Weeks before the spring warmth began thawing the soil, farmers across Iowa felt the itch to get in the fields. As a lifelong family farmer on our fourth-generation, Northeastern Iowa farm, I know how tempting it is to get a head start on spring planting.
I also understand the realities farmers face to weather all kinds of uncertainties, from the whims of Mother Nature, to avian flu and variable costs of equipment, seeds and fertilizers. Market volatility hinges on supply and demand and so many factors outside a farmer’s control: interest rates and land prices, pandemic-related disruptions, government regulations, international trade barriers and global conflicts. And yet, hope springs eternal on the farm. To face such uncertainty, one must remain an optimist.
It’s symbolic that fieldwork gets underway in April, during National Earth Month. Americans first observed National Earth Month in the early 1970s. Earth Day is every day for farmers, whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to Earth’s natural resources. Iowa farmers lead the way in conservation practices, including no-till, crop rotations, cover crops, buffer strips and more.
Against the backdrop of USDA forecasting a historic decline in U.S. farm income, farmers need a strong farm safety net. Added certainty will come from solid risk management tools and expanded export opportunities.
American farmers prosper when they can compete on a level playing field, for every sale in every market.
From my years serving in the U.S. House of Representatives during the Ford and Carter administrations, I recall the harmful consequences grain embargoes yielded for our ag industry. At a congressional hearing in the summer of 1980, I pushed USDA Secretary Bob Bergland about the misguided policy. Many Iowans felt the embargoes were ineffective and unfair, and they were right: the embargoes allowed farmers from Argentina to profit at the expense of American farmers.
During my first term in the U.S. Senate, I’ll never forget the anguish I heard from farm families facing foreclosure due to the farm-credit crisis. I pushed for lending relief from the Reagan administration and also pushed for and later made permanent Chapter 12 of the federal bankruptcy code, which empowered farmers to reorganize their debts and keep their operations afloat. Iowans still tell me how Chapter 12 saved their family farms. Of course, the unpredictable nature and pressures of farming take a heavy toll on farmers. That’s why I’ve worked hard to curb suicides and help farmers cope with mental stress.
From grain embargoes to the Farm Crisis, history informs decision-making at the policymaking table. Instead of dictating what and how much farmers plant, farm policy ought to empower opportunities for prosperity and sustainability to strengthen the food supply. Food security is national security.
As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I’m working this Congress to reauthorize the next farm bill. This is my tenth opportunity to help draft a farm bill and push for priorities on behalf of farmers that will impact their operations for the next five years. Since the 1985 farm bill, I’ve worked to enact reasonable farm payment limits to uphold the integrity of farm programs and stop sending bloated payments to mega farms. This year, I’m also pushing to fix overpayments in SNAP (food stamps) and button up use of the Commodity Credit Corporation, which would save billions in taxpayer dollars.
Iowa agriculture continues to be a global powerhouse, leading U.S. production in corn, hogs, eggs and ethanol. With precision agriculture and advances in seed genetics, fertilizers, weed killers and pesticides, Iowa farmers continue to improve productivity. In 1960, corn yields averaged 55 bushels/acre and soybeans yields averaged 23 bushels/acre. Six decades later, corn yields averaged 201 bushels/acre and soybean yields were 58 bushels/acre in 2023. Iowa farmers are continuing the legacy of Iowa’s native son Norman Borlaug, who helped save a billion people from famine by discovering a disease-resistant wheat.
As an outspoken voice for the Farm Belt, I often remind people inside the Washington Beltway that farm families are only two percent of the population who grow the food that feeds the other 98 percent. Food doesn’t grow in the grocery store. Without farmers, Americans couldn’t enjoy mouth-watering bacon on their BLT, or have protein-rich beef, pork and poultry in their diet – or calcium-rich milk in their ice cream. That’s why I lead efforts to protect livestock producers from interference with interstate commerce, namely California’s Proposition 12, and ride herd on anti-competitive practices by the Big Four meatpackers.
In a letter to John Jay in 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds.” Centuries later, those words still hold true today.
As work continues on the farm bill, I’m proud to be a champion for the family farmer.
