[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 162 (Monday, September 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6538-S6539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Precision Agriculture

  Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, I have heard so many inspiring stories 
about how small businesses across the country adapted to COVID-19 and 
refused to give up, even when the odds seemed overwhelming.
  Mac's Creek Winery in Lexington, NE, is a great example. Owned by two 
generations of the McFarland family, this winery and brewery has been a 
Nebraska favorite since 1999. Like so many other small businesses, they 
were forced to shut their tasting rooms' doors when COVID hit.
  But the McFarlands soon pioneered a new way to share their work with 
the world. They began hosting virtual tastings through Facebook Live, 
inviting their community to join them from home and enjoying these 
Nebraska-made wines.
  Their first event in March of 2020 attracted just a few dozen 
viewers, but their livestreams soon grew to reach thousands of people 
across the country. HGTV featured them on their website, and they won 
best virtual event at the Nebraska Tourism Industry Awards last 
September.
  When I visited Mac's Creek earlier this year, I had the chance to see 
firsthand how they have bounced back from the pandemic. Mac's Creek 
beat the odds, and they even turned last year's hardships to their 
advantage. But years before COVID, they overcame an even greater 
challenge, one that threatened to destroy their entire business.
  In 2013, herbicide drift from neighboring farms wiped out nearly all 
of their 4,000 grapevines. This accident cost them well over $1 million 
in lost production and set their growth back by at least 5 years.
  They couldn't just move their vineyard somewhere else, so just as 
they did last year, they looked at what they needed to do and they 
turned to innovation to find success. With help from a grant from the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mac's Creek was able to buy purpose-
built drones to keep an eye on their 25 acres from above. These drones 
can help them look for early signs of herbicide drift and stop it from 
happening before it even starts. And they haven't suffered another 
incident since.
  This Nebraska business took on a risky investment to protect their 
crops. Their drones are an example of what is known as precision 
agriculture technology, and Nebraska leads the United States in its 
adoption.
  Producers from wineries to cattle ranchers can use drones and other 
21st-century equipment to look after their life's work. For example, if 
a corn farmer wants to use less water, precision ag technology can help 
them calculate exactly how much to use. They can produce the same 
amount of corn using as much as 35 percent less water.
  If a rancher wants to equip their feed bunks with sensors that track 
feed intake, monitor animal health, and even measure emissions from 
their cattle, precision ag can help them do that.
  And these technologies don't just measure inputs. Autosteer and 
mapping technologies can also make farms more efficient, allowing 
producers to use less fuel to get better results. All of these things 
are potential uses of precision agriculture technology, and all of them 
help producers become more efficient with their resources.
  This equipment, it has been around since the 1990s. But like all 
technologies, it is constantly changing. As it grows more advanced, the 
market for it expands as well. And we have seen a huge rise in demand 
in recent years.
  Precision agriculture is revolutionizing the way America's producers 
put food on our tables, but these technologies aren't cheap. Many 
farmers with small- or medium-sized operations would love to have these 
cutting-edge technologies, but their cost puts them just out of reach.
  The adoption of precision ag equipment has been greatest on large 
farms, where the savings spread across many acres can generate enough 
to make this equipment cost effective. This equipment has the potential 
to transform the way producers of all sizes manage their farms, but if 
it only helps a small family farmer save maybe $5 an acre next season, 
a $150,000 investment starts to look a lot less attractive.
  Madam President, the World Economic Forum estimates that if just a 
quarter of the world's farms adopted precision ag practices, farm 
yields globally could increase by 15 percent. They have also shown that 
greenhouse gas emissions and water use could decrease by at least the 
same amount. Adopting these technologies in Nebraska has already helped 
producers reduce soil erosion and carbon output while also increasing 
water quality in the area around their operations. And according to a 
recent report about the environmental benefits of precision ag, even at 
the current levels, this equipment already saves 30 million pounds of 
herbicide, 100 million gallons of fossil fuels, and 500 million gallons 
of water every single year. And that is just in the United States.
  These technologies can help us feed a growing population while also 
caring for our environment. We should be encouraging more producers to 
turn to precision agriculture, and that is why I am joining with the 
senior Senator from Minnesota to introduce a bill to create a loan 
program that would help them do just that.
  My bill would establish the Precision Agriculture Loan Program, which 
would offer low-cost and low-term loans to producers who want to adopt 
precision ag technologies but they may be unable to make these 
investments through traditional banks. This would be the first Federal 
loan program dedicated entirely to precision ag, and instead of upward 
of 5 percent in interest, producers could pay interest rates under 2 
percent on loans 3 to 12 years in length. These loans would cover 
precision ag technology that improves efficiency or it reduces inputs. 
My bill would help the math start to make sense for our producers who 
would like to adopt these technologies, but they haven't been able to 
afford them.

[[Page S6539]]

  It is rare to find an issue that is so clearly a win-win for everyone 
involved. From the University of Nebraska to the Association of 
Equipment Manufacturers, the Nebraska Farm Bureau, and the American 
Conservation Coalition, support is growing for making precision 
agriculture more accessible.
  Another bill I introduced with Senator Klobuchar in April, which 
would help farmers connect precision ag technologies to each other 
through the internet of things, has been met with a similar outpouring 
of support. That is because precision agriculture--those technologies--
really have no drawbacks. It is better for ag producers, rural 
communities, consumers, and the environment, all at the same time.
  The biggest obstacle is the cost, and that burden falls mostly on the 
smaller farms that can't afford to take the risks. Well, my bill will 
give smaller operations the backing that they need to manage those 
risks.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Gillibrand). The clerk will call the 
roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.