We are amidst a food crisis. Farms in the United States Midwest are filing for chapter 12 bankruptcy at an alarming rate. And many are saying president Donald Trump’s trade war is taking the most blame.
We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so. The trade war was a bad idea and everyday average Americans are footing the bill for this asinine policy of tariffs. Now, the food supply could be in jeopardy because of political posturing and that will not bode well for already cash-strapped American families.
A total of 84 farms in the upper Midwest filed for bankruptcy between July 2017 and June 2018, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. That’s more than double the number of Chapter 12 filings during the same period in 2013 and 2014 in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, reported Vox.
Farms that produce corn, soybeans, milk, and beef were all suffering due to low global demand and low prices before the trade war, according to economists, but president Trump’s trade war is making the problem even worse by exacerbating the weaknesses in the American economy. China has retaliated against the tariffs by slapping billions of dollars worth of tariffs on United States agriculture exports in response to Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products. Other countries, including Canada, have also added duties to US agriculture products in response to Trump’s tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum.
The worst part is perhaps the solution the government has proposed to the very real problem they have created. Things have gotten so bad that the Trump administration launched a $12 billion aid package for US farmers coping with retaliatory tariffs that foreign countries have imposed on their products. So the government is paying farmers after stealing more money in the form of tariffs they were paid. There is no such thing as a free market anymore. In September, the government cut $25 million worth of bailout checks to the agriculture industry.
Only the government could create such a problem by stealing money from Americans, then give it back to those same Americans as welfare. Even liberal rags are beginning to understand that taxation is theft thanks to Trump’s tariffs. “We’re just waiting for a turnaround,” one Minnesota banker told the Star Tribune. “We’re waiting for the tariff problem to go away.”
I’ll buy you out, if I’m lucky.
This is bull, most farmers have been acting like someone had their back for decades. And mostly, they were correct since soybeans for example, are nothing but a trade tool for the U.S. gov’t. I know plenty of farmers that pre-sold the bulk of their crop and are doing fine. The credit super-cycle enticed far too many to take out huge loans and buy damn near everything with abandon, there was always going to be a reckoning for that behavior – just as the other bubbles all around us. Lastly, how come ANY tariff is needed on EITHER side? Answer – they aren’t. We get raped for decades and finally say enough and you write this trash? Like were was the ‘asinine’ article(s) watch our country get bled dry. Trump’s correct, the U.S. built China’s steel industry (among others). Now, fair is ‘crazy’ to you? Wake up.
“We get raped for decades and finally say enough.” All I have to say about your post is “AMEN”.
Thank you!
Everything is Trump’s fault.
They will blame the coming Greater Depression on him too, even though it has been coming for ? decades (since off the gold stsndard?)
Internally we went off [pseudo] gold standard in 1933- during the (((Red Decade))). The chooze think everything on Earth is theirs
Off silver by 1965. Off gold internationally 8-15-1971.
I’m considered a “gentleman” farmer. I provide food for myself and give away a lot of what we raise as I can’t afford the insurance and regulations to sell my food. There is another on this site that gave up farming due to some new Federal regulations.
The one thing that does not go away is the land. The food crisis may happen but it will be the cities that will starve. Since cities are mostly Democrat I can’t say I’ll be upset at that eventuality.
My freezers are full, I have several thousand pounds of meat in my fields, and I’m growing hundreds of pounds of fruits, vegetables, and beans.
I don’t have a crisis, other than my tyrannical government is run by Democrats that I’d like to obliterate. Legally of course.
Smart. Very smart! Right there with you Relik. Out in the middle of nowhere on 80 acres with a 2-acre garden, 1400 sq ft greenhouse, orchard, vineyard, rabbits, pheasant, quail, chickens, goats, and 3 different kinds of fish (ALL on my property). Freezers full of deer meat, grass-fed beef, and corn-fed pork, and the food storage area is full (canned veg, beans, rice, sugar, coffee, etc.)
Let the damn cities starve. Don’t care. Me and mine will be just fine. Good luck to the rest.
Relik,
Since you just gave rough estimate of your worth/supllies –
Guard it well, my friend, guard it well.
Someone,
I’m the poor guy in the hood.
Most my neighbors are far, far
better off monetarily than I am.
The guy who does my bulldozer work
is a multi-millionaire, he won’t
work when it rains.
It is not all about the amount
of silver, gold, or dollars you have
it is all about the resources you
can call upon if you need them.
That is called prepping.
Then hopefully you will have some trust-worthy Human Resources (Family, Friends, Neighbors, etc) to help you ‘manage’ the other resources you have when the moment arrives.
Good Luck and above all, Stay Safe.
Correct. Way to go.
It seems like all these apocalyptic forecasts are based on Static Analysis of human behavior.
If a bunch of farmers go out of business and some food items become less plentiful or even scarce – What will happen?
1.) First – the prices will go up for those items depending on demand.
2.) People will Adapt, Improvise and Overcome – As you mentioned the land is still here. It will be worth various individual’s effort to plant and sell items as the prices rise and the needs are known.
