me a little bit more about the importance of domestic Market access for your operation
▶ 2:35:52Mr that is of of utmost important obviously we we do and especially the crops we we basically the majority of our of our product stays within the United States and it's imperative that we continue to to Harbor that and and really have clear access channels for for all of our our farmers in the US to have access to these markets and continue to be able to flourish within within the United
▶ 2:36:22States well thank you uh my next question Mr weer uh thank you for your testimony uh cuts to Staffing concern me in addition to cuts to funding and president mus uh president Trump in collaboration with Elon Musk has been intent on reducing the federal service um with so-called buyouts and mass uh layoffs uh as someone active on access to ad credit and conservation programs
▶ 2:36:53I want to know could you speak to Staffing levels at the USDA offices like FSA or nrcs that you interact with and uh are adequate so yes thank you congresswoman we do interact uh quite a bit with FSA uh Personnel at the county level um I I would say that we have not noticed any difference yet in service but we
▶ 2:37:23are aware of the communications that you're referring to I would also say that our FSA office and I think a lot of FSA offices have become very efficient over the last four or five years in in communicating and being able to work out contracts uh with farmers and and it will be important to maintain them at adequate Staffing levels so do you think a hiring freeze or mass bu would exacerbate what you've observed I've
▶ 2:37:53not noticed anything yet congresswoman but I think there's still evaluation going on within the state FSA office and relative to what's the implications thank you very much Mr chair y back I thank the general lady now I recognize gentleman from Ohio Mr Taylor for five minutes thank you chairman Thompson ranking member Craig for holding this hearing today and uh my thank go to our Witnesses for their time and insight as well
▶ 2:38:24looking forward to uh working with with you and president Trump and the rest of my colleagues to pass a full five-year farm bill of this Congress a farm bill that promotes crop insurance expands trade into new markets and invests in the next generation of farmers coming from Ohio a state with nearly 76,000 Farms 11,000 of which are in my district I'm proud to be on the committee as has been discussed several times today input prices are still Skyhigh prices have come down but not to uh pre- Russia
▶ 2:38:54Ukraine war levels and in today's modern farm economy you need the best seeds fertilizer and equipment to compete it is amazing The Innovation that has happened in the agricultural World it didn't rain for months in Southern Ohio this last summer and yields were still much higher than what would was ever possible 30 to 40 years ago but one of the ways to improve Farm efficiency and yields is to adopt Precision technology Precision AEG technology ranges from GP s and yield mapping to several other items that can help reduce input costs detect pests or
▶ 2:39:24diseases early and increase Farm profits I think one of the main things that is overlooked is the necessity to have rural connectivity with a lot of precision a agriculture Technologies my district is extremely Rural and at least 24% of the Farms lack internet access to adequately track and utilize these Innovations can any member of the panel speak a little about the benefits of precis precision technology for our farmers and the importance of rural connectivity in this
▶ 2:39:55equation yes thank you for your question um I can speak to this in in a multitude of ways uh so first and foremost you know I we live in a very rural community as well a thousand people in in Miles Texas and about 20 30 miles from the you know next Walmart um and I work remotely full-time and so in order for me to do my job I Rely so heavily on Rural connectivity and ensuring that I have you know adequate access to internet um to do my job and to be able to also provide that on off farm income to continue to support our
▶ 2:40:25operation uh and our family um in addition to that so many of the technology that you describe uh when it comes to equipment relies on Rural connectivity um and without it um you know we lose out on those efficiencies that help us with you know lack of Labor in some instances um for example you know we invested in a cotton stripper round Balor just a few years ago um and with the technology that that provides us um it has enabled us to essentially eliminate a few jobs um that we previously relied so heavily on uh
▶ 2:40:55temporary workers for um and so just that alone um the ability to take advantage and Leverage The Technologies and the equipment that rely on that rural connectivity it's so important that farmers and Ranchers but also just rural communities in general and workers in rural communities have access to uh connectivity thank you so for us on our farm we've we use uh GPS with our Laser Technology leveling Fields as well as uh GPS when we're discing and ripping and plowing as well
▶ 2:41:25as GPS when we're cutting lines and we've seen with lasering about lasering ripping and uh discing we've seen a 20% savings that's not only in time that's in fuel that's in tires that's in the whole broad spectrum of of of savings and so that has been a tremendous advancement for us and and it just continues to get better we're now we're using it we're starting to use it on our smaller tractors and we're cultivating
▶ 2:41:56and so forth we're we anticipate seeing probably another 10 or uh 15% improvement in our um efficiency thank you uh Dr Newton I want to ask this question and then if you would just get back to me with the answer because I know I'm going to run out of time before we get to it all but as of 2022 Ohio is the country's 10th largest agricultural exporting uh State shipping out of over 6 billion in a exports corn and soybeans represent over half of all agricultural exports from the state
▶ 2:42:26representing Seven Counties that border the Ohio River I know how vital it is that we utilize the river and continue to grow our export markets our agricultural trade deficit is projected to be over $45 billion and our Commodities have started to be pushed out by others from around the world the farm build trade programs a market access program and the foreign market development program have shown great benefits to our Farmers but they have not yet not seen any increase in investment since 2022 since that last increase Brazil's soybean exports have
▶ 2:42:56increased by 4 131% and they have replaced the United States as the world's largest soybean exporter this increased competition in the international markets has eroded The Edge the US once had in the soybean export Market it's clear that we need to expand into new markets which is why a full farm bill is so crucial to the to the farmers in my district Dr Newton what do you see as the main barriers to expanding our AG agricultural trade abroad and how can we reduce our agricultural trade deficit again you can get back to me with your response on that thank you and I yield
▶ 2:43:26I thank the gentlemen now I recognize the gentle lady from the Island state of Hawaii Miss Tuda for five minutes thank you Mr chair and lesson to me that Dairy Farmers will be prompt so I was one minute late today I promise we'll be on time next time but I want to thank all of the panelists for their patience and for being here um many of the issues that I want to talk about were already brought up so I'm just going to expound a little bit on some of the the questions that have previously been um asked
▶ 2:43:57you know I want to go back to this issue of Staffing levels at USDA within every one of our communities and congressional districts our FSA nrcs R&D um you know staff they are critical lifelines I think uh Mr wero you talked about the need actually for more Focus from nrcs on technical assistance in our communities and what a difference that can make um again I want to go back to the fact that there is this deferred resignation offer it has not been acted upon
▶ 2:44:27they are still working their jobs N9 to5 many times over in that particular case but right now we are seeing literally 65,000 plus that have taken that offer there is a goal we know of 5 to 10% of calling of the federal Workforce this is upwards of 200,000 individuals throughout the country um would you say right now that USDA Staffing in our communities to support everyday Farmers especially our small to medium-sized Farmers ranchers and producers are adequate right now as it exists today to meet the needs and to be able to really have farming
▶ 2:44:58now go from the red to the to the so I guess from our standpoint you know as a farmer who is not used nrcs programs the Staffing level in the past has been such that generally nrcs will focus on those farmers who have signed contracts there's a lot of opportunity I think for nrcs to provide more technical service support to the farmers who have not sign contracts and I
▶ 2:45:28don't so if I may ask this questions because I want to be mindful of my time do you think that they could do that extra technical assistance with their existing staff and what would happen if their staff theoretically were cut in half or more could they provide now additional technical assistance to to folks you're mentioning like yourself I I would say they're not providing as much technical service support already and if the their Staffing was reduced obviously it would be less okay if I could just get a real brief yes or no if the Staffing at USDA especially in these particular
▶ 2:45:58areas FSA nrcs were cut at least by half would we see significant decrease in services and support to Farmers yes yes I really don't have enough information to give you an accurate answer Mr Newton any comment I think that the same I think it depends on what what happens with replacing those workers okay well just to let you know Mr chair ranking member we have sent a letter to OPM asking for a breakdown by agency
▶ 2:46:28Department congressional district on where these potential um individuals will be leaving and taking that deferred resignation office so we can understand the potential impacts you know Mr Newton you painted a pretty Grim but honest picture of the state of the Agricultural Economy I mean three years in a row of lower negative economic returns for crop Farmers um our Farm sector in E you know economy uh declining 22% over the last 3 years would you say right now for the everyday farmer that's reflected on
