From the Ground Up: Ranchers hope for representation as Farm Bill drafts continue

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Joe Outlaw, Co-director of the Agriculture and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M, recently hosted speakers from all over the country to discuss the upcoming farm bill. The goal? To ensure Texas ranchers are well represented.

“There is no other country that has cheaper food than we do,” he said, “or safer food than we do, or more abundant food than we do. It is hugely important in this country. And, for all the faults that politicians tend to have, they all understand that.”

The 2018 version of the bill expires this year, but Outlaw believes politicians will inevitably come to a consensus on a new bill. Not only does he believe it’s critical for agriculture, but investing in ranchers and farmers is good for business.

“We spend, of our federal budget, one-quarter of 1% on agriculture,” Outlaw said. “You could do away with every Ag program we have – including food stamps – and not have an impact on our federal budget deficit. So, people need to understand that we’re spending pennies on the dollar to protect everyone’s food. It’s simply a good investment.”

According to him, drafting a new Farm Bill was once easy work, particularly since historically agriculture has been a non-partisan issue.

“Agriculture is, unfortunately, about like [everything] else now,” he said. “[Polititicans] say they want to work together, but if you looked at the last two farm bills – at least in the House Agriculture Committee – they were split, basically done on party-line votes. It means if you have enough members of your party to get to 218 votes in the House of Representatives, you don’t need the other party. So, you kinda push through your initiatives, and we’re expecting something similar to that this time.”

Even so, he believes that not only will this get done, it must get done.

“The core thing is, we’ve got to keep our farmers in business when bad times hit,” he said. “And, they are gonna hit. We have to keep farmers in place so they can try again next year.”

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