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Food should not be used as a weapon, the American Farm Bureau Federation told a Senate panel in late May during a hearing on U.S. trade policy with Cuba.

"All agricultural products should be exempt from all embargoes and unilateral sanctions, except in the case of armed conflict," said Maryland Farm Bureau President Stephen Weber, a third-generation fruit and vegetable producer from Baltimore County. "Unilateral sanctions such as the Cuban embargo do not work. Such sanctions often result in little or no change in the foreign policy actions of the targeted nation. The experience in Cuba is a testament to that fact."

Farm Bureau believes, according to testimony, that "maintaining our current trade with Cuba and taking steps to lift the remaining restrictions is needed in order to improve our bilateral relationship with Cuba and to foster democratic reform."

Market analysts estimate that the U.S. economy is losing up to $1.24 billion annually in agricultural exports because of the Cuban embargo, and up to $3.6 billion more in related economic output. Cuba presently imports around $4 billion in goods per year from countries other than the United States and agricultural commodities account for 20-25 percent of that total – approaching $1 billion.

Having unfettered access to the Cuban market would benefit U.S. farmers and ranchers and restoring trade between the two countries would also help the Cuban people increase their standard of living, according to testimony. Prior to the embargo instituted in 1960, U.S. imports made up 75 to 80 percent of the total Cuban foreign agricultural purchases.

Farm Bureau has called for reform of U.S. policy toward Cuba, asserting the best way to achieve that is through trade. The organization has pressed for legislation to end the current restriction on financing of U.S. food and agricultural exports to the island nation.