Senator Capehart Secures Amendments to Fund Tech for USVI Farmers
The continuing resolution passed by Congress last year allowed the Department of Agriculture to continue offering critical programs and services to farmers in the territory.
Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are deciding how to proceed with renewing the nation’s farm bill. With a deadline looming before the next major U.S. election, rural America’s future lies in the hands of the 118th Congress.
2024 Farm Bill
In May, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1.5 trillion farm bill known as the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024. However, the bill is unlikely to pass in the U.S. Senate, at least not in its current form.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to respond to fluctuations in the economy, and recent figures from USDA show that nutrition spending decreased by 13% since fiscal year 2022. According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress has enacted 18 farm bills since the 1930s.
Farm bills have traditionally focused on farm commodity program support for a handful of staple commodities— corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar. Today’s farm bills include provisions for animal welfare, rules and regulations for hemp and cannabis, clean water collaboration with farmers, and SNAP benefits.
After Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on a new package last year, both parties have relied on a continuing resolution to extend existing programs. Lawmakers agreed on a continuing resolution in November, extending programs and guaranteeing funding until September 2024.
The expiration of farming programs leads right into the 2024 Presidential election in the fifty states. As the deadline for the continuing resolution approaches and the farm bill from the House stalls, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry published a report with statistics it hopes will rally support for a more progressive farm bill.
Farming Tech for Local Farmers
Senator Diane T. Capehart said lawmakers voted favorably on Amendment #35-731, amending Act 8404 to provide funding for agricultural machinery and equipment for local farmers. The amendment seeks to develop a comprehensive territorial plan for the use of farming machinery and establishes regulatory standards.
Capehart chairs the 35th Legislature of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Rules and Judiciary Committee. Capehart says her office’s amendments include:
Machine maintenance and upgrade paradigms;
Business models for profitable and sustainable use of machinery; and
Marketing plans to promote the use of machinery for mass production.
The senator outlined how technology in agriculture has resulted in higher crop productivity and how advances in farming tech have increased profits and decreased the use of water, fertilizer, and pesticides, which keeps food prices down. “With modern machinery and better equipment, the future of agriculture is bright,” Capehart said. “Modern farming aims at reducing manual toil. There are machines for every purpose, and the Virgin Islands now can compete with its neighbors and other jurisdictions through this amendment.”
Capehart thanked the farming community for their feedback, the Department of Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen for his guidance, and her colleagues for voting favorably on the amendment. The continuing resolution passed by Congress last year allowed the Department of Agriculture to continue offering critical programs and services to farmers in the territory.
Asked about the amendment after it passed, Capehart added, “The goal is to shift our agricultural emphasis from economic efficiency to life efficiency, but who says we cannot have both? With this amendment, we are setting the local farmers on a path to achieve success in the agricultural industry. The intent of my Transshipment Port legislation is on the territory’s ability to export goods. Now we are preparing to establish a local sustainable agricultural infrastructure that will eventually facilitate economic development through export operations.”
The amendment also provides staffing, maintenance, and operations funding to support harvesting, mass production, and expansion of food production. Capehart’s office says the Department of Agriculture now has funding for resources that provide technological opportunities, increase efficiency and productivity, and decrease consumer costs.
Farm bills also include programs that help farmers and the communities they serve to fight extreme drought, climate change, threats from invasive species, and poverty.