I may be a bit late in sitting down to pen this, and chances are you heard lo and behold President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law on December 20. The $867 billion was truly a bipartisan success in a 386-47 House vote and an 87-13 Senate vote.
After some revisions, hot topics on this bill included the SNAP program (while there were some revisions to the program individual benefits would not be affected), the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, expanding safety-net programs for crop and dairy producers, and some new and expanded subsidy programs. A fun thing of note and a bit of an equestrian victory (in my opinion) is that horses are finally classified as livestock, not pets, in this new bill.
While we have a long road yet to travel in the ever-changing currents of today’s ag industry, the passage of this bill before the year closes out is very reassuring to agriculturalists across the nation. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for 2019!