▶ 2:46:58these particular graphs how much cash Reserve do you think they have that's probably a tougher question to answer I don't think that information's available uh in aggregate but I defer to my colleagues here but they generally are small to medium-sized farmers do they have cash Reserve there are farms that have working capital that that have been built up over the years I think if you look at dairy farms and cattle Farms that that we work with we know that the cattle and dairy to your point in your graphs they are doing
▶ 2:47:28fine right now our ranchers it is our crop Farmers that are suffering I guess my question is for many of these individuals as it was asked they've invested tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars into cost share reimbursement programs like equip um conservation stship program all of these these different acronyms what happens if they're on the hook and can and they survive Beyond 90 days because we know that that is just the hope that they will be actually reimbursed in 90 days if they are riged on these particular contracts will they be able to survive
▶ 2:47:59with their current cash well Farm Credit we work with our customers through the through the tough times uh and the good times and I think we we've heard that uh testimony here today but but very importantly all of these environmental sustainability initiatives the farmer has to be economically sustainable first and I think that's what we're talking about out here is the economic crisis that that farmers are dealing with across the country similar Farmers have faced covid crisises they've faced other trade war crisises that we saw in 2017 2018
▶ 2:48:29I guess my big question is can they actually take this additional hit to farming right now especially when we consider that it's coupled with both potential trade Wars loss of um labor due to immigration policies and so many other different things Mr chair I do have additional questions that have turn into the record thank you I appreciate that thank gentle lady uh now recognize the uh recognize and welcome back to the committee the gentleman from Washington State Mr new house for five minutes thank you Mr
▶ 2:48:59chairman ranking member Craig and thank you for allowing me to be back on your great committee also want to thank the witnesses for traveling to Washington DC and providing us with your testimony today um I really do look forward to working together with everybody in this room to figure out some of the the solutions to the challenges that we have in agriculture today we truly have a crisis you know I'm a third generation farmer my son's the fourth generation we are specialty crop growers in the state
▶ 2:49:29of Washington hops wine grapes cherries pears uh from firsthand experience we and I know that uh high input costs and low prices are a recipe for disaster and uh it would be a probably the um un biggest understatement we'd here today to say that times are tough uh so we need some solutions to these challenges and just to help illustrate that a recent survey uh conducted of Apple growers
▶ 2:49:59in the state of Washington which maybe you've heard of apples from Washington but the labor costs increased 127% over the last 10 years while while grower returns have only increased by 22% in that same time period similarly the sh service showed that labor costs ate up 70% of grower returns before uh input costs were paid for the 22 crop and then get this in 23
▶ 2:50:30that number Rose to 99% uh of the of the 23 crop so I totally want to look forward to working with you particularly you Mr tally and the specially crop Farm Bill Alliance as we tackle some of these things the uh uh Farm Workforce modernization Act is a high priority of mine and we do need to get a handle on making sure that the h2a program is not the reason for Farm Farms demise but certainly the reason that they can exist
▶ 2:51:01and find adequate and legal labor um I just wanted to you mentioned this a little bit Mr tally I want to get would like you to talk a little bit more about some of the things that we could invest in mechanization especially crops you mentioned as being a viable offset to high labor cost uh what are some of the other things that maybe we could look at as far as re research is concern that might uh might help in this space
▶ 2:51:31I would say other than mechanization it would it would be crop protection products uh we've lost a lot of our our crop protection products over the years um a lot of times what ends up happening with us is that we have large companies that uh produce a product that will serve corn soybeans and then if it just happens to fall into the specialty category if they can kind of just get it in uh they'll they'll go ahead and and go ahead and register it and California
▶ 2:52:01now it's it's more and more difficult to to register a pesticide products and the the barrier of Entry is is pretty high and so we're suffering in California just due to a lack of efficient uh products in our Arsenal and I I would say that's probably next to mechanization that's that's going to be the next the next concern that we have especially C great thank you very much I want to move to you Dr Newton thank you for being here it's a little difficult to understand Arkansas ISM but
▶ 2:52:31uh we're getting through that um we produce a lot of crops in Washington state that are exported and so foreign markets as in California are very important as well uh all over the country you mentioned in your testimony the importance of trade programs like the uh Market access program the foreign market development programs um could you speak a little more about some of the impacts those programs have have had and by doubling the amount that we invest in those what they may
▶ 2:53:01offer to the agricultural industry absolutely and the accent you hear is is actually Kentucky not Arkansas but uh uh you know the 67% of our agricultural exports go to our top six markets so when you think about the map and fmd funding doubling that that allows farmers and their Cooperators to go out around the world and find new markets for our agricultural products develop uh relationships with those customers so that uh we can continue
▶ 2:53:31to grow our export opportunities good and just so fellow members on the committee know I've introduced legislation to do exactly that double the investments in those two programs and again thank you all to the witnesses today for your testimony Mr chairman with that I'll yield back thank the gentleman now recognized gentan from Alabama Mr figures for 5 minutes thank you Mr chairman and thank you to all of the witnesses for uh grinding this out with us more junior members down the day here um I want to uh start by
▶ 2:54:02thanking uh my team Kyla Cole who's with us who has been so diligent in helping us prepare for this hearing uh so thank you Kyla and the committee staff as a whole uh you guys do way more than the members do for these uh for these hearings so thank you uh as the son of a man who among other things owned a uh small cattle farm down in Alabama I know a little bit about farming but not nearly as much as as this distinguished panel Mr weero I want to start with you the uh I know at
▶ 2:54:32the end of the day the goal for for everybody that that runs a farm is to get your product to Market uh is to get it to the stores where consumers can can purchase it um in our uh cycle of of the economy here uh so is it a fair statement to say that the more money that Americans are spending in grocery stores there's generally a trickle down effect that's beneficial um for the farming Community yes or farming um and if we are proposing policies as a Congress that would
▶ 2:55:02limit the ability of some of our poorest people uh to be able to spend money in grocery stores particularly in the form of billions of dollars uh is it a fair assumption to say that that uh could ultimately have a similar trickle down effect that would uh negatively impact the farming industry IND well our strongest markets are the livestock industry and and meat is typically a fairly fairly High pric product and that might that is probably most likely the place that people would cut back on all right but more than
▶ 2:55:32just meat is is is the farming industry consists of more than just meat and theoretically those funds um in the form of SNAP benefits would be spent on more than um than just meat uh Mr tally my next question uh is for you the Alabama Department of Agriculture and industries is uh was recently awarded about a half million doll uh Grant uh the specialty uh crop block grant and uh we're uh getting some reports that that funding is is is tied up in the current freeze uh can you
▶ 2:56:02talk a little bit about um the impact on producers um uh of specialty crops or the impact on uh specialty crop Farmers uh of freezing funds like that and how that may uh further impact the disparities between title Title One crops and uh in specialty crops I think that's kind of best to be answered on a case-by casee basis I know in general uh especially the crop industry doesn't count on ad hoc payments as as part of their business plan so that would be more
▶ 2:56:32on the case by case understood thank you uh and miss schwarner this next question is for you and I want you to take the balance of my the time if you if you if you wish um no disrespect to you Dr Newton um but you mentioned something in your opening statement that really resonated because I I personally find the fear of um of younger Generations not wanting to take on the farm uh one of the biggest threats that we have uh to our uh National
▶ 2:57:02Security uh honestly a nation that cannot feed itself is a nation that is a much less secure uh Nation so can you talk a little bit about the the current environment um that threat in general what you think we can do Beyond just the farm bill uh to make sure that we are incentivizing the farm industry and treating the farm industry with the urgency that it needs um so as to encourage future generations to do what you guys have done and are doing certainly uh thank you for your question
▶ 2:57:33um you know as a mom of four boys who I I hope will take over the operation or at least one of them will take over the operation someday um it is critically important to me that you know my husband and I understand and do everything that we can to ensure that the farm can SU and continue on for generations to come you mentioned that you know National Security is at risk here and you're certainly correct if we don't have the next generation of farmers and ranchers or agriculturals to continue to take over um you know we lose our ability to feed our own feed our own Nation
