The food crisis could be upon us, as farmers in the United States report that income has plummetted. If farmers can no longer afford to grow the food we all buy in the stores, expect not only a major price hike on the food that is available but a shortage of whole foods as well.
The personal income of farmers in the U.S. declined by an annualized $11.8 billion between January and March, the biggest 1st quarter drop in 3 years, Bloomberg reported, citing Commerce Department data released Monday. The drop in income is being driven primarily by the fallout from President Trump’s trade disputes, a nosedive in commodity prices, and record flooding in the Midwest. As a result, farmer bankruptcies in the Midwest have shot up to levels the U.S. hasn’t seen for approximately a decade.
This makes the prospect of a food crisis very real. Although reports from the government claim that progress in the trade war can be described as “cautiously optimistic,” little can be done for the farmers already struggling. According to a report by Axios, America’s farmers are living through the worst economic crisis in almost 30 years and there is no end in sight.
Government interference in the food market is having a much heavier effect on farmers than it has on others. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes, rural America is being “undermined by powerful economic forces that nobody knows how to stop.” The booming economy the mainstream media continues to relentlessly drone on about isn’t touching all corners of the country, and farmers, in particular, are facing a very different economic reality than the economic growth and low unemployment rate that Americans are experiencing elsewhere.
Wisconsin, where dairy farms closed at a rate of two per day last year, has been hit particularly hard by the “booming economy.” The state’s dairy industry accounts for half of Wisconsin’s “critical agricultural sector … generates $43.4 billion a year in economic activity … and supports 413,500 jobs or 11.9% of the state’s employment,” according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum. That’s a large segment of jobs, and that means, deviation in farming could soon spill over and affect every single one of us.
In fact, we all eat, whether you’re a vegan or carnivore, the destruction of American’s farmers will play a huge role in the cost of food and the ability to find or even be able to afford food that isn’t laced with antibiotics, chemicals, pesticides, or GMO.
Everyone get everything you can now while there’s still time. Those that don’t will be in a real world of hurt.
No doubt. I’ve bought food and I’m still planting plenty of stuff that will be fresh. Nothing tastes better than a home grown mater. There will never be enough food and the only thing more important is water and the ability to make it drinkable.
Then never use a berkey! 100% failure rate! Don’t take my word for it (had 4 out of 4 fail) look up the reviews on amazon etc. We use a zen filter, it tested just under berkey (before they fail) and love it. Cheaper and better in many ways.
yep berkeys are a pita. soft plastic threads on the filters strip out the 3rd or 4th time you disassemble it to clean it. still have mine stored away, kept for trade.
It’s not the threads its the shit they use to glue the filter to the base with. It starts slow (you don’t notice it) then gets bigger and bigger till its just streaming right past the filter. Berkey has known about this defect for YEARS and has NEVER done a damn thing about it!
We have a few professional farmers on this site. Perhaps they could answer why given an open market, why they can’t make enough money to survive? Government warps the markets with subsidies, is there an oversupply? Are government regulations killing off the smaller farmers?
I pay about $1 per pound for hard red wheat berries, delivered to my home. As near as I can tell that wheat came from North Dakota, Alberta, or Saskatchewan. They are still in business.
I can buy soft White organic wheat from WA state for a little over $1.25 a pound delivered and they are still in business. I’m in Hawaii, I have plenty of food, from local farmers, ranches and imported from mainland farmers, so what is the problem?
I suspect it is the government run by Democrats, for Democrats, that infest the cities of America.
Perhaps they are talking about the giant GMO agri farmers. More people by the day are getting rid of GMO frankenfood. It is banned in some countries. Organic farming is on the rise… Monsanto is getting it’s ass sued off 😀
Gen,
At my age I really don’t give a shite about GMO.
I sprayed 4 gals of Roundup yesterday, some
people thinks that stuff lasts forever, it doesn’t.
Just for you anal guys, I keep a journal of where I spray,
dates, and how much I used.
To get to something less subjective and more
objective, I’m considering switching from Midnite solar
classic 150 solar charge controllers to Outback FM80,
due to your comments about the fan problem( those fans are pricey) and my suppliers suddenly have added many $ for shipping. So I can get 3 FM80’s for the price of two classic 150’s with spare fans. Any thoughts?
I’m shooting for June to order the last of bits and pieces of the
10.6 kW solar “backup generator”. Installation to start in July.
Battery is the last thing I buy, you talked me into a forklift battery, getting one is easier said than done in Hawaii, turns out most places here use propane for forklifts, but I’m working on it. What do you think of Rolls Surrette batteries as an alternative?
relik, rolls are great batteries for sure. They won’t last as long as forklift batteries by a long shot but in your situation you gotta do what you gotta do. Don’t get me wrong I love the midnite controller except for that fan issue. They will do 97 amps at 12V (why I bought one). The size of your system I would think your going 48 volts? If you can get 3 FM-80’s for 2 Midnite 150’s by all means do it! The less pressure on your controllers or inverters, the longer they will last. Run 90% on the midnites or 65% on the FM-80’s. Plus if 1 goes down you still have 66% vs. 50%. I do like outback and have yet to ever see any of their equipment go bad. If your going to run 3 FM-80’s be sure to get an outback mate hub to syncronize them. What inverter are you planning on using may I ask?
