Federal Issues

The Farm Bill is the most comprehensive package of federal legislation on agricultural policy and directs hundreds of billions of dollars of federal spending. The Farm Bill is divided into sections, known as “Titles,” focusing on different topics. The largest spending of the Farm Bill is on the Nutrition title, followed by a nearly even split between Commodities, Conservation and Crop Insurance.

• Nutrition covers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, as well as other programs to help low-income Americans afford food.

• Commodities covers price and support for farmers growing nonperishable crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, rice), as well as dairy and sugar.

• Conservation covers programs that help support farmers’ natural resource conservation efforts on their farms.

• Other titles include Rural Development, Trade, Credit, Research, Forestry, Energy, Horticulture and the catch-all Miscellaneous title that covers support for emerging farmers, agricultural labor safety and more. The 2018 Farm Bill has 12 titles, but the number and content of the titles can vary. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has a more detailed summary of each of the Farm Bill titles. 

Members of Congress who are on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry and House Agriculture Committee are primarily in charge of drafting the Farm Bill. Congress can pass a continuing resolution to extend the current Farm Bill while they work on the next version. Key steps to passage of the Farm Bill include:

• House and Senate Agriculture Committees hold Farm Bill hearings where members of Congress hear input from the public about what they want to see in the Farm Bill.  

• “Marker Bills” are introduced by legislative champions, covering what can become components of the final Farm Bill, e.g., Agriculture Resilience Act, American Beef Labeling Act. 

• Congress begins the process of drafting, amending and voting on the Farm Bill. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees each draft, amend and vote on their own version of the bill, and they can be very different from each other.  

• The full House of Representatives and Senate Chambers debate, amend and vote on the bill from its respective Committee. 

• Leaders from the House and Senate, including Committee Chairs, form a “Conference Committee” to combine the two bills. Most of the “Conferees” are members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.  

• The full chambers vote on the combined final bill. 

• The final bill is sent to the White House for the president's signature (or veto!).

After the Farm Bill is signed into law, it will enter the “Appropriations” phase, where funding sources in the yearly federal budget will be set aside for the bill. Some Farm Bill programs, called entitlements, have guaranteed funding, while others need to be funded through discretionary spending. At the same time as the Appropriations process, the U.S. Department of Agriculture figures out the rules for how the programs will be implemented in a Rulemaking process. When the programs have been funded and rules have been made, the programs are promoted to the public, and public input is sought on whether the programs are working as intended.

Minnesota has outsized representation on the House and Senate Agriculture Committees in 2023, and our legislators will play a key role in crafting the new Farm Bill. 

• Senator Tina Smith (Senate Ag. Committee Member, Member, Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Credit; Member, Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Nutrition; Member, Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, and Food Safety) 

• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Ranking Member of Senate Ag. Committee)

• Representative Angie Craig (CD2) (Ranking Member of House Ag. Committee)

• Rep. Brad Finstad (CD1) (Member of House Ag. Committee, Chair of Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture Subcommittee; Member, General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit Subcommittee; Member, Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Subcommittee; Member, Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee) 

• Rep. Betty McCollum (CD4) (House Appropriations Committee) 

• Rep. Ilhan Omar (CD5) (Progressive Caucus Member) 

This Farm Bill negotiation is anticipated to be contentious and will be under high pressure as the last Farm Bill that can impact climate goals before 2030. Minnesota farm and food systems stakeholders can have an impact on what issues are considered as the bill is drafted: 

• Members often hold listening sessions, hearings and meetings with the public to learn about Farm Bill issues important to them. You can participate in these to highlight issues with decision makers. You can subscribe to members’ newsletters and check their websites to watch for scheduled listening sessions.  

• In addition to the listening sessions legislators schedule themselves, it is possible to request a listening session that your group will organize, either in-person during one of their recesses or virtually. The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) has a good advocacy tool on organizing a Community Call with your member of Congress, with information about who to invite, how to schedule, coordinating messaging and following up.  

• If you can travel to Washington, D.C., you could participate in a D.C. conference like the FRAC National Anti Hunger Conference, or another “fly in” where the organizers will support scheduling meetings with members and coordinating messaging.  

• Connecting with legislators’ staff - They are often accessible and can offer more time than members to discuss issues in detail.  You can find a list of all lead staff, as well as office phone numbers and locations on your elected official’s webpage at congress.org.   

• Members and staff are especially interested in hearing about “shovel ready” ideas of what to include, and it is helpful (but not necessary) to have a draft of bill language they can use to introduce marker bill language that could eventually get pulled into the titles. You can draft language yourself, or look for examples from partner groups, such as IATP’s Farm Bill Submission. 

• In addition to meetings, you can also send emails and make calls to your legislators to express support or concern about certain issues. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) has an example letter to a legislator you can use as a template, personalizing with your own information and issues of concern. 

• Lastly, you can reach out to the Natural Resources Conservation Service to serve on Minnesota’s State Technical Advisory Committee (STAC). 

In the leadup to the Farm Bill negotiations, community-rooted Minnesota farm and food systems organizations are working to make sure that Farm Bill policies and programs:  

• Infrastructure: Increase financial and capacity investments in infrastructure, small and mid-size processing and market development statewide. 

• Emerging Farmers: Enable land access and farm viability for emerging farmers. 

• Climate & Ecosystem: Leverage Minnesota agriculture to create positive climate and ecosystem impact. 

• Nutrition & Agriculture: Link nutrition and food access needs to Minnesota agricultural producers. 

• Land access for beginning farmers. “Farmers across the state are experiencing land access challenges but there are some possibilities for substantial land access program development through this Farm Bill.” — Sarah Goldman, Land Stewardship Project (LSP)  

• Crop insurance. “We have the opportunity to challenge the narrative that crop insurance is working for everyone and think about new ways to make sure folks have access who have been historically left out.” — Sarah Goldman, LSP 

• SNAP allocations. “I’d like to see us bring the SNAP allocations back to the COVID level and make it really meaningful. SNAP does a lot to revitalize local communities, with spending in local communities and supporting farmers.” — Colleen Moriarty, Hunger Solutions 

• Conservation programs. “I’d like to see durable and consistent adequate funding for conservation programs, including raising the baseline and doubling conservation funding.” The Conservation title covers a variety of programs and helps farmers implement conservation practices, including cover crops, alternative manure management, buffers and crop rotations. In Minnesota, these programs are very competitive. Less than 10% of MN farmer applications for the Conservation Reserve Program (CSP) were funded in 2022. — Michael Happ, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)  

• Some critics want to see the nutrition and agriculture components of the bill separated. However, “to get what we want to see we need to band together... we are all in the business of growing and distributing healthy food.”— Colleen Moriarty, Hunger Solutions. The Nutrition and Agriculture titles support one another, and agriculture and nutrition collaboration is critical.