Farm Bill
Overview: Policies focused on economic growth…
NGFA federal policy priorities focus on issues vitally important to the economic growth and competitiveness of all sectors of the commercial grain, grain processing, feed and feed ingredient, and export industry, as well as end-users of grains and grain products, including processors, flour millers, livestock and poultry operations, and biofuels manufacturers.
Conservation Reserve Program
The 2018 farm law includes several Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) reforms that the NGFA supported throughout the legislative process, including reducing rental rates to provide a market-based disincentive to enrolling productive cropland. Too much productive farmland currently is enrolled in CRP, and reducing rental rates should help refocus the program on truly highly erodible and environmentally sensitive land.
The NGFA believes the CRP should be targeted at the most environmentally sensitive portions of farms, and avoid enrollment of whole farms or large tracts of productive farmland. The CRP’s blunt, 30-year-old general sign-up process enrolls whole farms while also eliminating opportunity for beginning farmers and harming agricultural communities that depend on farming. Currently, almost ¼ of the 24 million acres in CRP is on what is considered “prime” farmland. The NGFA also notes that many of rural America’s local economies are driven by agricultural production. Enrolling whole farms in CRP detracts from the economic viability of those local economies.
One-page summary of how to improve the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
Statements
NGFA submits statement to USDA on implementing farm bill conservation programs, March 1, 2019
NGFA issues statement on release of farm bill, Dec. 11, 2018
NGFA submits comments to USDA on how to remove barriers and perform better service, Sept. 15, 2017
VIDEO: NGFA President Randy Gordon’s interview with RFD-TV, July 5, 2017.
Comments to the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation on Feb. 28, 2017.
NGFA President Randy Gordon’s editorial: CRP’s Groundhog Day on Feb. 15, 2017
Local Economies
Click on the counties below to see how a more targeted CRP program could help local economies.