House Ag Leadership Discusses Agreements, Differences

COVID vaccine distribution, rural broadband, climate change, and racial equity were among the top issues House Ag leaders laid before USDA’s 97^th Ag Outlook Forum last week. From his roots growing up on his grandfather’s farm, House Ag Chair David Scott described the plight of America’s black farmers through generations of discrimination and earlier slavery and are make up less than two percent of all farmers today. Tied to that, Scott, who represents rural Georgia, argues is food security and rural health.

“I represent a district that has six counties, the biggest counties where the hardest-hit black folks are, but I’m also chairman of the Agriculture Committee, where I have input, and where we’re working with all of our rural communities to make sure our agriculture industry is protected.” 

Scott said he spoke earlier with President Biden to get more vaccine supplies to rural districts, as efforts to close the rural-urban health divide continues. But one area of partisan divide remains climate change. 

“The wrong approach with burdensome regulations or policies that dramatically increase costs would harm rural economies by displacing U.S. production with that of less-efficient foreign producers, leading to an increase in global emissions,” said top House Ag Republican Glenn Thompson.

Thompson called the 2018 Farm Bill “arguably the greenest…ever” with its voluntary incentive-based programs to sequester carbon and boost efficient farming practices.

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