Oh ya about the fork batteries, If you have a refrigerated or frozen food plant with a big freezer/refer warehouse they will probably use electric forklifts. Perhaps contact them and give them a couple bux to order you some batteries. Most food processing plants use electric forklifts. Find the manager and offer him some pineapple shine! 😀
I Do know theres a big difference in life of AA AAA B C D etc of regular & Industrial battery’s – Also know that Interstate makes batt’s for (at least 30 yrs ago they did) forklift’s – Also may consider aviation?!
Hey Rellik
I hope all is well.
Outback FM80’s are good units. I’ve installed dozens of flexmax charge controllers. The FM80 has two fans as compared to the FM60 having only one. They are super easy to program and setup. They don’t come with a temp sensor so make sure you order one if you go with the outback’s. MidNite Classics are great controllers as well. They allow for a higher input voltage from the array so that is nice. I would say both are of similar quality. The Classics can be used as a wind controller as well which may or may not matter to you.
The only controller that I think might be better is the newer Magnum PT100 which has a 200VDC input plus battery voltage up to 240VDC. It also has built in arc fault detection which is required in systems over 80VDC. All three brands are good.
I have installed dozens of battery banks and we use Rolls almost exclusively. Surrette/Rolls are made here in Nova Scotia and are the best lead acid battery out there. If you want a 15 year battery then the series 5000 batteries by Rolls are the way to go but they are flooded and need some watering and checks every 4-6 weeks. The 6CS21P is a 6V 683 Ah battery but it’s 270 pounds and also pricey. 10 year warranty but should last 12-15 years. We recently bought 8 of their S460-6 AGM batteries. They are L16 size and 6V at 415 Ah. They are maintenance free which is a nice change to what we had prior. About a 7 year service life. I hope this helps.
Solarguy out
Good post with 1 exception, NEVER buy anything from magnum energy! 4 people in my offgrid area have magnasine inverters and EVERY SINGLE ONE has gone bad! Mine 1 time another guy had his puke out 3TIMES in 6 months! Another guy’s lasted 4 years and the other 6 years before taking a shit! I have yet to see an outback go bad ever! Midnite also makes charge controllers with 200 and 250 volt inputs. Magnum Energy, Xantrex, Trojan are ALL GARBAGE! I have done solar for 23 years and done it for a living also and have certs. 80% of the work I did professionally was fixing other peoples shit and replacing trojan battery banks that 100% failed early.
Solarguy, I love surrette batts but you mentioned the S-460-6 AGM’s. 7 years is not a great life. I’m sure you know not to go below 50% DOD with that said U.S.Battery makes a FLA L-16 model HC-XC L-16 6 volt 420ah battery that is much better Than Interstate, trojan, etc. (not surrette) that costs 269.00 dollars each. I have had these for years and expect at least 10 years of life from them but maybe more like 12-13. But then I use a battery lifesaver desulphator and never go under 50% dod. The only time I recommend AGM or sealed batts is if no one will be around to service them because they are high cost and shorter life. Look into US Battery they really are a great performer.
rellik, I’m originally from Kansas. Have many friends still there – some farmers and ranchers among them. The biggest problem is money. No longer can a good farm store enough on site to see through a bad year. Nor can they anyway. The loans they’ve taken out, live on in truth, must constantly be extended and increased each year to keep up. Their crops for the most part are not their’s for years to come. All is sold ahead of time in terms of loan value. 2-3 years of poor performance for any reason and the big corporations take over completely via those banks … which they own. The concept of the family farm/ranch is archaic in the extreme. Most so-called family agriculture are really nothing more than on-site land-owners (if even that, rather than just tenants) doing the bidding of their bosses. Big agra, banking and investment….. Your wheat berries or organic wheat all come essentially from company agriculture most probably. I’d bet that less than 5% of all food raised in North America has its origin on anything remotely resembling a private farm/ranch by most American’s concept of such. There ain’t no such thing anymore as “the Little House on the Prairie”.
Heartless,
Good input.
In 1974-1975 I was stationed in Minot ND.
I saw the old style farmers using a 1800’s hay rake
behind a $60,000 4WD articulated diesel tractor, so
I don’t really accept that unavoidable debt killed them off.
I saw what professional combine outfits could do to sections and sections of wheat overnight. It was amazing!
I know people in Seattle now designing software to operate a farm with minimal human intervention, it is much easier than a self driving car to do. Industrialization of the farm is the way to go. Family farm is gone, only politics have kept most of them alive.
I’m only interested in my little piece of the world. I share my excess. There is no way you can compete with corporate farms in the modern world.
