Farm Bill Update July 2026

The Louisiana Farm Bill Updates Listserve is formerly known as the LAFCN, branded after our statewide farmer listening sessions in 2023-2024. To join the listserv and get these updates directly to your inbox, or post and discuss the Farm Bill with other Louisianans, click here.

Hello everyone,

Hope all of you made it through the recent floods/massive rain and are staying strong through the current heat wave! Please let me know if you experienced impacts and need community support!

Jumping in- we rebranded! The Louisiana Food + Agriculture Change Network (LFACN) listserv name was confusing and didn’t really help anyone to understand what this listserv is for! Accordingly, this is now the Louisiana Farm Bill Updates listserv because this listserv is about folks sharing out Farm Bill reauthorization updates to Louisiana’s small-scale producers! 

Second, with the rebranding we did a bit of outreach to encourage new folks to join. Welcome to the listserv, newcomers! More information and an archive of alllllll groups emails over the last 3 (!!!) years are available here.

Now for the main event! 

Farm Bill Update TLDR: There has been Farm Bill movement over the last couple of months and everything that we have seen thus far from the House and Senate is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

As a reminder about process— see the graphic attached to this email from our pals at RAFI! In short, the House drafted and passed their version of the Farm Bill. They are now waiting on the Senate— who is just getting started! More recently, the Senate released its draft of the Farm Bill.  I’ll offer more details on the House Farm bill version and the Senate Farm Bill draft. 

In April, the House passed their version of a new Farm Bill (Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 (FFNSA, H.R. 7567). It did not reflect our priorities— or the needs of Louisiana’s small-scale producers. This bill was 976 pages, so below are just a few highlights. For a more robust download— check out NSAC’s blog series (1, 2, 3, 4). 

House Farm Bill Low/Highlights:

• Local Farmers Feeding our Communities Program- This is an LFPA-esque program that intends to provide funding to purchase and distribute local food to communities in need. This is a really exciting inclusion. But the program lacks mandatory funding, which means that the program may come and go from year-to-year. Without mandatory funding, the program is not the consistent market access program that producers need it to be. Additionally, without funding it is very unlikely that this program will be implemented in the near term whatsoever. 

• Nutrition- It does little to continue connecting nutrition programs, and the families that rely on these programs, to fresh, healthy local options— and it maintains cuts to SNAP that came from the One Bill Beautiful Act. These cuts to SNAP not only leave families hungry and take money from farmers— but Louisiana is going to have to pay an additional ~$40-$95 million PER YEAR. Prior to these cuts, we were seeing important increases in use of SNAP funding with local producers, but these cuts are likely to reverse that tide.

• Crop Insurance- No meaningful updates to crop insurance. Louisiana producers are no stranger to crop loss, but unfortunately nearly all small-scale Louisiana producers are unable to access crop insurance. The programs just do not make sense for our farms here. We need meaningful crop insurance reform so that producers can get some peace of mind. Crop insurance is a critical rick management strategy that Louisiana farmers need— and the House did nothing to address that need.

• Precision Ag- Lots of precision agriculture handouts. This bill text offers lots of incentives for farms that implement precision agriculture technologies. Unfortunately, nearly all of this tech is designed for large-scale, commodity farms. This means more support for the big guys, with virtually zero opportunity for small folks to get access to equivalent resources.

• Cuts to conservation programs— EQIP and CSP are two of the only direct-farmer-support programs that Louisiana small-scale producers are routinely able to access. They help farmers pay to implement conservation practices (e.g. cover cropping, pollinator strips, etc.)— what is not to love?! As a result, these programs are incredibly popular. They are so popular that only a small portion of the producers that apply, roughly 1/4 to 1/3, for the programs receive contracts. 

Overall, the FFNSA is not good. It maintains the severe cuts to SNAP that came from the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act. It gives more handouts to big farmers. It does very little to help small producers. 

Onto the Senate draft! Much of the Senate draft is the same as the House version. There are modest differences— some better and some worse. But much of what is listed above is the same in the Senate draft- particularly the cuts to conservation and maintaining prior cuts to nutrition programs. Neither bill adequately addresses USDA staffing issues. Unfortunately, the Senate draft is actually even worse on climate than the House bill, which included VERY little about climate. Additionally, the Senate draft doubles the funding cuts to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program ($1bil of cuts in the House; $1.9bil in the Senate). There are also permanent funding cuts to the Conservation Stewardship Program, which undoes a lot of great work over the prior few years to increase that funding into perpetuity. There are a few things that are positive (e.g. LFPA-style programming, limited support for meat processing infrastructure, increased loan size caps, commitments to seeds and breeds as research priorities), but they are poor consolation prizes for a bill that comprehensively does little to address our priorities and producer needs— particularly when it comes to funding. 

Pesticides! This is worth an extra-special highlight because of how important it is. On June 25, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Monsanto v. Durnell case. In short, people are no longer legally allowed to sue pesticide manufacturers for failing to warn them about the harms their products cause. If you or a family member gets cancer because of pesticides, you can’t sue the company that made the pesticides. It’s scary and it’s not right. This is important to mention as part of the Farm Bill conversation for two reasons: 1) Public backlash was so intense that the House took out protections for pesticide companies from their version of the Farm Bill. This was a HUGE win. 2) Because the courts rule according to what the law says, we now need a law that explicitly counteracts the Monsanto v. Durnell ruling. We need Congress to pass a law, in the Farm Bill or otherwise, that says that enshrines in law the public’s right to sue pesticide companies for the harms that they cause. This situation is a little confusing, but if you want a soundbite for your friends or legislators— pesticide preemption is bad! I want to make sure that corporations can be held accountable when they cause harm to the public! 

What comes next? Check out the graphic attached!The Senate will likely hold a hearing to discuss this draft later this month/early next month. After that, the Senate Agriculture committee will amend and vote on the draft. Etc. Etc. There is still a lot of Farm Bill process left and with the Midterms coming up— we aren’t sure how fast or slow things will move! With that being said, now is a great time to reach out to your Senators to say “Hey I have got my eye on the Senate’s draft Farm Bill— and it does NOT do enough for my farm!!” See below for the contact information for your senators! 

Senator Cassidy, BillContact: (202) 224-5824 Contact

Senator Kennedy, JohnContact: (202) 224-4623 Contact

Talk soon! 

Devin Wright