12/31/2024 Enough! Part 2

Part 2 of 2 One of the first things that the new Congress needs to do is write a new farm bill. The extension is only in order to buy time until this new Congress can work it over to shrink the USDA and cut spending. The next farm bill may not resemble what we have had in the past. Food versus farm policy issues have been necessarily combined to create consensus in compromise to enact farm bills. This will be revisited but may no longer work. That is because we have hit the mental limit on the federal credit card and austerity measures must be taken to change the trajectory of growth of the federal debt. We have talked about the rising spending and debt trajectory being unsustainable for some time and we have finally reached a tipping point where recognition was reached that things have to change. If you thought that could happen without impacting farm spending and programs get ready to rethink that. The USDA needs to be reworked by DOGE. The USDA needs significant reform. It is best if we get involved in the process defining what is essential and what is not or it will be…