Intermediate Oilseed Crop Alliance supports the advancement of the Senate’s Farm Bill

The Intermediate Oilseed Crop Alliance released the following statement in response to the advancement of Farm Bill by the Senate Agriculture Committee on September 16, 2026:

“The advancement of this Farm Bill bill out of the Senate Agriculture Committee has been long-awaited by the farming community, and we strongly support passage and enactment this year,” said IOCA Executive Director Isabel Lane.

“In addition to supporting rural economies and on-farm innovation, the Senate’s text includes language specifically supportive for intermediate oilseeds. One of the most significant challenges to scaling intermediate oilseed crop adoption is the regulatory complexity farmers face when trying to plant these innovative crops and maintain federal crop insurance for their main crop. The language included in this bill would encourage the Risk Management Agency (RMA) to allow flexibility for farmers who plant intermediate oilseed crops under double cropping and relay cropping policies while studying outcomes. This paves the way for long-term, scalable change at RMA to enable on-farm innovation, support intermediate oilseed crops, and ease complexity for the farmers who achieve economic and ecological benefits from planting them.”

“We hope to see continued progress and enactment of this language before year’s end.”