On Friday, Iowa Third District Congresswoman Cindy Axne was out in her district on an Agriculture listening tour. She heard from constituents and businesses about their concerns with current and future farm policy.
Audio: Full wrap-up interview with Representative Cindy Axne
The morning started near Adel and the DMACC Learning Farms. Here Axne heard about the farm and its mission to educate the students about the future of agriculture; not only the processes of grains, pastures, and livestock but also the planning and finances part of it. She also had the chance to hear from two students about their experiences in the DMACC program. She praised them as being not only the future of Iowa agriculture but the future of young women in agriculture.
The staff on hand commented about how there are challenges with planning their budgets and securing enough funding to keep the program viable. They are having to learn to do more with less, and how to budget what priorities must be dealt with first, and which ones can wait. Just like on a real farm. However, in the interest of education, having to wait a while for upgraded or better functioning equipment is not always conducive to the short timetable they have with students. They want to give students a full experience in the short time they are there.
Representative Axne commented on the importance of keeping educational facilities like the DMACC Learning Farm operating and properly funded:
Getting funding through the House Agriculture Committee may not prove to be a hard fight, as it is usually a bipartisan group that understands that the future of agriculture needs to be taken care of, bottom line. However, once it gets into the full body of the House of Representatives, where a large majority of members are not connected to the farm, it could prove to be more of an uphill battle. Axne remains optimistic. She says that if any silver lining could come of the pandemic, is the fact that food chain issues highlighted the needs of the Midwest and rural America. She says that for far too long the majority of federal budget spending has gone to very few states, and a majority of states have been left behind. Iowa has contributed to the national economy, as well as the economies of other states.
Along the lines of education was the topic of broadband connectivity in rural America. It was not until the pandemic that Axne felt people were finally starting to listen to the plight of rural America in Congress. Now, that the food supply chain disruptions got their attention, they are shocked to hear what has honestly been talked about for almost a decade.
Another major topic that Congresswoman Axne heard about on her travels were concerns about the future of family farming operations. Many are concerned with the plans the Biden administration has with the stepped-up basis. According to Investopedia, this is ?the value of an appreciated asset for tax purposes upon inheritance. The higher market value of the asset at the time of inheritance is considered for tax purposes.
?When an asset is passed on to a beneficiary, its value is typically more than what it was when the original owner acquired it. The asset receives a step-up in basis so that the beneficiary’s capital gains tax is minimized. A step-up in basis is applied to the cost basis of property transferred at death.
?Tax basis is the amount of a taxpayer’s investment in property for tax purposes, typically used to calculate figure depreciation, amortization, and other property dispositions.?
Farmers are worried that their descendants will be penalized for passing on the farming operation to the next generation. One landowner in Guthrie County told Axne that if she sells the land for what it is worth, she is ?penalized by the Federal Government for all the hard work she did throughout her life.? If she waits for transference upon her death, the tax burden on her descendants will make it a burden for them to take on the family operation, if they can even afford to.? However, if she tries to sell it at an extreme discount to her descendants, they still get penalized for gift taxes. She said even though dirt may look good on the tax forms, it is not something they can eat.
Also, during that stop at the Tamara Deal farm outside of Bagley, Iowa, Ms. Deal showed the Congresswoman the framed land grant that has been in her family for over 150 years. She would like very much to be able to comfortably pass on more than just the frame to the next generation.
In Madison County, Cattle Producer Glenn Rowe of Winterset said that it is not just the farmers that can be hurt by this, it is the local businesses in rural communities that can be hurt. This puts rural communities in more danger in a time when their future is already very uncertain. Rowe says, ?it just doesn?t make sense.?
Axne says that this proposal from the administration is meant to go after those super-rich, who are not paying ?their fair share? of taxes if they pay anything at all. She vowed that farmers will not become the unintended victims of this much-needed tax reform. This means that Congress will have to come together to make exceptions to farmers who would be hurt by this legislation.
Regulations were also discussed at the Rowe?s Red Cows pasture, as well as the Edge of the Woods Raspberry Farm near Indianola. The Rowe?s told the story of how they had to go out and purchase freezers just so they could sell their beef to neighbors who were asking for it. They had to obtain special labels to be used on their beef at the locker. While they appreciate the need for food safety, they felt like some of the regulations were unnecessary and an extra burden.
At the Edge of the Wood, Axne was told how anybody can come from anywhere in the world to buy their jams and berries, but they were not allowed to ship out of the state. To grow a business, it should not be that difficult to market your products around the country. Axne said that it is time that Washington takes a long look at the regulations and looks at what is helping producers and what is impeding them.
At the berry farm, Axne also heard about how the owners could not even get qualified for assistance for lost revenue because of the pandemic. She used that moment to encourage producers across the board to look back into the programs. Money is available, and farmers are some of the people that were in mind when Congress put these programs out. While producers may not have qualified for much help at first, subsequent bills have opened funding for agriculture.
Cover crops and environmental policy were also part of the Congresswoman?s discussions. At the Deal farm, she heard about the work they are doing with cover crops, and the benefits they have seen because of them. The sentiment was that more farmers need to be educated on the benefits of cover crops and conservation farming. However, urban residents need to also understand that farmers aren?t the enemy. Many are doing what they can to help the environment, and some are in the process of making changes. These changes are not easy and cannot happen overnight. There are also costs involved with conversion to conservation farming that must be considered. While there are some federal and state programs, it is still expensive.
Axne says this should be an opportunity to work together, not fight with each other. She says that agriculture needs to work together amongst itself. We need to see continued support for places like DMACC and Iowa State University. There needs to be upgrades to the system to ensure that farmers can be productive and commercially viable at multiple levels and areas.
