Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, before I begin, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas, the chairman of the committee, for his hard work on the bill. I appreciate it.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the precision agriculture connectivity amendment. This bipartisan amendment offered by myself and my friend from Iowa (Mr. Loebsack) recognizes the need for broadband in rural areas, especially on agricultural lands.

I represent the largest farm-income-producing district in the State of Ohio. Precision agriculture technologies and practices, like the use of IoT equipment, provide a great opportunity to improve U.S. farm productivity and sustainability.

However, the lack of high-speed broadband in rural areas, especially in farmlands and ranchlands, hinder the use of advanced technologies in agriculture operations.

My amendment seeks to improve broadband access to farmers and ranchers by establishing a task force for reviewing the connectivity and technology needs of precision agriculture.

The task force would be created primarily by the Federal Communications Commission due to their expertise in broadband. However, we also recognize the value of the United States Department of Agriculture in this discussion. Therefore, the FCC would be required to work in collaboration with the USDA on gathering broadband data and for selecting the members of the task force.

This task force would be required to identify current gaps in broadband coverage on agricultural lands and recommend policies that will promote their rapid, expanded deployment of broadband internet access service in unserved areas.

Simply put, this amendment would help to address a significant need in agricultural lands. Without broadband, farmers cannot utilize precision agriculture that allows for the collection of field data in real time that can help with crop management. This type of technology helps farmers maximize resources to reduce costs and increase crop yields by up to 70 percent by 2050, helping to maintain America's long- term leadership in global food production.

Furthermore, advanced machinery helps promote environmentally sustainable practices.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan amendment to help deploy much-needed broadband in unserved rural, agricultural areas.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. Again, it is important because, again, in the area I represent in the State of Ohio, we have a lot of unserved areas.

When we talk about unserved and underserved areas, we want to make sure that, especially out in agricultural areas, that we get that area served because they are unserved at this time.

Mr. Chairman, I ask for support of the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source