GREAT FALLS — Congress passed the Farm Bill about five years ago, and without an extension in place, come October 1, the bill will expire.
“They're going to have to do something whether they pass a disaster package, put in an extension on the current farm bill, as they've already done, and seem to always do, you know,” said Kera Birkeland, Director of Policy with the Montana Grain Growers Association.
“Farmers and ranchers, they cannot live off of the 2018 farm bill pricing guidelines. That's just not feasible," she continued.
This bill covers everything from agriculture and food programs and has a huge impact on farming, food security, rural economies, and natural resource conservation.
Negotiations have been ongoing but continue getting delayed due to partisan disagreements, especially over SNAP funding and climate change provisions.
“Those are good important programs. But they are taking away all of that funding and resources," Birkeland said. "Look, you can't have WIC program be successful if you don't have food to put on the shelves for them to use the WIC resources for it.”
In the past five years, America has lost more than 140,000 farms, according to Birkeland.
Officials say low commodity prices, rising supply costs, inflation, and outdated farm policy provisions threaten to destroy thousands more.
"The current farm bill has been a failure to current to our farmers right now, absolutely, and it's projected that those numbers will more likely triple in the next year, not in the next five years," Birkeland said. "The next year, triple.”
When the Farm Bill expires, some impacts will be felt immediately, and some think that simply extending it isn’t enough.
“The reference price, the safety net, all of it has to be expanded. It just does if we want to be able to see our farmers continue to own their farmland to function, that the way that they have been functioning for generations and generations.”
While Montana has fewer than 100 licensed dairy farms, the nation has about 30,000, and when the new year begins, dairy margin coverage payments will cease and farm safety net programs revert back to outdated 1940s policy, that will threaten to disrupt markets.
This means that dairy prices could rise significantly. Several programs like dairy will continue to operate for the next few months due to how they were structured in the bill come 2025.
We could see some significant changes if an extension agreement or new deal isn't reached.
