Farm Bill Evaluation Pt 2

Farm Bill Evaluation Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. Passage of the 2018 Farm Bill didn't come about without a long and uncertain journey through a contentious Congress. And, now that it's done and awaiting implementation, a closer examination is being done.

National Potato Council Vice President of Public Policy, Kam Quarles says the Farm Bill contains a lot of elements many are confused by or aren't aware of ...

QUARLES ... "I think a lot of people don't realize that nearly 80% of the Farm Bill is the nutrition programs, food stamps and those types of things. The agriculture piece is a relatively small portion of the overall bill, but the reason that those nutrition programs are there is to go get the votes from Congressional districts, particularly in the House, which are less and less agriculture and rural in nature with every succeeding census that we have that realigns those districts."

He says it's a way of tying every state to the Farm Bill so they all have a stake in its passage ...

QUARLES ... "There's a lot of extraneous things in there. The idea is to generate the necessary votes to pass the bill, but sometimes those extraneous things can become the impediments to success. It nearly toppled the program this time around, but fortunately, after the election, folks were able to broker a settlement and it really got to a good bill."

Quarles says the Farm Bill is very good for the potato and specialty crop industries.

Tune in tomorrow for more on the Farm Bill and what makes it worthwhile.

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