Indiana farmer testifies for increased access in Farm Bill
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An Indiana farmer and business owner testified in front of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Wednesday asking lawmakers to make federal programs accessible to small farmers when considering this year’s Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill dictates national agriculture, nutrition, conservation and forestry policy for the next five years. It’s a bill chock full of safety net, loan and assistance programs for farmers but also can cover environmental and climate protections as well as nutrition and SNAP reforms.
Nick Carter, owner of Indianapolis-based, 20-acre Mud Creek Farm, focused his testimony on famers like himself: small-scale crop producers. He also co-founded and leads Market Wagon, an online farmers market delivering fresh produce, meat and other products to customers from over 1,500 small farmers in 23 cities in the Midwest and South. He also is a member of the Indiana Farm Bureau.
“Because of the experience I’ve gained through these roles, I believe I can give a unique perspective on how the 2023 Farm Bill can provide vital resources to specialty crop producers,” he told committee members.
Carter discussed the challenges he and other farmers like him face.
A major issue surrounds crop insurance, which Carter asks to be expanded to include specialty crops and enhanced Whole Farm Revenue Protection insurance with levels of affordable coverage and safety nets. He said diversified farm owners like himself have difficulties with the current system to estimate loss since their product offering is vast. The current insurance is not feasible, he said, noting he has yield records by row-feet, not acre, and amounts to a small part of their risk stop gaps.
“The diversification that I described in Mud Creek Farm is itself our greatest risk mitigation technique,” he said. “If squash beetles diminish my cucurbit harvest, I can replant those rows with green beans. If lack of rain renders a sweet corn patch useless to harvest, I can enclose it with temporary fencing and graze off the stalks.”
The Local Food Promotion Program should also be expanded and made more accessible and less laborious to apply and maintain, Carter said. This change would increase the program’s effectiveness, he said.
Managing capital is another priority, Carter said, especially for farmer with diversified crops and operations. It’s not the access to capital primarily, he said, but knowing how to deploy it and prevent over-leveraging and falling into debt with a unfruitful season.
Carter also asked for congressional action on immigration reform with a commitment to long-term investment in mechanization and automation research. He said farms still require seasonal labor, meaning they rely on unskilled workers, but those low-supervision roles require the ability to use and troubleshoot small machinery, provide care to farm animals and scope a crops’ readiness for harvest.
He listed other improvements in his 5-minute testimony, including the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program covering all domestic fruit and vegetables, more funding and USDA attention for specialty crop producers and a termed stop gap profit/loss assistance program to mitigate the impact of foreign imports.
You can view the full hearing by clicking here, with Carter’s testimony beginning around the 24:30 mark.