Ag Policy Blog

Former Congressman Looks at Ag Policy Challenges Ahead

Chris Clayton
By  Chris Clayton , DTN Ag Policy Editor
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PHOENIX (DTN) --- Former Rep. Tom Latham, a Republican from Iowa, told a room of journalists, bloggers and public-relations staff late Tuesday afternoon that it would be a bad idea to reopen any aspect of the farm bill.

Latham, who served from 1995-2014, noted there are congressmen and senators from both parties pushing cuts to crop insurance or food programs. Given the fight that occurred in 2013, Latham said this farm bill should be allowed to work rather than reopened. He also cautioned about the challenges ahead, given the split in the old nutrition-agriculture coalition.

"I don't know how we get another farm bill passed," Latham said.

Latham played a critical role in farm programs every year as a congressional appropriator. He spoke at the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum, a precursor to Commodity Classic.

Looking over the past decade, Latham noted that farmers have experienced some of the best times in history regarding commodity prices, land values and equity. Some farmers became embarrassed over their good fortune.

"There is tremendous equity; there is tremendous wealth in Iowa," Latham said.

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Now, farmers are transitioning into seeing high business costs and having to manage with lower commodity prices.

Policy wise, there are significant potential changes on the horizon. Latham touched on several areas, including tax reform. What exactly could tax reform mean to farmers if it is about "closing loopholes?"

"One of those loopholes happens to be depreciation of equipment," he said.

Moreover, if Congress moves to cut rates for particular types of corporations, that could lead to farmers shifting their business structure to those type of corporations to capture those lower rates.

Farmers also have opportunities when it comes to drones and data collection, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding security of data and who gets access to information. Farmers also are going to need quality analysis on all that data.

"He's going to have access to all of this information. The question is what does he do with it all?"

Latham also said he thinks increasing EPA regulations will fall harder on smaller farmers, leading to likely more industry consolidation. "The smaller farmers, especially livestock producers, aren't going to be able to comply with those regulations," he said.

On biotechnology, Latham was emphatic that biotech crops are safe, but the debate around genetically modified organisms "GMOs" threatens agriculture nationally. He noted Washington State voters narrowly defeated a labeling measure last year. Latham said it's illogical to have 50 states with different labeling policies. He called on Congress to pass a national labeling bill. He also said agriculture must do a better job communicating with the public and countering activists who have various agendas against modern food production.

"They have declared war on our ability to feed a growing population in the world," he said.

Another growing problem with policy is the shrinking pool of people involved in agriculture. That translated into fewer voices in the House of Representatives for agriculture. Even congressmen who represent rural areas. Some lawmakers are more concerned about how an outside group is going to score their votes than they are about representing their districts.

"We have got people representing agricultural districts who vote against agriculture." Without mentioning Rep. Tim Huelskamp by name, Latham pointed to the Kansas 1st congressional district.

With that, it's critical to keep agriculture in the forefront of policymakers in D.C. That must transcend beyond farmers from back home making the occasional fly-in to talk to 23-year-old staffers who know nothing about their issues. Farmers and people in agriculture must keep taking their message to D.C.

Latham was asked if he were an editor and had the chance to assign articles to the journalists present, what would he want them to cover? He said, "We're missing the success story of agriculture. We need to stress to policy makes the impact of agriculture."

Follow me on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN.

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