Farm Credit head: Stabilize ethanol, pass USMCA

Nov 20, 2019
In The News

Farm Credit head: Stabilize ethanol, pass USMCA

Published by: the Fence Post

Farmers need the Trump administration to stabilize the biofuels market and Congress to approve the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, Farm Credit Administration Chairman and CEO Glen Smith told the House Agriculture Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit Subcommittee today.

Asked by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., for his views on biofuels, Smith said he is following the industry “extremely closely.”

“To keep that industry vital and growing as promised is critical,” Smith said. “This country and Congress called on the industry to fill a need” and “it is only fair” to farmers for the government to maintain a stable market for corn-based ethanol and biodiesel.

Asked by Scott about farmer suicides, Smith said farm credit institutions try to be “empathetic lenders” and loan officers try to watch for signs of borrowers in trouble.

Smith also told Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., that Congress should pass the USMCA “as soon as possible.”

The Market Facilitation Program payments that the Agriculture Department has created through the Commodity Credit Corporation to make up for lost exports are helping farmers in the short term, but “long term we need those markets back,” he said.

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