By: Tom Green, HHRA Board Chair and Chuck Benbrook, former HHRA ED
Farmers growing our major U.S. crops of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton and peanuts are facing record loses due to steeply depressed crop prices over the past few years, coupled with persistently high, and rising, production expenses.
Today’s cost-price squeeze poses an existential threat for many farmers and all rural communities. Experts are projecting that per acre loses will likely grow, and exceed $100 an acre on many farms. Plus, loses are likely to persist for at least a few years, and may grow even larger.
HHRA decided to compile and vet policy reforms to change the trajectory of U.S. agriculture for two reasons.
First, we read the provocative September 30, 2025 piece by Chris Bennett in AgWeb entitled “Outraged Farmers Blame Ag Monopolies as Catastrophic Collapse Looms”. The frustration expressed, and heartful pleas of farmers for help in getting through the current crisis, struck a nerve. We urge everyone to read this piece.
Second, as anyone working in food and ag is well aware, new tariffs imposed by the U.S. essentially shut off, or dramatically reduced, sales of soybeans, corn, and other crops to some of our major overseas customers. This has further undercut already depressed market prices, leading to ballooning surpluses. It has also triggered the need for another round of multi-billion dollar payments to farmers.
We decided to craft and share the “Farm Economic Vitality and Environmental Recovery (FEVER) Act” since there was little or no discussion among ag community leaders, or in the Congress, of the systemic reforms in policy needed to avoid ever-larger bailouts in the not-too-distant future.
The large sums of taxpayer money at play heighten the urgency of reaching agreement on substantive policy changes. Projected USDA payments in support of farm income in 2025 will exceed $50 billion, and will almost surely rise in 2026 when already-approved increases in target prices kick in.
It is hard to imagine, given today’s political and economic realities, that the Congress and Administration will be able to rachet payments to farmers upward fast enough to prevent unacceptable loses and turmoil in rural America. But one thing might help forge the bipartisan support that will be needed – adoption of systematic policy reforms like those called for by the farmers quoted in Chris Bennett’s piece.
We offer the FEVER Act as one path forward, and hope it broadens the vision of leaders in Washington D.C. who will soon have to pass legislation to fund the government and keep American agriculture in business.
As made clear in thoughtful assessments by Bloomberg of the current economic and environmental crises facing rural America, farmers want to earn their living from markets, and end reliance on government bailouts. They also want to receive sufficient income to invest steadily in the people running and working on their farms, as well as in farming system changes that will enhance soil health and water quality.
History Does Repeat Itself Until…
The current crisis continues the long-standing pattern of gradual decline in farm numbers and farm profitability. Stubborn downward trends are punctuated by sharp, episodic contractions in the U.S. farm economy that require new bailouts and subsidy streams. Poor stewardship of our ag assets is reflected in the loss of so many U.S. farms since 1980, including 160,000 since 2017, coupled with ongoing slippage in soil health and water quality.
But our food and farming problems are complex and intertwined, and rooted in policies far past their “best used by” date. Fixing problems that have worsened over decades will take time and money, both of which are in short supply. Hence, the need for aggressive and innovative policy reforms.
We are pleased to share a document describing the “Farm Economic Vitality and Environmental Recovery Act” (FEVER Act). It brings together policy reforms that could be incorporated in future farm bill legislation to start the long-overdue reboot of food and ag policy in the U.S. We are soliciting reactions and better ideas to improve the reform ideas embedded in the FEVER Act.
The FEVER Act describes a set of food and farm policy reforms of the scope and scale required to bring about meaningful, long-term improvements in the U.S. food and fiber system. Most of the suggested reforms are not new ideas, nor comprehensive. HHRA is also not the only organization advocating for systemic change.
But we saw a need to assemble a set of policy reforms into a single document that collectively could bring about change of the magnitude needed, and soon enough to avoid irreparable harm to farmers, ranchers, and rural America.
The policy reforms we hope to incorporate in the FEVER Act will be focused on immediate national priorities. These include:
- Getting farmers through the current net income crisis, while avoiding harm or undercutting farms and ranches that remain profitable, despite contemporary headwinds,
- Providing the justification that will be required to secure bipartisan support in Congress for what is bound to be a historically significant increase in taxpayer support for farmers over the next 5 to 10 years,
- Reducing dependence on government subsidies, bailouts, and food imports, and especially those that perpetuate the primary drivers of many of today’s systemic food and farm problems,
- Modernizing pesticide regulation, food nutritional quality testing and labelling, the National Organic Program, and most fundamentally,
- Assuring that the primary purpose, and major focus of government expenditures, is restoring soil health and public health and well-being, as opposed to sustaining farming systems and technology, and business models, that have become progressively less economically and environmentally viable and socially acceptable.
At this time, the FEVER Act covers changes primarily in the commodity program, crop insurance, and conservation sections of a typical farm bill. Funding and reforms needed in the SNAP and food assistance programs, research and extension, rural development, and in most USDA-administered marketing and regulatory programs are not yet addressed, but should be. Reforms needed in certain areas of regulatory and food policy law will also be addressed in forthcoming additions.
At some point, the Congress, and farm, food, environmental, and public health communities will have to fix the deep, systemic problems in current programs, policies, and subsidy streams. In the absence of effective reforms, farm community leaders will need to sharpen their explanations of why U.S. ag and our food system cannot do better.
The FEVER Act is a living document that will evolve – and we hope improve — as new and better ideas are advanced. Please email your suggestions to HHRA founder Chuck Benbrook (cbenbrook@hh-ra.org). Concrete, specific policy reform proposals will be most helpful, in addition to policy improvements and reforms not yet addressed in the document.
Sources and Key Documents
“Farm Economic Vitality and Environmental Recovery Act”, Working Draft of Farm Policy Reforms, compiled by HHRA.
Farmer Frustration: “Outraged Farmers Blame Ag Monopolies as Catastrophic Collapse Looms”, Chris Bennett, Farm Journal’s AgWeb, September 30, 2025.
Economic Challenges: “Why the World Is Turning Away From American Agriculture”,
Environmental Challenges: “America’s Big Agriculture Problem Is Getting Worse”, Bloomberg Originals, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXOO3gK5wo