Warnock takes high-tech tractor ride on UGA farm as Congress debates farm bill

WATKINSVILLE — Sen. Raphael Warnock took a ride on an unusual tractor late last week. The driver held up his arms in the classic “Look, ma, no hands!” pose, but Warnock was never in any danger.

Warnock, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, visited the University of Georgia’s Iron Horse Farm in Greene County for a demonstration on the latest in precision agriculture technology, including the self-driving tractor that he took for a spin.

Farmers today can increase their profits with a wide array of high-tech equipment. Satellite-connected smart devices can allow them to track data on soil conditions and intelligently place seeds, water, fertilizer and pesticides exactly where they need to be, saving resources and money.

But new technology often requires troubleshooting, and Warnock said he’s aiming to fix a connectivity bug within the latest agriculture hardware.

There is no standard way for these devices to share data with one another, so farmers could find themselves with a soil monitor in the ground that is unable to communicate with the tractor they need to spread fertilizer, making it less convenient and costlier to adopt the new technology.

Last month, Warnock and South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune introduced legislation to create a working group to study creating standards to ensure different devices can connect. Warnock is working to get the measure included in the 2023 Farm bill, which Congress passes every five years to set the nation’s food and agriculture policy. The current bill is set to expire in September.

“The profitability margin for farmers is so narrow that every little bit helps,” Warnock said. “And we saw today the huge difference that this technology is already bringing, but it could be much better.”

After the tech demos, Warnock sat around a table with a group of north Georgia farmers who said they’ve seen success incorporating new technology, but precision agriculture has its hurdles. In addition to connectivity issues, the equipment is a major financial investment, and some said the rural broadband required still needs work.

The main battle lines around this year’s proposed Farm Bill revolve around the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, informally known as food stamps, which makes up the largest portion of the bill.

In an exchange with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack last month, Republican Congressman Austin Scott, Vice Chair of the House Agriculture Committee questioned whether the proposed SNAP spending is appropriate.

“The 2023 Farm Bill is currently projected to spend approximately 4% on commodity programs and 7% on crop insurance,” he said. “That’s less than 12% that would actually go to support production agriculture; 82% of it goes to SNAP.”

House Republicans castigated the USDA for allowing SNAP benefits to increase beyond inflation for the first time in 45 years in 2021 and mismanaging a plan to re-evaluate food costs. They argue that the program’s work requirements should be made stricter.

“No matter how much you give somebody in SNAP benefits, if the cost of groceries continues to go up because of inflation and bad policies, then they have less food to eat at the end of the day,” Scott added. “Even if you doubled their food stamps, if the price of eggs goes up three-fold, then they can buy fewer eggs with the same number of dollars.”

Two Georgia Democrats sit on the House Agriculture Committee: Congressmen David Scott, the ranking member of the committee, and Sanford Bishop.

Speaking to the 2023 Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit in Washington last month, Scott said Democrats will be united in their support for SNAP.

“We need to finally accept SNAP, and right now, the last thing we need to be talking about is trying to get people off of SNAP,” he said. “What these rather extreme Republicans want to do is to take SNAP and try to say they want to put strict working requirements. We already have working requirements.”

Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder