Hi I’m Mike, this week the US government approved the new farm bill, providing billions
in subsidies, legalizing hemp and bolstering farmers markets.
Today we take a look the farm bill, subsidies and country of origin labeling and how they
all effect the ranch, on our Wyoming life.
Welcome back to our Wyoming life, where each week we explore the ranch life and escape
the ordinary.
Most of our episodes center right here on the ranch, and today is no different but we
are coming at it from a different direction as this week the Senate and House of representatives
have finally approved the farm bill which was due on September 30th, better late than
never.
The farm bill is renewed every 5 years in the US, it was created during the great depression
to help farmers that were struggling in the dust bowl.
In 1933 it was first passed by congress and called the Agricultural Adjustment Act and
due to excess crop supply creating low prices it allowed farmers to receive payment for
not growing food on a percentage of their land, it also allowed the government to buy
excess grain from farmers which could be stored and sold later.
Under part of Franklin D Roosevelts New Deal the Act also included a nutrition program,
the precursor to what we still know these days as food stamps.
Since 1933 a lot has changed, the government no longer buys excess grain and now requires
farmers to enroll in crop insurance programs to receive payments.
The new farm bill is 867 billion dollars to be spent over the next 5 years, its also over
1000 pages, so there is a lot to it.
But how does it affect a ranch in Wyoming, or our Wyoming life?
Today we are going to take a look at it and break down few of the major ways that it does
just that, good or bad.
5% of the last farm bill was set aside for Commodites, the most common of subsidies.
23.5 billion dollars, over 5 years.
On a cattle ranch in Wyoming, we don’t get any of those.
Commodities are set aside mostly for certain crops, wheat, corn, barley, oats, cotton,
rice, soybeans and peanuts.
None of which we grow here.
An interesting statistic about commodity subsidies is this, for the past 10 years or so, the
top 10 percent of companies that received the farm bills commodity subsidies, accounted
for 77 percent of the total.
This year by most reports continues to offer enormous subsidies to large corporations rather
than prioritizing the needs of struggling small farmers.
This policy rewards big farms to get bigger, and effectively moving smaller farms in harder
and harder territory.
Another part of the farm bill that could affect us are loan programs that are included in
the bill.
Most farmers and ranchers are spending money long before any harvest is seen, and for some,
credit is essential to finance costs like land, equipment and infrastructure need to
continue in the long term.
Farm Credit Service offers programs such as Direct operating loans, Microloans and Direct
farm ownership loans to purchase or enlarge farms or ranches and for soil and water conservation
and protection purposes.
This portion of the bill, oddly enough, actually makes money through interested on these loans.
Also included in the farm bill is a section on crop insurance.
Protecting farmers and ranchers from natural disasters.
This is a portion of the farm bill that affects us as well.
Through this portion of the bill we are able to purchase crop insurance.
The government does pay about 2/3 of the cost of insurance and farmers and ranchers pay
the remaining third.
This portion of the farm bill is pretty controversial as well, as 20% of all insurance payments
are going to the richest and largest 1%.
Those that wish to reform farm bill based crop insurance note that insurance subsidies
are furthering the consolidation of farms into larger operations.
And I can say that its not us getting rich off of the insurance subsidies.
I’ll give you this year for example, we had to buy hay, over 50,000 dollars worth.
We didn’t harvest the hay we usually do because of drought, but because the entire
county was not affected the same way, there was deemed no hay relief for our area.
Two years ago in the same boat, we were granted hay relief, to the tune of about 3000.
Almost enough to buy one truck load of the 14 we had to bring in that year.
The farm bill also provides welfare for the next 5 years, over 80% of the entire thing
is devoted to food stamps or the supplemental nutrition assistance program or SNAP.
And along those lines the farm bill also provides permanent funding for farmers markets across
the US, including promotional funds, research funds for organic farming and money for organizations
working to train the next generation of farmers.
These grants are extremely competitive but are out there, to help make farmers markets
bigger and better and that may be a good thing because farmers markets are the places to
can go to meet a farmer and know exactly where your food comes from, unlike what you may
find at your local grocery store.
Do you know where your meat is coming from?
If you buy an avocado in the grocery store you are going to know it was imported from
Mexico, a pair of shoes made in china.
In fact, the chicken in your cart, may have been imported but its going to have a sticker
telling you where it was born, raised and butchered.
Those little stickers are there thanks to Country of Origin Labeling laws, requirements
of us law to tell you that those products were imported from another country.
But lets stroll down to the beef and pork and there are not stickers here, these products
are exempt from these laws.
In fact, most consumers have no idea where their ham or steaks come from, unless the
producer chooses to label it.
So what makes beef and pork different?
That’s a good question.
In 2015 the world trade organization ruled that Americas Country of Origin Labeling laws
were discriminating against Canadian and Mexican livestock.
Canadian and Mexican governments stated that the regulation represented costly tracking
and labeling.
In order to protect their ranchers interests they threatened increased tariffs on US Goods.
Congress soon changed the laws to exempt beef and pork from country of origin labeling.
The USDA justified their decision by saying that imported beef is a product of the US,
even if it come from a different country as long as the country has the same food safety
standards as the US.
But this isn’t a food safety issue, all beef that comes into the US is USDA inspected.
Since the repeal of Country of Origin labeling the beef trade deficit has grown from 754
million in 1994 to 2.2 billion in 2016.
Many cattlemen are calling for the reinstatement of Country of Origin Labeling, claiming that
millions of pounds of beef are now entering the US, Imported from other countries and
labeled as product of the USA, despite only undergoing repackaging in the US, also stating
that cattle producers are being squeezed, prodded and poked by the meat packing industry,
who can buy foreign beef and pork and still label it as US Beef.
Do consumers want to know, when they go to the grocery store, that they are getting true
US beef and pork.
Do they want to see where their food was born, raised and butchered?
Do they want to support local growers and producers?
These are questions that the current Country of Origin Labeling laws ignore.
So I am going to ask you and you can comment below.
As cattlemen continue to lobby to get Country of Origin Labeling reinstated, they hope it
will stop market manipulation, help Americas rural economy and put a stop to consumer disinformation.
But for right now, the only way to know exactly where your beef and pork is coming from is
to buy directly from a trusted farmer near you or ask your grocery story to offer more
detail about where their meat is coming from, some already do but its consumers who may
be the ultimate judge of what is really the value of domestic meat.
Thanks for coming along today, but hopefully it gives you something to think about, feel
free to comment below, like the video, or dislike it.
And if you would like to continue along the journey with us as we explore the ranch life
and escape the ordinary, be sure to subscribe.
Until I see you again, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.