Ag News

Farm Bureau urges Congress to pass farm assistance

Georgia’s farmers are enduring severe financial strain, with record-high input costs and stagnant crop prices resulting in $800 million in losses for in 2025 alone. While the USDA's Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) payments represent a valuable first step, they fall far short of addressing the full scope of cumulative losses and the ongoing challenges producers face.

“Our farmers and ranchers would much prefer to be self-sufficient, but the current economic environment simply won’t allow it,” said Georgia Farm Bureau President Tom McCall. “Contending with ever-rising costs without similar adjustments to the prices we receive is not sustainable. We are climbing an extremely steep financial hill, and there is no other way to put it: we need help to ensure that our food and clothing continue to be produced by our farmers and not imported from outside our borders where food safety is not a priority.”

U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), who chairs the U.S. Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, recently released a framework to expand farm assistance and complement the FBA program, emphasizing the need for additional targeted relief through appropriations or related measures to bridge producers to future reforms like those in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Agriculture Committee members on both sides of the aisle have similarly highlighted the urgency of meaningful supplemental aid for family farmers amid market disruptions and high costs.

The Boozman/Hoeven proposal includes:

• Expanded coverage for the FBA program. Additional funds would cover a greater share of producer losses, allowing farmers to receive bankable and timely assistance.  Include acres that were prevented from being planted as eligible acres under the FBA program.

•  Align payment limitations with improvements included in the One Big Beautiful Bill to ensure assistance better covers the level of losses farmers are experiencing.

• Additional assistance for losses that exceed national averages. Would provide separate funds for producers who were forced to sell at depressed prices or experienced higher costs of production would help further target the available assistance while allowing the FBA and expanded FBA funds to reach farmers.

• Expanded support for specialty crop producers. Would provide USDA the funding and flexibility to implement a program that addresses the unique challenges of specialty crops.

• Assistance for sugar beet and cane growers. Would provide sugar farmers needed relief in a time of record losses in an oversupplied market.

• Increased Farm Ownership and Operating Loan limits. Would increase loan limits would improve access to credit that meets current producer demand.

Farm Bureau says Congress must act decisively in the FY2026 appropriations bills to provide immediate, substantial economic relief. Without it, more farms will close, rural America will suffer, and our domestic food security will be at risk.

Timely action is essential to keep Georgia's farms operating and our nation fed from its own soil. GFB is asking Georgians to help protect the state’s agriculture by contacting their congressmen today and demand action. Pre-drafted comments are available by visiting https://gfb.ag/GFBtakeaction012726. Please feel free to edit your comments to give them a more personal touch.

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