At Missouri State Fair, Gov. Parson calls for Congress to address drought in farm bill

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Monday stressed that he wants the U.S. House and Senate committees that are drafting the new federal farm bill to understand the drought conditions that Missouri farmers are facing.

“These farmers do this year-round to be able to try to make a living for their families, and when you can’t produce, then you can’t make any money, then that’s going to have an effect for the whole family and it’ll have an effect for the economy,” the Republican governor told reporters during a listening session over the federal farm bill at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia.

Monday’s listening session, hosted by U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, gave Parson and other Missouri officials an opportunity to outline their priorities for the federal farm bill, which will shape food, farm, conservation and nutrition programs for the next five years. The listening session was also a chance for farmers to lay out what industry issues they would like to see in the bill.

The session came as, despite recent rainfalls, the Midwest has experienced significant drought conditions caused by abnormally low precipitation and high temperatures. Increasing access to broadband in rural parts of the state and the need for more conservation programs were also among some of the major topics discussed during the roughly two-hour session.

The current federal farm bill is set to expire at the end of September. Congress passes a farm bill every five years to set the nation’s food and agriculture policy.

The legislation deals with everything from prices for crops such as wheat, corn and soybeans; agricultural trade policy; federal crop insurance; and eligibility for the supplemental nutrition assistance program. The package is expected to surpass $1 trillion in programs.

Alford described the farm bill as a “three-legged stool,” with the first leg involving a need to protect farmers through insurance programs and safety nets. The second leg, he said, is feeding the country with the supplemental nutrition assistance program, which he said makes up roughly 80% of the federal bill. And the third leg is protecting farmland through conservation programs, he said.

The Republican told The Star he would like to see the bill include money for farmers to build new ponds to respond to worsening drought conditions. He also floated money for technology so farmers can report drought conditions.

“A lot of the farmers who are my age or older don’t even know how to go about reporting their conditions and the system, the way it is now, is relying on self reporting from farmers, ranchers and producers,” he said. “We need to move into modern technology.”

Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican who is running for governor in 2024, told The Star in an interview that he heard “lots of interesting factors” from the listening session. One of the biggest issues he heard was the need for conservation programs for farmers.

The Republican candidate for governor said he also would like to see the state’s timber industry represented in the farm bill.

“Most people don’t think of growing timber and processing it as agriculture but it’s very much part of agriculture,” he said. “We need to make sure that forest products industry all across the country, but especially here in Missouri, is well represented in this new farm bill.”

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Missouri Republican, also attended the session. The panel also drew lawmakers from other states, including Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Jonathan Jackson, an Illinois Democrat and Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Texas Republican.

Parson, who owns a cattle farm in Bolivar, said that he hoped Monday’s session showed how important agriculture and small farms are to Missouri’s economy.

“Yes there’s a lot of big farmers in the world across there and they have lots of representation, but I really want them to understand what it’s like for us small farmers, for the people who are sitting here today to understand what our struggles are,” he said.