HEADLAND, Ala. (WDHN) — Farmers make up a good portion of the workforce in the Wiregrass and they rely on it to survive and make a living, but over the horizon is a new farm bill where some lawmakers are looking to make changes with a hope of saving one of the longest serving professions.

Tuberville made four stops throughout the state on Tuesday to talk about the bill. This gave farmers a chance to voice concerns and ideas they have for the farm bill, a bill that is set to expire this year.

The farm bill is a package of legislation that has a tremendous impact on farming livelihoods, how food is grown and what kinds of foods are grown.

The bill covers programs ranging from crop insurance for farmers, to healthy food access for low-income families. From farmer training to support for sustainable farming practices, the farm bill sets the stage for our food and farm systems.

“We need to know the problems before we have an answer for it,” Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville said.

Some of those concerns voiced involved funding to keep farms afloat, finding qualified specialized workers and the future of farming in the area as the amount of young people taking up the farming profession is dwindling.

“We have a declining population of farmers because our cost of farming has gone up,” Tuberville said.

Farmers in the crowd said it is due to the younger generation watching their parents work in farming where they struggled to make a living or even produce a crop.

“Their kids are not going to grow up to want to be farmers,” Tuberville said. “We want everybody to make a profit and be self-serving in our country.”

Tuberville said the fight for changes to the bill is not a political fight, but instead, it is a fight between the northern and the southern parts of the country as each part produces different kinds of crops and they each have different needs.