2025 Special Orders of Business
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We are disappointed that Congress has been unable to authorize a new farm bill. As the farm economy continues to weaken, we urge Congress to act quickly to pass a robustly funded, comprehensive farm bill in 2025 that strengthens the farm safety net, improves disaster protections, establishes policies that make markets more competitive, enhances farmer-friendly conservation programs, and that provides food and nutrition security for all Americans.
Strengthen the Farm Safety Net
The farm safety net should ensure family farmers and ranchers can achieve sustainable net farm income. We support changes to the existing safety net that increase reference prices to reflect increases in production costs; establish a “dual enrollment option” that allows farmers to receive the higher of the Agricultural Risk Coverage or Price Loss Coverage calculated payment; strengthen the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program; and close farm program eligibility loopholes to ensure support is directed to family farmers and ranchers.
Expand and Enhance Permanent Disaster Programs
Farmers and ranchers have too frequently relied on uncertain and inconsistent ad hoc disaster assistance. We support efforts to improve the affordability of federal crop insurance. We also urge Congress to expand and enhance permanent disaster programs.
Advance Fair and Competitive Markets
Fair, open, and competitive markets are foundational for the wellbeing of the American economy and our democracy, but farmers must buy from and sell to increasingly consolidated and uncompetitive markets. The next farm bill should advance National Farmers Union’s Fairness for Farmers campaign priorities by strengthening competition law enforcement, balancing dairy supply and demand, and spurring the development and expansion of diverse, local, and regional markets in all parts of farm and food supply chains.
Enact Farmer-Friendly Conservation Programs
Family farmers and ranchers are key stewards of our natural resources. The next farm bill should invest in voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs for farmers and ranchers, extend and deepen research on climate-smart agriculture practices, and recognize conservation practices as a tool to reduce the impact of disasters.
Food and Nutrition Security
The farm bill is also a food bill. Congress should enact a farm bill that supports the food and nutrition security of our communities by maintaining robust funding for nutrition programs and by creating additional opportunities for local and regional procurement of food from our farms and ranches and distribution of that food to our communities.
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Fair, open, and competitive markets are central to the health and wellbeing of the American economy and our democracy. For decades, the markets that farmers buy from and sell to, and the supply chains and infrastructure they rely on, have become increasingly consolidated and uncompetitive. There are high levels of corporate concentration and anticompetitive practices in sectors including meatpacking, seeds, crop protection, fertilizer, rail transportation, food retail, food distribution, farm equipment manufacturing and repair, and sales of commodities.
Corporate monopolies limit farmers’ and ranchers’ choices, pay us less, and charge us more. The farmer’s share of every dollar consumers spend on food has fallen from 50 cents in 1952 to less than 16 cents today. All the while, consumers are facing inflated prices for food at the grocery store.
Markets dominated by monopolies are susceptible to disruptions, harming family farmers, ranchers, consumers, workers, and our communities. Corporate monopolies spanning many sectors of our nation’s economy have decimated small family businesses, especially in rural areas.
National Farmers Union (NFU) launched the Fairness for Farmers campaign to respond to these challenges. The campaign gives voice to those being harmed by economic concentration and corporate monopolies and calls for the revival of strong antitrust and competition law enforcement, the breakup of corporate monopolies, and the creation of new and diverse market opportunities for farmers.
NFU has made important progress in the last several years restoring fairness and competition to the marketplace, but many challenges remain.
To address these challenges, we support: federal and state governments passing legislation and establishing rules that strengthen antitrust and pro-competition laws; blocking harmful mergers throughout the food value chain; providing adequate resources for federal and state antitrust and competition law enforcement officials to enforce the law; greater protections for livestock producers, including robust and urgent enforcement of the Packers & Stockyards Act, passing laws or establishing rules that increase transparency and price discovery in cattle markets, establishing mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for beef; and establishing a farmer-led incentive-based milk production growth plan; the farmers’ Right to Repair their own farm equipment; spurring the development and expansion of diverse, local, and regional market opportunities; and ensuring the next farm bill includes provision that increase competition and fairness in agricultural markets.
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During times of low commodity prices and high input costs, federal programs meant to maintain a farm safety net, ensure competitive markets, provide access to credit, protect against disease and pests, and support the stewardship of our natural resources through conservation are vital to the survival of family farms and ranches, and our communities.
Farmers need immediate action to offset the losses in commodity prices due to tariffs placed on longstanding trading partners, including China, Mexico, and Canada. Losses should be estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture Chief Economist. These actions would include direct disaster payments, and efforts to increase domestic uses to return commodity prices closer to the cost of production. Our administration should immediately consider banning foreign used cooking oil imports and rapidly develop sustainable aviation fuel, along with any other means possible to expand usage of commodities that are in excess of supply due to the administration’s tariffs efforts.
Programs that provide a dependable social safety net, consumer protections, safe roads and infrastructure, trustworthy law and order, reliable energy, scientific research, and accurate weather information are vital services and necessary for national security and stability. It is the role and responsibility of our government to carry out these programs.
National Farmers Union (NFU) recognizes that some federal programs and policies are in need of review and reform. Inadequate federal workforce staffing levels for field offices, inconsistent funding, and bureaucratic red tape have led to a backlog that impacts the productivity of our farms, ranches, and communities.
We strongly oppose any concentration of power in the executive branch. We support the goal of improving efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government being vigorously pursued across all branches of the government in strict accordance with the checks and balances embedded in the constitution. Efficiency and program performance should be improved through a thoughtful, measured approach. It is critical to retain the qualified federal workforce necessary to provide services while maintaining institutional knowledge.
We are concerned about Executive actions, including widespread layoffs and field office closures, funding delays and denials, and setbacks in disbursing disaster aid, even when temporary, which disrupt vital support for our agricultural producers and prevent the timely delivery of services. We oppose the imposition of wholesale, non-targeted tariffs, which are likely to elicit damaging reciprocal tariffs from our trading partners. All these actions have detrimental effects that reverberate throughout our communities and endanger our national stability.
We urge Congress to revise the budget process to address the true deficit problem and to provide realistic reduction goals. We support the historic separation of powers between our branches of government as laid out in the U.S. Constitution and urge Congress to defend its power to create and fund regulatory agencies and critical government programs.
NFU calls on the administration, Congress, and the Judicial Branch to create productive solutions to build a more effective, efficient, and fiscally responsible federal government that supports our nation’s family farmers and ranchers so they can continue to provide food, fiber, and fuel to hard working Americans.