Digging Deeper...
/In 2022, former U.S. Congressional Representative and House Ag Committee Chairman Colin Petersen (D-MN) participated in a panel discussion during the Eighth Annual Ag Outlook Forum presented by Agri-Pulse Communications and the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City. During the presentation he told panel moderator Blake Hurst that he was the only democrat on the committee who “wanted to be on it.” And, he added, only a handful of his fellow Democrat committee members were from agriculture districts. The situation now appears to be changing. Over the last few years, House Democrats seem to have become more interested in agriculture, providing some hope for a return to bipartisan agricultural legislating in that chamber, despite recent struggles to pass a Farm Bill in a closely divided U.S. House of Representatives with vocal ag opponents on the far left and right. Ahead of the 2024 election, let’s look at where each of the Presidential candidates stand.
By Dennis McLaughlin, McLaughlin Writers LLC. Sources: Sarah Zimmerman, Agriculture Dive, October 2024; American Farm Bureau Federation.
House Democrats’ Agriculture Reset
Most U.S. Senators have urban and rural constituencies alike, facilitating a typically bipartisan and congenial process for legislating farm bills with strong contributions from both parties. In the U.S. House, the urban-rural divide is more starkly partisan, and Democratic House members had gradually drifted from agriculture as Democrats represented fewer rural districts. Long term, this threatened to pose a problem for agriculture, which relies on members from both parties having a stake in the farm bill process. A reset may be on the horizon: on September 25, 2024, the New Democrat Coalition (NDC)’s Farm Bill Task Force sent letters to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate, as well as to the heads of the House and Senate Committees on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. The New Dems (as they refer to themselves), the largest caucus of more moderate Democrats, are calling for Congress to pass a strong, bipartisan Farm Bill before the end of 2024.
NDC’s Farm Bill Task Force chair, U.S. House Representative Kim Schrier (D-WA), issued a statement accompanying the letter to legislators. “America’s farmers are the backbone of our country and communities,” she said. “They feed and employ our constituents and help power our economy. That’s why Congress must put partisanship aside and pass a robust Farm Bill by the end of the year to avert a harmful lapse in funding for American agriculture.”
Based on sentiments voiced during this year’s Ag Outlook Forum in Kansas City last month, Republicans could be asking themselves is there an echo here? “Passing the bill this year is critical,” said Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), a keynoter at the Forum. He argued that an extension of the legislation is insufficient.
Sen. Moran may have some new friends. Earlier this month U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (D-KS) was endorsed by the Kansas Farm Bureau, the first Kansas Democrat in Congress to earn the nod. Davids, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, has dedicated considerable time to Agriculture since she joined the committee after three rural counties were added to her district. She recently introduced a new bill – Resilient Food Supply Chain and Affordability Act – aimed at strengthening local and regional food systems. Davids’ bill sits alongside other big picture priorities consistent with bipartisan agricultural consensus – protecting crop insurance from harmful cuts, prioritizing voluntary working lands conservation programs, and updating reference prices to match current conditions.
The bill would make permanent the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) Program, which is enhancing resilience within the food supply chain, supporting local farmers, creating jobs and reducing grocery costs for consumers.
Kansas agriculture has welcomed RFSI grants. “It will support improvements across the middle of our state's food supply chain, including increased food processing infrastructure, producer aggregation points, and product storage,” said Mike Beam, Kansas Secretary of Agriculture. “Investing in these Kansas food and farm businesses and other eligible organizations will create diverse local and regional market options and more economic opportunities for our Kansas communities.”
Davids is also a candidate for Chair of the New Democrats in the next Congress, reinforcing hopes for a return to bipartisan agriculture legislation in the U.S. House and strong regional representation for the Kansas City agricultural corridor in the process.
Meanwhile Back On The Campaign Trail
While bipartisanship may be in play in the House and Senate as well-intentioned Democratic and Republican legislators push to pass Farm Bill 2025 this year, there is a presidential election campaign going on. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have brandished their interpretations of what challenges agriculture faces and how their own policies can fix things.
Food and farm issues have garnered more attention than usual in this election cycle. Higher food prices, complicated trade relations with China and other farm issues have become more central to party platforms. Americans are more aware of how supply chain dynamics, weather cycles and production and processing economics influence product availability and prices at grocery stores.
Presented here are thumbnail sketches of key agriculture issues that have gained prominence on the platforms of both the Democrat and Republican Parties. The source for this synopsis is Agriculture Dive, an online news platform operated by Washington DC-based Industry Dive. Earlier this month, editor Sarah Zimmerman reached out to the American Farm Bureau Federation for its take on how the candidates are approaching key issues that the U.S. agriculture sector faces. AFBF had questioned the candidates regarding their positions on several issues of interest to the agricultural economy.
Food Price Inflation
HARRIS: Vows to pass the first federal ban on price gouging, and has made statements explicitly targeting the grocery, meat and poultry industries. She is also looking to address higher consumer prices by expanding competition throughout the food system, pledging that she will crack down on unfair mergers and acquisitions involving big food corporations to help create a level playing field.
TRUMP: Promises to cut farm production costs, though he and his team haven’t provided many details. The former president said he will “bring down interest rates” and slash farm energy costs by half within the first year of his term. He also said he would reverse “every single Biden-Harris burdensome and costly regulation” that is contributing to the increased cost of supplies.
