The
2014 Farm Bill, passed by Congress and signed last week by President
Obama, strengthens the farm safety net and ensures vital nutrition
assistance for hardworking children and families during tough times.
It
closes loopholes and achieves much-needed reform, saving billions of
taxpayer dollars.
Those
accomplishments are significant and should be commended, particularly
at a time when bipartisan victories in Washington are so rare.
We
have already started work on a plan to implement the new Farm
Bill. However, many of its provisions are new and complex.
As we have
done every step of the way in helping to craft this legislation, we will
work to keep Congress and our stakeholders informed as we identify and
prioritize everything — new regulations, guidance and other
activities — that will be required so that we can implement the
legislation in an efficient, timely and responsible manner.
Much
of the debate leading up to the passage of the Farm Bill focused on the
farm safety net and the food safety net — key provisions of the
legislation, to be clear. Yet as we move forward with implementation, I
am struck by the myriad ways the new Farm Bill also makes small, yet
critical, investments that help foster the potential in our rural
communities, long underappreciated and under-realized.
It provides
resources that give us the opportunity to restructure and revitalize the
rural economy in ways that, without a farm bill, were out of reach.
The
new Farm Bill invests in the endless possibility to use what is already
grown and raised on our farms and ranches in innovative and unexpected
ways. It expands the potential to strengthen rural manufacturing,
particularly of products made from renewable materials from our farms
and forests.
Rural America desperately needs those jobs, and every
American benefits from our expanded competitiveness in this globally
emerging market.
It
also recognizes the economic opportunity inherent in the changing
dynamic of consumer tastes. The new Farm Bill provides new grants and
loans for entrepreneurs — many of whom are just beginning to farm — that
want to break into expanding markets for organic and locally- and
regionally-grown foods.
Money spent locally very often continues to
circulate locally, expanding the potential for job creation in rural
small businesses and spurring economic growth across the country.
The
new Farm Bill takes an innovative approach to agricultural research,
establishing a new foundation that will leverage private sector funding
to support groundbreaking research.
Our farmers, ranchers and foresters
are increasingly facing the pressures of a growing population and
extreme weather patterns due to a changing climate. Their job
security — and the future security of our food supply and our
nation — depends on how well we equip them for those challenges today.
We
are fortunate as a nation because we have the ability to grow and
create virtually everything we need to survive. Our farmers, ranchers
and foresters, and those in supporting industries, give us the freedom
to be whoever and accomplish whatever we want because we don’t have to
worry about where our food comes from. Indirectly, the products of their
livelihoods — our food, fiber and forest products — ensure a brighter, more
stable future for all of us.
That
is why this Farm Bill is not just a farm bill, or a food bill, or a
“business as usual” bill.
This Farm Bill is an investment in every
American, no matter where they live.
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