▶ 2:58:04um and that certainly is going to be critically impactful to everybody in rural communities um and I've mentioned time and time again also that you know it's not just important to us as a business owner um or to you know the future Generations who might take over um but it's important to the rural communities um and you know I I I say all of that and you ask you know what can we do to incentivize or to encourage young producers you know as a mom of boys it's it's hard to think about you know the you never want you know
▶ 2:58:34your kids to endure the things that you've endured and and the challenging conversations that my husband and I are having currently in the conversations with our Banker you know those are conversations that I hope that my children don't have to have if they do choose to take over the operation um and so I am you know hopeful that as a committee we can continue to evaluate the farm bill and the progress towards Farm bills now and in the future that will enable future generations to continue thank you thank you Mr chairman
▶ 2:59:04thank you now recognize uh the gentleman from Tennessee Mr Rose for five minutes thank you Mr chairman and congratulations to our ranking member Craig on your new leadership role on the committee and I look forward to working with both of you in the 119th Congress as we look to correct course this Congress following the lackluster initiatives and failed policies of the previous administration we must ensure we prioritize Farm country and deliver our producers
▶ 2:59:35out of a financial crisis since 2022 as we've heard mentioned today net farm income has fallen by 43 billion due to high input costs supply chain disruptions and low low commodity prices skyrocketing costs of production and low prices Aid away at Farmers margins and forced American agriculture into the red I applaud chairman Thompson's work to secure financial and Disaster Assistance in the American Relief act but we all know
▶ 3:00:05that assistance was only a Band-Aid of to a much larger issue plaguing the industry as an eighth generation farmer our Farmers Foresters and land owners are in a desperate need of a comprehensive farm bill that provides an adequate safety net and ensures operations longevity Congress has punded passing a farm bill for far too long it is time to stop delaying with Farmers start stop playing pardon me with Farmers Futures and inact a
▶ 3:00:35bill that will strengthen producers ability to farm and rescue agriculturists who've been left out in the cold it is a time uh that we make agriculture truly great again Dr Newton as you mentioned and by the way my sister says hello um as you mentioned in your W uh written testimony beef prices have been touted as being at some of the highest levels in recent years but with input prices being just as high American cattle
▶ 3:01:06producers are not seeing uh much in the way of real benefits with the market in its current condition production cost where they are and continual decline in cattle inventories what can cattle cattle producers expect in their operations over this next year want tell your sister congratulations on on her retirement as well so I always enjoy working with Miss Ronna you know the the the cattle industry the tough part is where do producers go next right they're they're facing
▶ 3:01:36tough conditions on pasture uh the replacement animal costs are extremely high uh you know they face incredible challenges Beyond just what we're dealing with on the input cost side so we work with a lot of our cattle producers but a lot of them are are hesitant to begin to think about that process of maybe expanding they're catching up from the tough years that they're coming out of right now Mr tally as the Trump Vance Administration Works to combat unfair and
▶ 3:02:06undermining Trade Practices across our foreign markets what would American fruit and vegetable producers like to see as we work to level the playing field and Ensure Fair competition particularly as it relates to Mexico I would have to defer and get back to you on that for for specifics okay thank you I hope you will
▶ 3:02:36do that Dr Newton as as uh your testimony uh reveals and the chart that you provided makes clear um for the first time really in my lifetime in the last 5 years we we've seen uh act trade deficits for this country it's very concerning to me um where where would you say are the real opportunities to impact that growing deficit how do we turn this around as a nation well I think first and foremost as as we've talked about you know
▶ 3:03:06reinvesting in our important trade promotion programs the map and fmd program so we can go out and find uh and develop those new markets uh increasing domestic demand will also help because that lifts our commodity prices and lifts the value of our exports as well so I think that we have incredible opportunities ahead of us but we need to make those investments in trade to do so do you think that value added products is part of that answer for
▶ 3:03:37how the US recovers from the current trade deficit in agriculture absolutely thank you um Miss Schartner in the little time that I have left and by the way I'm a fellow do a eon Alum so uh congratulations on that if Congress does not address the challenges facing the agricultural Community with a comprehensive Farm Bill how long do you believe you and operations like your like yourself will uh are from being forced to significantly downsize or outright exit
▶ 3:04:07agriculture certainly thank you for the question and um very little time but you know like I mentioned we're already having the conversations with our Banker now it's hard to say how um long we can continue to sustain payments are helpful but I just would mention that there's there's an urgency behind needing to to resolve the problems that we have thank you Mr chairman I yield I thank the gentleman I would also say you're going to have to live north of the Mason Dixon line in order to do speed reading um now recognize
▶ 3:04:37the Gent from New Mexico Mr Vasquez for five minutes thank you Mr chairman uh thank you to our Witnesses uh for sticking it out with us today sharing your insights on the challenges that that face our modern farm economy I represent New Mexico's second district livestock and tree nuts are uh amongst our largest export but our greatest gift to the country is green and red chili I represent hatch the Chile capital of the world we're very proud of that uh but what farmers and ranchers are facing in my district is the uncertainty of the lack of a farm
▶ 3:05:08bill in two years we haven't been able to get it done the potential funding freezes that have already impacted their day-to-day businesses and producers that are at risk of losing their stability if we continue to play politics here and play with their livelihoods now on top of that we're facing another destructive trade war that would devastate our agricultural sector we've seen this before in fact the commodity Credit Corporation had to bail out the previous administration to the tune of $28 billion
▶ 3:05:38because of the trade War it was unnecessary if these tariffs move forward they could deal another devastating blow to New Mexico's farmers and the communities that rely on this them now let me tell you about the irony of these tariffs now this Administration is using American farmers as leverage to solve an issue that they have no control over Farmers have no control over over immigration policy in this country but yet their livelihoods are being used uh essentially as ponds in this larger game
▶ 3:06:09and simultaneously as you begin to freeze their payments and don't pass a farm bill we give them even more uncertainty and so my first question is to Mr tally now Mr tally the American a sector has seen the impacts of these tariffs before we've lost over 150,000 Farms do you think small and medium-sized Farmers could survive another trade war in this country that's like like I had expressed before it's it's it's difficult to answer that sort of question because it it's a case-by
▶ 3:06:39casee situation tariffs retaliatory tariffs it's it's hard to be concise and to give you a direct answer to your question so I but would we most likely see losses than gains ad it once again in your opinion it it depends it's a case by case I'm not comfortable answering that question because it it really depends it depends on the time of year depends on did we see more losses the last time the the trade war was in effect I'm sorry
▶ 3:07:10did we see more losses than small to medium size Farms the last time the trade war was in effect in gains that's it's the numbers question not speculative okay okay thank you um and uh to miss schner um you talked about unpredictable international events having a great impact on the future of farms in this country now if these events are not unpredictable and these events are actually domestically led by our very own Administration shouldn't we be here today advocating for
▶ 3:07:40Less surprises and more relability certainly I'm certainty and and learning knowing what to expect certainly attributes to the success of our operations thank you well I appreciate that because the international events that we create are predictable and we should be advocating for those Farmers to make sure that we're protecting them first now Dr Newton um you also uh mentioned that historical times uh farmer space historical times for the future uh for the future of farming in this economy that we've never seen before
▶ 3:08:10the conditions are unlike anytime that we've seen before so do you think it's a good idea to compound these historical challenges with a new War thought we were doing easy questions only you know I think more than anything it's so important for secretary nominee Rollins to get uh into the office so that she has a voice in The Oval Office and can communicate to the president how these issues impact agriculture well thank you Mr Newton look my point here in
▶ 3:08:40this line of questioning is that I believe look farming and ranching and the rich Legacy of Agriculture and how much our rural economies depend on us being here and discussing the issues that matter are something we can all get together on this should be a bipartisan idea that these harmful tariffs are going Bottom Line hurt American farmers and ranchers now New Mexico's a sector that's going to be one of the hardest sectors that are hit including our cattle Growers who right now are depending on those Imports of alphaalpha and feed to
▶ 3:09:10pretty much power their entire industry directly from Mexico we're talking pecans beef ve and we got plenty of other issues that we got to deal with like the shortage of water extended drought and so much more so my point is that these tariffs are really going to hurt the American Farmer and it's going to be those small and mediumsized farms uh that depend on them so I forward to working with my colleagues especially on the reform of h2a to make sure that if we are going to talk and have a conversation about immigration and use Farmers as leverage or ranchers as leverage that we're talking about
