December 31, 2014
www.gfb.org
Vol. 32 No. 52
TOP GFB AND GEORGIA AG STORIES IN 2014 The year 2014 had a lot going on, and Georgia’s agricultural industry carries some significant issues into the new year. Here’s our review, in no particular order of key events in Georgia Farm Bureau and ag in general during the past 12 months: 2014 FARM BILL It took three years of wrangling and multiple extensions of programs in the 2012 farm bill before Congress finally agreed on the new farm bill in February. President Obama signed it on Feb 7. From an agricultural perspective, it wasn’t perfect, but it did give a measure of certainty for farmers. The 2014 farm bill runs through 2018. New items include a reference price crop insurance program for producers of peanuts, and the Stacked Income Protection Program (STAX) for growers of cotton. One of the key points for STAX is that it is WTO compliant and helped resolve the United States’ long-standing cotton dispute with Brazil. As the calendar flips to 2015, farmers are trying to figure out how to make the new and revamped programs work for them. Farmers have until Feb. 27, 2015 to reallocate their base acres and update yield histories on their farms. To access online tools to aid in these decisions visit https://usda.afpc.tamu.edu or http://fsa.usapas.com. EPA & CORPS OF ENGINEERS PROPOSED WATER RULE The EPA has for years been attempting to broaden the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA) despite multiple Supreme Court decisions and multiple failed legislative attempts to make changes to the 1977 law that protects the nation’s waterways. In April, the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a proposed rule that, if finalized, would effectively remove the word “navigable” from the CWA and greatly expand the EPA’s jurisdiction. Georgia Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation strongly opposed the rule, maintaining that in pursuing it the agencies are attempting to seize jurisdiction over vast areas of land that have no water on them most of the time. GFB and AFBF held the “Ditch the Rule” campaign to encourage people to speak out against the rule by making public comments. Overall, the agencies received more than 800,000 comments. The Georgia Farm Bureau effort produced nearly 16,000 comments. For a detailed overview of the proposed rule visit http://www.gfb.org/ditchtherule/.