A number of next-generation farmers spoke during a panel discussion at the Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit. The presentation, titled ?A Conversation About Future Ag and Food Policy,? gave the farmers a chance to talk about what they?d like to see in the upcoming farm bill. Mitchell Hora, an Iowa farmer who is also the founder and CEO of Continuum Ag, said the most important thing for policy makers to remember is farmer innovation.
?So, my ask really boils down to allow for flexibility within programs, allow for more of the research to be done, and allow for innovators to be innovative,? Hora said. ?What I mean by that is some of the policies around the actual farm programs themselves- ARC and PLC, for example, some of the things within EQIP, CSP, and the crop insurance programs- there’s a lot of restrictions there. It’s a lot of, ?Keep to the book and stay to the book, farmer. Here’s what the rules say, only do that.??
Hora said that lack of flexibility creates excessive risk on his Iowa farm.
?As we were trying new things like relay cropping, where we’re growing our own cover crop seed, we’ve had to do that without crop insurance,? Hora said. ?In crop insurance and the RMA Best Practices, relay cropping is not one of those things, even though now this will be our fifth year using relay cropping, and relay cropping added an extra $300 per acre to our bottom-line profitability last year.?
Matt Fimon, chair of the Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said he?d like to see policymakers simplify some of the paperwork associated with farming.
?You know, I would say ease of the loan application process,? Fimon said. ?It?s such a difficult process to go through and, as a young farmer, it?s hard to show who owns what or who has what or who’s doing what because a lot of it is the parents or the grandparents. So, to focus on that in the application process would be great.?
The Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit took place on March 20th in Washington, D.C.