▶ 3:09:41how to get more workers out to the field lower cost for Americans and do good for everybody in this industry thank you Mr G chairman I yeld back I thank gentlemen now recognize Dr be from Indiana for five minutes thank you Mr chairman and ranking member appreciate the all the witnesses being here uh so miss wartner I'm going to start with you from the standpoint I want to compliment you because you went to Purdue University to get a bachelor's degree in in aaon and Agronomy so
▶ 3:10:11a good place to start but the other thing I see that you've done is been involved with not only the Farm Bureau but with 4 and FFA and I think that maybe doesn't Dr uh directly with what we're talking about today but I do think it's a supply chain that we can use to get young people back into the farming and agricultural industry so but I also noticed one more thing that you're a certified crop advisor is that true yes
▶ 3:10:41sir it is so anyway that leads to my question uh you know we've talked about U expenses and costs and so on going up but here's an area that I'm going to ask about and that's the USDA County offices and you know they can play a pivotal role in delivering the essential services to our communities and add communities in relation to farm loans Disaster Assistance and the conservation programs and so my question to
▶ 3:11:11you is can you discuss how the Staffing levels at your local USDA County Office have impacted uh your farming operation and specifically how does the presence and absence of sufficient staff affect your access to these critical programs certainly yes thank you for the question um and you know we're we're very fortunate to have a a great local office to support us on our operation and um to be completely honest we rely
▶ 3:11:41on them so much to be the experts in the programs that are being offered and and what we need to consider doing with our operations to ensure that we're optimizing the programs that we have access to and so you know any sort of decrease uh or or reduction in in Staffing or opportunities for to to speak with people in those offices you know could potentially lead to uh inadequacies on our operation and inefficiencies on our operation as we try to conduct business and proceed forward um to be successful thank you Dr Newton
▶ 3:12:11U I was really glad to hear you say something about how important agriculture is to the these local rural communities in fact they're the foundation that keeps the the money flowing and you know when you talk about $1,100 an acre for a crop of corn or $800 or so for uh soybeans uh those are a lot of dollars that are uh moving in that local community so I think having a safety program and a safety net for Farmers
▶ 3:12:42is what we've been talking about here a great deal is extremely important but uh but I'll ask you then um to to uh relate to how you see the local programs working for farmers and ranchers give you the opportunity to address those issues thank you so much you know I think that and I mentioned earlier that that we had a webinar with many of our Farm Credit colleagues a couple weeks ago and
▶ 3:13:12we we the webinar was to talk to them about Ark and PLC and how these programs function these risk management tools and we really haven't had to have that conversation for about a decade because these programs are so out of date it hasn't been a conversation that needs to happen on the farm uh we we're finally seeing the guarantees under Ark move up a little bit for some crops but not all crops I think Corn's going to see a higher guarantee soybeans are going to see a higher guarantee uh but there are other Commodities that are stuck at
▶ 3:13:42the support levels that they had from over a decade ago uh so it's so important that these tools are updated input costs have gone up 30% since we did the last Farm Bill uh and these reference prices really have not changed so uh making that investment in the farm bill is critically important so we got about 50 seconds left and uh so Mr tally um the specialty crops is kind of a new area for me is but um I think it's it's important
▶ 3:14:12that we include them in the farm bill and some of the listing sessions that GT had I've been uh really interested in what's happened around uh specialty crops and the need for I think there's about 600 kind of crops and we only cover a very small portion of those so with crop insurance you got 21 seconds great thank you I can get it done no I I that there is a need and like I said that the system
▶ 3:14:43we suggest that the system be revamped to to better customize and and enable special crop uh producers to to utilize the the product and uh we look forward to working with the USDA to do that I thank the gentlemen and now recognize the gentle lady from the sunflower state of Kansas representative uh Davids for five minutes thank you chairman uh and thank you to the our member
▶ 3:15:13agriculture is the backbone of Kansas's economy with our State ranking is the eighth largest agricultural exporter in the country shipping more than7 billion dollar in beef wheat soybeans and other grains to markets all around the world but today our producers are facing significant economic uncertainty due to trade disruptions and inconsistent policy changes Farmers depend on stable long-term trading relationships abrupt shifts in policy like the president's threatened tariffs on Canada and
▶ 3:15:43Mexico would raise prices for farmers and make it harder for them to plan for the future we've seen the consequences of in of trade instability before when certain tariffs were imposed during the president's first term American farmers lost lost roughly 27 billion in exports between 2018 and 2019 according to the Washington Post many had to rely on USDA programs to stay afloat putting the financial burden on all hardworking canons to keep our agricultural
▶ 3:16:13economy strong we need trade policies that open doors for our Farmers rather than create new obstacles and at the same time blocked the recent Federal funding freeze uncertainty created had consequences farmers who signed contracts with USDA programs investing their own money and fencing new crops and renewable energy systems were left in limbo unsure if promise through the same is true for
▶ 3:16:43food Aid programs for which Kansas Producers Supply a significant share of the food distributed worldwide this isn't about politics this is about stability and opportunity for the multigeneration farm that's in Garnett Kansas and those Farms all across the country where families simply want to make an honest living and provide for their loved ones that's why leaders on both sides of the aisle have spoken out on the need for policies that support our agricultural sector and lower prices at the grocery store we must work together to provide
▶ 3:17:13certainty for our producers strengthen our global competitiveness and trade Partnerships and ensure Kansas farmers can continue doing what they do best which is fre feeding our country and the world the first question I want to ask uh to Mr weiner can you just speak to you kind I may have missed this but you spoke a little bit to fertilizer issues I think earlier um how does that can you talk about some of the specific effects on your operation
▶ 3:17:44and uh some of the price dispar bringing up earlier yes uh so as we talked earlier fertilizer prices from uh or fertilizer as a cost is very large for a corn acre probably $300 would' be the total fertilizer budget uh for soybeans it's probably more like $100 uh the big difference there is nitrogen uh but both crops use uh potassium and phosphorus
▶ 3:18:14of course potassium is mainly imported from Canada um but with the higher prices over the last several years of um Commodities all of those input costs went up Commodities have gone down these input costs have been very sticky and coming down and so we've not seen the fertilizer prices go to the level where Family Farms can again be
▶ 3:18:45profitable to microphone um well thank you for that and given the context that we're working in with uncertainty of ter impacts uh might end up following up with you uh around that Miss uh shortner I was hoping to hear about um the lack of the multi multi- Farm uh Bill and uncertainty around potential changes um and
▶ 3:19:15policies I I know you you have talked a little bit about uncertainty but um if there's any specific areas of uncertainty that you wanted to kind of touch on in this last 40 seconds certainly in referencing the the farm bill I think right now um you know we're relying a lot on ad hoc programs to get us through we're relying on onetime payments to help get us from you know one year to the next and it's been a problem for certainly the last three years since we saw you know a decrease in commodity prices from 2022 and input prices
▶ 3:19:46as as mentioned have not come down as much as commodity prices have um you know we were selling cotton for a120 in 2022 and now we're getting quotes for you know less than 60 cents uh so that there speaks to you know the the impact and and the urgency behind needing um some updated Farm bills to give us the the certainty that we need to continue to go and talk to our bankers and secure those lines of credits to allow us to operating thank you I yield back thanks the thanks the general lady now recognize
▶ 3:20:16the gentleman from Iowa Mr finstra for five thank you chairman Thompson and thank you uh member rank member Craig uh this is a great great panel and thank you Witnesses for your testimony I read all your testimonies and I think we all agree on the same thing that that we have a lot of concerns uh moving forward I look at the commodity prices right now uh you know if we could expand the export Market that would be wonderful I think that' help the Commodities a lot I think uh Aven bird flu I mean eggs at at $7 a dozen right now we've lost 24 million
▶ 3:20:46birds in the last four months um I have the second largest egg producer in my district you know and then obviously soft ethanol Market uh Mr weiner you you noted that I mean there there's a lot of challenges and yet we have this farm bill we have this farm bill that has this great opportunity and and you know when it talks about we talk about crop insurance that safety net uh export fmd map that we could do uh foreign animals diseases how we can start looking at this and changing the trajectory of what's happening
