As attention on the next Farm Bill ramps up, the AGree Initiative shares its policy priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill process. The Coalition released their consensus priorities in key issue areas along with policy proposals.
AGree put forth five areas of focus for the 2023 Farm Bill. Each area includes multiple objectives and policy proposals designed to achieve those objectives. A snapshot of the focus areas is below:
- Agriculture Data and Research: Improve and streamline the collection, sharing, and analysis of USDA data, and employ USDA data for critical research on how agriculture can mitigate and adapt to climate change by improving soil health, water quality and quantity, and risk reduction.
- Technical Assistance: Assess the technical assistance system and pilot innovative solutions for improving information delivery to farmers, ranchers, and foresters, especially for implementing conservation practices to enhance profitability.
- Crop Insurance: Strengthen the Federal Crop Insurance Program by expanding support for farmers to transition to conservation agriculture and remove barriers to conservation practices within the program.
- Finance: Improve financial tools to de-risk the financing of conservation practice adoption and implementation.
- Climate-Smart Commodities: Ensure outcomes from innovative pilot projects are translated into policies and ensure the success of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program.
You can read more about the AGree Initiative’s policy priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill here. The 2023 Farm Bill priorities are aligned with previous AGree work and build on recent projects on the topics of crop insurance, agriculture data, finance, climate-smart commodities and more.
“Our farmers are leading the way with their vision for a resilient food and agriculture system that sustains both profitable farming operations and a thriving environmental landscape,” said Todd Barker, CEO of Meridian Institute. “The Farm Bill is a major opportunity to advance policies that provide better information to farmers through innovative research and data, expand risk management tools, and build financial support for practices that build soil health and reduce farm risk.”
