Montana Ag Network: The state of the current Farm Bill

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, more commonly referred to as the Farm Bill, is a crucial safety net for agriculture producers.

“We’ve been pushing for this new Farm Bill for two years now, and so we’re hoping that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and we’re pushing that it’s finished by the end of this fiscal year,” explained Boyd Heilig, president of the Montana Grain Growers Association (MGGA).

Half of Montana’s crop production is exported oversees, making the export markets critical to Montana farmers, and why MGGA is seeking additional funding for the foreign market development to be added to the new farm bill.

“The Farm Bill in 2018 was good, there’s nothing wrong with it, but we want some enhancements to crop insurance, that’s our number one priority, and some additional funding for market access programs and foreign market development,” said Heilig.

With the current 2018 farm bill, totaling $428 billion over the five years, 76% is in the nutrition category, 8.9% is in crop insurance, 7.3% is in farm commodity programs, and 6.8% is in conservation.

“Each time a Farm Bill is about to expire completely, they throw in an extension because they don’t want to revert back to the program where the farmers get paid what it costs to produce their crops,” said Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union.

While the fate of the Farm Bill is unknown at this time, Montana farmers are fighting for more funding to protect agriculture production, and with that, national food security.

“Either they’re going to pass some sort of version during the lame duck period, which is between November and the end of January, or they’ll wait until the new president and congress are sworn in to pass a different Farm Bill,” said Schweitzer.

“We know that nothing is going to get done with the Farm Bill until after the election. But we as Montana Grain Growers, we’re pushing to get this farm bill done,” Heilig added.

If another Farm Bill isn’t passed, federal nutrition programs including SNAP are what will be hit the hardest.

In the last Farm Bill, more than 300 billion dollars was allotted for SNAP programs, meaning that funding would no longer be available, taking away those benefits.

“You don’t have one without the other. And the way I see it is we produce these products, this food, these food products, and so if they go into food programs, that’s just a win-win for both of us to give to the needy but use our food that we raised as part of it. And so that’s why it’s always been together, and it hasn’t been separated, so that’s where a lot of the lines are drawn because they don’t want any cuts to SNAP, and the farmers don’t want any cuts to their programs. And so that’s where the typical argument is of the dollars needed, and where do they go,” shared Heilig.

The MGGA has no interest in seeing that happen; they are seeking to keep that funding there, while also allotting more funding to the crop insurance and market access programs.