▶ 3:21:16there and then obviously reference prices right but there's a couple things I want to talk about also that to me are a real concern the death tax you know you think about the death tax uh this is an unfair tax that implies costly tax 40% 40% on the transfer of property and land uh to the Next Generation can you imagine that I mean here you got the federal government double taxing where if you die and you want to pass that land to your to your son or daughter they're going to pull you out of the Grave with their arms and say you owe 40%
▶ 3:21:4740% this is ridiculous and and this is going to affect our next generation and uh Mr tally if you could talk about this can you ex you said that you're a third generation farmer you recently welcomed the fourth generation Congratulations by the way how will this affect you as you move forward and other Farmers like you thank you for the question uh Congressman obviously I I'm against the death tax I I see it especially in the in the specialty crop um Arena throughout all 50
▶ 3:22:18states something unique about us is that our land values typically tend to be much higher than other Commodities and something else that we're seeing at least in California and I think in in other popular areas where we're growing especially the crops is the encroachment of of cities kind of outgrowing um their limits if you will and then all of a sudden our Farms that we purchased for a half million dollars say 20 years ago are now worth millions of dollars because they're surrounded by a bunch of homes
▶ 3:22:48and so that's proven to be difficult as well as remember specially the crops are highly very very expensive Capital intensive it's not only land cost but also it's it's the Machinery it's the buildings on the land that are terribly costly and so that leaves us with very little cash and so at the end of the day the saying goes where we're kind of cash poor you know we're landr and cash poor and something else
▶ 3:23:19you mentioned that that we don't really value if you will it's a sentimental value it's the fact that I'm a fourth generation farmer I walk the same Fields with my grandfather and my uncle and I probably would have with my father but he passed away when I was four I still remember times being with my dad at a young age on the Family Farm and now I'm walking the fields with my own sons and and passing along that Legacy speci isn't it that is truly special to have that and yet we
▶ 3:23:49if we don't have the 40% right to pay then it's going to go to some out of out of state uh you know buyer or to our foreign adversary China or whoever they're buying it I mean it's it's very scary stuff absolutely absolutely I introduce the the the the death tax repeal act we have 170 sponsors across the board bipartisan this has got to get done um Al I want to talk about also something that really to me is affecting Farmers right now and that's the operational loan costs all right we have all our Farmers going
▶ 3:24:19to the bank right now and getting that operational loan to start planting this this this spring and yet here's a problem that interest on that loan is very expensive and and this to me it's again it's a safety net how can we lower interest rates how can we lower real estate loans and we can it's called the acre act by by lowering interest rates and I want to ask uh Mr weiner what is your thoughts on this I mean do you see this as something productive for the farming Community if we can lower interest rates if we can lower some
▶ 3:24:49of their costs on these loans yes uh lower interest rates especially would help young Farmers uh who are not near as capital uh wealthy um and so anything that could be done around that for especially young Farmers uh my own daughter has an FSA loan but uh she's been challenged uh she got married which is a good thing but because of FS FSA loans they look
▶ 3:25:19at the net worth and for her to change a commercial operator to a lower rate she would have to re redo the loan that net worth would throw her out because she my time is run out but I'm telling you the acre act we got to get this pass another one of things that we just got to get done along with the Farm Bill thank you chairman and I yeld back thanks the gentleman um now recognize a gentleman from the Empire State uh of New York Mr Riley for
▶ 3:25:53minutes sounds good check check your there need to push the button on the bottom H I'm the new guy so we're going to figure this out Mr chairman thank you I don't know how much my incompetence takes away from my time uh but it's an honor to be on the committee I'm looking forward to working with you
▶ 3:26:24um Dr Newton I really appreciated in your uh testimony you talked a bit in your written testimony anyway you talked a bit about the consolidation we're seeing in the dairy industry um in the last 25 years in Upstate New York we've lost about two-thirds of our da farms and we've actually seen that Trend accelerate in recent years from I think it's 2017 to 2022 we lost um about 40% of our dairy farm so I've got about 300
▶ 3:26:54uh dairy farms left in my district and they're just getting crushed by these big uh Farms that are getting bigger and bigger and now it's like you have to get huge to survive I I saw um some data showing that if you have over 500 cows you're very very very likely to make a profit if you have over less than a 100 you're almost certain to lose uh money and so my question for you is whether you have any suggestions for us as to things we can do as a committee to address
▶ 3:27:25those Trends and save our small family farms and related to that I wonder if you could comment on whether the consolidation we're seeing in the industry is increasing public health risks with things like for example the bird flu it seems to me that if you have fewer bigger farms uh you're increasing those RIS if you're literally putting all your eggs in one basket and that basket ends up with bird flu or an issue it seems like that is uh compounding the risk so I was hoping you
▶ 3:27:55could talk about about both of those issues I was waiting for a dairy question took us a while to get there and took us even longer because I couldn't figure out how to work the microphone you know for for Dairy Farmers you know they've got a very important safety net the dairy margin coverage program has been an effective safety net uh for Dairy Farmers since it was reformed formed in the 2018 farm bill I think there's uh you know a need to consider how that's working could it work even better for Dairy Farmers that's that's one area I think
▶ 3:28:25another aspect that that we haven't talked a lot about especially with these small Dairy Farmers is their utilization of crop insurance Dairy Revenue protection which I developed when I was at American Farm Bureau very successful Insurance product for the dairy industry but how can we increase awareness and education to those small and mediumsized dairy farms so they know that this product can work for them and help them manage their risk so that's that's the answer to your first question as to the second question
▶ 3:28:55on on bird flu and uh the size of the operation I'd be happy to consider that in a qfr I don't have an answer for you for that today yeah that's great i' I'd love to work with you on uh increasing awareness for programs our small Dairy Farmers could uh take advantage of um I'll say one of the takeaways from reading the testimony and hearing uh from all of you today uh my biggest takeaway for this hearing is that our family farms are operating with razor thin uh margins
▶ 3:29:25we've seen net farm income decreasing I know that a lot of farmers are looking to this new Administration to reverse those Trends um each of you both in your written testimony and in your uh testimony today mentioned the challenges of high input costs and I'm very concerned that the president's proposed tariffs on Canada are going to do more harm than good for a lot of our uh a lot of our farmers and that's especially when you look at the charts uh Mr winel in your testimony showing the impact of the rising
▶ 3:29:56fertilizer uh costs um I heard today one of the statistics that really stood out to me is that Canada is providing 90% of the uh fertilizer potassium the potach that we're using in America and so I have a letter that I'm leading uh to the administration i i i tended to agree with some of the testimon earlier that when we're talking about tariffs uh we shouldn't be looking at it just RIT large we should be looking at it specifically item by item and determining on a cost benefit basis
▶ 3:30:26whether particular tariffs are helpful or harmful I'm convinced that the the tariffs on podach are going to be very harmful given the high input cost and and and the cost of fertilizer so I have a letter that I'm leading to the administration asking it to exclude uh pod Das from any uh tariffs uh that end up being imposed on Canada and I would just like to invite all my colleagues to join me in that and I'll yield back the rest of my time thank you all for testifying this has been very helpful I thank the gentlemen
▶ 3:30:56now I recognize the gentleman from the Keystone State Pennsylvania Mr brahan for five minutes thank you Mr chairman I want to start out by saying how excited I am to be working with you in support our Pennsylvania Farmers producers and diverse agricultural industry last month I had the pleasure to visit the Pennsylvania Farm Show where I got to speak with some of these farmers and producers from all over the Commonwealth and Sample everything from milkshakes to apple cider slushies to potato potato donuts and deep fried mushrooms
▶ 3:31:27uh it was truly remarkable just to hear how much work goes into bringing these products from the farm to our tables uh just as remarkable was hearing how many of these Farms were family-owned and multi-generational uh the the most common thread that I hear from Farmers while traveling around my district in northeastern Pennsylvania is the the desire to keep their family farm in the family and pass it down to the Next Generation uh this speaks directly to me as I am a third generation family business owner I went from first generation to third
▶ 3:31:57generation uh in the heavy Highway electrical space so I'm relatively new to agriculture but understand the significance of what we do here and do appreciate all of your testimony here today because it does speak um heavily when we hear it directly from the source um my first question is actually for schw Mrs Miss schner um you made a lot of references to the banks and something that we had to deal with going from a first generation to a third generation family business was the bar was
