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Minnesota farmer sees SNAP as primary farm bill obstacle

A southwest Minnesota farmer expects the nutrition title to further complicate farm bill negotiations.

Bill Gordon of Worthington is a past president of the American Soybean Association and points out nutrition is the largest of the farm bill titles with programs like SNAP.

“And then that’s when the politics come in, when you have both sides (having) great arguments. You have people that want to make sure that people earn the right to get assistance, but yet people need assistance. So I think you’re going to have a lot of political shuffling.”

He tells Brownfield he’s hopeful farm bill negotiators can come to an agreement sooner than later.

“They don’t push it off too far and get too much into that election rhetoric, but we’re hoping. That’s what we always do in the farm bill, is that cooler heads prevail and realize that food shouldn’t be a partisan event. Everybody needs to eat, doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican.”

House and Senate Ag Committee leaders continue to say the goal is to complete the 2023 Farm Bill by the end of the year.