The sun is shining, the soy is growing and the American Soybean Association and its grower-leaders have hit the ground running in Washington D.C. and across soy states to advocate before Congress takes its summer recess.
As U.S. soy growers face historic fertilizer costs, ASA applauded the U.S. International Trade Commission’s announcement in late July that it rejects imposing final duties on urea ammonium nitrate from Russia, Trinidad and Tobago.
Few inputs have exhibited more price inflation than UAN, which has experienced a jarringly high price increase due in large part to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. These two countries are important crop and energy producers, as well as producers of fertilizers and fertilizer input products— including natural gas for UAN. Last month, ASA and other ag groups asked ITC to take into consideration that price pressure experienced by commodity farmers has cascading effects that reverberate through the farm economy.
Comments on proposed climate disclosure rule
On June 17, a coalition of 10 national agricultural organizations, including ASA, submitted comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its Proposed Rules on the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate- Related Disclosures for Investors. The organizations argued that the SEC should exempt agriculture from the proposed rule, as it would be “wildly burdensome and expensive” for farmers, especially small and mid-size growers who couldn’t afford the overhead required to comply.
The proposed rules would require corporations to disclose information about its direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, indirect emissions from purchased electricity or other forms of energy, and supply chain emissions. While the proposed rule is aimed at public companies, mandating the disclosure of supply chain emissions would place a burden on growers who supply commodities to public entities.
In addition to an ag exemption, the coalition asked the SEC to increase the liability protections for emissions data that companies disclose and urged the commission to drop a requirement that companies provide location data for emissions, which could potentially be used to identify individual farms.
2023 Farm Bill update
After beginning the information-gathering process this past September, ASA debuted soy’s 2023 Farm Bill Priorities on May 25. These initial priorities include improving the Title I farm safety net for soybeans; continuing the voluntary, incentive-based, flexible approach to conservation programs; investing into promotion of U.S. commodities globally; building biobased and biofuels opportunities; and ensuring broadband coverage is accessible throughout rural America. The document has been shared with both the U.S. House and Senate Ag Committee and distributed through ASA’s media contacts.
ASA President Brad Doyle, a farmer from Arkansas, has the opportunity to in early June to share soy’s priorities during his testimony at the Senate Agriculture Committee’s second field hearing, 2023 Farm Bill: Perspectives from the Natural State. During Doyle’s oral testimony, he urged Senators Stabenow and Boozman to strengthen the farm safety net and seek additional funding resources from the Budget Committee for the 2023 bill.
On July 11, U.S. House Ag Committee Chairman David Scott and Ranking Member Glenn “GT” Thompson announced the committee is seeking direct input from producers, stakeholders and consumers on how various farm bill programs work for them. The committee has created an online form for stakeholders to submit feedback and ideas for the 2023 Farm Bill that can be found on the House Ag Committee’s website.
In a release from the committee, Chairman Scott and Ranking Member Thompson spoke about the importance of participation from the agriculture community and the hope that the online feedback form will be utilized to help craft a bill that will best meet the needs of the people.
ASA has issued a call to action for its farmer-leaders to participate and share U.S. soy’s 2023 Farm Bill priorities.
