Klodette Stroh, who farms with her husband Rick, east of Powell, is the national sugar chairman of Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE).

It’s her role within WIFE to monitor the national legislative scene affecting agriculture. In 2024, that means eyes on Washington, D.C., as Congress takes up a five-year renewal of the Farm Bill.

The last Farm Bill, passed in 2018, expired in September 2023 and is running on a one-year extension. The 2023 Farm Bill, to be renegotiated in 2024, has a price tag of $1.5 trillion.

“My daily prayers are that American farmers have a good year where they produce safe food and fiber for people of this great country,” Stroh said.   “However, unfortunately American farmers' operating margins are being squeezed each year due to rising labor, fuel, seed, fertilizer, equipment and interest rate costs. My husband and I grow our crops with flood irrigation, and the cost of fuel to irrigate our crops was unbelievable this year.”

The Farm Bill covers both agricultural and nutritional policy by design. In the 1970s, lawmakers included the food stamp program. Food stamps have been part of the Farm Bill nutritional program title, now renamed SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP in the Farm Bill is to encourage urban lawmakers to support programs that mostly benefit rural farming areas, at the same time incentivizing lawmakers representing rural areas to support a program that mostly benefits the urban poor, Stroh noted.

“Unfortunately, there have been groups from both the far left and far right that want to cut holes in the farmers' safety net, and they will use every opportunity to do so,” she said.

In the latest draft, Republicans in Congress have plans to spend $50 billion over the next decade to raise price floors for major agricultural products such as corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and peanuts, Stroh said.

But to pay for those new prices, the House version of the bill would scrap a 2018 change in the law that allowed presidents to increase food stamp benefits in SNAP which subsidizes groceries for nearly 42 million Americans each month. President Joe Biden used that authority in 2021 to boost funding by the largest amount in Farm Bill history. 

“Learning from past experiences is vital to ensuring that the same mistakes are not repeated, and our country learned a good lesson years ago,” Stroh said. “In 1974, when the U.S. Sugar Act expired after it had been in place for 40 years, the world prices skyrocketed to 60 cents a pound, and American consumers suffered. After a period of time, it dropped to 3 cents a pound and forced many American sugar beet and cane farmers out of business, but consumers found no savings in their food prices.”

To protect taxpayers from volatile sugar prices and the insecurity of supply, in 1981 Congress included a sugar program in the Farm Bill. It stabilized the price at a reasonable level and assured American consumers and giant sugar users such as candy, cereal and soft drink makers a reliable and high-quality supply of pure natural sugar, Stroh said.

“There is no doubt that American farmers create jobs and bring prosperity to this country. A prime example is the nation’s roughly 11,000 sugar farmers. America’s sugar beet and sugar cane industry provides 142,000 direct and indirect jobs with nearly $20 billion in economic impact nationwide with no cost of operation to our government,” she emphasized.

“Farmers are the backbone of this country and as taxpayers we have a patriotic obligation to protect our farming industry. Currently there is worldwide economic commotion, and now is the time to support American farmers who were the founders of our nation,” Stroh said. “Our young American families need to have reasonable food prices to rear their children. The farm family is the basic unit shaping life in America and for over 200 years, agriculture has developed the countryside while providing rural strength.

“I pray as soon as the election is over the new administration recognizes the importance of our agriculture sector and provides full support. History is a wise teacher, and if we look back and learn from our past mistakes we will prosper from this great teacher,” Stroh said.