DNC 2024 platform mentions of farms: mentioned 33 times
Past:
“Big agriculture” and the loss of 400,000 small farms since ‘84
Bipartisan ocean shipping reform act
Prohibited chlorpyrifos pesticide
American Rescue Plan debt relief for Black and socially disadvantaged farmers
Helping family farmers with distressed loans.
Expanded farm insurance to allow double-cropping
Now:
Inflation Reduction Act and climate-smart practices that keep land profitable
Financially rewarding sustainable practices using private and public funding
Future:
Expand rights of farmworkers
Creating new streams of income for farmers
Increasing competition among suppliers to lower costs and increase farmers income
Supporting independent meat and poultry processing to reduce reliance on big companies
Boost production of expensive fertilizer so it can be more cost-efficient and accessible
Working on the right to repair equipment
Limit foreign ownership of american farmland
RNC 2024 platform policies mentions of farms:
Farmers are mentioned once in the text of the RNC national platform in the section focused on keeping trade domestic.
“Usda should play a limited role…removing governmental barriers that hinder food production or otherwise undermine efforts to meet consumer demand”
Against language for equity and climate change
- Change usda mission statement to remove equity and climate
- Views as threats to agriculture
- Limit usda role
- Esp for food stamps
- Remove foreign trade barriers
- USDA strategic plan 2022–2026 first 3 goals: climate change, renewable energy, systemic racism
- Remove us from un and any sustainable development schemes
- Commodity credit corp
- Funds ag-related farm bills
- “USDA slush fund”
- “The merits of the various programs funded by the ccc discretionary authority is not the focus of this discussion” but we want to get rid f it.
- Amend charter act to require prior congressional approval
- Make it harder to quickly get financial aid to farmers when needed
- Spending should only be for problems “temporary in nature” aka not to solve systemic problems such as racism
- Goal to eliminate subsidy dependence
- Ag Risk Coverage program
- ARC protects from “shallow” losses––when revenue is less than 86% of expected
- repeal
- Price Loss Cov Program
- PLC provides payments to farmers when commodity prices fall
- repeal
- Fed crop insurance program
- Subsidized insurance for 124 crops (farmers pay 40% of premiums)
- Reduce subsidy rate so farmers pay more
- Fed sugar program
- Separate ag provisions from nutrition/SNAP programs in farm bill and from USDA (and cut many social support programs)
- Ag Risk Coverage program
- Reform conservation programs
- Remove climate change goals entirely
- Assistance to farmers should not be provided unless going to “a specific enviro problem”
- Assistance should not be provided if farmers would’ve done it anyway
- Eliminate the conservation reserve program
- “Pays farmers not to farm their land”
- Really: CRP is a voluntary program that encourages farmers to convert sensitive land to be native land and prevent erosion
- Reform NRCS wetland & erodable land compliance and appeals
- Remove its authority to prescribe conservation practices to individ. Farms
- Limit current permanent easements, no new ones
- Promote legislation that would allow state-inspected meat to be sold nationally
- Limit or eliminate marketing orders and checkoff programs that research and market American produce for farmers
- Privatize
- If not eliminated, force regular votes to make it harder
- Repeal overseas american agricultural products promotional programs like the market access program
- Remove obstacles for agricultural biotechnology and repeal federal labeling law.
- Eliminate the USDA dietary guidelines
- Eliminate the food and nutrition service
- “The farm service agency which administers many of the farm subsidy programs would be significantly smaller in size.”
Farm action fund state advocacy guide:
- Urge state/local officials to limit corporate and foreign ownership/leasing of farmland
- 2024 bill for foreign ownership (R) that failed
- Strengthen the packers and stockyards act
- Was passed 100 years ago to fight against monopolies but lost power in courts in the 80s––meat and poultry esp
- Urge state officials to pass legislation that grants state attorneys power to enforce
- Right to repair legislation
- 2025 bipartisan bill in state house (HB842) did not pass (failed in 2023)
- Direct state auditor to audit checkoff boards
- Like the md grain producers utilization board
- Enforce truth in food labels by contacting your state attorney gen. If you see a misleading food label
- Antitrust enforcement
- Difficult for the little guy to compete against big business
- State attorney gen enforce
- Increase funding to antitrust enforcement
- Make it easier for outsiders to start farming!
