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Today, House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga (R-MI) held a hearing to discuss how the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposed climate rule would hurt farmers and small business owners while raising prices on consumers. Testifying before the committee was Bill Schultz, Vice President of Schultz Fruitridge Farms located in Mattawan, Michigan.

During his testimony, Mr. Schultz detailed how the SEC failed to consider the real world impact this proposed regulation would have on agriculture in general and how this particular proposal would raise costs for both family farms as well as consumers who purchase their food at the grocery store. Video and text highlights of Congressman Huizenga and Mr. Schultz are available below. 

Congressman Bill Huizenga:

Mr. Bill Schultz:

We produce a wide variety of crops including apples, peaches, grapes, and cherries, along with operating a U-Pick farm market and farm-to-table restaurant. Growing fruits and vegetables on 300 acres for our customers and community is a very fulfilling experience and I consider it a privilege. … I have the opportunity to interact with roughly ten thousand consumers annually. I enjoy spending my Saturday mornings working at our local farmers market, engaging with customers, and educating them on the happenings out on the farm. We get involved with our local schools to get fresh apples into the lunch program. Further, every season we make an effort to donate some of our farm's bounty to local food pantries. We are our community's farm in so many ways and I fear the SEC’s rule could put our industry at risk.

This rule would require extensive reporting by public companies on their scope 3 emissions, which are the result of activities not owned or controlled by the company but are in its supply chain. I expect most family farms in America will be touch by this proposal because these farm products end up in the value chains of public companies – whether it’s a grocery store, a fertilizer company, a packer, or any of the other public companies we do business with – the farms in their supply chain will be impacted by scope 3.

Our Industry’s focus is on growing the food, fuel, and fiber that this country needs and being subjected to regulations intended for Wall Street does nothing to advance that work. While large multinational companies have consultants or attorneys dedicated to handling SEC compliance, farms like ours do not. Complying with this rule would be significantly more difficult for our farm and the costs would be much higher. Our farm has no experience with the SEC and we have a hard enough time competing in this current environment. This rule pushes towards more consolidation and gives our competitors one more advantage over family farms like ours.

Investing in environmental stewardship is important to us because we want to take care of the land we live on and pass on our family farm to the next generation. We have adopted conservation practices that include planting cover crops to build fertility, installing trickle irrigation systems to minimize water use, and planting living row middles in our orchards to reduce the need to mow. I am passionate about planting and have personally set thousands of bushes, trees and vines with my own hands. We plan and plant for the future.

On top of the resources needed to collect this information, growing an apple is not like making a widget: farming presents variables that are rarely present in other businesses. An apple tree takes many years to start producing fruit that can be consumed. Weather events or plant pests and diseases create hurdles year-to-year that would deeply complicate the reporting process. It is clear that the SEC did not account for the complexities and nuances of farms when writing this rule.

In conclusion, Consumers are already facing high costs at the grocery store and this rule will only worsen this problem. Small and medium sized farms are the lifeblood of our industry and the pillars of our rural communities. Thank you for allowing me to share my perspective today.