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Farm Bureau, FMI, Feeding America jointly call for farm bill passage

By Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report
From left: American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall; FMI-The Food Industry Association President and CEO Leslie Sarasin; and Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot discuss the farm bill at the National Press Club. Photo by Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report
FarmBill-RFP-111323
Leaders of the American Farm Bureau Federation, FMI-The Food Industry Association and Feeding America held a joint news conference Wednesday at the National Press Club to emphasize their joint support for passage of a new farm bill.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, FMI – The Food Industry Association President and CEO Leslie Sarasin and Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot said their joint message was that they are unified in support of the farm bill, but each also discussed issues of singular importance to their constituencies.
Duvall said it is important “to get a farm bill done and get it done now,” but he also acknowledged recent statements by congressional leaders that the farm bill is unlikely to be written until 2024 and said that if the farm bill is not written until next year it is vital to pass an extension by the end of 2023.
“If it takes a short extension to get it done right, we will be there to help the speaker,” Duvall said, referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Duvall also said he has not yet met with Johnson, who took office only recently after the House removed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Duvall is trying to arrange a meeting.
Duvall noted that Johnson has said he wants to get a farm bill done in December even though other congressional leaders have said that is unlikely.
Johnson “seems to be focused in the right direction,” Duvall said.
“The safety net needs to be improved to respond to the economic and geopolitical realities,” Duvall said. There needs to be increases in the Title I reference prices that trigger farm subsidy payments and in the crop insurance program, he added.
Sarasin said, “The farm bill is important to families throughout the country” and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food purchasing programs to low-income Americans, is a “vital” program.
Assuring people of their access to food is important to people’s emotional and mental well-being as well as to their bodies, Sarasin said.
Grocery stores are “on the front lines of the implementation of SNAP every day” and it is “imperative” that Congress pass a bipartisan farm bill as soon as possible, Sarasin added. The farm bill must also address food waste, she said.
Sarasin also noted that a provision that prohibits processing fees on SNAP transactions outside of the control of retailers had expired with the farm bill and needs to be reauthorized in a new farm bill.
Babineaux-Fontenot called for the reauthorization of the SNAP program but also for a doubling of the budget for The Emergency Food Assistance Program, a major provider of food to food banks.
Feeding America is now the largest charity in the country, she said, an indication that when Americans are aware of hunger, “they do something about that.”
In a veiled acknowledgment that nutrition programs are not popular with some farmers, Babineaux-Fontenot said it is “not without risk” that Farm Bureau supports nutrition programs when “there are forces that would pull them away.”
Although the three leaders called for passage of a bipartisan farm bill, Babineaux-Fontenot described Feeding America as a “nonpartisan organization” because bipartisanship can “get you to the least common denominator.”
From left: American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall; FMI-The Food Industry Association President and CEO Leslie Sarasin; and Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot discuss the farm bill at the National Press Club. Photo by Jerry Hagstrom, The Hagstrom Report
FarmBill-RFP-111323
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