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Adequate price support needed in next Farm Bill

The president of the Minnesota Farmers Union says the next Farm Bill needs to provide adequate price support for crop farmers.

Doug Peterson shares the concern of many in agriculture that continued low commodity prices are going to create unmanageable economic conditions.

He tells Brownfield as Congress crafts a new Farm Bill, there needs to be policy that protects and sustains family farms.

“You can’t raise a crop without covering your input costs, and right now we’re not covering that.  And I know the guys out there in the barn or tractor know that you’ve got to have more than you put into it in order to go down the road and put another crop in.”

Peterson would like to see a support price that better represents today’s costs of production.

“You either look at it as a support price that’s meaningful, or a loan price that’s meaningful.  Or allow farmers to surcharge at the commodity gate.  Frankly, that’s not going to hurt anybody, but what it does is keep farmers on the land (and) bring new people into farming and at the same time stabilize some things.”

Peterson says his expectation is that Congress will take the current crop insurance model and tweak it for the next Farm Bill.