Four years ago, farmers helped elect Donald Trump to the presidency. Now, members of the Farmers & Ranchers for Trump organization hope to see history repeat itself in the 2020 election.
Trump’s efforts on behalf of farmers is clear and warrants their support this November, says Sam Clovis, a member of the organization and also a former White House ag advisor and advisor to President Trump.
“If you take a look at where we are with deregulation, I think that has been incredibly important,” Clovis told AgriTalk Host, Chip Flory, on Wednesday. “Take a look at where we are with the tax cuts, and the impact that’s had on family farmers – the fact that we’ve helped advance and thread the needle on our energy issues and support our corn growers and soybean growers and our ethanol efforts.
“I think a lot of this goes forward also on trade,” Clovis adds. “I didn’t think we’d ever see $4 corn, and I saw the price yesterday for July 21, 2021, corn is over $4. I think beans are going to continue to go higher. A lot of that has to do with the global efforts. Trade has a lot to do with it.”
Flory was quick to note that some corn growers would disagree with Clovis’ position regarding ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“That has been a continuous point of contention between farmers and the Trump administration,” Flory says. “Why should farmers think that the Trump EPA is going to treat the RFS any differently than in the second term?”
Clovis told Flory he had an “excellent point” and that the RFS does represent a hurdle for some farmers as they contemplate casting their vote for president.
“I think a lot of it has to do with what the USDA is trying to do and getting the EPA off of their collective butts to get something done on this area,” Clovis says. “I do think that the small refinery exemptions, we’ve denied those. So we still have that going for us. But I do think that the RFS is a real challenge for a lot of people, and a lot of it has to do with reduced demand. I think that’s one of the key issues there, and the pandemic has had a lot to do with that.”
Flory then asked Clovis whether he believes President Trump could get behind the Next Generation Fuels Act. Legislation for the Act was introduced by U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) in September. The legislation addresses leveraging greater fuel octane to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, improve air quality and increase demand for biofuels.
“Really, it paves the way for higher blends of ethanol to get in the fuel supply,” Kevin Ross, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) outgoing president, told Farm Journal’s Sonja Begemann. “That translates into about 5 billion gallons of ethanol as well as 1.7 billion bu. of corn.”
Clovis says he believes President Trump could support the legislation.
“If we can continue to improve the efficiency of our cars, and we can gain the octane through the addition of ethanol, I think that is something that we could get behind,” he says.
Clovis notes that one of the challenges is that Congress is still involved in addressing agriculture’s needs and demands.
“You’ve got to remember that we’re still dealing with the Congress, and the Congress deals with the Farm Bill,” he says. “I was an active participant in trying to get all the USDA priorities into the Farm Bill. Once you turn it over to Congress, it’s really up to Congress…even with the Republican Congress, we had great difficulty getting a lot of our priorities in.”
With a new farm bill being written in the next four years, Flory asked Clovis where he expects crop insurance will land on the list of priorities.
“There are some of us that would like to see it based more on yield,” he told Flory. “I think crop insurance is one of those things that you can either pay now and continue the crop insurance we have or take it away and then pay for catastrophic losses. I would like to see the way that the insurance is adjusted better, and more to our points….I think it’ll be protected.”
Pro Farmer Policy Analyst Jim Wiesemeyer asked Clovis whether he expects to see a movement to change cattle marketing processes to bring about more pricing transparency.
“I think price transparency is always important,” Clovis replied. “But I think what we ought to be doing is looking at the packers, because we have four major packers that control about 80% of the market share (with) two of those that are owned outside the United States. So I think that’s really an area that we ought to be concentrating more on. I do think price transparency is important, and I think we’ll try to get behind that.”
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The entire AgriTalk discussion is available here:
