The farm bill touches everyone in Michigan. While its primary purpose is assisting farmers, it also supports infrastructure and economic development in rural communities, incentivizes maintenance of good conservation practices, and helps provide access to food for those less fortunate.
Every five years, Congress must authorize the farm bill. The current bill expires at the end of September 2023. Farm bills include sections, commonly referred to as titles, on commodity programs, trade, rural development, farm credit, conservation, agricultural research, food and nutrition programs, marketing, and more.
The U.S. House and Senate agriculture committees will hold hearings to examine the various titles to get a better understanding of what improvements need to be made in the 2023 Farm Bill. We need Congress to work together on completing the next Farm Bill on time and in a bipartisan fashion to give farmers the long-term certainty needed to make business decisions.
Download: MFB Farm Bill Overview Presentation
Farmer involvement
It’s critical that farmers take time to share feedback on what’s worked well, what needs improvement and why farm bill programs are important to you. Some of our organization’s priorities include:
Increase baseline funding commitments to farm programs as they have not kept up with inflation
Maintain a bipartisan farm bill which includes nutrition programs and farm programs together
Prioritize funding for federal crop insurance and commodity programs (ARC, PLC, DMC)
Ensure adequate USDA staffing capacity and technical assistance
Maintain funding for voluntary, working lands conservation programs
Support trade promotion programs
Ensure adequate funding for specialty crop research, marketing, and pest management programs
Funding for agricultural research and education
Resources
American Farm Bureau Federation 2023 Farm Bill Policy Priorities by Title and Program
AFBF Farm Bill Market Intel Series