One Big Beautiful Farm Bill? GOP law offers some help to Minnesota farmers

Minnesota farmers have longed for a new farm bill The One Big Beautiful Bill might be the best they get for now While the fate of the Farm Bill is uncertain Congress hasn t passed one since That one expired in and federal lawmakers since then have only been able to agree on short extensions with minor revisions Meanwhile President Donald Trump s huge new budget reconciliation law contains billion in new spending to patronage key agricultural programs specific of which would ordinarily be addressed in a farm bill There were a lot of components in that Big Beautiful Bill that were really critical reported Dana Allen-Tully a dairy farmer in Eyota We re thankful that Congress got several provisions passed Although that help was well received by Minnesota farmers at Farmfest last week enthusiasm for the measure was dampened by concerns over inflation commodity prices and Trump tariffs that have upended global transaction and increased uncertainty What s in the OBBB for farmers The reconciliation bill makes big changes in USDA programs that have been sought by the nation s farmers Besides increasing reference prices and crop insurance premium subsidies the budget bill s changes to USDA guidelines means Minnesota s sugar beet growers will likely get higher prices for their crops And the state s dairy farmers will benefit from a more generous dairy margin plan that insures against a drop in milk prices House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn GT Thompson considered those provisions to be of a farm bill Related Tucked away in One Big Beautiful Bill a plan to disqualify refugees from physical condition care assistance One of the provisions is a doubling of federal dollars for agriculture pact promotion a move aimed at countering the impact of pact wars that are likely to be touched off by Trump s tariffs We use those funds to develop international markets for ag Allen-Tully declared The doubling of those dollars helps us get sphere access in other countries Dana Allen-Tully a dairy farmer in Eyota sits for a portrait during FarmFest on Wednesday Aug in Morgan Minnesota Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost Catchlight Description for America Bob Worth a soybean farmer in Lake Benton also disclosed the boost transaction promotion money to more than million is going to help a lot They haven t raised that price for years Worth explained With inflation it was veritably cut down to maybe of what it was Now we re back stronger than what we were Still Minnesota farmers are looking for more help from Washington D C in these uncertain times for agriculture There are things only a farm bill can do noted Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation President Dan Glessing The budget reconciliation bill is limited to making changes in programs that raise or spend federal dollars But the measure is proscribed from making protocol changes So there s hope Congress will pass a skinny farm bill to try to address other concerns We still need the program side of the farm bill and there s not a lot of time Glessing announced Kyle Jore a soybean farmer in the Thief River Falls area revealed he s glad Congress has addressed specific concerns but declared the reconciliation bill is still not the farm bill It s pieces of the farm bill Nobody wins a agreement war Minnesota farmers hope a true farm bill will outlaw Proposition a ballot initiative in California that restricts the sale of pork veal and egg products from animals confined in means that don t meet minimum space requirements Other states have adopted similar initiatives Those state laws have forced Minnesota farmers to spend money on the way they confine their animals or lose fundamental domestic markets Another thing that s on corn growers farm bill wish list is a mandate for year-long nationwide use of E a fuel blend consisting of ethanol and gasoline And Glessing stated the reconciliation act s attempt to shore up the farm safety net comes at a cost because they are paid for by cuts to food stamps a project supported by the nation s farmers Cost cutting measures in the act include the imposition of new regulations on food stamp recipients that are aimed at shrinking the venture which is officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Initiative SNAP The act also shifts administrative costs of running the campaign to states and counties So there s hope among a few farmers and congressional Democrats of rolling back certain of those cuts to SNAP in a farm bill which is usually the legislative carriage to make changes in the food stamp project Related Minnesota s rural hospitals may be hard hit by big beautiful bill But what numerous farmers view as a major threat to the farm financial system can t be helped by a new farm bill Multiple of the state s soybean farmers and pork producers are still feeling the effect of the tariffs Trump imposed on China during his first term which nearly shut down a growing new realm for their products after Beijing retaliated Trump s latest tariff strategy is global and could have an even bigger impact Obviously there are retaliatory tariffs that are on my product pork products revealed Randy Spronk past president of the National Pork Producers Council We re paying a tariff going into China right now Gov Tim Walz was also at Farmfest and eager to speak about Trump s tariffs Nobody wins a business war Walz informed reporters The longer these business wars drag on or the discussions of a deal war you lose access to markets And when you lose access to a sector just like last one we lost our soybean region in China they went to Brazil and now Brazil has that domain Yet Stephen Vaden U S Deputy Secretary of Agriculture who spoke at a Farmfest forum reported Trump s business plan would instead open doors to U S agricultural products Vaden explained commerce deals Trump has released on Truth Social and the social platform X is what s going on behind the scenes of plenty of negotiations that will favor American farmers When a country comes to the United States and they want to negotiate their tariff rate among the first things they re appealed is what can you do for American agriculture Vaden declared However a big difficulty with commerce deals with European countries has long been its restrictions to major U S agricultural products which seem to be unaffected by Trump s deal with the European Commission The post One Big Beautiful Farm Bill GOP law offers certain help to Minnesota farmers appeared first on MinnPost