By Clint Thompson
An extension to the farm bill buys legislators extra time to devise a new bill before the elections next November. Count the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA) as one organization that was disappointed a new bill was not implemented this year.
Chris Butts, executive vice president of the GFVGA, talked about the farm bill and the hope a new deal is in place sooner rather than later.
“It’s certainly disappointing. We would like to have seen it get done in calendar year 2023 for a couple of reasons. One, we are really pushing for solutions and improvements to the safety net to help us with the import issue; two, continuing or expanding for programs for things like mechanization and automation that can help us become more labor efficient.
“We need that assistance now but given the delay, that gives us a little more time to communicate our needs to our legislators and make sure they understand what the fruit and vegetable industry needs to continue. We’ll do everything we can to help them push it over the finish line so we can get it done before next year’s election.”
Continued Communication Needed
Part of that plan is the continued communication between leaders like Butts and those in charge of forming the new farm bill. Butts plans to use the next year to do so.
“With anything we’re going to proceed with the understanding that something’s going to happen sooner rather than later. We don’t need to take a timeout and stop communicating our needs. This just gives us more opportunity to communicate our needs,” Butts said. “We’ve got to take advantage of the break and delay, make sure that they understand the challenges that we’re facing.”
The farm bill is a piece of legislation that is renewed every five years. President Trump signed the current farm bill into law on Dec. 20, 2018.