- Dei
- Seeds: Urge state attorney gen to enforce consumer protection laws and investigate unfair seed practices
- Invest in local ag
- Encourage state officials to invest in local meat processing facilities
- create/expand grant/low-interest loan programs that fund infrastructure that benefits farms
- WES MOORE 2024 DID w/ USDA in response to drought last year
- create/expand/financially support co-ops
- Encourage state officials to buy from local ag when possible and direct gov’t spending to small farms
- Trumps trade war in 2018 cost farmers 27 billion dollars in lost ag exports
- Birdflu is a concern for farmers right now
- Elon musk stopped payments for farmers like in the ira and cut funding to us agency for international development––buys 2b of american farm products/year
- Study by nat’ corn growers and natl soybean associates
- In the event of new trade war, soybean to china exports could drop over 50% and corn by nearly 85%
- Brazil and argentina gain market share and increase exports
- Cherry farmer could end up in 200k debt if unable to access grant money she was promised
- Trump tariff could up price of grain and fertilizer and lower demand overseas for us ag
- Immigration crackdowns bad
- 40% of farmworkers lack proper doc to work in us
- Spending cuts and freezes directly affected federally funded programs that provide loans and grants to farmers
- 30,715 contracts have been promised to farmers through bidens inflation reduction act and are currently not being paid out due to elon musk federal spending freeze
- The ira appropriated 19.5 billion to conservation efforts
- Conservation stewardship program
- Environmental quality incentives program
- Regional conservation partnership program
- Agricultural conservation easement program
- Conservation technical assistance (CTA)
- Rural energy for america program
- Ira helpful for rural energy independence
- Trump says we have a national energy emergency in an exec order asking for new energy project––but does not include any new solar or wind projects in that order
- Freeze on new regs
- 45z tax credit for clean fuel production unclear
- IRA funding pause
- Trump ordered pause on ira funding––40 billion in ag conservation, rural development, and forrestry programs
- 18 billion in ag programs by usda like enviro quality incentive program and conservation stewardship program
- Trade
- 20% of us farm products are exported
- First term: tariffs lead to retaliatory tariffs
- Soybean sales to china dropped almost 79% 2017–2019
- Forced trump to spend 23 billion in tax money via market facilitation program for losses from trade disruptions
- Immigration
- Exec orders on immigration
- Declaration of emergency at border
- Construct border barriers
- End birthright citizenship
- Usda 44% of farm laborers, graders, sorters not legally in us
- Exec orders on immigration
- Last 4 years
- 2021 biden exec order helped revamp packers and stockyard act
- Product of the usa means animals are born, raised, die, and are processed in usa (as opposed to just processed)
- Promote small/med meat processing facilities with 500 million in grants
- Ftc and anti-trust––blocked kroger-albertsons merger
- Biden admin and usda launched organic-transition initiative
- Climate-smart commodities program invested 3.1 billion production and marketing of c-s policies
- Expand markets and revenue streams farmers
- Ira
- Biden admin launched usda equity comiss.
- How to root out systemic discrimination
- Create programs for equity and accessibility
- 550 million wnet to projects that enable underserved producers to access land, trainings, markets and capital
- Heirs property relenting program
- Covid assistance
- Changes to h-2a visa––easier to recruit workers
- High speed internet funding rural americans
- Local procurement act
- Usda funding food procession, distribution, infrastructure, meat and poultry capacity
- 2021–2023 70% reduction in chapter 12 bankruptcies farms
- Ira loan forgiveness to nearly 48k distressed loan
- Money to farmers victims of discrimination