Agricultural News
National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Outlines Priority Issues for the 2018 Farm Bill Reauthorization
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 13:07:20 CDT
The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) today released the organization's priorities for farmer co-ops in the next farm bill. The organization's Executive Council approved the framework at recent fall meeting.
"One thing that we heard from our co-ops and their members-across commodity and across the country-is that farmers, ranchers and growers need the farm bill to get done on time. This is especially true as many producers continue to experience a challenging price environment," said Chuck Conner, president and CEO of NCFC. "I believe that NCFC's member-led process of developing this framework positions the organization well to be flexible as the process of writing the farm bill unfolds in the coming months."
NCFC's framework outlines eight general principles that will guide the organization as it works with farm and commodity groups and allied interests in support of the farm bill. They are:
- Promoting the continued viability of the Capper-Volstead Act and other cooperative statutes;
- Promoting farmer cooperatives and their abilities to enhance competition in the agricultural marketplace by acting as bargaining agents for their members' products; providing market intelligence and pricing information; providing competitively priced farming supplies; and vertically integrating their members' production and processing.
- Supporting the cooperative Farm Credit System;
- Ensuring farmer cooperatives are eligible to leverage federal programs for the benefit of their farmer members.
- Expanding all U.S. agriculture exports and global competitiveness, including through substantially improved access to foreign markets.
- Supporting of a responsive safety net, together with adequate funding, that incorporates improved, comprehensive risk management tools and programs for producers and their cooperatives.
- Ensuring our farmers and ranchers have access to labor so they can continue to harvest our crops and care for livestock here in the United States.
- Supporting responsible and cost-effective regulatory policies that provide a safe and productive work environment while promoting our economic competitiveness.
In addition, the framework outlines farmer co-op recommendations for each title of the farm bill. The full framework can be found online.
Source - National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
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