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Coppess:  Senate farm bill needs to address acreage and over-production

The director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program at the University of Illinois says the U.S. Senate needs to address many of the challenges facing agriculture in its version of a new farm bill.

Jonathan Coppess tells Brownfield, “The House bill did not touch on the issues we’ve got facing agriculture, and that was before this Iran war.”  He says, “If we don’t look at the acreage problem, if we don’t look at the damage to export markets, the challenges on input costs, those are the things we’ve got to be talking about, and I’m worried we’re not.”

When it comes to acreage, Coppess says Congress could use the farm bill to steer farmers away from over-producing corn and soybeans.

“Looking back at the history of how we got into the 80s, it’s that falling dominoes kind of situation.”  He says, “You’ve got an export market problem with soybeans and cotton. We’ve got all kinds of pressures on all crops, and corn is the kind of safest bet right now. But once that’s gone, then what do farmers have?”

He says an expansion or overhaul of the Conservation Reserve Program could be one solution.

“Those are all things Congress could actually fix.”  He says, “Anything that could take some of that pressure off that allowed farmers some options, some flexibility, would be really valuable at this point in time. Otherwise, we’re going to push them to overplant crops where the market may not be there.”

Coppess says the Senate Ag Committee has indicated a willingness to bring a farm bill proposal forward this year, but the Congressional calendar ahead of the November elections is quickly passing by.

Brownfield spoke with Coppess at the 2026 Illinois Agriculture Legislative Day.

AUDIO: Jonathan Coppess – University of Illinois