Editors' Notebook

If you've followed our annual Top 10 Ag Stories of The Year series over time, you know there is a usual cast of characters. There's always some major weather issue -- for the good or the bad -- that influenced the year. There are usually one or more market twists, or the complete lack of one, that drove commodity prices one direction or another that year. When the year falls on a major election cycle, it's likely the process and results of that election are in the top five, if not the top three.

The year 2024 was in many ways no different. Our top three stories of the year include the bin-busting crops and low prices that came from that, as well as the many events and outcomes related to the wild, and in some cases dangerous, presidential election.

But I'll submit that the past year, for agriculture at least, took that "here we go again" feeling to a new step. For the second year in a row, the most ag-influential story of the year, at least to those of us in the DTN newsroom who weighed in on such things, was that we STILL don't have a new farm bill.

Frankly, the situation is ludicrous. When you're in the news business, you try to stay unemotional about the news of the day: You can't do this job for 40-odd years and let the news get to you personally, you'll either explode or end up sporting a new jacket with lots of straps and buckles in some padded room somewhere. But I have to admit, just typing the words "still don't have a farm bill" in December 2024 makes the veins in my neck begin to bulge.

The past 24 months have seen a too-small group of serious, sincere, politicians plug away at the policies and the programs that U.S. farmers and consumers need to carry them into the future. But they mostly toiled in vain as Congress, particularly the House, quickly turned itself into, well, a compound, two-syllable, eight-letter word that begins with an "s" and ends in "show."

As our DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton noted in his review of the farm bill situation, which you can see today in DTN's Top Stories section, things don't look great for 2025 either. Election-year promises like major budget cuts, mass immigrant labor deportations and flips in energy policies all stand to take up a lot of effort and time; They will likely add complications to a farm bill even if a new one can be worked on.

The fact that one party has a firm grip on all three branches of government doesn't appear to be ensuring it can push through major legislative pieces like a farm bill, either. Can the various factions within it pull together in one direction?
If yes, can they also do so in a way that will bring in enough votes from the other party that is lately cast not just as opposition, but more as a mortal enemy?

Yes, as part of the last-minute budget move, significant taxpayer dollars were approved to support farmer revenue. So, there was no wholesale upheaval from rural America. But one has to wonder if that result spells the fate of legislation that was once a model for balancing current needs with a medium-term strategy coordinating with world trade realities. Will it continue to be an example of Congress' ability to create a strategy for a key U.S. industry, or has it become, like the federal budget itself, yet another legislative can to be kicked down the road, saved only by 11th hour extensions and continuances?

Let's hope not. There are a lot of issues that need addressed in this country, not with last-minute appeasements but with thought-out strategies that address real issues. We haven't been able to agree on something as basic as a national budget. Now critical legislative strategies like a farm bill can't get enough votes to pass. It's not a good look.

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Want to hear more about our DTN list of the top 10 ag stories and more discussion about why we selected the farm bill as the top story? Check out the Reporter's Notebook video at https://www.dtnpf.com/…

If you want to see what I wrote about the farm bill last year as our No. 1 story of the 2023, see the Editors' Notebook at https://www.dtnpf.com/….

If you missed seeing our countdown stories of 2024, here they are:

-- See No. 10 story, "2024 Was Year of Labor Unrest at US and Canada Rail and Shipping Ports," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 9 story, "'Over-the-Top' Dicamba Product Registrations Vacated," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 8 story, "Record-High Prices Rippled Through the Cattle Market in 2024," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 7 story, "EPA Advanced Plans in 2024 to Meet Endangered Species Obligations for Pesticides," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 6 story, "Active Weather Pattern's Massive Impact: Megafires to Flooded Fields, Flash Drought to Hurricane Fatalities," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 5 story, "H5N1 Detected in Dairy Cattle for the First Time," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 4 story, "Farmland Market's Resilience Shines in Face of Interest Rate, Farm Income Concerns," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 3 story, "Trump is Re-Elected in a Campaign Filled With Dramatic Moments," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 2 story, "Bumper Crops, Struggling Prices Weigh on Grain Farmers' Incomes," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

-- See No. 1 story, "With Farm Bill Shelved, Congress Pumps Economic Aid Into Farm Economy," https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Greg D. Horstmeier can be reached at greg.horstmeier@dtn.com

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