The Scoop Podcast: Ag Retailers’ Policy Priorities for 2024
Hunter Carpenter and the Agricultural Retailers Association team just wrapped up organizing its 2024 fly-in bringing members from across to the country to Washington D.C. to unite their voice with law makers.
Carpenter says ARA remains focused on the issues most likely to impact the ag retailer’s bottom line.
By collaborating with its membership, ARA has identified this year’s public policy priorities that will steer its grassroots advocacy efforts. According to ARA those include:
1. Reauthorizing the Farm Bill
Ag retailers and distributors play a vital role in providing farmers with the right crop inputs at the right time despite a short planting time frame—all while offering crop consulting services and custom pesticide and fertilizer application services. ARA is working to protect the tools farmers need to deliver a secure and affordable food supply chain by advocating for the inclusion of the Plant Biostimulant Act of 2023, Increased Technical Service Providers Access Act of 2023, the preservation of the crop insurance program and more in the 2024 farm bill.
2. Protecting Modern Ag Technologies
Because farmers need reliable access to crop input supplies and precision ag technologies, ARA and its members support codifying oversight of pesticide registrations and regulations at the EPA and state agencies to ensure the federal government makes decisions based on sound science, peer-reviewed data and a risk-based approach. More investment in research and development is critical to further enhance crop yields and plant health.
3. Relieving Transportation & Supply Chain Challenges
Transportation and supply chain disruptions continue to top the list of concerns in ag retail. ARA is advocating for modernizing the nation’s freight rail, trucking and inland waterway systems by supporting:
- Reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Board to include provisions addressing rising demurrage and detention costs to shippers and increased competition.
- Reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act, which authorizes waterway projects to improve the nation’s ports, harbors and inland waterways.
- Expansion of the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program by allowing more 18- to 20-year-old drivers to participate.
- Reform hours of service to eliminate the planting and harvesting seasonal provisions, and authorize a pilot program for farm supply transporters to operate up to a 200-air-mile radius.
- Reform the additional farm-related restricted CDL program.
4. Ensuring an All-of-the-Above Energy Approach
ARA works with industry coalitions to advocate for federal energy policies that increase domestic natural gas production, reduce U.S. manufacturing costs for crop input materials and develop and use renewable fuels to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources. Any cuts to the renewable fuel standard will take a devastating toll on rural economies and stifle investment in ethanol plants.
