From the Ground Up: Texas farmers eye new Farm Bill

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 is set to expire at the end of this year, and politicians have been scrambling to pass a new version of the “Farm Bill.” As they do, Texas farmers have turned their attention to Washington.

“I like to see a successful U.S. Ag sector,” said Seth Meyer, U.S. Department of Agriculture Chief Economist. “Within the U.S. government, we’re always representing those views of U.S. agriculture.”

Meyer cited “the three pillars of success,” critical for the agricultural industry to continue flourishing and feeding the world.

“You’ve got three pillars you need to achieve. Farmers have got to be able to make a living. You want to provide safe and nutritious food to consumers, and you want to produce it in a way that you can continue to produce it. At the USDA, our main goal is this: ‘How much of these three can we achieve at once?’”

Meyer said it’s necessary for farmers to have a safety net, too. For instance, he believes crop insurance is critical in keeping farms in business.

“I don’t want a good farmer to be knocked out by one bad year, right? So, the crop insurance sits there to say, ‘hey, there are certain things beyond your control.’ If you’re a bad farmer, you’re still going to go out of business. But the safety net is there not to save every farmer, it’s there to keep you from experiencing sharply negative events that are largely beyond your control.”

Meyer says success depends upon satisfying as many of the three pillars as possible. To him, for American farmers, technology is the key.

“You can’t just pick one of those three legs of the stool. You’ve got to try and get through all three of them. Again, I think from our standpoint at the USDA, one of the ways to achieve that is advances in technology. Those are the ways that you can keep your farmers competitive: continue to provide that safe food at a reasonable price, and do it in a way that you can continue to do it for the next 50 years.”

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