It鈥檚 true: if a new Farm Bill doesn't pass before the expires at the , congress can just it for a few more months or years. They did that and the before that.
But according to Rocky Mountain Farmers Union president Chad Franke, if you ask a Colorado farmer if they care that this massive piece of legislation that shapes the country鈥檚 food system is now more than a year overdue for an update, you'll likely get an earful. After all, agricultural producers need to plan out their operations years in advance. They do not like uncertainty.
鈥淚t all comes down to stability,鈥� Franke said. 鈥淭he wheat for next year's crop is already planted, and we don't know what kind of farm bill or programs are going to be in place when they actually harvest it.鈥�
Those Farm Bill programs include everything from agricultural funding, subsidies and that stabilize crop supply and prices. All told, the Farm Bill accounts for of dollars in federal spending. It every aspect of agriculture and rural life, and producers .
鈥淲hen we need to apply for a loan or when we need to put up some new fencing or new stock tank for our cows, just knowing that that (the Farm Bill) funding's in place can make a big difference on how much we can expand our operation or how quickly we can make decisions,鈥� said San Luis Valley farmer and rancher Emily Brown.
Meanwhile, Haxtun farmer Roy Pfaltzgraff said he鈥檚 not losing any sleep over the Farm Bill delay, though he owned the situation could make it trickier to manage risk on the farm.
鈥淔or the dry land farmer in northeast Colorado, if we have a huge drought or a big hailstorm - things that can happen in the same week in Colorado - for us to get support to rebuild after a disaster like that would take a lot longer and could possibly not happen,鈥� he said.
But, despite the name, most Farm Bill dollars aren't for farming at all. More than of Farm Bill spending is for , like the , or SNAP - basically today's version of food stamps. The Farm Bill is the country鈥檚 primary vehicle for setting food assistance policy. The landscape of hunger has changed drastically since the last Farm Bill update six years ago, in 2018.
鈥淭he biggest impact that we are going to see from a delayed farm bill is that we are not going to be able to make any progress on the needs that we're seeing in the communities we serve from six years ago,鈥� said Sarah Mason, the government relations manager for , a food security advocacy group that represents several food banks in the state.
That's why the legislative holdup is also a concern at food banks in Colorado, like the one at in Steamboat Springs.
鈥淚 got pulled pork, ground beef, four apples, two bananas, two oranges, and a couple cans of veggies,鈥� said Miranda, a local restaurant manager, who asked us to use her first name only to protect her privacy, as she looked through her bags just after her most recent visit to the food bank. 鈥淚t's been really tough living here in a ski town. Just trying to afford rent takes up all of my paycheck. So, to have the food bank here 鈥� it鈥檚 been really helpful.鈥�
The Farm Bill provides hundreds of millions of dollars of the provisions that food banks distribute each year, through programs like (TEFAP) and (CSFP). It also determines SNAP eligibility and sets benefit levels which affect how much people end up using food banks to stock their pantries.
Miranda says she uses the food bank a lot.
鈥淚 kind of depend on this to fill my fridge,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 really didn't have any food in my fridge before I came out here to get it, besides like applesauce and almonds.鈥�
Miranda is a relatively new food bank client. She started coming a few months ago to help make ends meet. LiftUp of Routt County鈥檚 executive director Sue Fegelein said that鈥檚 a common story. New clients have been flocking to the Steamboat foodbank in recent years because local food insecurity exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淐OVID changed everything. It was just nuts,鈥� Fegelein said. 鈥淭he numbers never went down since COVID. They've only gone up every year. We're serving 20 percent more than we were last year. And the same was true last year over the year before. That increase is significant.鈥�
And as the size of the food bank鈥檚 clientele grows, so does the scope of their need.
鈥淲e were finding that clients, despite coming here, were still food insecure. We're providing a large number of our clients with 75% or more of their food per month,鈥� Fegelein said. 鈥淭hat was kind of surprising. Our goal kind of is to be supplementing food as opposed to providing it all.鈥�
According to Fegelein, the food budget at the LiftUp of Routt County food bank has more than quadrupled since 2018 to keep up with the increased demand. To pay for it all, the organization has been depending more and more on community donations and grant funding.
And that's why food security advocate Sarah Mason, with Feeding Colorado, wants to see Congress move quickly on a new Farm Bill, with nutrition assistance policies updated for the current age.
鈥淲e have seen the need for food assistance rise drastically, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. And really, we need a new Farm Bill to address these changes,鈥� Mason said. 鈥淎 delayed farm bill means that the gap between federal policy and our reality that communities are facing is just continuing to grow the longer that this delay goes on.鈥�
But then again, when lawmakers do finally pass that new Farm Bill, there's no guarantee they'll expand food aid. In fact, they could do the opposite. And unless they strike a deal soon, before the end-of-year deadline, that will be a decision for a future congress.
