While the reset button on the clock for the Farm Bill may have been pressed with the recently passed stopgap bill, many in agriculture are still unhappy.
National Council of Farmer Cooperatives President and CEO Chuck Conner says this Farm Bill is unlikely any other has been a part of.
“My farm bill experience goes back to 1981, so a lot longer than 20 years. This will be the ninth farm bill that I’ve been involved with in some way or another. So, I’ve seen it all. What is frustrating about this farm bill is those previous bills that I’ve worked on, all eight of them, I would say the difference in policy that we had to work through were much greater than this farm bill.”
Connor says the timeline of this Farm Bill is inexcusable.
“We don’t have much in the way of differences. We can’t get the politicians to sit down and work out what would be considered relatively minor differences by historical standards. That’s what’s frustrating. We’re two years late on a bill that should have been a slam dunk and done in the first couple of months because our differences are not that great.”
Conner says he understands that Congress may have many other tasks at the top of their to-do list in the new year, but putting off the Farm Bill in early 2025 is not the right answer.
