To coin an old phrase, “There is trouble in River City”. Due to that trouble Alan Merrill and some Farmer’s Union representatives have just come back from Washington D.C. While there they presented Senators and Representatives with four top issues. They were adequate farm and food support, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Renewable fuel standard and Corporate Consolidation in Agriculture.
More about them later, but what led to that particular Fly-In is a disaster brewing in the agriculture right here at home.
Merrill said that cattle prices have just been cut in half over the previous year.
There are generally very low prices for communities and there were no disaster payments in the Farm Bill.
Some winter wheat is averaging $3.10 a bushel! Consider what most farmer’s know, that break even for most wheat is between five and six dollars a bushel.
And there is a wheat glut, and a corn glut. Feed wheat in the Glasgow area is going as low as $1.50 a bushel!
Naturally, seeing all that makes some bankers very nervous as they wonder if farm loans are going to get paid at all or just what should be done.
One thing the Farmers Union experts predict is no help from Congress who are going home in October and they tell farm experts to look for nothing from the lame duck session to follow the election.
The plain and simple fact is that farmers are coming into a very bad financial situation yet this year.
Alan Merrill said, “The farming community is in transition. I hope that the family farm that I knew can stay around and not be eaten up by large corporations.”
Regarding adequate farm and food support, the net farm income for 2016 is forecast to be 11% lower than from 2015 and more than 40% lower than just three years ago.
Input costs remain high despite a drastic decline in commodity prices. In fact total farm expenditures were 4% higher last year than in 2011, 2012 and 2013 while many commodity prices have fallen 40% or more since that same time period.
One thing you could do is ask your members of Congress to immediately start working on a new Farm Bill that provides a stronger safety net that protects family farmers and ranchers from very low prices.
Forget about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is not going to be a boon to farmers because of increased export opportunities.
In addition TPP fails to address currency manipulation.
Ask your Congressman to make sure that TTP is not voted on in the Lame Duck Session.
In the Renewable Fuel Standard, it is the nation’s main policy driver for renewable fuels. It requires that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be blended into the nation’s fuel supply by 2022. The Farmer’s Union thinks that RFS is good for the economy, good for United States energy security and good for the environment.
As to ethanol being made out of corn, know that ethanol is not made from edible corn and none of the ethanol corn is fed for any people.
Ask your member of Congress to oppose any legislative changes to the RFS.
Concerning Corporate Consolidation in Agriculture and especially with low commodity prices we do not need more great industries merging. Right now the top six agriculture input companies own 63% of the global seed market, 75% of the agriculture chemical market and 95% trait acres for corn, soybeans and cotton in the United States.
The top four meat processing companies slaughter 85% of all the cattle in the United States, 74% of the hogs in the United States and 54% of the chickens in the United States.
When a farmer buys a computer for his million dollar combine to measure whatever, who else is reading the computer? Now big companies can know how much fertilizer and whatever else it took to get that 60 bushel wheat and great protein in the Smith Field.
Or buy that huge new John Deere tractor and find out that the computer installed by Precision Planting is not even yours and is now all owned by John Deere.
Ask your Congressman to hold hearings to examine corporate consolidation in agriculture.
And, especially join with other family farmers to help end what looks like it could be the end of the family farm. With numbers come power and certainly we here in Montana need power!
