PEOSTA, Iowa - Joe Trumm took over his family farm years ago, despite a warning from his father that there was no future in farming.
Now Trumm’s three sons are growing old enough where soon they will decide whether to continue the family practice, and Joe worries about the lack of opportunities available to them.
“I look at my kids, and some of the neighbors, and their best avenue in (farming) with ownership is to own livestock,” Trumm said Monday at a listening session for the federal farm bill at Northeast Iowa Community College’s National Education Center for Agricultural Safety. “But there are a lot of challenges in livestock production today.”
The event was hosted by Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, and Department of Agriculture official Doug O’Brien, who grew up near Fillmore.
Trumm mentioned mega-farms that can operate at low costs, making it hard for smaller farms to compete, and increasing environmental regulations that he said can make life difficult on farmers.
“I honestly don’t know a better conservationist than a farmer,” Trumm said, questioning the need for so many regulations and watchdogs. “That gets to be a pretty tight rope to walk sometimes, and earn a living doing it.”
Walt Welling, a farmer from New Vienna, also raised concerns about the extent of federal regulation, particularly in respect to the use of unmanned drones for surveillance.
“We are going down a path of supervision that I’m not sure we want to go down,” Welling said. “We can be overregulated.”
It was Braley’s 12th listening session on the federal legislation, being called the Food, Farm and Jobs Bill. The Senate already has passed its version, which contains about $23 billion in cuts. Braley said he hopes the House subcommittee will have its version on the floor for debate by August. Republicans who control the House are seeking another $10 billion in cuts, most of which would come out of nutrition programs.
Braley said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has expressed concern that the House Republicans’ demands will prevent passage of the bill. If an accord cannot be struck, the most likely course is an extension of the current farm bill, which was negotiated in 2008.
O’Brien said that would create terrible uncertainty for farmers, who would have to operate for another year wondering when a new bill would eventually pass and what changes would occur.
“If Iowans want a farm bill, we need to find a way to address the problem in a rational way,” Braley said. “The Senate did that.”
