Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act
Investing in the future of American agriculture
Agriculture is a vibrant sector of our nation’s economy, yet high barriers to entry make farming and ranching one of the hardest careers to pursue. Limited access to land and markets, hyperinflation in land prices, high input costs, farm and tax policy disadvantages, and lack of training discourage many would-be producers from entering agriculture. As a result, the average American farmer is now 57-years-old, and the fastest growing group of farm operators are those 65 years and older. Despite these significant hurdles, there are dedicated people who see great opportunities in agriculture today and want to start their own farm or ranch businesses.
We need a national strategy and commitment to support beginning farmer and ranchers entering agriculture. With an aging farm population, now is the time to invest in the future of American agriculture by nurturing new agriculture start-ups.
Bill Basics
The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act will invest in the next generation of American producers by:
- Enabling access to land, credit, and crop insurance for new producers.
- Assisting new producers to launch and strengthen new farm and value-added businesses.
- Helping new producers become good land stewards.
- Providing training, mentoring, and research that beginning farmers and ranchers need to be successful.
- Conducting outreach on agricultural job opportunities for military veterans.
Why It Matters
- The future of family farming and ranching in America – and the viability of our nation’s food supply – depends upon removing existing obstacles to entry into farming so that more people can start to farm.
- This bill encompasses a national strategy for addressing those barriers, focusing on the issues that consistently rank as the greatest challenges for beginning producers.
- This bill makes an important investment in the next generation of farmers and ranchers at a cost of just a fraction of one percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget.
The Act is a bipartisan and bicameral bill introduced in the House by Representatives Tim Walz (D-MN-1) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE-1), and in the Senate by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), along with nine original co-sponsors.
The bill is a result of strategic collaboration among many individuals and farmer advocacy organizations, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and many NSAC member groups, including Land Stewardship Project, Center for Rural Affairs, National Young Farmers’ Coalition, California FarmLink, and Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance, among others.
- Read more about the bill on our blog, watch a video from our beginning farmer fly-in which brought 11 farmers to DC to talk about the bill, or see how the bill can help veterans.
- To download a pdf one pager on the bill, click here. To see a detailed summary of the bill’s provision, click here, and to see recent press about the bill, click here.
- Download a Senate version of the bill (S.1850), or a House version of the bill (H.R.3236).
- To learn more about our how you can get involved in supporting The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act, visit our “Take Action” page.