3.) We will find ways to distribute the produce grown in this fractional farming scenario and we will see a lot more urban production.
People don’t realize that most of our agricultural produce is grown on what we could call #1 land.
There is so much arable acreage (below the #1 category) in the US it is stupefying. I find I can get quite a bit of all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and nuts in good ol’ Georgia Red (amended with chicken and horse manure)
We might have to revert to ‘seasonal’ fruits and vegetables if we don’t want to pay the higher prices for imported stuff.
Our food supply is not threatened, but our Price structure is…
<bb
need to have that garden patch goin’ on out back 🙂
like three yrs ago!!
newbees are gonna have a hard time learnin’ the ropes.
raise your own chickens.
got fruit trees?
so much you could be doing for yourselves.
tho, it sadden my heart to see any family farm go under 🙁
“The trade war was a bad idea and everyday average Americans are footing the bill for this asinine policy of tariffs. ”
TRUMP TARIFFS / TRADE WAR WAS A GREAT IDEA !!! 🙂
It was/is the only way to instill some fairness in global trade and set a level playing field for everyone. The American worker, family, taxpayer, and local businesses suffered for DECADES under Globalism.
All commodity markets are global, so if a particular buyer and producer have a problem with each other, it can be balanced out by selling to new, but existing global markets.
Prior to TRUMP TARIFFS, China, for example imposed a 25% tariff on American manufactured autos, while the existing tariff for Chinese auto imports into the USA was a measly 2.5%. Hardly a level playing field.
Prior to TRUMP TARIFFS, Canada, for example, imposed a 300% tariff on American Dairy products. Hardly a level playing field.
Steel and aluminum are strategic industries, necessary for domestically produced autos & airplanes. These essential WAR MATERIALS cannot be left to be sourced elsewhere should push come to shove globally.
As the world REALIGNS, strategic industries essential for American Defense MUST be returned to the USA for local production or we will find ourselves pissing into the wind and short of materials & manufacturing plants when the SHTF.
And it will. America can be, and should be, self-sufficient again. Both China & Russia are moving in that direction. America cannot rely on the Europeans for anything. We have never been able to rely on the Europeans for anything. On the contrary we have subsidized Europe since world war II and still do to the tune of $160 Billion a year.
Some things never seemed to change under the NWO. It just got PROGRESSIVELY worse. (Pun intended). Life in these United States will now forever be (BT) Before Trump and (AT) After Trump. Under TRUMP Americans have a shot at a new burst of freedom, independence, and prosperity. 🙂
Yes, we subsidize Europe–which was conceivably in our national interest during the Cold War, but with the fall of the USSR, we continue to do so, and whose fault is that? Not Europe’s. We cannot blame Europe for our own folly. And anyone who continues to vote for either Republicans or Democrats has no business complaining. They are essentially two wings of the same party who quietly maintain bipartisan support of many of the same policies. Unilateral free trade and subsidizing Europe’s defense needs and maintaining race-replacement(legal)immigration policies are only a few components of this bipartisan consensus.
Cry now,
Or
Cry later
Better to get it over with and get back to reality,
Nailbanger;
“Cry now,
Or
Cry later”
Just don’t dry in my beer…. HAHAHAHA
Could be a good thing ya know…
66% or more of the US are considered Obese.
Food farmers or soybeaners?
Soybeans were grown for human consumption largely as a result of the federal government asking Kentucky and Indiana farmers to do so due to starvation and devastation (largelydue to the systemic aerial fire bombing under LeMay) in postwar Japan in 1945. For many decades that was the significant market.
Now 60% goes to the EU and 30% goes to Japan and rest elsewhere.
Some countries have banned some GMO frankenfoods. More will do so in the future. Grow GMO and your only market might be the US (who wants you sick anyway). Don’t be a retard, grow organic. Soy is shit too!
Soy is for faggots.
I 2nd that reply lol.
I, for years, have wanted a legislation that ‘mandated’ homeowners to have ______ trees on their property with half being fruit and nut trees.
Maybe the government providing the trees??
Job creation in a sense for many on welfare.
JayJay,
The state of Hawaii provides nursery
grown trees at cost. I have about 200.
Because of politics they only provide
“native” trees. My fruit trees, vegies
and others are non native so I buy them
or grow them from my resources.
My point is don’t depend on the government.
You want the government to force you to have fruits and nuts on “your” property?
JJ, you want to mandate shit to me? Fuck you!
Well, it’s seems a little more complicated than tariffs, although most of the problems ARE caused by government. Most of the bankruptcies are dairy farmers. The government screws with them by fixing the price of milk. They can’t compete with the corporate dairy farms. The Amish neighbor told me he had to certify his milk and sell it as organic or he would have had to quit the dairy business. If an Amish farmer can’t make it, no one can.
Another thing is that these big grain farmers hedge their harvest same as oil companies hedge their barrels, so they shouldn’t be seeing a loss already. Their product is sold before it is ready, for the most part, at a price determined several years ago.
