A new wave of federal direct assistance to ag producers offering relief at a time commodity prices are low and inputs are high. But some of the state’s industry leaders worry it signals a shift farmers won’t like.
They say farmers want dollars to come from the markets not the government.
Congress allocated $10 billion in assistance last December, which the USDA opened access to this week. It’s attempting to keep the agriculture industry healthy as markets go down.
Scott VanderWal is the President of the South Dakota Farm Bureau. He said he’s in favor of trying to keep the American ag economy healthy, but there are other ways to help fix the problem.
“Start working on finding foreign markets for our exports again so we can increase the prices of our products and get it moving,” VanderWal said.
Back in the first Trump presidency, the USDA handed out funds to help ag markets stay afloat amid a Chinese trade war. Current Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins has indicated she would employ a similar approach if needed.
VanderWal said he worries more funding is going to lead to reliance on the government.
“Farmers and ranchers would rather not see that happen, but if it becomes reality and our markets don’t come back, then we can’t continue to lose the volume of money or the level of equity that we have as an industry in the last couple years. It just won’t work long term,” VanderWal said.
Doug Sombke is the President of the South Dakota Farmer’s Union. He said a bigger problem is at hand: the lack of a new Farm Bill.
"The division in this country has even struck down into what should be a nonpartisan bill. Right? I mean, feeding people should not be a partisan issue,” Sombke said. “Clothing people should not be a partisan issue. Providing natural resources for fueling this country shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We’ve allowed it to become that in Congress, and I would expect better of our Congressmen to stop that from happening. And, let’s get something done that’s workable and sustainable for agriculture.”
He said in the Farm Bill there is a base payment that the government would make up the difference for farmers and ranchers if the prices on their product dropped below a certain threshold. He said that’s a more sustainable approach to a health Ag economy.
He claims, in addition to inflation, the lack of a new Farm Bill has caused that number to become outdated.
