Leading the roundtable (from left): Senators Cassidy and Boozman, and LAFB President Richard Fontenot
Jul 18, 2024
BATON ROUGE, LA – Late last week, a group of Louisiana’s agricultural leaders sat down for a genuine conversation about the current state of agriculture in Louisiana and across the country with U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Boozman (R-AR), ranking member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, at the Louisiana Farm Bureau (LAFB) office here.
The rice industry was well represented, with growers from around the state joining newly elected LAFB President Richard Fontenot, a rice farmer from Evangeline Parish, LAFB officers, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Dr. Mike Strain, Matt Lee with the LSU AgCenter, Orlando Means with Southern University Ag, and other agricultural representatives.
USA Rice members John Owen, Scott Franklin, Chanel Carter, and Robert McGehee from northeast Louisiana, joined fellow rice growers and USA Rice members from south Louisiana, Jeffery Sylvester and Alan Lawson in the roundtable discussion.
The agenda included an open discussion on the concerns of local growers and the agriculture community as the Farm Bill process continues to take shape in Washington, DC. Senator Cassidy set the theme early on, telling the group that constant engagement is critical for producers in framing the content of the Farm Bill, in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and acknowledged Senator Boozman’s dedication to the American agricultural community by joining him in Louisiana to hear from producers about the issues facing production agriculture today.
Senator Boozman acknowledged that Arkansas and Louisiana are of the same tribe, specifically in the similarities of their farming challenges.
Everyone in the room had the opportunity to ask questions and make comments on the issues they are facing, and the Senators provided feedback and engaged in the exchange of ideas that would be critical in passing the next Farm Bill. All agreed that it is time to put the “farm” back into the Farm Bill.
Senator Boozman said he had two red lines crucial to the process: no Farm Bill until the risk management tools, including PLC reference prices, are meaningfully improved to protect American agriculture and American farmers, and producers shouldn’t be “forced” to participate in Climate Smart practices, but encouraged to continue to farm with the conservation practices that work on their individual farms.
The discussion wrapped up with everyone agreeing on the statement made by John Owen, a rice farmer from northeast Louisiana, who said that when it comes to the U.S. rice industry, “without the needed increase in the PLC reference price for rice in Title I, it won’t matter if all the other items are included in the next Farm Bill.”