Aldis sells milk .98/gal.
I want to see what those cows look like.
NOT the at the Aldi’s where I shop at. (Lancaster, Pa)
I believe it was Walmart in KY that quit buying Amish milk and then (Walmart) started their own dairies and milk production.
The Amish dairies had to sell their cows to slaughter and close their dairies.
Believe it was Deans milk.
https://eu.courier-journal.com/story/money/2018/06/29/kentucky-dairy-farmers-keep-milking-after-dean-contract/730454002/
Calm down Powder Puff!
We had tariffs for most of the history of this country to protect our production. The “Asinine” started when the idiots in charge decided to allow unfettered dumping
of competitor countries copies of our products on to our market. Now look how F’d up things are!
Any farmer can plant a crop for the American market and right size the farm.
Just because there is there is no market for chicken feet and soy beans here doesn’t mean you cant farm successfully.
If they filed for bankruptcy it was because of mismanagement and foolish choices akin to GE and their 100 billion in debt incurred by borrowing $ to buy back stocks.
???
There are lies, damned lies, and cherry-picked statistics.
“A total of 84 farms in the upper Midwest filed for bankruptcy between July 2017 and June 2018…That’s more than double the number of Chapter 12 filings during the same period in 2013 and 2014 in Wisconsin…”
Yep..i caught that right away
Climate change will also play a role in this crisis. FWIW, “Weather” / “Climate Change” not the same thing.
Interesting link:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/11/trump-im-too-intelligent-to-believe-climate-change-report.html#comments
In the years ahead, global cooling interacting with rising fuel prices will cause crop shortfalls and higher prices for farmers’ products–until mass famine reduces the global population, then prices will fall again. Farmers should get ready to ride the roller coaster.
Better call Willie Nelson…
Have another silly ass concert.
On brokeback mountain?
My view is that no one should complain about import taxes (tariffs) unless they first offer us their alternative plan for reducing our large and chronic trade deficit. Critics of tariffs invariably want to ignore the trade deficit problem, which significantly reduces our GDP every year. So what is Mac Slavo’s plan? He needs to put up or shut up.
Furthermore, Chinese and Canadian taxes on food imports from the US are not going to reduce total global demand for food. Someone will end up buying our soybeans, etc. No one will say, “I will feed my children less to punish the US.”
I’m pretty sure we are growing the wrong things. Why do farmers go along with roundup ready beans and corn that the world doesn’t want. Why do we use steroids and antibiotics the entire life of chicken, beef an$ pork. Why can’t we eat more grass feed goat lamb and Beef. Maybe this embargo and tariff game will help us move in the right direction. Why can’t soy beans get crossed with coffee beans to produce US coffee. Why can’t corn be brown blue and red and full of vitamins. Why can’t wheat be less gluten and more B vitamins. Farmers need to reinvent the wheel. Bread and grow what we want, less of what the next generation and the world rejects.
Which is better and a historical practice? Have corporate farming feeding a plethora of cities OR every family raising food?
Heck even the wealthy once raised their own food on their estates as they paid folks to live on the property and grow food and raise animals.
Grocery stores used to be rare and sell specialty items.
In history, it began with would be kings trying to tax serfs and consolidate craftsmen, artisans, physicians, amd soldiers in an urban capitol. Then his “seigneurs” later knights did likewise. It was about establishing an aristocracy in the urban areas and stealing from the rural areas.
Nothing has changed. The intention of the Founding Fathers was to have landowners not aristocracy.
Watch some film like Far From the Madding Crowd. In England, if one was lucky and hardworking, they raised livestock and eventually owned land, and could seriously improve it. Otherwise most of the common folk acquired a situation in which they lived on the property and received a tiny wage and then most died far before they got old. They expected to be impoverished and for their children to be impoverished by virtue of birth and class.
This is why the protagonist leaves for America as there one could easily own land with many arriving penniless. One could create wealth in the USA.
The average American has detached from what our Founding Fathers created for us. Instead they live in cities and work for others and frankly can’t afford to own property.
The Founding Fathers did not foresee corporate farming.
A lot of farming in southern California still works this way.
Soy and dent (?) corn are the same gruel, which is fed to Oliver Twist and Starvin’ Marvin in globalist refugee camps. Do they create a market for bulk supplies, besides just single cigarettes.
Also, biodiesel is used as chemical feed stock.
I’m questioning whether farmers actually want to find a market. Is it more profitable, to report a loss, for insurance purposes or govt subsidies, and is China just a convenient excuse.
And this is just one problem with monocrop farming! I’ll bet that the farmers growing several types of crops/livestock are doing just fine.
MIxed poly-culture farmers are just fine. Soy is a plague in any instance what so ever. So basically what this article is telling me is that AMericans are not as resilient of food producers as those in RUssia during the sanctions who ended up feeding their own country and now are on the path to become the largest organic food exporter sin the world? I tust the farmers will come back when needed but by then the chemical age of farming will be over.
Looking on the bright side of things, this is a perfect way to end the obesity epidemic!