Feds pledge $2.3 billion to spice up ag exports amid farm invoice uncertainty

Federal agricultural officers plan to spend as much as $2.3 billion to advertise farm exports and to ship U.S. grain to international locations which are struggling meals shortages.

“This may complement present commerce promotion applications as we await Congress’s motion on each the funds and the farm invoice,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stated Tuesday.

The farm invoice — which governs coverage and spending for farm, meals and conservation applications — is up for renewal, which usually occurs each 5 years. A few of its provisions expired on the finish of September, and extra will expire on the finish of the yr.

It’s unclear when federal lawmakers will approve a brand new farm invoice. The U.S. Home of Representatives has been and not using a speaker for about three weeks and, consequently, unable to behave on laws.

A well-liked commerce promotion program that was created in 2018 amid then-President Donald Trump’s commerce battle with China and different international locations can be set to run out subsequent yr.

“We proceed to search for methods by which we will improve commerce alternatives for U.S. agriculture, particularly due to the power of the U.S. economic system and the difficulties skilled within the world economic system,” Vilsack stated. “We now discover ourselves with uncommon commerce deficits in agricultural merchandise.”

The brand new federal funding — $1.3 billion for the Regional Agricultural Promotion Program and $1 billion to fight world starvation — might be paid out of the Commodity Credit score Company, which the Biden administration has used for myriad new agriculture initiatives, together with people who promote “local weather sensible” practices.

Some Republican lawmakers have criticized using CCC funds for these initiatives. The CCC was created many years in the past to help farmers with catastrophic crop losses, however the USDA has broad spending authority over it.

The most recent introduced spending was the results of an August request from the highest Democrat and Republican of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Vitamin and Forestry.