Last week, 10 Senators from Southern states sent Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-KS) a letter ex-pressing the need for regional balance in the upcoming farm bill:

“As the Committee continues its deliberations to reauthorize the farm bill, we believe it is important the new legislation remain consistent with the Committee’s his-tory of balancing the diversity of the country regardless of crop or growing region. We understand that tight budgets impose constraints on the policy options available to the Committee and the probable loss of direct pay-ments will require different risk management strategies for different farm operations. Your work last Fall to pro-duce recommendations for the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction should be applauded and be the basis of any future agreement. Consistent with your draft recommendation, we support the underlying concept of producer choice. Like you, we believe the commodity policy options being discussed should be equitable and not result in acreage shifts independent of market signals.   Read More in this week’s The Rice Advocate