Politico recently reported that the House of Representatives Passage of the Farm Bill marks the farthest a farm bill has made it in Congress since the most recent reauthorization was signed into law in 2018. But the Bill still faces long odds against it becoming law, because of wrangling going on in the Senate due to policy disagreements. While the senate fiddles, Farm-state Republicans and agriculture lobbying groups are stressing the need for this legislation, because farmers are facing high production costs, increasing bankruptcies and economic uncertainty.
But hey, the Trump administration seems to have higher priorities to deal with. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rejected all four farmers that were chosen by their peers to represent them in an industry group called the United Soybean Board earlier this year. But there is some suspicion that this unusual intervention by the Department of Agriculture was due to the fact that the four farmers were rejected by the Trump administration because they are women, and the administration has vowed to axe policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
Farmers are also unhappy about the current administration’s lack of support for trade pacts such as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Farm organizations believe that this trade pack should be a priority for the Trump Administration because Canada and Mexico are our most consistent trading partners. The National Corn Growers Association points out that the European Union has 70 global trade agreements, Canada and Mexico each have around 50, and the U.S. has only 20 similar global agreements.
Dr. David Kohl, Agricultural Economic Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech University, usually tracks what is happening in the ag economy, but in a recent article in Farm Progress Magazine, he pointed out that consumer spending is 70% of the economy, but there are several warning signs about where the U.S. economy is headed. He pointed out that many potential home buyers are canceling purchase contracts, and that the Index of Consumer Sentiment, that is published monthly by the University of Michigan, is in what he calls, the red-light range, meaning below 75. A record low of 47.6 was posted in April, a dangerous level for the general economy, which signals that a large share of the consuming public is under financial stress.
As if Farmers and ranchers don’t have enough to worry about, the National Equipment Register points out that $300 million to $1 billion in heavy equipment is stolen in the U.S. annually, and some of that is farm equipment. So what can ag producers do? The American Farm Bureau Federation suggests that they should get a real junkyard dog, the Asylon Drone Dog, that if nothing else, should strike fear into some schmuck’s heart, who is making a midnight call at a farm or ranch looking for something to steal. This mechanical creature has four legs, two lights on a short head, no wagging tail, but is capable of sending data to the drone headquarters that likely would identify the two legged prowler. Even though the company doesn't claim that the drone dog would grab a miscreant by the seat of their pants, I imagine that a prowler would change careers if they ran into one of these drones while looking for something to steal on a dark night. A link to the Asylon Dronedog website is at the Farm News & Views blog post at KSJD.org.
