Indiana soybean farmers outline farm bill, biofuel, and trade priorities on Capitol Hill

Farmer leaders representing Indiana Soybean Alliance Membership & Policy Committee (ISA M&P) joined staff in Washington, D.C. July 16-18 for various meetings and visits to Indiana delegation.

Indiana soybean farmer leaders included Phil Ramsey of Shelby County, Ind., and Mike Koehne of Decatur County, Ind.

During their time in the nation’s capital, they attended American Soybean Association’s Board of Directors meetings and dedicated a full day to meeting with 10 offices of Indiana federal legislators. 

The soybean farmers stressed the importance of enacting a new and improved farm bill before the end of 2024. Soybean farmer leaders advocated for improvements to the safety net and funding for trade promotion of U.S. commodities globally. 

“We need a farm bill. We need it worse than ever – low grain prices, inflation,” Ramsey said. “We need it to help stabilize agriculture. And we want to make sure that the trade incentives, the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program, in the House version have been doubled, and we’ve been asking for that for 20 years. We really need that to help try to move our products.” 

ISA farmer directors also made the congressional delegation aware of concerns over revoking Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status from China or imposing additional tariffs. China is the largest destination for U.S. soybean exports, and efforts to end PNTR would have negative effects on agricultural export markets. 

Soybean farmers also expressed support for domestically sourced feedstocks in domestic biofuels programs, like the Clean Fuel Production Credit (45Z). Ramsey and Koehne said it is important for biofuel programs to deliver reasonable compliance measures and reward environmental progress throughout the value chain. 

The M&P directors are committed to continuing the conversations about the farm bill, biofuel and trade priorities with Indiana’s federal legislators. 

“We’ve got to have a stronger voice,” Koehne said. “Somebody’s got to step up, and so, I decided I was going to step up. It’s been a great ride. I really enjoy doing this, and I feel like I’m making a difference. Somebody’s got to be out here advocating for agriculture, because there’s not many people who are directly connected to agriculture anymore to know what really goes on. A lot of people don’t know what goes on in rural America. So, for us to come out here and be able to voice what goes on and voice our opinions and be a resource for (legislators) to come to in case they have questions, I think that’s very important to have those connections.”