MANKATO — Preparing for a variety of potential livestock disease outbreaks is high on the list of needs in a new farm bill, as well as helping rural communities to build workforce housing and provide day care to attract workers.
Those were a couple of the topics discussed at a roundtable hosted by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s staff Tuesday. About 30 members of crop and livestock associations, agribusiness and rural organizations attended the roundtable at Pioneer Bank.
Bird flu has had a major impact on chicken and turkey producers as have other disease outbreaks in hog facilities. Leaders of those producer groups said it’s important to include robust funding and outbreak assistance in the next farm bill, including disease surveillance and ensuring there are federal stockpiles of vaccines.
Sam Ziegler, president of GreenSeam, said disease-related federal programs should also keep in mind that rural communities might need help. He said livestock disease outbreaks don’t just harm farmers but usually affect the rural communities as workers at animal-processing plants get laid off.
“The ripple effect from ag goes through every sector,” he said.
Several people also brought up the need for the farm bill and other federal programs to help rural communities to build more workforce housing and to provide more day care. Those two areas are key to helping get the workforce needed at livestock and farm businesses.
Chuck Ackman, outreach director for Klobuchar, said it’s a topic they hear about in every community they visit and said the problem doesn’t just affect agribusiness but every business as they struggle to find employees.
Ackman said livestock-related businesses in particular also want the government to find ways to allow for more migrant workers to come and work in the United States.
The current five-year farm bill expires at the end of this year and hearings are underway on developing the next five-year bill, which covers a multitude of farm programs as well as nutrition programs for the low income and for school lunch programs.
Klobuchar, in a video presentation, said the six listening sessions her staff are holding around the state “will help inform what I will fight for,” in the farm bill.
She said she has several priorities for the next bill.
“Continuing key progress we made on commodities (programs) to ensure there is a safety net” when commodity prices are low.
She said she is working with other senators on bipartisan legislation to continue supporting biofuels, including pushing to allow the sale of E15 ethanol fuel blends year-round and funding for infrastructure, such as E15 fuel pumps at gas stations.
Klobuchar said the U.S. Department of Agriculture also needs to ensure its assistance programs are flexible in dealing quickly with rural aid after extreme weather events.
And she said getting reliable high-speed internet to every rural resident is a priority.
“You need high-speed broadband for the kind of precision agriculture you are involved in.”
Several attendees said the crop insurance programs in the current farm bill are working well and should be retained, and they also brought up the need to provide support for mental health programs for farmers who need them.