Farm Labor and Immigration
HARRIS: Applications for H-2A visas have soared throughout Biden and Harris’ term as a pressing labor shortage continues to push farms to recruit workers outside the United States. Large farm groups have pushed back against Biden-Harris administration efforts to strengthen farmworker rights and expand workplace protections including heat safety. Harris said her administration would focus on “improving our legal immigration system to function better for our economy, farmers, and workers.” The vice president added that any solution should include “both strong border security and an earned path to citizenship.”
TRUMP: Trump said he would prioritize “merit-based immigration” and expanded support in the domestic agriculture industry. As president he oversaw a significant increase in worksite raids to detain and deport workers. In the 2024 campaign cycle, Trump has ramped up rhetoric on border control, threatening “mass deportations” of millions of immigrants, including those who have legally come into the country under two Biden administration programs.
Climate-smart agriculture
HARRIS: The Biden-Harris administration expanded opportunities for farmers to transition to more sustainable practices, earmarking an additional $20 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act for climate-smart agriculture. The Democratic platform released in August included a pledge to make the U.S farm sector the world’s first to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 through accelerated adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices.
TRUMP: In his next term, Trump would roll back climate policies made during the Biden administration, which he claims have contributed to higher energy costs. He believes climate action should occur in the free market, saying “innovation and economic growth will allow us to unleash the technologies and processes that make the environment better while reshoring production away from foreign polluters.”
Farm Bill
HARRIS: Has not publicly taken a stance on the farm bill, though her campaign has that farm safety net programs like crop insurance are essential to “protect farmers from unforeseen changes in circumstances.” Harris’ vice-presidential pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz served six terms on the House Agriculture Committee as a congressman and helped write three Farm Bills. Walz and his experience in Congress representing a rural district, should be “especially encouraging to agricultural stakeholders,” said former Environmental Protection Agency senior agriculture advisor Rod Snyder. Democrats oppose House Republicans’ farm bill plan, arguing it would reverse changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding formula that boosted assistance levels for participants in 2021.
TRUMP: Supports improvements to reference prices, crop insurance and dairy margin coverage. The former president also supports more specialty crop insurance plus investments in science and technology to “stay ahead of China.” While Trump hasn’t explicitly supported either version of the Farm Bill, House Republicans have pushed for a package that looks to solve budgetary constraints by cutting $30 billion from SNAP and removing funding protections for climate-smart agriculture, while also increasing farm subsidies.
Trade And Relations With China
HARRIS: The Biden-Harris administration largely kept Trump’s 301 tariffs on China intact, and recently took steps to ratchet up duties on Chinese goods in a bid to protect U.S. manufacturing. As President, she says she will not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American farmers and ranchers,” her campaign wrote to the Farm Bureau. As trade tensions push China to shun U.S. commodities, the Biden-Harris administration has encouraged producers to diversify their export markets to places like Europe and Africa. While targeted agreements have lifted barriers for certain crops, farm groups have pushed for more trade pacts to offset losses from China.
TRUMP: As president, Trump kicked off a trade war with China that sent farm exports plummeting and oversaw billions of dollars in controversial bailout payments meant to offset those losses. Trump promises to be even tougher on China in his next term, floating tariffs of more than 60% on imports. He’s also looking to implement 10% across-the-board tariffs on all U.S. imports, threatening to erode relations with traditional partners and restart a potentially widespread trade war. Higher tariffs could erode market opportunities for farmers as they continue to compete with lower-priced commodities from other countries. To address the potential loss in exports, Trump said during a campaign stop at a Pennsylvania farm that he would enforce a trade agreement that rolled back some tariffs in exchange for China buying $50 million in farm goods.
Ethanol and biofuels
HARRIS: The Biden-Harris administration expanded ethanol opportunities to give corn producers more of a chance to cash in on a renewable energy transition. Biden approved a request from eight major farm producing states to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol starting in 2025. The administration also opened the door for ethanol makers to get in on the lucrative sustainable aviation fuel market, though the farm requirements to access tax credits has faced some criticism. Harris told the Farm Bureau she looks to build on biofuels opportunities in the sector plus rural infrastructure investments made under the Inflation Reduction Act, saying she is committed to “boosting high-quality job opportunities across rural America and enlisting agriculture as a pivotal tool to fight climate change.”
TRUMP: Moved to completely lift restrictions on the sale of E15 gasoline in 2019, though a court threw out the rule two years later. Trump said he’s committed to lowering energy prices by removing regulations and increasing domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal. “We won’t just increase ethanol production in our own country, we will make it our mission to export ethanol all over the world.”
Accelerating Farm Innovation
HARRIS: The Biden-Harris administration launched the first U.S. plan to expand biotechnology and biomanufacturing in 2022 as demand for bio-based products and fuels grows. Earlier this year, the USDA unveiled its roadmap to increase processing capabilities for crop residues and other feedstocks. The department invested $772 million in 2023 for research, development and expanding biomanufacturing infrastructure. Harris touted investments made during the Biden administration, such as increased funding for land-grant universities.
TRUMP: The Trump team has portrayed regulation as a barrier to innovation, and during his presidency streamlined the approval processes for ag biotech including gene-editing. The move worried some in the research community, who expressed concern it would make it more difficult to assess risks of these new products. The former president will continue to take aim at regulations in his next term. He has said, “I will slash regulations that stifle American agriculture and make everything more expensive.”