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NFU says more reliance on ad-hoc assistance highlights the need for a stronger farm safety net

The vice president of advocacy for the National Farmers Union says continued calls for government assistance shows the current farm safety net isn’t working.

Mike Stranz tells Brownfield, “There was a need for it, but we didn’t have the policy solutions in place to proactively address them,” he says. We had to rely on Congress or the administration taking one-off actions on a year-by-year basis to fill in some of those holes in net farm income.”

He says Congress is still using data from 2014.

“I think that there’s going to need to be some deeper looks into what the farm safety net is for,” he says. “It’s there to help family farmers and family ranchers survive.”

Stranz says the U.S. Senate has an opportunity to address the safety net in upcoming farm bill discussions.

“One of the ways to do that would be to implement the Inventory Management Soil Enhancement Tool or IMSET,” he says. “It would serve as a safety valve on oversupply in the market or when there’s low prices, it would give farmers another option. They may be able to put some marginal land in a conserving use on an annual basis.”

The Senate Ag Committee is expected to release its draft of the farm bill and will hold committee markup in June. 

The National Farmers Union recently sent a letter to U.S. Senate leadership and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry to prioritize improving the farm safety net for U.S. ag producers.

AUDIO: Mike Stranz, National Farmers Union