This year marks the first year in my professional life that retired U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is not sitting in on deliberations over a farm bill. It’s also the first year we go into farm bill talks without the irascible wit and wisdom of Barry Flinchbaugh, the late Kansas State University professor of agricultural economics.

To be quite honest, I think we’re going to miss their leadership in this process more than we can fathom.

Deja vu

Roberts and Flinchbaugh were pros at the fine negotiations that go into writing a farm bill. That institutional experience helped them — they’d either seen it, done it, or written about how we shouldn’t do it again.

The example that comes to mind is 2013. Come take a quick time hop with me.

Picture it — Washington, D.C., 2013, and then-Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, was dealing with a fractured group of House Republicans who took the majority in the midterms.

The House couldn’t pass a farm bill in June, and so talks started swirling about separating nutrition programs from farm programs. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., then the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee but still a member now, grudgingly approved the plan. This would end a rural-urban coalition of 40 years, give or take that essentially ensured every member on the Hill had a reason to vote for this bill.

On the Senate side, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee then and now, said in effect, not on her watch.

Lines were drawn. But voices of experience and measured reason, like Roberts and others, prevailed. A compromise was eventually reached. And that’s how we got the Agricultural Act of 2014 passed by Congress, two years after its predecessor — the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 — had expired.

Same argument

Now, consider where we are today.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has a majority that is fractious and once again, Stabenow is in the chairwoman’s seat on the Senate Ag Committee. The House GOP budget hawks are not pleased with the deal McCarthy struck with President Joe Biden on the debt limit, and have shown they are willing to vote against his leadership. Some are already talking about putting roadblocks in the way of the farm bill.

Does all this sound familiar to anyone else?

It seems like we keep circling the same discussions time and time again when it comes to hashing out and funding a farm bill.

Except the stakes keep getting higher and higher.

Ongoing drought has farmers concerned about their crops and livestock this year, and the future may bring even greater disasters that could affect our sustainability. Inflation and interest rates have farmers concerned about inputs and land costs today — and how that affects their family farms tomorrow. The pandemic showed us how vulnerable our society is to food insecurity, even those who never faced it before.

There is no guarantee that we couldn’t see greater challenges in the next five years that would test the farm bill’s safety net functionality.

The people’s bill

The 2018 Farm Bill has 12 titles. Each one has some impact on our families, our farms and our communities.

It could be argued — and I have in the past — that of all the bills that get passed on Capitol Hill, this one alone has more impact on our local lives than any others. If you drill down into the farm bill, it’s probably the bill that covers the majority of Americans, no matter their political affiliation, their district or any other identifying characteristic.

It's bigger than politics. It’s the people’s bill. A bill that provides for our environmental, social and nutritional security.

Imperfect as it can be, that’s what I always took away from hearing Roberts and Flinchbaugh talk about the Farm Bill. As a Kansan, I took comfort that Roberts could be that measured, wiser voice of reason for the farmer’s side. And, as a K-Stater, I always appreciated Flinchbaugh’s tell-it-like-it-is bluntness about the process and why nutrition and farm programs are tied together.

They left awfully big shoes to fill. But I have faith that people they trained indeed listened and learned. I have hope that measured voices will emerge in the coming months, reminding others that the farm bill is bigger than politics.