Like In 2016 Ag A Big Part Of GOP Platform

The Republican National Convention got underway this week, and the platform looks very similar to what was discussed back in 2016, meaning farming will hold prominent place in the policy blueprint. The GOP platform calls for less Ag regulation that has raised consumer costs, expanding science-based trade, no GMO labeling, and more rural broadband. Ending the Obama Administration’s Waters of the US rule, or “WOTUS,” was part of the 2016 platform and achieved in the past year.

When the new rule was finalized, the American Farm Bureau's Don Parrish said this.

"We’re very hopeful that this is, number one, going to be very protective of water quality, but number two, get the federal government out of trying to regulate land use with a clean water statute.”

Included were exclusions for potholes, ditches, stock ponds, and other land features that fill when it rains, and, for prior converted cropland.

“Things that were converted back, around the turn of the last century, the early 1900s, that have been farmed, that will continue to be farmed, will be some of the most productive agricultural lands in the country.” 

The renewed 2016 GOP platform also calls for expanding farm trade, while insisting U.S. trading partners “adhere to science-based standards” in food regulations—part of USMCA as well as talks with the UK and EU. The platform opposes mandatory labeling of GMO foods proven to be safe and lifesaving in developing nations while calling for “universal broadband coverage” to link rural America with the global economy.

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