Section 10301: Effective Reference Price

📘 Section 10301: Reference Price Boosts for Farmers

🧠 What Is This Section About?

This part of the law changes the prices used by the government to decide how much to pay farmers when their crops don’t earn enough money. They’re like safety nets for farmers.

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✅ In 4th-Grade Language:

1. Starting in 2025, the government raises its guaranteed price levels for crops like:

   • Wheat → $6.35 per bushel

   • Corn → $4.10 per bushel

   • Soybeans → $10.00 per bushel

   • Many others are listed, too

2. Starting in 2031, these prices go up a bit every year, by 0.5% per year—so they slowly grow over time.

3. But there’s a cap—they can’t rise higher than 113% of the original 2025 levels.

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💡 Why This Matters:

• These “reference prices” are like safety nets—if farmers sell crops for less than these prices, they get a payment.

• By raising these prices, the government says:

  “We’ll promise to pay you a bit more if the market price is low.”

• Then after 2031, these promises grow slowly but don’t get out of hand thanks to the 113% cap.

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🧃 Quick Example:

• Farmer Joe grows corn.

• In 2025, the promised price goes up to $4.10 per bushel, up from about $3.70 before.

• If corn sells for $3.50 next year, Joe gets a check for the difference.

• Starting 2031, that promised price may go up by 0.5% each year, but won’t be more than 113% of $4.10.

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👍 Bottom Line:

Farmers get better protection if crop prices fall, with a guaranteed safety net set higher starting in 2025. After 2031, it grows slowly and stays fair and controlled.

Here's the original:

SEC. 10301. EFFECTIVE REFERENCE PRICE; REFERENCE PRICE.
    (a) Effective Reference Price.--Section 1111(8)(B)(ii) of the 
Agricultural Act of 2014 (7 U.S.C. 9011(8)(B)(ii)) is amended by 
striking ``85'' and inserting ``beginning with the crop year 2025, 
88''.
    (b) Reference Price.--Section 1111 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 
(7 U.S.C. 9011) is amended by striking paragraph (19) and inserting the 
following:
        ``(19) Reference price.--
            ``(A) In general.--Effective beginning with the 2025 crop 
        year, subject to subparagraphs (B) and (C), the term `reference 
        price', with respect to a covered commodity for a crop year, 
        means the following:
                ``(i) For wheat, $6.35 per bushel.
                ``(ii) For corn, $4.10 per bushel.
                ``(iii) For grain sorghum, $4.40 per bushel.
                ``(iv) For barley, $5.45 per bushel.
                ``(v) For oats, $2.65 per bushel.
                ``(vi) For long grain rice, $16.90 per hundredweight.
                ``(vii) For medium grain rice, $16.90 per 
            hundredweight.
                ``(viii) For soybeans, $10.00 per bushel.
                ``(ix) For other oilseeds, $23.75 per hundredweight.
                ``(x) For peanuts, $630.00 per ton.
                ``(xi) For dry peas, $13.10 per hundredweight.
                ``(xii) For lentils, $23.75 per hundredweight.
                ``(xiii) For small chickpeas, $22.65 per hundredweight.
                ``(xiv) For large chickpeas, $25.65 per hundredweight.
                ``(xv) For seed cotton, $0.42 per pound.
            ``(B) Effectiveness.--Effective beginning with the 2031 
        crop year, the reference prices defined in subparagraph (A) 
        with respect to a covered commodity shall equal the reference 
        price in the previous crop year multiplied by 1.005.
            ``(C) Limitation.--In no case shall a reference price for a 
        covered commodity exceed 113 percent of the reference price for 
        such covered commodity listed in subparagraph (A).''.