This week, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall spoke with President Biden to discuss several challenges farmers and ranchers are facing and the importance of final Congressional action on the Ocean Shipping Reform Act to address the backlog at our ports.
“I had a good discussion with President Biden [yesterday] about several issues, including the importance of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act to America’s farmers and ranchers. He wholeheartedly agreed that we must get past the bottleneck at our ports to get America back on the move and that means breaking the logjam on Capitol Hill,” Duvall said. “The president thanked farmers and ranchers for weighing-in on the need for reform, and I assured him that we will continue pressing hard for passage of a final bill now that both Houses of Congress have cleared versions of it with overwhelming bipartisan support.”
The ongoing supply chain issues and record-high shipping costs have limited agricultural exports, Duvall noted.
Estimates suggest the U.S. has lost out on more than $25 billion in agricultural exports over the past six months due to ocean shipping constraints, according to AFBF.
“America’s farmers and ranchers need the House and Senate to work together and get this bill across this finish line and make our ocean transportation system more competitive and efficient so we can continue putting dinner on the table for families in America and overseas,” Duvall said. “We also discussed the uncertainty farmers and ranchers are facing with limited supplies and skyrocketing prices of the fuel and fertilizer needed to grow food. President Biden assured me he knows farmers are hurting, and he’s interested in learning more. He invited me to bring some folks to the White House, so we can roll up our sleeves and work together to address the challenges facing farmers and ranchers.”
I hope the attack on the family farm by EPA with WOTUS, the attack on fossil fuel industry, along with the SEC climate change mandate were discussed. I think farmers should show that disingenuous hearings by these bodies threaten the American food supply chain. People in his administration have been appointed who believe in zero pesticides, zero fertilizer and sky high energy are not going to end up starving or supplying food unbelievably expensive. We will duplicate China’s Great Leap forward followed by riots, martial law, and the google red guard. Farmers should drive their tractors to D.C. to make Americans aware of what is going on to stop part of what is about to become law and reverse some of what has already happened.