Washington Outlook

By Robert L. Redding Jr.

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Holds Hearing on Commodity Programs

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee recently held a hearing titled “Farm Bill 2023: Commodity Programs, Crop Insurance, and Credit.” Witnesses at the hearing were Robert Bonnie, Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of his staff, USDA Administrators Marcia Bunger, and Zach Ducheneaux.

At the hearing, Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, was the first to raise a question on the issue of reference prices. Senator Tuberville acknowledged that while the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) programs triggered by reference prices in the 2018 farm bill have worked well for peanut farmers in Alabama and

USTR Ambasssador Tai Discusses Peanut Issues at Ag Roundtable

The United States Peanut Federation (USPF) representative and peanut grower Karla Thompson recently attended a roundtable discussion in Atlanta, GA, with U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Katherine Tai. Also attending was USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator Doug McKalip. This roundtable was McKalip’s first engagement since being recently sworn in.

At the event, Georgia commodity leaders and exporters were given the opportunity to voice their concerns and priorities as they relate to global markets and agricultural trade.

Thompson is vice president at JET Farms and Integrity Farms, Inc. in Camilla, Georgia, and represented the peanut industry at the roundtable to discuss important trade issues facing peanuts.

across the Southeast, they have not kept up with the increasing cost of inputs. Senator Tuberville asked Under Secretary Bonnie whether USDA has reviewed how to address inflation from a policy perspective over the life of the farm bill.

In his response, Under Secretary Bonnie emphasized that, while it is Congress that writes the farm bill, USDA has heard from producers that input costs are rising and are a significant problem for profitability. Bonnie added that he assumed reference prices will be an important part of the debate for the upcoming 2023 farm bill.

Senate Agriculture Ranking Member John Boozman, R-Arkansas, also brought up the issues of rising input costs and the reliability of the farm safety net in his opening statement, noting that “crop prices are likely to decline in the coming years, but prices for many of our major commodities would have to drop sharply before the current Title I Price Loss Coverage safety net would start to work.”

At the roundtable, Thompson engaged in a discussion with Ambassador Tai and Senator Ossoff regarding the trade issues for peanuts in the EU. Across the last few years, the USPF, in conjunction with other peanut industry stakeholders, have worked with peanut state senators and congressmen to establish communication with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on the EU issue.

The European Union (EU) has long been an important market for exports of U.S. peanuts. Over the last ten years, it has been the industry’s largest export market, but has recently fallen to the fourth largest export market. Exports over the past four years have dropped significantly in large part due to the EU’s requirements and level of inspections.

The EU’s requirements are the strictest in the world. While nearly all shipments of U.S. peanuts to the EU meet or exceed EU requirements prior to export, EU inspections continue to find violations at the point of import.

Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, echoed these sentiments in her opening comments, stating that “we need to work together to create a farm safety net that is responsive to the needs of all farmers.”

The Senate Agriculture Committee will continue their series of hearings on the 2023 Farm Bill with a February 16 hearing on Nutrition Programs.

Last year, Senators Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, led colleagues in a bipartisan push to reduce restrictive trade barriers and expand export market access for domestic peanut farmers and processors in a letter to USDA and USTR. A total of 19 U.S. Senators signed on to the letter.

U.S. House Agriculture Committee Hosting Farm Bill Listening Sessions

On Friday, Jan. 13, House Agriculture Chair Congressman G.T. Thompson, R-Pennsylvania, hosted a bipartisan group of legislators at the Pennsylvania Farm Show for the first Congressional Listening Session on the 2023 Farm Bill.

This year, Thompson was joined by Representatives Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Austin Scott (GA-08), Doug LaMalfa (CA-01), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Dan Meuser (PA-09), Mary Miller (IL15), Mark Alford (MO-04), and Derrick Van Orden (WI-03).

This event was the first in a series of listening sessions on the 2023 Farm Bill. The next session was held at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, on Feb. 14. Further Farm Bill Listening Sessions will be held across the United States throughout the year.

U.S. House Committees Release Subcommittee Membership

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations recently released the list of subcommittee members for the 118th Congress. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and Related Agencies will be chaired by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Maryland, with Ranking Member Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Georgia. Members of the committee include Jerry Carl, R-Alabama, Scott Franklin, R-Florida, and Debbie WassermanShultz, D-Florida.

In the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit will be chaired by Rep. Austin Scott, R-Georgia. Rep. Scott was also named Vice Chair of the House Agriculture

Committee.

Other Republican members of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit include Rick Crawford, R-Arkansas, Barry Moore, R-Alabama, David Rouzer, R-North Carolina, Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas.

U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee

The Freshman U.S. Senator Katie Britt, R-Alabama, will serve on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.

FDA "Healthy" Definition Proposed Rule

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a proposed rule to update the definition of “healthy” claim on food packaging to help improve American diets. This proposed rule would align the definition of the “healthy” claim with current nutrition science, the updated Nutrition Facts label and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This proposed rule makes an effort to emphasize dietary patterns rather than focusing on specific nutrients and includes nuts under the protein food

category of a healthy diet.

The U.S. Peanut Federation (USPF) submitted comments to the FDA regarding this proposed rule. Scientific evidence shows that peanuts provide health benefits for Americans at every stage of life including pregnancy, infancy, childhood, adulthood, and older adulthood. Additionally, peanuts are an energy-dense, nutritious food that fits into many healthy dietary patterns. The varied forms of peanuts and peanut products, including peanut oil, peanut butter, and peanut powder allow for increased versatility in various diets. There is evidence that peanut consumption can aid in the prevention of at least three of the most prevalent diseases in the United States, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

The USPF comments regarding this rule emphasized the health benefits of peanuts and encourage FDA to change any provisions in the proposed rule that would exclude peanuts or peanut products from the “healthy” definition. USPF encourages industry groups to submit comments in support of including peanuts in the “healthy” definition.