ARLINGTON, VA – Mississippi rice farmer and USA Rice Farmers Board Chair Kirk Satterfield joined The Rice Stuff podcast to talk about the expiring 2018 Farm Bill and what he thinks a
new farm bill will need to include.
“The world was a totally different place when the current farm bill was written,” Satterfield said. “And while that legislation has worked well for rice and agriculture in general, it was not written in a way that responds to the current realities producers are facing.”
From supply shortages and war in Europe to inflation and India artificially suppressing global rice prices, Satterfield explains current agricultural challenges and how U.S. farm policy can help address them.
“This could be the first trillion-dollar farm bill and we know critics who don’t appreciate modern agriculture will come out of the woodwork to try to derail this,” said Satterfield. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us to help them understand input cost conditions and why Americans need to think about this farm bill quite differently.”
Satterfield also shared insights into the inner workings of the USA Rice Farm Policy Task Force that he also chairs.
“We’re early in the process of establishing our priorities for the upcoming farm bill, but we’ve got very experienced, very smart producers from all the rice states working on this and I’m confident we’ll be able to come forward with sound solutions,” said Satterfield.
New episodes of
The Rice Stuff are published on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and can be found on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.