AGree Releases 2023 Farm Bill Policy Priorities

The Meridian Institute’s AGree Initiative recently shared its policy priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill. The recommendations are intended to take a systems-approach to support farmers with the information, risk management tools, and financial resources needed to build their environmental and economic resilience.

The recommendations are organized into five key issues areas:

• Agriculture Data and Research: Improve and streamline the collection, sharing, and analysis of USDA data, and employ USDA data for critical research on how agriculture can mitigate and adapt to climate change by improving soil health, water quality and quantity, and risk reduction.  
• Technical Assistance: Assess the technical assistance system and pilot innovative solutions for improving information delivery to farmers, ranchers, and foresters, especially for implementing conservation practices to enhance profitability. 
• Crop Insurance: Strengthen the Federal Crop Insurance Program by expanding support for farmers to transition to conservation agriculture and remove barriers to conservation practices within the program. 
• Finance: Improve financial tools to de-risk the financing of conservation practice adoption and implementation.
• Climate-Smart Commodities: Ensure outcomes from innovative pilot projects are translated into policies and ensure the success of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program.

The 2023 Farm Bill represents an enormous opportunity for Congress e to advance policy that aids farmers in increasing their economic and environmental resilience.

“Our farmers are leading the way with their vision for a resilient food and agriculture system that sustains both profitable farming operations and a thriving environmental landscape,” said Todd Barker, CEO of Meridian Institute. “The Farm Bill is a major opportunity to advance policies that provide better information to farmers through innovative research and data, expand risk management tools, and build financial support for practices that build soil health and reduce farm risk.”

The 2023 Farm Bill priorities building on recent projects in crop insurance, agricultural research and data, agricultural finance, and more. You can read more about the AGree Initiative’s policy priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill.