The importance of the federal Farm Bill (The Secretary’s Desk)

(Editor’s Note: Douglas Fisher is the New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture.)

People like to complain about government. Often, many of the most fervent are farmers.
I often hear laments such as, “If the government would just leave us alone, we could do our jobs far better and make a more substantial income.”
There may be much truth to that sentiment, but the fact remains government exists, and for many good reasons, including many of the programs that agriculture in the United States depends upon.
There are more examples than people expect of government doing some phenomenal work. However, many agree that some programs have policies and practices that are just broken, or stuck in a malaise because they have been either tinkered with too much or not updated for so long that they have a misaligned focus, practicality, or even relevancy.
For example, I cannot think of a more tattered system than the FMMO (Federal Milk Market Order). This system dates back to the days of the Great Depression, and it was meant to create and sustain an orderly flow of fluid milk, by using pricing and milk-hauling regulations.
Milk, being a highly perishable commodity (which especially needs to move quickly and safely from the farm to a processor for pasteurization) is prone to having that perishability used against the dairy farmer.
The businesses who bought milk from dairy farmers, as well as those who charged the farmer to haul the milk to the processor, knew they were in times when dairy cows were producing more milk than normal, and that over-supply worked against the farmer.
The establishment of minimum pricing and other regulations based on the varied economics of the 11 regional milk marketing orders around the country helped to ensure that the production, movement, processing, and marketing of milk served dairy farmers as much as it did those further up the milk-marketing chain.
Part of this system was the development of milk “co-ops,” which were originally much more operated by the dairy farmers who made up the cooperatives, but which in recent years have become separate businesses almost entirely disconnected from the on-farm production and keeping fluid milk local.
In its heyday, the Federal Milk Marketing Order was an appropriate and solid program ensuring that dairy farmers weren’t being essentially forced into accepting lower prices than it cost them to produce the milk from their cows.
But as time went by, adjustments were constantly being made to accommodate varied special interest lobbies and groups.
Originally, the design was a simple premise. It was to ensure a fundamental nutritional building block (milk) would be secure in the marketplace at a reasonable cost, supported by a framework to be fairly priced and available for all consumers while providing sufficient income for farmers to produce. But along the way, well, it just stopped working how it was intended to function
Here in New Jersey, because of all this, the size and scope of our state’s dairy herds has steadily declined over the past five decades. In 1970, New Jersey had 68,000 dairy cows producing 730 million pounds of milk annually, which was .62 percent of the national production.
By 1990, our state had 26,000 cows producing 352 million pounds of milk annually, which took our percentage of national products down to .24 percent of the national production.
Today, in 2023, New Jersey has 4,000 cows producing about 90 million pounds of milk annually, which accounts for less than .05 percent of the national production.
Why am I writing about this? Because some folks will tell you that the declining roster is a fact that cannot be reversed. But what if it can be?
The upcoming federal Farm Bill, which largely funds and sets parameters for various USDA programs, must capture what the public is emphatically saying — that they want local farms producing local products closer to where they live and work.
This movement will only continue to grow as trust in many staid institutional norms wanes or even withers.
This is the time for our farmers and ranchers to really step up and collectively rally for the things that could be of extreme benefit to the farms and people here in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Learn the Farm Bill issues, its various titles, and get involved with your federal representatives because it matters. In fact, it matters a lot.
Think of all the areas to which USDA provides resources through the 12 titles of the Farm Bill. Those titles are: 1. Commodities; 2. Conservation; 3. Trade; 4. Nutrition; 5. Credit; 6. Rural Development; 7. Research & Extension; 8. Forestry; 9. Energy; 10. Horticulture; 11. Crop Insurance; 12. Miscellaneous.
The Farm Bill is up this year and ultimately comes out of Congress and signed by the President and then is in effect for the next five years.
Administered by the USDA, the programs funded by the Farm Bill make critical investments in so many important areas. As the National Association of Counties puts it: “…the Farm Bill’s twelve titles help strengthen local infrastructure, support rural-economic growth development initiatives, protect our nation’s food supply, increase access to healthy food for low-income populations, and promote environmental stewardship and conservation.”
The Northeastern states’ agriculture industries are in a stronger position for helping to shape the Farm Bill this year. Pennsylvania Congressman Glenn Thompson (R) chairs the House Agriculture Committee, and New Jersey’s Cory Booker (D) is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
So, I urge New Jersey’s farmers to do two things.
First, get steeped in the issues involved in the Farm Bill and the programs it funds, both for how they can help your own farms, and also for emphasizing the needs of farms across New Jersey and the Northeast.
Second, reach out to your own members of Congress, your Senators from New Jersey, and even legislators from other states whose agricultural industries share common interests in what the Farm Bill should prioritize.
We in the department, through partners like the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), the New Jersey Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau Federation, and countless others, have been working even since the last Farm Bill was passed to hammer home the needs of agriculture in the Northeast.
Every additional voice helps move this crucial piece of farming, food security, and natural resource legislation further toward better serving New Jersey and Northeastern agriculture’s needs.