Last week, the Trump Administration announced a $12 billion dollar aid program for farmers to help them weather the economic storm caused by Trump’s tariff policies. These bridge payments are intended in part to aid farmers until historic investments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act kick in by October 2026. Of the $12 billion provided, up to $11 billion will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, which provides “broad relief to United States row crop farmers who produce Barley, Chickpeas, Corn, Cotton, Lentils, Oats, Peanuts, Peas, Rice, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat, Canola, Crambe, Flax, Mustard, Rapeseed, Safflower, Sesame, and Sunflower. This assistance hopefully will help address “market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses from foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports. The FBA Program applies simple, proportional support to producers using a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2025 crop year. This national loss average is based on FSA reported planted acres, Economic Research Service cost of production estimates, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates yields and prices and economic modeling.”
But the ink was hardly dry on the announcement before Republican senators from farm states called for additional aid. While farmers producing corn, soybeans and other commodity crops will share about $11 billion maybe by the end of February. During an interview with Agri-Pulse, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran stated “that in the absence of the ability to export what we produce, particularly when we, in many instances, have bumper crops, Congress very well may need to issue more funding.” Specialty crop producers, who grow Fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops, voiced concerns that the $1 billion they are likely to receive is not enough. Kam Quarles, CEO at the National Potato Council, told Agri-Pulse that he expects producers of around 300 different crops will soon be jockeying for a piece of the $1 billion.
The $11 billion in payments for about 16 different field crops that include corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, and milo, and 10 not so common crops it is no wonder that payments will be sliced pretty thin. For example, USDA estimates that farmers planted around 96 million acres of corn and 83.5 million acres of soybeans, and the total acreage of all commodity crops in the U.S. is about 330 million acres. Although there is a lot of “I don’t know” from farm economists at this point, there are estimates that payments per acre for corn will be $43, about $30 for soybeans, $85 for cotton, rice is expected to be $77, and milo will be $42 and a half per acre.
Not on top of this spiderweb of subsidies, the Farm Bill, the major U.S. law that governs U.S. agriculture and food policy is still waiting for renewal. It covers farmer support that includes crop insurance, price supports, loans, conservation, rural development, ag research and trade, and domestic nutrition programs like SNAP, also known as food stamps. It's important both for farmers and non farmers because it impacts the security of nation's food supply, farmers' livelihoods, and the environment. This bill is supposed to be renewed every five years, but renewal of the bill is being held up by wrangling in congress about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. At this point, congress is working with an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill, and so far this congress doesn't appear to have much desire or time to pass a new bill.
Beekeeper Randy Stieg wrote, “Most everything in life can be bought, traded for, or inherited-except for respect.”
