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#FARMBILLFRIDAY: Rep. Greg Gianforte (MT-AL)

Washington, July 20, 2018
In this week's #FarmBillFriday, Rep. Greg Gianforte (MT-AL) visits with local Montana sugar beet farmers about the crucial importance of a strong safety net and fair trade agreements.

"We have a good bill that passed the House. Now, we need to get it through the Senate and to the president’s desk to make sure we have a safety net for Montana ag and free and open access to trade."

 Rep. Gianforte said [in part]:

Rep. Gianforte: Agriculture is Montana’s number one industry. We need a safety net and we need free and open access to foreign markets. I’d love to get some input, Shane?

Shane Strecker: Unfair trade practices is a huge problem here in Montana for farmers and ranchers, all across the U.S. for that matter. For instance, back in 2013, Mexico dumped tons of sugar into our market just destroying our prices and that is a reason why we need a strong farm bill to help combat these issues to help keep us in business.

Shawn Nedens: We need a strong farm bill, there are several parts to that. Crop insurance is one part of it. It gives us some reliability and some predictability and it also helps us obtain operating loans. If we didn’t have that safety net, crop insurance, I think it would make it a lot tougher to get loans and maybe not even get loans because the risk is so much greater without some kind of safety net.

Rep. Gianforte: Without those loans, you’re out of operation?

Shawn Nedens: Yes, it would put us out of business.

Rep. Gianforte: You heard it here, farm bill is critically important to Montana’s ag industry. We have a good bill that passed the House. Now, we need to get it through the Senate and to the president’s desk to make sure we have a safety net for Montana ag and free and open access to trade.