Facing incredible losses in both profits and product, soybean farmers are desperately hoping that the trade war implemented by president Donald Trump will soon end. As the stock of soybeans begins to reach their rotten stage, farmers across the country are beginning to panic.
Although President Donald Trump sees tariffs as a tool to “force changes” in America’s economic relationships with China and other major trading partners, it doesn’t seem to be helping anyone in the U.S. His tough approach, according to the president himself, will revive American industries like steel and auto manufacturing that have lost ground to foreign rivals. But that is coming at a steep cost for some industries, like farming, that have thrived in the era of globalization by exporting goods to foreign markets.
It’s also having major setbacks for other industries, as retail stores have already warned of the higher prices that we will all pay soon, thanks to the tariffs.
Because China has stopped buying soybeans thanks to the trade war between the United States and the communist nation, American farmers fear for their own livelihood as they face piles of rotting beans hoping the trade war will end. According to the New York Times, in previous years, American farmers have profited by growing massive amounts of soybeans and shipping them off to China where they were fed to pigs and chickens. However, this year, thanks to the trade war, the Chinese have all but stopped buying American soybeans. The largest market for one of America’s largest exports has shut its doors. The Chinese government imposed a tariff on American soybeans in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods. The latest federal data, through mid-October, shows American soybean sales to China have declined by 94 percent from last year’s harvest.
Kevin Karel, the general manager of the Arthur Companies, which operates six grain elevators in eastern North Dakota, has started to pile one million bushels of soybeans on a clear patch of ground behind some of his grain silos. The big mound of yellowish-white beans, already one of the taller hills in this flat part of the world, will then be covered with tarps. –The New York Times
Karel said that the hope among all farmers in America is that prices will rise before the beans rot. “We’re sitting on the edge of our seat,” Karel said.
Dehydration Update: God bless the invention of Refrigeration and Freezing! I can see that dehydrating foods could be useful when:
1. You have a garden and want to store relatively small amounts for long-term.
2. You live in apartment and space is at a real premium.
3. Other storage methods are not available.
4. You’re a sadist and can find no other activity that will scratch that itch.
Question: I still have 50 lbs of Potatoes still, I was wondering if I should dehydrate them for the minimum amount of recommended time and then freeze them?
“I still have 50 lbs of Potatoes…”
If they are excess to your needs, then plant them. Best long term storage possible.
I thought about planting 50 pounds of potatoes and onion sets along local back roads and in some parks. Most people would think they were weeds, and ignore them. A smart prepper could just dig up all the hidden potatoes they wanted to eat.
Hey Mac, have I said thank you for your site recently. You really do write a wide range of great articles. I enjoy reading most, and commenting on a few.
It’s nice to be able to comment freely.
Plan twice, prep once, I have limited space for a garden but there are areas around me that could be used for covert gardening. I will DEFINITELY keep your suggestion in mind.
TOMORROW WILL BRING BLACK COMMIE GOVERNORS OF FL AND GA
WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR WHITES TO EXPRESS THE INSTINCT FOR SELF PRESERVATION
THIS IS OUR LAND
THIS IS FOR US
THESE ARE OUR PEOPLE
YOU CANT COME IN BECAUSE YOU ARENT WHITE
BOOMER MONKEYS HAD EVERYTHING HANDED TO THEM THEIR WHOLE LIVES
oh please…………
Eisenkreutz.They did not come to you. You plundered their countries and took them into slavery. Therefore, they are going to take theirs.
Justice:
If I had fifty pounds of potatoes I would divide them into several groups. In one group I would clean and scrub off the top layer of skin, dice, boil, and mash. Add salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, butter, cream. Vacuum seal in small batches. Freeze.
One group I would slice thin, salt, bake slow into potato chips and vacuum seal.
One group I would shred into small thin pieces, dehydrate, and either vacuum seal or can.
Another group I would boil and make German potato salad, vacuum seal and freeze.
Another group I would shred and make potato pancakes, and freeze. Or, make potato pancakes from boiled and mashed potatoes. Bake or fry them, vacuum seal. Some I’ld leave uncooked, and just vacuum seal and freeze.
Then, the rest I’ld make savory pies with meat and potatoes. Vacuum seal and freeze.
Label, date everything.
If you have a deep freezer you can prepare food two or three months in advance which saves time and money. Only the dehydrated and canned will last for the year.
Lastly, I’ld let some sprout then replant.
_
Some great ideas B. Thanks for the post. Right now I’m working an assembly line.
Directions
Step 1 – Choose and wash your potatoes. Select smooth new potatoes directly from the garden. …
Step 2 – Blanch the potatoes. Water blanch for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the size. …
Step 4 – Cool. Let in ice water for 5 to 10 minutes, then drain..
Step 5 – Dehydrate 3 hours. …
Step 6 – Freeze.
I hope I blanched this first batch enough. I didn’t time it from reaching a boil again…more like from the time I placed them in the boiling water.
