Kansas farmers can help end world hunger, but they need Congress to reach new markets

Farmers are intimately familiar with the factors that affect their bottom line.

Here in Kansas, for example, we know exactly what goes into the production of the wheat that ends up in a loaf of bread. That knowledge is the result of a year-round focus on the immediate, often changing concerns that not only affect our individual day-to-day farming operations, but also the markets into which we sell our production.

At the same time, other equally important market drivers may escape our attention. One of these is the role that U.S. diplomacy and international development play in establishing and strengthening trade partnerships that provide new markets for U.S. agricultural production. Such emerging trade relationships are becoming more critical by the day—both for American farmers and the populations we feed.

The fact is that entire regions around the globe today are suffering from food insecurity due to the effects of climate change, the economic fallout of COVID-19, and production and supply chain disruptions resulting from international conflicts such as the war in Ukraine.

And we believe that Kansas farmers have never had a more important role to play in ensuring the security of world’s food supply, and thereby promoting the economic prosperity of farmers here at home.

In spite of a challenging market environment, Kansas’s agricultural exports last year topped $5 billion for the first time in a decade. One reason for this is that our state’s and the nation’s top trading partners — Mexico, Canada, China and Japan — increasingly depend on U.S. agricultural production for their food supply.

U.S. agriculture overall is clearly capable of similar growth in the years ahead. In 2021, for example, the U.S. agricultural sector’s exports of farm and food products reached $177 billion — an 18% increase over the prior year — and the highest annual agricultural export level ever recorded.

Importantly, we can continue to drive this growth not only by strengthening our relationships with current trading partners, but also by increasing U.S. diplomatic outreach into new regions around the world.

Our past investments in international development have been extremely effective in developing new markets, as evidenced by the fact that seven of the United States’ top 10 trading partners were formerly recipients of U.S. aid.

The opportunities are significant. By using humanitarian aid to fill nutritional voids around the world — such as those created by the Ukraine conflict — we can lay the groundwork that will allow U.S. producers to eventually establish long-term trade relationships in previously untapped markets that are seeking a stable supply of high-quality agricultural products.

To that end, we urge the Kansas congressional delegation — and those representing other agricultural regions across the country — to support a fully-funded International Affairs Budget that will aid countries suffering from food security and advance our nation’s economic interests abroad.

We also would encourage the federal government to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its humanitarian aid mechanisms, and ease restrictions to allow U.S. agricultural businesses to more easily enter markets plagued by food insecurity.

By ensuring the full funding of these efforts — and bolstering their efficacy — we not only will do our part to increase global food security, but also to protect and secure our own economic future, and that of our families and communities.