Benton County native Chuck Conner, former USDA Deputy Secretary and now president & CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, participated in a discussion Tuesday about the 2023 Farm Bill in Noblesville with the Agribusiness Council of Indiana and AgrIInstitute. At this point, he believes the 2023 Farm Bill won’t actually get done until early 2024.
A lot of the discussion focused on labor issues on the farm, not something typically addressed in the farm bill, but Conner thinks maybe it should be.
“I keep looking at this, and what I told the crowd today is you’ve got to make yourselves known. Congress isn’t legislating a lot. The Farm Bill will have to be done eventually. These politicians want that farm bill to be able to say, ‘We’ve really worked hard to address your problems.’ If it’s totally silent on labor, you’ve got to communicate with them that our problems aren’t solved if that’s the case.”
Conner encourages farmers and agribusinesses to have a direct conversation with their legislators about this issue.
“We know you want to be for the farmer. And we know you want to appreciate us, and thank you for that, but the way to show your appreciation is you’ve got to solve this labor problem. And if you don’t solve it, don’t expect us to be touting you as a real ‘pro farmer legislator’, because this is our biggest problem, it’s unsolved, and we’re not going to be able to survive if we are on the path that we’re on right now a few years down the road.”
Conner shares more of his thoughts on the upcoming farm bill in the full HAT interview found below.
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