During last week’s Regulatory Update Webinar titled Gearing Up for the 2023 Farm Bill: What Specialty Food Makers Should Know, Jeni Lamb Rogers spoke about the importance of the legislation package that is passed about every 5 years, discussing its intentions, policies, process, and crucial role in U.S. food production and consumption.
“Gearing up for Farm Bill support is critical in thinking about our baseline supply of a lot of the commodities that underlie key ingredients in specialty food products,” said Rogers who is the associate general counsel for supply chain at Branded, and a Biden-administration appointed Colorado State Farm Service Agency committee member, which oversees many Farm Bill programs.
Rogers covered the meaning and impact of the 2018 Farm Bill's titles, which are areas that are incorporated into the bill. They include:
• Commodity producers' “safety nets”
• Conservation programs
• Trade
• Nutrition benefits
• Credit programs
• Rural Development initiatives
• Research
• Forestry and forest management
• Energy grants, loans, and processing
• Horticulture of specialty crops
• Crop Insurance
• Miscellaneous: livestock, poultry, limited resource, and socially disadvantaged farmers
SNAP benefits were noted as the largest expenditure of the Farm Bill, included in the nutrition title, which is also the bill's largest. Nearly 50 million people participate monthly in the benefits, and Rogers remarked on the potential expansion of online pilots allowing users to purchase groceries via delivery apps with these benefits, which could be included in the legislation.
Rogers highlighted the importance of these benefits for U.S. households, and listed the top expenditure categories for SNAP and non-SNAP households.
Specialty food makers can make use of benefits provided by the Local Agricultural Marketing Program, which provides new business grants and loans to serve small businesses in various ways, like funding to create local commercial kitchens.
The importance of swift legal action was highlighted as the 2018 Farm Bill is set to expire in 2023. In the unlikely event a new bill is not passed, Rogers warned, the current legislation would revert to New Deal laws that are no longer effective.
To learn more about how the Farm Bill can impact specialty food businesses, watch the webinar on demand in SFA’s Learning Center.
Related: How to Optimize the Food Value Chain to Maximize Success; Meijer Accepting SNAP Benefits for Pickup, Delivery