NYS Ag Commissioner Visits the North Country and Talks Farm Bill

Members of the St. Lawrence County Farm Bureau met at the Ole Smokehouse in Madrid this week for their annual meeting. Members ate barbeque and discussed what local, state, and federal programs and funding they wanted to support. But they also heard about an important piece of legislation for all farmers.

"The Farm Bill is easily the most complicated piece of legislation that Washington deals with, usually every five years. And we don't seem very close to getting it done right now," said Richard Ball, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets commissioner. He was a special guest at the Farm Bureau meeting.

The Farm Bill is critical to the nation’s food and agriculture systems. It funds SNAP, formerly food stamps, and programs for people on low incomes. It also pays for crop insurance, land conservation, and training for farmers.

Ball said he spent a lot of time traveling around the state last year to hear what New Yorkers had to say about the Farm Bill. He was surprised at what he heard.

"I always heard people arguing about where to take the money from and who to give it to. And it was simple to say, 'Don't cut agricultural programs, cut food programs,' and vice versa. But this year, I didn't hear any of that," he said.

Ball said he thinks people who are usually on opposite sides jockeying for federal money realized during the COVID-19 pandemic that all these programs are vital to the food system.

"I think that a lot of people supporting the nutrition titles realized that we needed to have a healthy agricultural community here that could feed their people and their clients," he said. "And from the farmers, I think there was a realization that those people who need the nutrition benefits are our customers."

He said New York State needs a Farm Bill that’s more relevant to what’s happening here. That means building a resilient food system and supporting programs with safety nets. Those are things like the Dairy Margin Coverage program, which covers farmers when the price they’re paid for their milk falls below how much it costs them to produce it.

Source: northcountrypublicradio.org