By TAMMIE SLOUP
FarmWeek
While additional tools in the energy production toolbox are welcome, unfunded mandates, premature deployment of new technology, and increased regulatory burdens are raising costs for everyone.
Linda Pryor, a North Carolina farmer on behalf of American Farm Bureau Federation, relayed this message during a September 11 hearing hosted by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security entitled “From Gas to Groceries: Americans Pay the Price of the Biden-Harris Energy Agenda.”
Pryor noted her farm business, which includes raising corn and cattle as well as an apple farm, has become much more difficult to operate as input costs have risen in recent years, and the USDA is forecasting the second consecutive year of negative growth for the farmers.
“The cost to run my family’s farm has surged during the past few years,” she said, adding fuel costs increased from $57,000 in 2021 to $83,600 in 2023. “This disparity threatens the economic sustainability of American farms. I do not know any farmers who have gone out of business due to lack of hard work. They go out of business due to lack of cash flow. Farmers are price-takers, not price-makers, and I am no exception. I cannot determine what my crops are worth and charge accordingly.”
Farming is diverse across the nation, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer, Pryor said, adding solutions need to be equally diverse and flexible.
“Electric vehicles and equipment may offer environmental benefits, but their adoption should only happen when it makes economic sense for the end user,” she said. “Farmers and ranchers have many concerns about an electric vehicle mandate, including delays for perishable crops and animals, limited access to charging points, and the durability of batteries in harsh farming conditions.”
Addressing trade imbalances by supporting domestic production and processing could help American farmers compete with less expensive, but energy-intensive imports, she noted. Policies are needed that incentivize the consumption of domestically grown and processed products.
“Rising costs of energy and other inputs ripple through the entire food chain, from the farm fields to the grocery store shelves,” she said.
A U.S. Labor Department report released September 11 showed inflation fell to its lowest level in three years in August. Consumer prices in August were up 2.5 percent from a year ago, which is the smallest annual increase since February 2021.
While housing costs have been the biggest driver of inflation in the last year, rising 5.2 percent, gasoline prices fell more than 10 percent.
And after climbing sharply in 2022 and 2023, grocery prices have mostly leveled off, increasing less than 1 percent in the past year and remaining the same between July and August.
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.