Posted June 6, 2014
Peanut farmers are worried about unexpected effects of the farm bill on crops, according to an article on the Miami Herald by Chris Adams available here. Ledger-Enquirer also published Adam’s article here.
In Georgia, farmers are putting more runners into the ground than last year, which concerns some farmers.
“Runner peanuts” are used to make peanut butter, and they are the most popular peanut type grown in the U.S. Peanut acreage is expected to rise 30 percent throughout the 10 peanut-growing states.
“I gave a speech to the Georgia Bankers Association a few weeks ago in which I described the possible problem as the ‘peanut apocalypse,’ ” said Allen Olson, a lawyer specializing in farm issues in southern Georgia.
Olson’s concern is the farm bill incentives could lead to over-planting, decrease in prices, and lack of farmers receiving expected benefits.
Peanut farmers in Florida are also worried about the effects of the farm bill. Only certain farmers can participate in price support programs while others are excluded, according to the farm bill.
“I wait at least a year,” Stanley Fletcher, director of the National Center for Peanut Competitiveness at the University of Georgia, said. “I want at least a year to digest it all – to cut out the rhetoric and rumors and see how USDA implements the farm bill with the rules and regulations before I try to go out and update farmers and update the cost of production.”
These problems demonstrate the complications of legislation such as the farm bill.
“The reality is it’s impossible to be fiscally responsible and write a farm bill that makes everybody happy,” said Don Koehler, the executive director of the Georgia Peanut Commission.
For more information on farm bills, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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