▶ 3:32:28always moving um you're coming from the Ager culture industry so how do you collateralize your farms and how have you been able to secure and alleviate the AA that the banks would sometimes create yeah thank you for your question um and as a as a new and beginning farmer still considered a new and beginning farmer it's certainly been challenging right we've had to rely a lot on our um partnership that we have with my my father-in-law my mother-in-law um to help with building that collateral
▶ 3:32:58to earn the you know the opportunity to gain credit and to increase that line of credit um and so you know it's certainly a challenge that I think all new and beginning farmers face with the lack of collateral coming into the industry it's it's you know high input costs uh high cost to to enter and unless you have some assistance from someone who's already doing it or some other program that you have access to to help it's certainly challenging to enter in as a new and beginning farmer especially when you're trying to buy a piece of equipment the the capex I mean are you able to
▶ 3:33:28usually collateralize the new capex piece of equipment purchase off of the equipment itself but then you also need to sustain your operations and cash flow so you make your monthly payment on time have you seen the escalation of this equipment increased drastically over the last few years yes yes certainly you're referring to the cost tractor combine whatever that case may be and the availability are you able to go out and buy one at that moment if you want it or is there a a longer lead time we could certainly
▶ 3:33:58go go find one um you know the there is a market certainly for it I think currently the the challenge is you know affordability and you know the ability to invest in equipment that's certainly not something that we're looking at right now given the the current state of things so I guess this pivots into uh my question for Mr tally um in the construction business we're constantly looking for new technologies to make our jobs more efficient less labor intensive more precise um in your testimony you advocated for additional research and development
▶ 3:34:29into the automation techn Technologies for the specialty crop sector can you tell me more about some examples of recent technological developments that either you yourself or another specialty grower have implemented and how has it worked sure be happy to um as I alluded to earlier California spent over $16 billion dollar in in labor alone two-thirds of that was in was in the harvesting and to me that's the critical area where we need automization
▶ 3:35:00mechanization or whatever that might be once again there's there's no Silver Bullet because each commodity within especially the crop industry is harvested in a different manner but just simple Harvest AIDS AIDs that that would make the job easy easier more ergonomical um and and save a handful of jobs here and there at the end of the day that's been tremendous we have a new belt that we use that probably in our 14ers crew it dropped it down to about 11
▶ 3:35:30individuals now because it's increased our efficiency from 14 to 11 from 14 to 11 so it's it's Little Steps like that like I said there's not going to be a silver bullet there's not going to be an instant cure for our labor needs to go away but it's it's just drip drip it's that investment investment in in mechanization and automization that's critical for us I appreciate that and I yield by remaining eight
▶ 3:36:01seconds gentlemen he's back um now please recognize the general lady from Maryland Mrs mlan Delaney thank you to um thank you to our chair and uh to uh uh all of you here but in particular to all of the panelists here who have been uh here for over three hours so really really important um so uh I've really enjoyed this I am I
▶ 3:36:31represent the sixth district of Maryland which is an incredible District in terms of the number of farmers we have almost uh half a million Acres of Farmland including 178 dairy farms and 3500 Family Farms um where also home to the a preserve um in Maryland's uh County Agricultural reserve and um before this hearing today I talked to our fed County Farmer Bureau and the Maryland Farmer Bureau really discuss the challenges facing Family Farms the importance of crop insurance
▶ 3:37:01reconnect and equip but I guess most importantly I am a fourth generation idahoan from bule Idaho my dad was head of the Idaho Potato commission and we had a family farm and I have to say Dr Newton and M schner it was really important to me because in the 70s and 80s it was Skyhigh interest rates it was really hard the cost of production was below the cost of what you could sell your crops for almost five years and actually access to to
▶ 3:37:31Capital and credit was really important and ultimately my family lost the farm it was a really terrible thing that is awful for those of us who who want Family Farms so um just as this was not my anticipated question I will um talk to you about rural Broadband in a second but um looking over the legislation the past three or four years there's been a lot of different ways of looking Innovative access to Capital if you all could just very I I'm going to submit some things for the record but if you all could
▶ 3:38:02just think of one thing or one correction how would you in this farm bill or in other innovative ways look at better access to Capital from our banking um from our different banks and is there anything you would do that you could clarify in this in this 119th session that you would like to see in terms of improving access to capital for farmers in addition to Commodities and crop insurance and the things that have so one thing uh my daughter has
▶ 3:38:32brought up and a lot of the young Farmers coming in to farming now are in their 30s and maybe even 40s they're connected to the farm but they've also had careers uh up until then and and you know land it's been talked about is very expensive um her question to me is G dad you know the Farmland that you have is really your retirement program right um I've had access to building you know a retirement account in my
▶ 3:39:02professional career is there any way that it could be changed so that a a farm Putting a down payment on a farm could be viewed as a re reement account and you could just shift from the 401K to use that as a down payment on a farm um it for her to do that now she's not 59 and a half there's a penalty to that but she sees the value of being able to make that investment and looking
▶ 3:39:32for more flexible ways innovative ways to try and do something like that and I think for my time I'm going to submit that for the rest of the record for you because I'd really like to figure out some ways to increase um and really work on those issues in terms of finance and capital um so uh the bulk of my life I spent in Telecom as a you know online child advocate Telecom attorney and most recently I served at ntia as Deputy cant secretary rolling out our Broadband our rural broadband and you know Broadband access allows kids to go to school
▶ 3:40:03and access to health care but um in my district more than 20% of farms lacked internet access and without any of these rural communities are disconnected um they are left behind um you know USDA the reconnect programs the uh affordability the community connect um I just kind of throw it open to you um you all without a bipartisan modernized Farm Bill these programs could be um jeopardized can any of you speak to a little bit about how farmers are using data and Technology on around the farm
▶ 3:40:33is there ways to cut costs with it and what is a Broadband or a lack of broadband access which is Affordable highspeed access due um to a Farm's bottom line and um you know obviously with these freezes you know what will that mean for um for connectivity and how that will impact you all U thank you for your question um I'll take it with you just a few minutes remaining first I want to thank you for your Farm Bureau engagement and and communicating with your local County Farm bureaus that that means a lot to me serving on my County Farm Bureau and that's certainly where
▶ 3:41:03you know change starts um for the Farm Bureau organization but to to answer your question you know uh rural Broadband helps me in my day job I'm I'm fully remote allows me to contribute back to our operation additionally it helps with with you know our farm efficiencies as we're looking at data to continually improve the efficiencies that we have on operation so um I've got two or three um questions that I'll just submit for the record for a lot of you thank the general lady a lot of great conversation thank General lady the votes have been called there are two votes I am told the first one will be strictly
▶ 3:41:33held to 15 minutes and uh but I'm going to yield uh we're going to recognize a gentleman from California for five minutes of questioning but um um and then we will uh Rec we're going to recess and reconvene as quickly as that first second vote is offered if you could vote and then get come back here uh so that we could uh uh continue on thank you Mr chairman
▶ 3:42:03I'll try and do it in four how's that um Mr Newton um you emphasized earlier that uh with California tree nut Growers that um we're looking at Australia's trade deals and how they've uh had great impact on nut exports as they've done a pretty good job musling in on major markets over there so this affects the walnuts who have been devastated in recent years they're only now looking like they're recovering Ammons have had a rough go and I know a whole bunch of Ammon Acres that are under water right now in my area they
▶ 3:42:33can't take more than a week or two of that as well as some level pecans what what do you think we should be doing you may have answered this already but in out the committee sorry uh to gets us plane field leveled with uh such hot competition in Australia and maybe others with uh really what's unbalanced competition thank you so much for the question and and our analysts at terrain uh do see the the the Ammon Market the wup Market finally starting to turn around coming
▶ 3:43:04out of the pandemic lows and the challenges that that those Growers faced uh but I I go back to what we've talked about before you know investing in trade promotion and Market development programs as part of the farm bill will help those Growers go out and find and continue to develop uh those markets around the world all right what we believe we got good work in the farm bill if we can get the good one done uh as our chairman ranker we're going to be sure to get there this year uh let me jump over
▶ 3:43:34to um uh Mr T here uh we're talking not we haven't talked enough about the award the adverse rage effect rate for h2a uh it's skyrocketed the last few years four out of the last five years it's gone up about 7.3% annually and so the fruit and vegetable Growers are the largest users of h2a as well as some others and they spend about I don't know over a third of their expenses on labor life was established
