Farm Bill Advances, Montana Needs More
Will the final farm bill protect working farms and rural families or divide them?
For Montana, the farm bill coalition matters. Producers and hungry families live in the same communities. If Washington breaks that coalition, rural states will carry the consequences first.
Wheat, barley, cattle, and pulse producers need stronger farm protections to offer stability. Montana needs structural reform that protects independent producers, working families, and rural communities from corporate concentration.
The House bill provides a scant agricultural safety net while cutting deeply into SNAP, shifting support upward on one side of rural America while reducing food security on another. The bill maintains roughly $187 billion in nutrition cuts lined out in the Republican budget.
Montana needs food security and fair competition.
Where is mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for beef so Montana ranchers can compete honestly against foreign imports marketed under weak labeling rules?
Where is meaningful right-to-repair language so farmers and ranchers can fix their own equipment without corporate lockouts, software barriers, or dealer monopolies?
Where are crop insurance payment limits that prevent the largest corporate operations from capturing outsized public subsidies while smaller family farms struggle against consolidation?
Without reforms, Washington risks writing another bill that stabilizes the system without fixing who benefits most from it. Corporate concentration already shapes agriculture from seed to shelf, putting American food security at risk of corporate control.
The millionaires and billionaires don’t feed the world.
A handful of multinational firms influence meat processing, equipment access, seed markets, and distribution. Montana producers are facing rising costs, shrinking bargaining power, and limited market access while taxpayers subsidize systems that reward scale over stewardship.
For decades, the farm bill coalition worked because it recognized that rural Montana needs both producers and families to survive. A real farm bill protects working producers and strengthens systems that keep rural communities strong.
Montana’s farms don’t stand apart from Montana’s towns. When grocery and gas prices rise, stores close, schools strain, or ranchers lose market leverage to multinational corporations, the damage spreads across entire communities.
Montana producers demand a farm bill that protects family farms, restores market fairness, reins in corporate concentration, and keeps rural communities alive.
The House bill is not final law. The Senate can still shape what comes next. We need a U.S. Senator who puts their toe on the line for Montana producers, families and communities.
We need the senate to do their jobs and stand up for working people.
