Competing views on how USDA funding can help rural America

As the hurdles for the 2024 presidential election draw closer, voters are clamoring for more information about what policies could look like under Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Experts predict that agricultural policy could take two very different paths depending on the outcome of the election: more tariffs and subsidies for big farmers under Trump, or climate investments and expanded crop insurance under Harris. The Everyday Out There reports.

To know what might happen under a second Trump administration, clues can be found in his first presidency. As for a Harris administration, the question will be to what extent a new Democratic president will continue the policies of her predecessor, Joe Biden.

Trump’s tariffs and subsidies

Early in his term, former President Trump withdrew from a free trade deal the US struck in 2016 that would have lowered trade barriers for domestic manufacturers. Soon after, Trump imposed a series of tariffs on imports from almost every other country in the world. Many countries retaliated by imposing their own tariffs on American products.

This eventually led to a trade conflict with China, resulting in high tariffs on agricultural products, especially soybeans and pork products.

To support farmers who have lost sales from global consumers, Trump has approved $14.5 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Market Facilitation Program to provide payments to farmers affected by “unwarranted foreign retaliatory tariffs.”

He also gave the green light for the use of the Commodity Credit Companya credit program that the USDA can use to pay farmers without needing appropriations from Congress.

“It’s much more like an entitlement program,” said Jonathan Coppess, a professor of politics at the University of Illinois and former administrator of the Farm Service Agency at the USDA.

“So you can sign up and be entitled to the payment, and then the owners just pay off the loan, basically they pay off the credit card,” he said.

This provided a lot of flexibility for the USDA, but combined with the market facilitation program and payments farmers were already receiving from programs in the 2018 farm bill, Coppess said some payments were being made to the same people — many of whom operate at scale. operations that do not require the extra money.

This is an issue that goes back much further than the Trump administration. Large-scale federal support for agriculture was first implemented in the 1930s to protect farmers from volatile markets due to tariffs, natural disasters or economic recessions. But in recent decades, most of that spending has gone to the largest and richest farms.

“Not only are they getting a disproportionate share of the income, they’re also getting a disproportionate share of the safety net,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an interview with Daily Yonder.

Biden’s rural policy extends beyond agriculture

Vilsack said the Biden administration has tried to address how to funnel more federal resources to smaller farms. Millions of dollars are available through the American Rescue Plan Act to expand small farm operations and support farmers markets and community supported agriculture initiatives. The Inflation Reduction Act has injected $19.5 billion into the USDA’s conservation programs that encourage climate-friendly agriculture.

President Biden has invested in rural communities more broadly through policies like the Bipartisan infrastructure billwhich funds broadband infrastructure, modernized wastewater and drinking water systems, and road and bridge development, to name a few.

The Biden administration also inherited Trump’s food aid program as long as $19 billion in aid to farmers and ranchers at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration extensive the now defunct program in 2021.

But Biden’s time in the White House was also defined by protracted negotiations over farm bills, which were nearly a year overdue.

Farm Bill headaches

The agricultural law goes much further than supporting individual farmers. For example, it funds food stamp benefits and rural development, such as sewerage and drinking water needs. The bill is reauthorized by Congress every five years, but often takes longer to pass.

That’s what happened with the 2023 farm bill. Fierce partisan debate over how much money to spend on which programs has plagued negotiations, and nearly a year after the 2018 farm bill passed, a new five-year farm bill has still not been passed , even with proposals from both the House and Senate.

“I think their failure to pass a 2023 farm bill is a sign of enormous dysfunction and unwillingness to come to the negotiating table,” said Joe Maxwell, co-founder of Farm Action and former lieutenant governor of Missouri. “Both sides just become entrenched.”

Maxwell said this dysfunction could increase the public’s frustration with politics, especially as the 2024 presidential election approaches.

2025 and beyond

Agriculture experts predict two very different realities for agricultural policy depending on the outcome of these elections.

Another Trump administration would likely impose more tariffs on China. It could also mean more subsidies for the largest farms, said Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group.

He worries about what farm bill proposals from Republicans Glenn Thompson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and John Boozman, ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, would mean for small farmers.

“The House bill in particular provides a roadmap for what Republicans could do if they controlled all of Congress and the White House,” Faber said. The proposed bill would increase reference prices for only a few agricultural products such as peanuts, rice and cotton. This means that these farmers receive a guaranteed payment through the USDA Prize Loss Coverage program if the market value of those products falls below the reference price. But it leaves out many other commodity farmers, especially those with smaller holdings.

Critics worry that major agricultural operations would double in various subsidy programs if the House farm bill were to pass. “The increase in agricultural subsidies would be the largest in more than a generation, even as agricultural bankruptcies are at their lowest level in 20 years,” Faber said.

In contrast, the Democratic farm bill from Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow would integrate the climate-smart agricultural investments created by the Inflation Reduction Act into the new farm bill.

It would also increase access to crop insurance, which is difficult for many farmers to obtain due to the high cost of premiums. Stabenow’s proposal would do that increase federal support for farmers’ premium expenses and make it more affordable to access higher levels of insurance coverage.

Although Congress is the main driving force behind agricultural policy, the president can direct that force in certain ways.

President Biden steered Congress toward climate action and rural investments during his four years in office. Secretary Vilsack said he is confident that Vice President Harris is aware of these steps the Biden administration has taken.

He also said that Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has adopted some of these agricultural policies as governor of Minnesota, which could mean they would be prioritized at the federal level if Harris and Walz are elected to the White House in November.

“I feel confident that they understand the meaning of (investing in small farmers) and the importance of it based on my current experience with them,” Vilsack said.

This story was produced by The Everyday Out There and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.