▶ 3:44:04a bit earlier uh so California with the big award increase uh how much how how much farther can this go and I'd like give that to again Mr tally how how how long can these keep going and then have any chance you know California's uh hourly rate for labor has now reached the 8 hour 40h hour limit uh a week this year so how do how do we keep doing all this quite quite honestly the
▶ 3:44:35uh meteoric rise in in uh the wages in the award it's it's not sustainable you're seeing I think for the first time last year the numbers in H 2A uh usage have kind of gone flat and maybe even gone down due to the sheer fact that that this year it's it's at 1997 California's minimum wage is at650 in effect 1997 is now our our our minimum wage in our family farm and
▶ 3:45:05when you compete against just not only other states that have two to three do less an hour wages but also you're competing where the wages are a fraction of that cost I just spent some time in Costa Rica at a farm and I asked them what their minimum wage was and he said oh $4 $420 we can't compete with that it's it's not sustainable can't touch this right y so let's talk about mechanization for a moment here as we've also put
▶ 3:45:35some um research dollars towards that through some of our efforts here talk about the a mechanization why is that going to be perhaps very vital as well for specialties the mization component that's in my mind that's where our strength lies where we have the ability to really create change and build an efficiency in our program our labor wage is it is what it is I don't necessarily see it it dropping it' be nice if it did but that's
▶ 3:46:05not a reality so to to mechanize and to be able to be competitive on the international scale it's it's a but most important if we want to to continue to have agriculture in our country we've got to mechanize I mean there there's no way around it yeah a lot of things coming at us at once Mr chairman I'll you back thank you gentleman y's back the uh committee will stand in recess till to call the chair immediately after the
▶ 3:46:35second vote on the
▶ 4:00:42e e
▶ 4:17:41e e
▶ 4:18:14the educ yeah education the Ed agriculture Committee hearing will uh reconvene and I'm pleased to recognize the gentle lady from Texas congresswoman Dela Cruz for five minutes I think you're press your mic on there the bottom oh there we go excellent thank you chairman for hosting this important meeting today and thank you to all the witness for being here throughout
▶ 4:18:44the day and joining us and sharing with us your concerns about the economic crisis that is happening all across America as uh we're looking at the economic crisis for our farmers and ranchers I'm going to specifically talk about what's happening in my district in my district our farmers and ranchers are really suffering due to the Mexican government's failure to deliver water as per the the 1944 water treaty
▶ 4:19:15this has been devastating for our region in fact each day this Devastation continues Mexico now owes us over a million acre feet of water it's practically impossible for them to pay us that much water at this point how we have suffered is that we have lost our sugar growers in the Rio Grand Valley we were the only sugar growers in
▶ 4:19:45the entire state of Texas now that is gone that only leaves two other states that uh have sugar Mills and this is devastating not just for our area where it meant millions of dollars of loss but it was also 500 jobs that were lost because of this and all of the jobs and businesses this Sugar Mill closed after 50
▶ 4:20:16years of service to the Rio Grand Valley and it's absolutely devastating because Mexico has not complied with the 1944 water treaty and given us the water that we so depend on we are about to lose our Citrus industry as well you all know that Florida has had a tough time in Citrus so America is really dependent on the R Grand Valley and the state of Texas for
▶ 4:20:46uh to deliver the Citrus that we need so as we say here in a committee food security is National Security and when we are depleted of sugar of citrus of other vegetables in our area what that means is that we're going to be dependent on foreign countries to feed Americans we don't want that we want americ Farmers to feed Americans and this
▶ 4:21:16is why the topic of Agriculture economic loss water loss for us as as per this water treaty is is so so important I can share with you that uh I'm proud to have secured language at the end of last year in the last Congress granting the secretary of agriculture the authority to provide grants for economic relief to agriculture producers in South Texas that are affected
▶ 4:21:46by this issue so my my farmers in Deep South Texas have compounding problems they have economic pressures they have burdensome regulation that is weighing down on them and they have the 1944 water treaty where they're not receiving the water that they need well This Disaster Assistance um through the Appropriations language that we put in to the 2025 Appropriations is
▶ 4:22:16going to help so much more still needs to be done so I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle for a strong farm bill because it is of urgent need now I'm going to ask um uh Miss schw I'm going to mispronounce your name please help me schwarner schwarner there we go um your testimony touched on how the US is uh Contin continuously losing more and more
▶ 4:22:47Family Farms I know how this has affected my district um how can you tell us about the impacts of losing Family Farms in your community certainly at thank you for your question um I think there's a statistic out there that you know we're losing roughly a thousand Family Farms a a month um and that's alarming being a a family farm of of my own um thinking that you know that could be us one day and I hope certainly hope that it's not um and so as we
▶ 4:23:17continue to to look at that data the impact of losing Family Farms or or any farms is certainly detrimental to our national security just as you've mentioned um being able to feed our country and our nation is so important um it's part of our overall you know GDP um as a country and so certainly agriculture contribute so much to the success of our nation to the success of our communities in ensuring that the businesses and the people in our local communities are also successful thank you I yield back thanks the general lady
▶ 4:23:47now recognize the gentleman from California Mr Gray for minutes thank you chairman Thompson ranking member Craig for holding this hearing and thank you to our Witnesses for participating in this long morning appreciate your insights my district is in California's Central Valley represent five counties uh in the northern salking Valley and uh grew up in a agriculture myself my family's in the dairy business uh we also grow Ammons and pistachios
▶ 4:24:18and uh excited to be here participating in the a committee and uh hoping you know I my first term in Congress and I ran for this office after the 118th Congress one of the most unproductive in US history failed to get a farm bill and uh folks in my district uh work very hard and uh certainly looking to Congress to work hard to land a farm bill uh this session and I'm hopeful uh to be part of that certainly a lot of important work to do and we've heard a lot today about some of the folks on this
▶ 4:24:48committee where there seems to be an appetite for bipartisanship and uh working together and I hope to uh certainly be part of that as well you know in my district we grow some of the highest quality cotton uh in the world and I've heard concerns recently about the long-term uh prospects for funding for the Puma uh cotton and wool trust fund and so my first question for Miss schwarzer is uh as a cotton farmer yourself can you speak to the importance of programs like the PAC cotton and W trust fund
▶ 4:25:18thank you for your question um I I can't speak specifically for for pumac cotton um I can speak for General cotton programs but I'm not familiar with that but happy to to respond in writing I appreciate uh your insights on that you know I think the long-term stability uh and predictability for Farmers like any other industry is is critical and uh hopefully that'll be top of mind uh for folks on this committee as we move for forward another major issue in my district uh recently just as recent as last week has been the spread of bird flu
▶ 4:25:49and uh we just in fact had a new strain detect in mered County which is my home County uh within the district and we've certainly talked a lot uh around the country about the price of eggs uh but you know the poultry industry is pretty concerned on this issue and question to Mr Newton um what are the risks for us in not tackling this problem uh you know urgently and expeditiously thank you so much for for the question I mean the the outbreak
▶ 4:26:20that we're currently experiencing on the bird flu I mean we have over 11 million Birds confirmed just to start this year alone you mentioned the the new strain uh for for dairy cattle and then we we've seen detections in the broiler flock in the Southeast so it's it's incredibly important to get this under control uh the impact on food availability and food prices I think think is top of Mind appreciate that uh Mr chairman I yield back my time thanks
▶ 4:26:50the gentlemen now please recognize the gentleman from Iowa Mr nun for five minutes well thank you very much chairman and ranking member for holding this very important hearing today to each of you look I represent 87,000 Family Farms back in Iowa and we recognize that this is bigger than any single Farm any single bigger Community any single State this is truly something that is going to impact the entire nation and we either have the ability to help defend our food and fuel supply or we have the ability
▶ 4:27:20to acques and allow somebody else to fill the void it's not only a national security threat but puts us directly dependent on foreign entities and how we feed our families now I know we've been short on time Mr Speaker or Mr chairman so I want to get straight to it we're going to drive like a combine driver with a ice storm coming up during harvest season I'm going to ask a couple of direct questions Mr wor I feel obligated to come to you ver as a fellow midwesterner here you have planted uh corn soybean you know this in Illinois just like here in Iowa row crops are a big deal the
