According to former House Agriculture Committee Collin Peterson, one of the biggest issues facing agriculture is there are no Democrats left representing farm districts in Congress. “You can’t do anything with one party, it just doesn’t stick,” said Peterson. Former USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey said numbers are a big factor. “The struggles in ag, in general, is there is fewer of us; we need to make people understand agriculture.” During the Red River Farm Network forum, Peterson said the budget reconciliation bill is over-the-top. “We have spent so damn much money already trying to deal with this pandemic.” In Peterson’s view, this $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package is a reaction to 2009-2010 when the Democrats had control of the White House, the Senate and the House and they squandered it. “Not only did they get nothing done, they lost the majority on top of it. They decided that isn’t going to happen again so they are coming together to get as much done with their priorities as they can with the understanding we probably won’t be back in the majority in the next Congress.” View the forum online.
News Categories
Latest RRFN Podcasts
Subscribe to RRFN
Get a weekly digest from RRFN to stay up-to-date on all the latest news in agriculture.