I will be able to tell after/while dehydrating them because they will of course turn black. It really is a great idea to work the kinks out when starvation and death is NOT the result of failure!
If you want to keep your potatoes from turning brown, you should soak them in water and citric acid mix before canning or dehydrating.
cheers
Justice:
I left out canning soup and stew. Clam chowder with potato, plain potato soup, meat and fish soups and stews with LOTS of potatoes.
You could buy a whole or half steer at discounted price, or a whole lamb. Hunt wild boar or deer. Then can can. Lol.
But I get it. You just want to preserve these potatoes – as is.
–
I don’t understand why you would do anything for the least amount of recommended time and not be thorough.
Beaumont, I was unhappy with dehydrating potatoes the first few batches. I dehydrated them for the highest recommended amount of time and the next day I re-hydrated them and they came back about half their original size. Plus I didn’t like the texture.
I just tried some “dried” blueberries and cherries that I froze two years ago and they were as good as new. So I was thinking (a sure way to get into trouble) that if I “dried” the potatoes and then froze them I might get a good result.
Bottom line I don’t have enough freezer space so I need to reduce them in size which dehydrating would do.
What do you think? I want to get another deep chest freezer but that a few months off.
Grind potatoes to flour, if you can preserve starchy stuff, in your region, without weevils, or keep it dry, in the freezer.
Fragrant things around your storage container, like what might be used to repel moths from clothes, or to keep insects off you, in summer.
Metal, glass, and ceramic containers are more rodent-proof than plastic and wood. There is no need for electricity, per se.
Substitute no more than half of wheat flour, if the recipe is for a bread or cake, because it gets it’s texture from the gluten in the grain, mostly.
Justice, do you have a root cellar? I’d keep them there. If you don’t, a cool and dark space in the basement will also suffice. My parents did the basement thing because they didn’t have a root cellar like my grandparents down the road. I remember the basement thing because I was always the one who had to run downstairs to get potatoes from the sack for supper.
yahooie, we have a cool dark room , store 6 to 10 bushels every year. got to be careful, lots of air and use your nose. when you smell a bad one need to go thru all and remove. last all winter. we use Kennebec white potatoes.
Anyone who believes ANYTHING written by the New York Times is far to gullible and ignorant to pay any attention to whatsoever.
If the Soybeans go into the grain dryers how the hell are they going to rot? I gotta agree. NYT is full of duck turds and whale piss.
Stu,
That is basically true for any large city paper, national free television station, and most magazines.
Always cross-check with a second source.
Don’t forget the “Washington Post” who just released another “story” (in support of George Soros’ narrative), about positioning “an Army” (the US Army to be exact), along a border (our border), with guns (those demon guns again), designed for “combat.” Like what the hell would you want to have when you have tens of thousands of invaders coming in waves for your stuff (more to the point — your tax dollars)?
Yeah? Where did you hear that — Facebook, Google, Twitter? If the Progressive Socialist Democrats are not removed from office, disbanded, and banned, you can expect the propaganda and censorship to only increase.
Unintended consequences.
Or, intended?
Trump’s gotta go, that’s all there is to it.
We can begin impeachment proceedings Wednesday after we retake the house for the good of the people.
It’s the only hope to save our failing nation and restore the glory of the Obama years.
Oh, gag me….!
Both sides lose in the short run….but in the long run, only one side loses….or gives up concessions. Hopefully, its China. If not, we’re screwed.!!!!
Soy is for faggots.
Soy turns boys into fags. GMO at it’s worst! Back in the day they wouldn’t even feed it to cattle. It was considered a garbage plant. It still is a garbage plant, marketed as good. Kind of like polishing a turd. Beware of TVP survival food, it IS SOY!
Also beware of mayonaise etc. that is made with soybean oil or canola (rapeseed) oil. PURE CRAP.
Also be on the lookout for cottonseed oil slipped in things. None of these things are meant for cattle or people. Cattle like pastures to graze as their first choice. People can get their veggie oil fix from plenty of other sources like walnuts (yum) and other tasty things.
Don’t tell me the tariffs aren’t doing some good. Look at the bright side. With a soy bean crisis there will be a lot fewer soy boys skipping around, and a lot less sexual confusion.
Soybeans are not and have not ever been good
for humans or livestock.
The farmers insist on using
glyphosate ( Round-up).
They are addicted to maximum profits on soybeans, oats,
wheat, corn, almost everything we eat has glyphosate, insecticide,
herbicide, poison, in it.
It is poisoning the population….add poisoned water with
fluorides, clorides, pesticides, glyphosates and arsenic from
hog lots, cattle lots, chicken farms, in addition to natural
poisons from run-off.
The factory farms were NEVER a good idea….. just as greed has
never been good.
Our fore-fathers had it right. Large animals (horses, cattle ) each one
needs 1 acre per head….allow one hog to each 2 head of cattle.
No fertilizer, no insecticide, no poisons no garbage, no wet,
urine/ feces soaked disease breeding pasture ground.
