The Senate farm bill draft is crucial opportunity to support young farmers

On June 23, 2026, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) released a farm bill discussion draft, the Agricultural Act of 2026. While the draft includes several significant cross-coalition wins championed by the National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers), the proposal ultimately fails to address the current economic crisis, the land access realities young farmers face, or the climate emergency.

“We are appreciative of Chairman Boozman and the Committee’s forward movement towards a farm bill,” said Michelle Hughes, executive director of the National Young Farmers Coalition. “But young and beginning farmers will suffer without a stronger investment in land access for the next generation in the final bill, an ask we have been advocating for for 15 years. The draft includes meaningful progress on local food procurement and rural infrastructure, but it misses the time-sensitive opportunity we have to address growing corporate consolidation wreaking havoc on young farmers’ futures. At a time of record high farm foreclosures, this is one of our best chances to provide the structural investments necessary to protect our food system.”

Credit and Land: Missing Tools with New Threats

The Senate discussion draft includes several land policy wins that Young Farmers has long advocated for, including the pre-approval of direct farm ownership loans, indexing loan limits to land values, and authorizing buy-protect-sell. It also takes the important step of striking the “blood and marriage” statute that has historically made it difficult for non-traditional beginning farmers to qualify for loans.

The Coalition is deeply concerned by the expansion of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). While reporting is necessary, the new threat of civil penalties and liens on farmland creates a significant risk of land loss and financial distress for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), and underserved farmers who already face barriers to engaging in government processes.

“By failing to invest in the Land, Capital, and Market Access (LCM) program, the Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land (TOTAL) survey, or to commission the study on LCM activities, the discussion draft fails to recognize the critical moment we are in and the struggle we face to keep young and small-scale farmers on land. In the next two decades, roughly 300 million acres of U.S. farm land is expected to change hands–if Congress fails to enable the next generation to take ownership, this land will be lost to development and private investors and may never return to agriculture,” said Vanessa Garcia Polanco, policy director with Young Farmers.

Climate and Conservation: Funding Cuts and Missing Provisions

The Senate discussion draft fails to meaningfully address the climate crisis and the issues that farmers are facing on the ground. While it creates a new state conservation assistance program for soil health, as well as adds flooding and drought mitigation as natural resource concerns to the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, overall, the bill falls short on conservation foresight. It significantly cuts funding from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), shifts limited conservation dollars to high-cost precision agriculture, and does not address ongoing staffing issues at NRCS. It does not include provisions from our two priority marker bills, the Small Farm Conservation Act and the Farmer-to-Farmer Education Act, that together make conservation programs more accessible to young and beginning farmers.

Maintained Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

“Accepting SNAP is essential,” said Kaitlyn Kimball of Sunset Farm in Connecticut, a young farmer and SNAP-authorized vendor. “It makes our produce accessible and supports our business. Cutting this program means cutting off our customers and cutting into our livelihoods.”

The Senate draft also fails to reverse the $187 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enacted under the H.R.1 budget reconciliation process. The bill maintains the burdensome administrative costs to states, caps on future benefit adjustments, and expanded time limits which are limiting food access for millions of vulnerable Americans. According to the Food Research & Action Center, 4.7 million people have lost access to SNAP since H.R. 1 went into effect on July 4, 2025.

Many young farmers rely on local market sales to remain viable. SNAP is one of the few programs that supports both food access and farm viability simultaneously.

Local Foods and Regional Markets: Progress Without Guaranteed Funding

The Senate draft adopts the framework of the Strengthening Local Food Security Act (S. 2338), establishing noncompetitive cooperative agreements to purchase local food with a high 51% sourcing threshold from small, beginning, or veteran producers. However, it is only authorized to be appropriated at $200 million annually, making its actual reach and survival dependent on the yearly discretionary appropriations process.

The Path Forward: A Call for Bipartisan Action

Because this proposal fails to deliver the vital, mandatory reinvestments needed for our climate, our land, and our nutrition programs, the National Young Farmers Coalition urges Senators to continue working to draft a bipartisan farm bill that truly meets this moment. Congress cannot afford to settle for missed opportunities and fall short of what farmers need to succeed. Farmers deserve better, and we will continue fighting until Congress delivers a farm bill that invests in the next generation of agriculture.