WLNS: Walberg, USDA secretary hold Michigan Farm Bureau roundtable

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, and USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden met with Michigan farmers at Weir Farms to discuss the challenges facing the agriculture industry.

From inflation to rising operating costs, farmers like Paul Pridgeon say every decision carries a higher price tag than it did a few years ago.

“That becomes challenging, especially as you get into high inflation,” Pridgeon said. “So whether it’s the price of my seed and fertilizer to the price for employees, they need to have their wages go up so that they can afford food for their families and clothes for their kids.” 

Those concerns are now making their way to Washington, where Walberg says they’re working to provide more certainty for farmers.

“We passed the farm bill in the House. Hopefully the Senate will finish that soon,” Walberg said. “That has some major things in (it) that expanded the ability for crop insurance to the people in my district that are in specialty crops.” 

Vaden says keeping farms competitive also means creating more opportunities beyond us borders.

“They want more demand for their product, and they want us to continue to open more overseas markets so they can have more customers for what they grow here. That’s what we’re focused on at USDA,” said Vaden. 

Walberg says sustaining success isn’t just about selling more crops; it’s also having the workforce to harvest them.

“Not only the road crops, not only the specialty crops, but also when you get into the animal husbandry, you need stable work environments and employees, and we’ll continue to do things there,” Walberg said. 

Walberg says the focus now is stability and supporting farmers across Michigan while also addressing challenges like tariff uncertainty and continuing to find ways to give back to the agricultural community.