By Thérèse BoudreauxThe Center SquareThe U.S. Senate has released its version of the five-year farm bill and plans to mark it up in committee Thursday, finally making progress on the critical agricultural policy package. “Farm families are facing extremely challenging circumstances, with some deciding it’s not worth continuing their operations,” Senate Agriculture Committee John Boozman, R-Ark., stated. Congress is under immense pressure to pass a farm bill, which it is supposed to do every five years but has not since 2018. “We’ve lost 200,000 farms in a decade, and a modernized farm bill will help stabilize the struggling farm economy,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. “We’re calling on the Senate Agriculture Committee to advance the bill out of markup and send it forward for full Senate passage and ultimately the president’s signature.”