Agriculture

Senator Blackburn Thanks Tennessee Farmers for All They Do To Keep Food on the Table on National Farmers’ Day

Senator Blackburn Meets With Hancock County Farm Bureau to Discuss How Turbulent Economy Is Impacting Farmers

Senator Blackburn Speaks at Roundtable Discussion During Visit to Tomato Farm in Grainger County, Tennessee

Senator Blackburn Visits Local Nursery In Chattanooga, Tennessee

From tomatoes in the east to cotton in the west, Tennessee has a rich and diverse agricultural industry that is vital to the Volunteer State’s economy. Senator Blackburn has worked to protect our farmers from harmful regulations that impact their land use and water rights as well as their bottom line. Farmers are the best stewards of their land and should be the ones to determine how they farm it — not bureaucrats in Washington.

What Senator Blackburn Is Doing to Support Farmers

Senator Blackburn understands that Tennessee’s rural communities are the heart of the state’s agriculture businesses. As such, we should not have laws in place that hinder economic development in these areas, which is why she introduced the Paving the Way for Rural Communities Act of 2019 to remove outdated, burdensome regulatory hurdles from rural areas and provide much needed relief to those who do not have the means to pay for unnecessary compliance costs.

Communist China is working hard to infiltrate every major U.S. sector, and the agricultural industry is no exception. Over the past few years, the United States has experienced a rapid increase in foreign investment in the agricultural sector from Communist China. A 2021 report by the Department of Agriculture confirms the CCP owns hundreds of thousands of acres of American agricultural land, representing a 30% jump in ownership from 2019 to 2020. To combat this, Senator Blackburn introduced the bipartisan Foreign Adversary Risk Management (FARM) Act to bolster America’s agricultural industry and help protect against improper foreign investment.

In early 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tried to force farmers to finance President Biden’s broken asylum program. Senator Blackburn pushed back and led a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas requesting that the Department withdraw the proposed rule, calling on the administration to support our nation’s agriculture industry.

Senator Blackburn knows that farmers are the backbone of the Volunteer State. Recently, many small Tennessee dairies have struggled to remain open as the state has lost about 300 dairy farms in about the last five years. To allow these businesses to diversify and expand their market competitiveness, Senator Blackburn introduced the bipartisan Dairy Business Innovation Act of 2023. This legislation would help more American dairy farmers and processors add value to their businesses, including creating new products, expanding their markets, and modernizing their production facilities.

Additionally, each year on her 95 County Tour, Senator Blackburn visits with local farmers and groups supporting agriculture.