But in the scheme of things nobody should ever starve, ever again. We have gotten pretty good at making food.
Getting to where it is needed is now the hard part.
If one was so inclined in theory, there is money to be made in adult beverages. 🙂
Seems just a matter of time the vultures will be circling overhead, unfortunately, as if the cycle was planned….
The flooding and cold winter has delayed the planting. The more the planting is delayed, the further back is the harvest. An early winter would reduce the harvests sharply. The farmers have had a lot of damage to their farms and their equipment. There is a lot more damage to the infrastructure as well. The mainstream media is way under-reporting what has happened. The price of meat is being affected by the outbreak of swine flu in China with the subsequent destruction of so many of their swine. The world is not ending and the sky is not falling, but you should expect higher food prices and possibly a shortage of some items. Americans living paycheck to paycheck are in for a shock.
Those agribusiness got to big for their britches and bought too much debt. Let them go broke. someone will still plant and harvest a crop from the very same land. I milk my own cow. Grow most of our food. So I don’t care anyhow.
farmers switched to huge equipment gmo seeds for profit now its biting them in the ass because nobody wants gmo food let them suffer
A lot of the blame for the Wisconsin dairy bankruptcies can be laid at the feet of Scott Walker. His “30 by 20” plan called for expanding dairy production to 30 billion pounds by 2020. He gave grants to the farmers and tax breaks to CAFOs to grow operations to meet this goal. He wanted Wisconsin to be #1 instead of #2 behind California. They met the goal last year. Now there is too much supply and not enough demand and the price has tanked. This is what happens when government picks winners and losers. Hard to believe a Republican would behave this way, innit? No, not really. Red or Blue, they’re only out to make a name for themselves and advance their career and line their pockets.
Trump has given the Fed marching orders for QE 400. He has decided that the US will compete with Japan for the Negative Interest Rates Trophy to keep the top 20%’s assets flying high, but without Japan’s protections for farmers. Even top 20%ers eat.
Weren’t farmers the first to get hit economically at the start of the great depression?
Yes, so they could bankrupt them and buy their land for pennies on the dollar. Just like now, same shit… different day.
Another bullshit story.
No one is starving in America, and no one that knows what their doing is going broke. The ones that “don’t have a pot to piss in” deserve what they get.
#1 the size of the American, child or adult, has never been any heavier.
#2 the amount of farm subsidies hit record consecutive highs, year after year.
#3 the number of persons in America drawing a monthly entitlement check is at a record.
#4 the total amount issued as entitlements has never been higher.
Looking at the stores there ain’t no shortage of HFCS based GARBAGE on the shelves.
Watch the stock markets and the debt double in no time.
Enjoy the ride, and never bet against the FED.
Wait 30 years when the American life expectancy falls below 55. Fat lazy entitlement slobs. You’ll have high fructose corn syrup poison coming out of your ass.
I often wonder how much food, that could be grown and stored here, does our government import into the United States, which in turn causes crop prices to drop? Anyone out there know the answer, cause I sure don’t have a clue. For an interesting read, find the book “Ill Fares the Land,” which details that one of the goals of the communists was to take over farming. One of the first communist cells in our federal government, was in the U. S. Department of Agriculture in the 1930s. The only difference in 2019 is that they are more subtle what they’re doing, but the bottom line is to control all of agriculture, just like happened in Soviet Russia
Just fired up the new tiller today and worked up the garden plot. Got a bunch of mushroom compost, lama poop, and other stuff to improve the soil. Starter plants are doing well, also I weed out the weak ones. Still to cold to plant at almost 6,000 ft but put trays of starters out in the sunshine every day. Two weeks into May is the rule here for planting in the ground. It takes more finesse to grow here in northern Arizona than anywhere I’ve ever lived in the mid west, but it’s worth it. Can’t wait for mators, swiss chard, peppers, melons, lettuce,corn, squash……mostly heirloom seeds and last years saved seeds too.
Good riddance to Communist, factory farms and to people, who willfully refuse to DIY.
They will gladly take the food out of your mouth, at the first opportunity.
I agree with you Bert. Every farmer I have ever known would tell you 3 days without rain is a drought and 3 days with sprinkles is a flood. Where is my government subsidies. I respect farmers lots of hard work on their part but they have their hand out as much as any one else. So just more doomed porn.
Why do people continually complain about the symptoms but never speak of or address the cure?
You can take ALL the problems in America and end them tomorrow.
All the problems in America from political to education, agriculture or any other venue or aspect of manufacture or commerce, are caused because we do not issue our own currency as the Constitution orders.
The Federal Reserve Corporation Central Bank is the 100% cause of every problem in America.
Yet, the people would rather discuss, argue, bitch, complain, point fingers, and do anything except make ending the Federal Reserve Corporation Central Bank the only topic and event to complete.
Think chemtrails. Who benefits?
Did you know that the rich and their lapdog politicians are subsidized by taxpayer money for NOT growing anything?