By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Peanut Commission, along with peanut organizations from neighboring states, is celebrating and learning more about peanuts at this week’s Southern Peanut Growers Conference in Savannah, Georgia.
Members from the Alabama Peanut Producers Association, Florida Peanut Producers Association and Mississippi Peanut Growers Association are also in attendance. Talks have put the current crop under the spotlight along with a focus on the farm bill. It is an important piece of legislation that will have huge ramifications on peanut producers across the Southeast.
Legislatively Speaking
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) updated attendees about the farm bill during his talk on Thursday. He stresses the implications if more funding is taken away from production agriculture.
“Right now, we’re operating under an extension as you know. I think it’s likely that an extension will pass before the end of the year. A farm bill has come out of the House Ag Committee that takes care of production agriculture,” Scott said. “Production ag spending is only about 10% of the total farm bill spending. Better than 80% of it is going to some type of SNAP or some type of food benefit. The majority of the democratic party are wanting to take more than the 80-plus%. If you do what they insist on doing, it leaves absolutely nothing for crop insurance, ARC (Agriculture Risk Coverage), PLC (Price Loss Coverage) and the other risk mitigation tools that our farmers need to actually grow the food we all depend on.
“Secretary (Tom) Vilsack is testifying before the committee that farmers have had the best three years ever and that they’re flush with cash. It’s just not true. We need a president that will give us a secretary of agriculture that will take care of production agriculture, and we don’t have that right now.”