House Agriculture Looks At Input Costs

This week, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing focused on rising costs of agriculture inputs, and where the 2023 Farm Bill can help provide certainty to America’s farmers.

Rep. Don Bacon, R - Nebraska: “Pesticides are fertilizers were on tripled or quadruple in cost. Is it gotten is it become better for our farmers right now in this area? And what can we do to do better?”

Corey Rosenbusch, The Fertilizer Institute: “You know, as I mentioned in the testimony, we have seen a softening in the market recently. So prices have come down in some cases half the cost of what they were last year. Several reasons for that. One, I think farmers are waiting and a wait and see approach. And so that's off in the market a little. But some of the global markets, as I referenced, have also opened back up. So you see a lot more product moving that impacts that that supply and demand all over the world, whether it's India or Brazil.”

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D - Virginia: “So could you just talk about some of the current legal barriers and liabilities that face farmers who try to fix their own equipment that they own or that have to rely on a third party to do so?”

Rob Larew, National Farmers Union: “This barrier. We've had promises in the past from the equipment manufacturers that they will allow access to this information and allow some independent repair. That, however, did not come through. So we we need to see laws on the books to enforce that right to repair.”

Rep. Don Bacon, R - Nebraska: “Is China meeting its trade agreements that they made with the previous administration? Do we need to be doing more to hold their feet to the fire?”

Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation: “You know, the phase one trade agreement was huge for agriculture and they made it totally. No, and they didn't made it in in the second year of it. But that trade agreement was really helpful to our farmers and ranchers and and put us in that market to be able to sell to them. And and we need more trade agreements like that. But we need to hold their feet to the fire, just like we need to hold Mexico's feet to the fire. When it comes to biotech, in their discussion around not taking our corn.”

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs