Riceland Foods COO on the urgency for a Farm Bill

It’s no secret that farmers across the nation face a number of challenges heading into the new planting season. From rising input costs, low commodity prices, inflation, tariffs, severe weather swings and the lack of a national farming policy, the uncertainty has many farmers weighing tough options without a strong safety net from lenders and the federal government.

There is hope that U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., now chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee will be able to pull off a miracle ahead of expectations and provide some relief. U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, and his agricultural background and expertise could also help the state’s No. 1 industry do more than survive.

Ben Noble, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Riceland Foods, recently testified before the Senate Ag committee, a panel he used to staff. His message was blunt, direct and dire. Noble sat down with Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock to share his concerns and hopes.

Roby Brock: You were in Washington, D.C., last week testifying before the Senate Agriculture Committee on the Farm Bill. Remind everyone of your background and then share what that process was like being on the side that you were on this time?

Ben Noble: I grew up in a little town called Ethel, Ark. My family’s been farming down in southeast Arkansas since 1890. I went up to the University of Arkansas and am a proud Razorback graduate. My first career opportunity really was working for Sen. Dale Bumpers right out of the gate, working with him on ag issues and appropriations matters. Shortly after that, I transitioned to Sen.  Blanche Lincoln’s office, where I had the opportunity to work with her on the Ag Committee. It was really a full circle moment for me to have the opportunity last week. I’m really grateful that Sen. Boozman gave me the opportunity to, now that I’m in a different spot in my career, to be able to go back to where it all started and visit with the senators about what’s really going on in rural America.

Brock: All right, set the scene for me of where farmers — rice farmers and other farmers — are right now. The fact that there is not a Farm Bill in place and has not been one since 2018, and I think even the 2018 version was operating on some 2012 calculations as well.

Noble: You’ve got the numbers absolutely right. 2012 is what the support levels in that [2018] Farm Bill are set. That’s 13 years ago and a lot’s changed. The support prices in the Farm Bill were not indexed to keep up with inflation and rising input costs. So as farmers are trying to go out and get financing for this year’s crop, the supports that the government is providing are insufficient. We’ve been saying for years, they’ve got to update those numbers. They’ve got to get those more modernized and in line with what farmers are really facing in reality.

Brock:  It’s the equivalent of trying to operate a business in 2025, using costs from 2012 that don’t even apply. I mean, you couldn’t even keep yourself above water.

Noble: That’s absolutely a great analogy. Why does that matter so much this year? Well, we’ve all seen rising input costs in everything we touch. Farmers are no different, and unfortunately, the commodity prices are not in a great spot either. So you’ve got reduced income on one side and increased costs on the other, and it’s creating a perfect storm — the likes of which we really haven’t seen since the 1980s. I know that that’s a point that Sen. Boozman, who’s chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, continues to, to impress upon all of the rest of the members. There were billions of dollars of losses last year, and the situation looks even worse this year. So the impetus behind my testimony and the hearing was let’s hurry up and do something.

Brock: Tell me a little bit about what you specifically asked for in terms of changes.

Noble: The primary one, and we’ve got a laundry list, but the primary change that we’re focused on is an increase in something called the PLC, the price loss coverage payment. And when you referenced operating off 2012 numbers and we’re up to 2025, we want to increase that number so that the PLC reference price, which is what Congress uses to base the payments to farmers on, that needs to be higher. It just needs to be adjusted upwards. I’m not going to put a number on the table. I don’t want to negotiate with myself, but I’ll tell you, last year when Chairman G.T. Thompson and the House Ag Committee actually got an updated PLC payment through the House Ag Committee, we were pleased with the framework he put on the board last year.

Unfortunately, it stalled when it got to the Senate. Then [Ag] Chairman [Debbie] Stabenow didn’t keep that momentum moving forward. We’re glad to see Chairman Thompson and Chairman Boozman working well together and we’re hopeful. But you’re going to ask me at some point, do we really see some changes occurring this year? It’s cloudy. The budget debate that’s occurring overshadows everything. What happens with the tax extensions at the end of the day? All of that debate ends up having an impact on what kind of allocations and what kind of limitations the Ag Committee has. So I’m, I’m hopeful they don’t tie Chairman Boozman’s hands so that he can provide us the support we need.

Brock: I recently talked to bankers that do a lot of agricultural loans and have heard some of their horror stories about how difficult it is, how they’re trying to work with their farming clients, but the uncertainty is incredible. What’s the worst-case scenario that you think could happen if this Farm Bill gets pushed too far down the road?

Noble: One thing I’ll say that’s happening already is there are farmers that are not getting financed this year, and they’re not going to be farming next year. If you look at Interstate 40 south down to the north of Louisiana, somewhere between 15% and 20% of those farmers for one ag lender I’m pretty familiar with, 20% of their portfolio of farmers are not getting financing this year. Those farmers won’t be farming. That’s obviously a concerning thing. Some of that land may remain fallow, it won’t get farmed this year. We’re talking about this growing season, this calendar year. If they don’t update it this year with the commodity prices where they are, and we get to the fall, you and I will be sitting here at this same time next year and that number’s going to be astronomically higher. Yeah. You’re going to have fewer farmers farming and that’s land out of production. That impacts not only the farming complex, but the entire rural American landscape.