▶ 4:27:50importance of access to foreign markets here in the US in your testimony you highlighted the US is facing its fifth consecutive annual trade deficit in fact we're up to about a hundred billion dollars now largest in the world Mr worzel what will happen if our cor and soybean Farmers fail to pass a farm bill that includes additional map and fmd funding well thank you for the question as we've emphasized several times I think the whole panel the importance of getting that funding for map and fmd is crucial in continuing to open
▶ 4:28:20up markets and and to maintain the relationships with countries that were current marketing too so I think that's the one thing that you know with a lot of uncertainty around trade if we can have that as certainty that will definitely help in putting boots on the ground all over the world critically important for the last four years we haven't had a single Farm trade deal done I hope we can get more done uh here in the next four months look Mr W you know this a bushel of corn today runs about 490 on a good day
▶ 4:28:51uh Bush soybean probably about 10 plus the challenges that we have are these prices are reflective of a severe decline in farm communities sixth generation Farm kid from Iowa here this is a deficit 15 years in the making had improvements this committee had already passed on a bipartisan basis on last year's Farm safety net been implemented for a crop this year any indication as whether it would have been better or worse as we head into the next year um so at
▶ 4:29:21least the data I've seen it would have been slightly better uh for Illinois Corn farmers and soybean Farmers um not to the magnitude that I think uh is needed um I really applaud the committee's efforts and members and what they did in the add Hawk program uh that was much more substantial probably at least twice the impact of of what we would have seen um
▶ 4:29:51but also because the payments were tied to just months later not tied to a marketing year that makes a big uh impact as well and then because it was tied to planted Acres it really directly affected the cost that we're seeing in the high prices and a addressing that issue could not agree with you more and while it would have been a step in the right direction I applaud the members both sides of the island this committee there's a lot of work that needs to be done to make sure we can make this sustainable going in
▶ 4:30:21the future uh M schwarzer uh thank you again for your service on this your family's Legacy um directly impacted by our current Financial conditions um that have hit this country before the end of the year Congress passed a spending package that included the necessary assistance for our Farmers did these payments serve as an adequate replacement for the farm no they do not and I would fully agree with you on that no they do not not a single farmer in Iowa believes that I'm certain back in Texas it's the same way farmers in my district
▶ 4:30:51have shared the same sentiment it's been seven years since Congress passed a farm bill seven years since our farm safety net uh safety net was updated Mr if the farm safety net had been aligned to today's cost with the ad hoc assistance have been necessary for you no it's not necessary with adequate Farm safety net that certainly prevents from needing the ad hoc assistance I appreciate that to everybody's Farm District back home I want to thank you very much for being here at the end of the year we were able to get financial emergency assistance
▶ 4:31:22out to those Farmers including in my home in Greenfield Iowa that got devastated by a tornado to help get back on their feet but that is not the solution we have to have a long-term strategy here to address America's food security that starts right here in the United States to all the board or the members on this I really appreciate your leadership and bringing it forward thank you Mr chair I would yield back I thank the gentleman um before we adjourn today I don't have no what no one else here it has not asked five questions
▶ 4:31:52I invite the ranking member to share any closing comments that she may have well thank you so much Mr chairman and I'd like to start with a big thank you to you for calling this hearing so early in the 119th Congress and especially to our Witnesses uh who have had a very long day of answering our questions and you've been pretty patient with us so thank you this hearing has again put a spotlight on the reality that farmers across this country face every day high input costs
▶ 4:32:23challenges in domestic and international markets natural disasters the list goes on we absolutely need to reauthorize a new Farm Bill my colleagues I still believe in the possibility of bipartisanship from this committee even in a town that tries everything else first and I know we all want good policy with support for our farm programs and strong nutrition safety net for Americans who need it that's how we get
▶ 4:32:53to a bipartisan Farm Bill my commitment to Minnesota and Farmers across our nation has always been to work with an Administration when it's right for them and to stand up to one when it isn't I did not believe the Biden Administration focused enough on expanding trade and they didn't prioritize renewable fuels nearly enough and I told them so publicly and I also have a responsibility to point out that I believe this new Administration early actions are implementing early
▶ 4:33:23policies that could potentially hurt our family farmers and ranchers I sure hope not but it feels that way the freeze of equip and reap dollars already obligated to Farmers and ranchers the across theboard tariff threats on our largest trading partners the 2.1 billion us a ID Market that would go away if this program went away and the discussion around cutting the supplemental nutrition assistance program given the tough economic climate and thin margins
▶ 4:33:53Farmers don't need new problems especially those manufactured in Washington Mr chairman I believe that you and I and our great Partners in the Senate Senators kashar and Senator Boseman could figure this out if left to our own work together with our own members but I'm worried that the Recon ciliation process might impact our ability to get a farm bill and I would be remiss if I don't did not say that out loud here today the chairman and I are going to keep at it
▶ 4:34:24together Farmers lenders rural communities and those who need help to put food on the table are watching and waiting let's not disappoint them thank you and I yield back I thank the ranking member you know I think the word that came up the most here at this hearing today is uncertainty and uncertainty around input costs commodity prices and yes of course disruptions the single most important thing this committee can do for our farmers and ranchers is
▶ 4:34:54to reauthorize the farm bill with an improved safety net and that is what this committee will be working towards in a bipartisan way in the 119th Congress I fully understand that the uncertainty for our producers with regards to tariff trade and how this all unfolds is headed our storm clouds on the horizon for our producers but I will remind my colleagues that in his first term president Trump was able renegotiate more
▶ 4:35:24favorable terms for usmca and let us not forget about the phase one China deal which I'll point out the Biden Administration never held China's feet to the fire and they continue to not China continues to not meet those commitments that is is in addition to new non-tariff barriers being erected around the world like non-science based environmental regulations in the EU the current playing field is not level
▶ 4:35:54for our producers and riding the ship will not be an easy task but we cannot let the almost $1 100 billion dollar and total trade deficits experienced over the past four years continue to widen and worsen keep in mind that simply writing R sizing the expected trade deficit of$ 45 billion do in two 2025 would provide more support and more certainty to our Farmers than the entire endof year package
▶ 4:36:25I urge the Trump Administration to aggressively pursue new access to markets and be prepared to stand by our farmers and ranchers if these disruptions start impacting their bottom line we've uh I think we all celebrate the bridge that we that uh we were able to accomplish in December um it is just a bridge the2 billion more than2 billion in weather related assistance the hundred billion do
▶ 4:36:55in economic disaster relief which was unprecedented very proud of what we're able to deliver for uh the American Farm Ranch family we need Brook Rollins to be confirmed um by the full Senate this week preferably as soon as possible I mean she was uh she got an unanimous vote in the committee and so it's uh I just encourage that her
▶ 4:37:25confirmation vote be scheduled in the Senate as soon as possible uh preferably this week and we need a five-year Farm Bill sooner than later I am of the belief and I think for good reason um if we wait until the end of this year uh to do a five-year Farm Bill uh we will be back asking Congress for more economic Disaster Assistance if we're able
▶ 4:37:55to get this Farm Bill done sooner than later uh that's not going to be necessary and our Farmers don't you know they want to be able to farm and and prosper U by what the industry is and and so U you know I I know the1 billion dollar is welcome but that's that's ultimately not what they want they U they they want uh address U some of these pressures and challenges that are out there on them and and that's
▶ 4:38:26that's our job to do that uh whether we're talking uh whatever we can do to influence um commodity prices so that would be trade would help with that uh lowering input costs um uh addressing the this 46% a trade deficit turning that back around into a surplus uh Workforce was mentioned today and I'm very proud of the uh agriculture uh Workforce task force that we put together
▶ 4:38:56we got some great recommendations in the 118th Congress and I I think it's going to be the uh those reforms the h2a program are going to be the basis of some great legislation uh that we will be drafting um I want to thank all of our Witnesses here to today for their time and their testimony you know we know that times are tough for you your family and your local communities and this committee will be working tirelessly to address the issues that you all have raised here today um and I
▶ 4:39:26I just want to take an opportunity to thank all of our staff too um the personal office staff your agriculture uh those who handle that portfolio and your in your uh uh in your offices our our committee staff on both sides of the the aisle and and uh just uh bottom line is we couldn't do this without you so a big thank you to all of our staff and with that this hearing is
▶ 4:40:10adjourned e