The House Agriculture Committee held a farm bill listening session July 31 at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, where farm industry leaders and others shared their input about the upcoming markup of the farm bill, which is set to expire Sept. 30, 2018.
As the High Plains Journalreports, farm industry leaders mainly talked about the return of cotton to the farm bill’s commodity title. Cotton subsidies had been removed from the farm bill following the U.S. loss to Brazil in a 2014 World Trade Organization dispute panel’s decision that stated the U.S. cotton program had injured Brazilian farmers due to global market interference.
The subsidies ended and were replaced by the Stacked Income Protection Plan, which has been criticized for not properly protecting farmers in a time of record low prices.
Dan Smith of Lockney, Texas said, “You better start worrying about guys like me. Therefore, you better start worrying about the entire industry. I am not kidding you. Our backs are to the wall. We’ve got to have some help. Cotton has got to be a Title 1 commodity.”