Reading Eagle: Lauren A. Little | Bern Township dairy farmer Paul Hartman says the farm bill is important to people in his business because it provides assistance when milk prices are low.
Farmers want to see a new federal bill, not an extension. SNAP work requirements and hemp are key topics.
Pennsylvania farmers want the federal farm bill passed before the end of the current lame duck session of Congress.
"If it doesn't pass, it could revert back to 1939 and then Congress would have to start the bill over in 2019," said Mark O'Neill, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau spokesman.
The 1939 farm bill had no crop insurance, no dairy protection plan and little conservation funding.
The modern farm bill is reworked every five years. It expired with the Sept. 30 end of the federal fiscal year, but a lot of programs have been funded until the end of the calendar year, O'Neill said.
The House and Senate each passed different versions of the farm bill. Now it is in a bipartisan conference committee whose members are negotiating a final version.
An extension while lawmakers hammer out the fine details is still more likely than no bill at all, but it is not guaranteed.
"There is no automatic extension of the bill," O'Neill said. "There have been extensions in the past, but farmers don't want an extension. Farmers want a new bill in place."
If it is not passed in 2018, newly elected members would have to get up to speed on the complexities of the bill, further delaying its passage.
Uncertainty over the fate of the farm bill makes it tough for farmers to plan crops for next year, and this is planning season.
"Crop insurance is a major consideration, especially in years like this," O'Neill said. "It has really been difficult for farmers across the board, with the constantly wet weather. Every farmer who grows anything was affected by the weather with lower yields. In years like this, crop insurance is more important than ever."
Livestock farmers are also keeping a keen eye on the farm bill.
"Some things in there are for assistance when milk prices are low," said dairy farmer Paul Hartman, an owner at Scattered Acres in Bern Township. "The farm bill gives a certain level of stability to what we are doing.
"Agriculture is a huge industry in our country. Having a reliable food supply is critical."
It's called the farm bill, Hartman notes, but there are many sections of the bill that are not directly related to farming.
For example, the bill hit a snag over a portion of the House version that sought to add a work requirement for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, previously food stamps.
The House-passed measure would have required adults aged 18-59 with no children to work or participate in a work training program at least 20 hours per week.
The Senate version does not include the SNAP work requirement.
SNAP is a large part of the farm bill.
In the currently expired bill, 80 percent of the $489 billion budget went to nutrition programs, including SNAP; the Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program, which teaches people how to choose and prepare healthy food; and programs that promote farmers markets and farm-to-school food service.
"The farm bill is critically important," said state Sen. Judy Schwank, a Ruscombmanor Township Democrat. "I believe it is poised for agreement.
"Republicans are looking to the new Congress and thinking it will never pass," she added. "They will allow the work requirement to be discussed in the next farm bill and move forward on this one."
Democrats and some Senate Republicans have not been supportive of the work requirement and in 2019, the Democrats will displace Republicans as the House's majority party.
"Knowing the picture is going to change, this is not the time for big change in the farm bill," Schwank said.
The Senate version also has a provision to remove industrial hemp from the controlled substance list, O'Neill said, adding there is a lot of support for the crop.
Hemp farming was a robust industry in Pennsylvania before the federal government removed authority to grow it.
Industrial hemp has over 25,000 reported uses, including fiber, oil, biofuel, hand soaps and cosmetics, but it is still classified as a Class 1 drug and cannot legally be grown in the U.S. for human consumption.
It can, however, be consumed. Granola with hemp seeds contains hemp imported from other countries.
Hemp is the same plant species as marijuana, but it contains between zero and 0.2 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.
The last federal farm bill removed the prohibition on the production of hemp but added restrictions. States have to give the authority to grow hemp, it has to be for research, and it is still classified as a Class 1 drug, state Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said in a 2017 interview.
In 2017, Pennsylvania reintroduced the hemp crop under the Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program. Through the program, 50 permits were available in 2018 and growers could plant a limited number of acres of hemp exclusively for research purposes, not for commercial sale.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has hinted that hemp will be removed from the controlled substance list, opening opportunities for the industry.