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Legislative Matters
LEGISLATIVE CHALLENGES IN AGRICULTURE AND BUILDING SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Legislative Matters:
Agriculture business requires a multiple discipline professional effort to be successful and sustainable.
The business of agriculture requires a great depth of understanding on many topics and this requires having a team around you. In that team, there are on-farm partners and off-farm services that form a supporting cast, and when well managed, success is sustained for the agriculture business. When you put good people together a lot may be accomplished. Good people can be found in both unfamiliar and inconspicuous places, and it has become necessary to seek them out. GreenStone, as your financial cooperative partner, is one of those essential members of your team with an array of services focused to assist in maintaining agriculture business sustainability. Together we all know that legislators and the
consuming public play a role in our success and must also be considered part of the team. Legislators will have an impact on the sustainability of a farm or business and the rural communities we live and work in. While it has become common to think about sustainability in terms of natural resources, soil use, climate and related concepts as that term has been hijacked, sustainability should also mean ensuring the ability to return year over year to the business in good times and bad. This requires that sound management with a team.
There have been significant legislative efforts to modify tax structures in what is known as “stepped up basis” and “capital gains”. Groups of agriculture leaders have banded together to profusely comment on these proposed changes. Additionally, a major proposed legislation with some diverse support in Congress has an aim to reward farmers for an unusual harvest of carbon as a crop. The Growing Climate Solutions Act promises billions of dollars for climatesmart agriculture practices, such as planting cover crops to reduce erosion and sequester carbon. Many of these practices have already been adopted by farmers for otherwise good business reasons and sound management practices. The legislation highlights farming’s potential as a climate change solution. The Senate has passed the legislation, but there remains work to be done in the House of Representatives. Regardless of what happens on this current proposed act, there will be more to come as the issues that need to be addressed are constantly being confronted by a team of interested parties. The USDA is a key regulatory partner for agriculture and has been active in their efforts to design policy and programs to assist in meeting the needs of sustainable agriculture. In 2021, an expansion of conservation programs was launched as a tool for success. See USDA Expands and Renews Conservation Reserve Program in Effort to Boost Enrollment and Address Climate Change. To meet the needs of a broader consumer marketplace, the USDA announce in July 2021 an investment of over $21.8 million to 1890 Land-grant Institutions to support research at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) at our nation’s Landgrant University System. USDA Invests Over $21.8M to Build Agricultural Capacity at HBCUs in the Nation’s Land-grant University System | USDA. The aim of this investment was to advance equity and access to nutritious and safe food and create some innovative solutions to address challenges in the marketplace. Efforts to find leaders within these communities has become a critical ingredient to maintaining sustainability for future generations. You will see highlighted in this issue of Partners the important effort that GreenStone has engaged in with youth from neighboring urban areas. These efforts are critical to advance communication and education with important members of the marketplace that are not readily familiar with the core of what we collectively bring to their neighborhoods from our rural neighborhoods. We are engaged together for a better sustainable agriculture future. To be successful we will have to be ever present and engaged, and calm in the face of the challenges and changes. To successfully play a sport the competitor must understand how to score points to win games. Weekends are full of competitive games with teams doing their very best to score points to win a game. People watch, cheer, think, cry, and offer other emotional reactions to the sport from the stadium stands or the armchairs of their living rooms. Just look at the scoreboard and the points reveal the truth and outcome. Finding the edge to win in the business of agriculture may start with having a well-developed business plan, but having a well-educated legislature and public will allow the agriculture business as a whole be more sustainable for a profitable future! ■
