QUEENSTOWN — On a trip to the Eastern Shore Friday, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) heard from local farmers and members of agricultural organizations on what is most important to them when it comes to the Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill is a package of legislation that includes various agriculture and nutrition programs, from crop insurance to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The federal bill needs to be reauthorized. In November, the bill was extended to allow programs to continue through Sept. 30.
The roundtable at Wye Research and Education Center was the final stop on Van Hollen’s tour Friday. He also visited Tilghman Island Seafood with Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) for a blue catfish processing tour, went to For All Seasons in Easton to learn more about mental health, education and rape crisis services provided in the Mid-Shore and visited J.M. Clayton Seafood Company in Cambridge to tour and talk with seafood processors about the H-2B visa program.
Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks joined for the roundtable discussion with farmers Friday afternoon in Queenstown.
Van Hollen said the purpose of the roundtable was to hear to everyone else in the room. In an interview after the roundtable, he said these listening sessions help inform decisions made on Capitol Hill.
The roundtable was made up of Eastern Shore farmers and members of organizations such as the Maryland Farm Bureau and Horizon Farm Credit.
“They’re in the best position to know what changes we need to make to update the Farm Bill,” Van Hollen said in the interview. “We reauthorize the Farm Bill from time to time, and the whole reason we go through that process is because things change. And so, it’s our opportunity to update programs, to add new things, to get rid of things that are no longer necessary.”
During the discussion, members of the roundtable went around the room, sharing their interests and concerns when it comes to the Farm Bill.
Andy Mason, a dairy farmer in Kent County, spoke about the importance of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and risk management programs.
“My other thing would be to get it done,” he said. “That’s obviously a political issue at this point, but our livelihoods and businesses are very much impacted by the Farm Bill.”
Jennie Schmidt of Schmidt Farms in Queen Anne’s County said that when it comes to crop insurance, better coverage is needed for vegetable and specialty crops. She said that when it comes to vegetables, the Farm Bill crop insurance program has good coverage for processing vegetables, but not for fresh market vegetables.
Jonathan Quinn, a Kent County grain farmer and vice president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, called crop insurance a key part of farm operations.
“It doesn’t pay all the bills, but it keeps us going,” he said. “So that is one of the things that need to be at the forefront.”
Lindsay Thompson, owner of Thompson Ag Consulting, brought up technical assistance programming. She asked for language in the bill that will make it so that certified crop advisors automatically become technical service providers. She said this language was included in the 2018 Farm Bill but was never implemented.
Marshal Cahall, a grain farmer in Kent and Queen Anne’s counties and District 5 director of the Maryland Farm Bureau, said the Farm Bill should be thought of as a food security bill. He said it’s important to think about the connection between SNAP benefits and the farm programs that contribute to a secure supply of food for the American consumer.
Toward the end of the roundtable, Atticks spoke about coordination and collaboration, saying that a lot of money is going into food security programs and a lot of money is going into supporting local farmers.
“If the folks we were giving the money to to support the food programs had to buy local,” he said, “we wouldn’t have to support farmers as much.”
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