From staff reports Darren Padget, a former chairman for U.S. Wheat Associates, recently discussed his predictions regarding export conditions and a possible Farm Bill under the incoming Trump administration.
At the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, last month, Padget, an Oregon wheat producer, said he and other farmers hope for less regulatory pressure in the new year.
“If you were in the natural resources business, it seems like you have had a target on your back for the last few years,” he said. “I’m hoping to put that somewhere else for a while.”
Mentioning that 90% of his crops are exported, Padget said he is “very sensitive to tariff talk, the strength of the dollar, and all things pertaining to trade.”
“During Trump’s first term, when they started saying tariffs, I bristled,” he said. “I still do a little bit, but I also realize that is the only economic stick that we can really swing to bring people into line. It seems to work, so I am cautiously optimistic.”
Padget also spoke on the 2024 Farm Bill, a comprehensive measure outlining agriculture, food assistance, conservation and rural development which includes funding and guidelines for crop insurance, SNAP, farm subsidies and environmental regulation.
Regarding the Farm Bill, the status of crop insurance is paramount to Padget, as he sees protecting farms as a priority.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a Washington-based “alliance of grassroots organizations that advocates for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and rural communities,” reports that while the 2018 Farm Bill provided premium subsidies to farmers and private subsidies to the private crop insurance companies who provide federal crop insurance to protect farmers against crop losses, without an inclusion of this title in the 2024 Farm Bill, farmers could be at risk.
With Republicans leading both houses of Congress as well as the White House in 2025, Padget believes a bill drafted and approved by the Trump administration would cater to “farmers without maybe so many green restrictions.”