Small Farmers Struggle and Stabenow on Farm Bill

**Small-scale farmers continue to struggle to stay in business in California and across the country, according to the results of the 2022 Census of Agriculture.

In California, the overall number of farms decreased 10% from 2017 to 2022, while the average acreage per farm increased 10%.

The number of farms in California peaked at nearly 88,000 in 1997.

That number has now fallen 63,134.

**For the first time, Senate Ag Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow says she’ll push a new farm bill into the future rather than strike a deal with Republicans on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and climate conservation spending.

Stabenow says she’s not going to do it, even if that means we continue the policies of the 2018 Farm Bill, which expires at the end of September.

**American farming activities accounted for 10.6% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service.

New data shows that from 2020 to 2021, agricultural greenhouse gas emissions remained nearly constant but decreased from 11.1% to 10.6% as a share of total U.S. emissions.

Industry accounted for the largest portion of greenhouse gas emissions at 30.1%, followed by transportation, commercial, residential and agriculture.

Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions were 2.3% lower than in 1990.