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Illinois farmer promotes farm bill priorities on Capitol Hill

An Illinois farmer says he would like to see broad crop insurance options and increased funding for infrastructure and market development programs in the 2023 Farm Bill.

Ryan Frieders of Waterman in DeKalb County recently spent a week in DC with the Illinois Soybean Association sharing these requests with legislators. He says crop insurance is an important piece of the bill.

“We need to make sure that we have as many options for farmers to be able to choose from in that program as possible, because every farm is different and every farmer has different needs.”

He says he would also like to see increased funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs, noting they’ve have had the same budget for more than 15 years.

“One great example of the FMD and MAP programs working really well for Illinois farmers is the country of Egypt. In the last years, they have gone from barely importing any soybeans to becoming our number three importer.”

And he says infrastructure funding also needs to be addressed, especially for waterways.

“Keeping the locks and dams working properly and the money that we need to improve locks and dams so that farmers in Illinois and across the Midwest can keep their competitive advantage in the world.”

Frieders is a 7^th generation corn, soybean and cattle farmer and serves as the District 1 Director for the Illinois Soybean Association.