A brief paper prepared for the Nebraska Agriculture 2018 Farm Bill Listening Session at the State Fair on September 1 provides a perspective on some of the major policy issues facing agricultural producers, stakeholders, and policymakers as the next farm bill is deliberated and developed.

The paper covers policy issues under debate as well as the economic principles or questions that underly the performance of current programs and the debate over choices for the next farm bill. Commodity program issues include broad consideration of Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) vs. Price Loss Coverage (PLC) protection as well as specific program issues relating to yield data and yield histories used for the ARC program.

Additional discussions of other commodity programs and crop insurance programs highlight the deliberations over the farm income safety net for producers. Analysis of conservation programs, nutrition (food assistance) programs, and other programs and farm bill titles rounds out the discussion before finishing with an update of current projected support to Nebraska producers under the remaining 2014 Farm Bill programs.

The paper is available as a PDF document at the following link:

     2018 Farm Bill Economic Principles and Policy Challenges