By Rick Zimmerman
We are in the midst of the election season for state and federal races. Our elected leaders are very focused on the messaging required for election or reelection, and getting in the weeds on substantive policy issues impacting the agriculture industry may have to wait until after November 4th. This gives us time however to reflect on the substantive issues impacting our industry, and to get prepared for the next legislative session at state capitols or in Washington D.C.
On the public policy front, much of what we do is react to the agendas of other special interest groups. Unfortunately, environmentalists, animal rights activists, organized labor interests, anti-science organizations and others don’t always see eye to eye with the agriculture community. Even though our democratic process allows us to engage and voice our concerns, the challenge for success is greater today than ever before, given the political realities of today’s urbanized society. Therefore, we must be better prepared to not only react to the agenda of others, but to lead forward with our own agenda. This is a good time of year to set our agenda for 2023. Here’s a list of issues that will guide our discussions.
Climate Change: This issue permeates the halls of Congress and most state capitols. The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act authorizes billions of dollars for programs and incentives to reduce fossil fuel use and destroy and sequester carbon. State laws, including New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), recognize agriculture as a contributing source of carbon to our atmosphere as well as an opportunity to reduce, capture and store carbon. In fact, according to UC Davis Professor Frank Mitloehner, the dairy industry can be a net carbon sink if the right technologies and practices are employed. Watch Frank’s 5-minute video: “Rethinking Methane” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOPrF8oyDYw It is our challenge to advocate at the federal and state levels for programs and incentives to maximize animal agriculture’s contributions to reducing carbon. If done correctly, climate policy can be a win-win for the dairy industry and the environment.
Package Recycling: This issue is also cropping up in state capitols throughout the country. The traditional recycling paradigm of municipal waste stream recycling is being challenged by the notion that product manufacturers should be held responsible for determining how to recycle the packaging material used to put their products in the marketplace. Food, including dairy products, are included within this new recycling approach. Numerous states are considering this Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme and New York is one of them.
The current proposals lend much to be desired in context to understanding the realities of dairy foods. Specifically, federal and state food safety laws and regulations dictate packaging standards, including labeling requirements, that do not synch with the basic EPR concepts. Much thought and research need to be invested before we march forward on this front. Therefore, the dairy industry, specifically the dairy foods industry, must continue to engage with policy makers in attempt to instill the right ideas and timeframes. The greater agriculture community must join with dairy food manufacturers to impress lawmakers on the gravity of the situation and help with reasonable solutions. In some way, shape, or form, this new recycling approach is likely to move forward.
Pollinators and Pesticides: The pesticide – pollinator interface continues to be studied and this potential issue deserves focus. However, NRDC and other environmental organizations have jumped to the conclusion that the only way to solve the issue of pollinator decline is to ban a class of pesticides from use as seed treatments and have convinced law makers in New York and Vermont to introduce such legislation. Environmental organizations claim seeds treated with neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are the source of the problem. Regardless of who is on the right side of science, corn and soybean growers face a very serious threat from seed corn maggot, among other pests, should these seed treatments be banned.
Everyone agrees that pollinators need to thrive in our world. Therefore, we all should be working on addressing threats to pollinators and their habitat. But the real solutions are the ones that minimize the threat without sacrificing agriculture production. There is a win-win here. All it takes is a willingness to work together to find it.
Labor: Costs, Availability: The labor issues continue to pose the most significant threat to the agriculture industry. The drive to a $15.00 minimum wage, combined with high payroll taxes including an unemployment insurance rate that was not addressed by federal COVID relief funds, is only the beginning of a series of challenges that threaten the ability of northeast agriculture remaining competitive with other regions, other countries. Combined with the threat of a 40-hour overtime threshold, and a tight labor market, the agriculture community will continue to struggle with finding enough workers and staying competitive with other ag producing regions.
A subset of this picture includes truck drivers. Farmers, milk haulers, feed manufacturers and others are struggling to find skilled, licensed drivers. Our industry is facing a perilous situation of not being able to get crops harvested, milk delivered, or cows fed. Lowering the minimum CDL age in New York to 18 is a good step in the right direction, but we need more training opportunities and testing sites. Further, milk processing infrastructure needs updating to accommodate a quicker turnaround of milk tankers.
There are many factors impacting labor costs and availability. Keeping New York’s farmworker overtime threshold at 60 hours, reforming the federal agricultural guest worker program (H-2A) and increasing the pool of trained and licensed truck drivers would be a good start.
Farm Bill: We are at the verge of rewriting the massive set of laws known as the U.S. Farm Bill. The impact from these laws goes far beyond the farm gate, touching the lives of food consumers, particularly those in need of food assistance. In fact, from a spending standpoint, more Farm Bill funds go to food and feeding programs like Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC) and the supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), than get spent on farm related programs. Nevertheless, the massive Farm Bill stands to significantly impact all farmers across the nation and the question will be: how much bigger does it need to get for the next five years?
Conservation programs, renewable energy incentives, rural development initiatives, crop insurance, production limit incentives are all part of the farm bill. Field hearings have already begun, and New York is leading the way through Commissioner Ball’s Farm bill Listening Sessions. We all must engage in the process to assure that agriculture’s needs are met.
2023 promises to be another big policy year for agriculture. Buckle up, because now is the time to get started.