No chemical based feed, therefore, more healthy and clean.
Factory farmers cry and yell about the bottom line….without concern for health
of consumers. They never mention the government subsidized checks they
received!!
Every business has a bad year. If you cannot stand the ups and downs… Get out
of that business.!!!
At least monsatan is starting to get their ass sued off finally. I see class action lawsuit commercials a lot now. Death to them and ALL glycophosphate products (including killzall).
The GM and glysophate laden goods are not marketable to much of the world. They don’t want it at all for many reasons.
Soybeans contain anti-nutrients.
Asians have been properly processing soy using the old ways of boiling for 24 hrs, adding seawater (contains anti-nutrient neutralizer) or fermentation technique to make it a food stuff.
From what I’ve read. Some 94% of US soy is GMO and on top of that glyphosate soaked.
I don’t think that anyone growing this bean, on a subsistence level, or feeding it to your animals, is going to experience an estrogenic effect.
Also, it’s a bean. Not a meat substitute.
If you literally had to borrow money for seeds, etc, without any contractual guarantees, imho, you and your lender were probably being irresponsible with the money.
Of which I am aware, I can’t take out a business loan, to buy your harvest, the bank will not give it to me, unless I can show evidence of a buyer.
You’re right. Most of these large farmers buy hedges on their crops so they don’t lose their ass. Oil companies do the same.
Isn’t that how the big corps bought out the family farms? Just asking; I know a lot goes into the business of farming.
There are realtors, which cater to farms and successful businesses, already in operation and with clientele.
In California, an acreage of trees pays the mortgage on a fancy house, or you go bankrupt, in a few years. A windfall or inheritance or your life savings is used as down payment.
One to five people are allowed to park or camp there. That’s all they get. There is a hose faucet, maybe. Wikipedia’s word for it is ‘rural tenancy’. It will be the kind of person with one short arm, or a crazy stare or speech impediment, to do maintenance throughout the year. Ownership is usually effete, leading to creepy situations with the labor.
Pickers or a harvesting company pay for rights to the fruit.
Prison or migrant labor picks the fruit. Of which I am aware, that dirty work is not given to the general public, except, possibly as temp labor.
Labeled “restrooms” are one foot deep and used to store tools, under padlock. The drinking fountains will not work. A state inspector will see them from a distance, and write that the labor has been provided-for. (Is that E. coli in your salad?)
Tall fences, with razor wire and intimidating signs. Looks like the border crossing, or, if you were to go into a jail.
Properties are in the same architectural style as a slave plantation or notorious, Catholic mission.
They get upset if you call the farm a plantation (of trees).
Low income housing is called a plantation or estate, and you are not supposed to call that a trailer park, even to say it’s very nice, polite, well kempt trailer park; it offends their dignity.
One of the workers allegedly joked about being beaten, so upset inspectors. Bodies are found in the aqueducts, adjoining temperate woodland, and in open spaces. A distinct feeling that it’s dirty business, after dark.
Pumpkin patch and Christmas tree farm, seasonally.
The latest poll shows 71 % of farmers support Trump. Wake up. Everything is NOT about being self-serving.
What your article is preposing is analagous to the tiresome stupidity that all black Americans should vote Democrat.
What happened to patriotism?
Blacks should nor vote period. That would save a lot of problems.
Your repugnant attitude is immoral,unchristian, and frankly a historical Democratic position from slavery up until LBJ.
Not where I live. We do everything in our power to prevent their vote.
So if the majority were urban thugs from African stock, and they outnumbered you, then according to your bufoonery, they would be perfectly justified to suppress your vote along with other white folks?
Look in the mirror to see an image of a traitor to the constitutional republic of the United States of America. You disgust me.
I think the petrochemical industry is well subsidized. Perhaps more than agri-corporation.
Most of the soybeans in my area haven’t been harvested yet. I saw one field in eastern NC being harvested Sunday evening just before dark.
arch, same up around Zebulon, lots of sweet potatoes still in the field also.
You mean they can’t do something really, really stupid with all those soy beans — like make fuel for our cars, ethanol or something?
These crops might have been used as crude protein, by 100 other countries in the b2b (business to business) ads. Biodiesel is converted to food grade cooking oils, waxes, plastics, foams, and epoxies.
One of business practices I am seeing, is excessive markup and to overstate your losses. Why did Red Communists seem like the only possible outlet.
Those are not family farms. They are big agribusiness. and if they grew more beans or anything else than they had a contract market for. They are guilty of being poor businessmen. Nothing the row crop sgribuisness grows can be taken directly from their field and placed on the table. It all requires further processing. And their ariel spraying of chemical poison drifts and kills folks home gardens. You cant grow a tomato in many parts of the Delta.
Sell the beans to a Canadian broker at 0% tariff and the broker can sell them to the Chinese with a 3% commission.
Usually when a wall is built the market just goes around it
The unfair to the USA Tariffs where implemented to help the rest of the world to recover from WWII. Canada had a 25% tariff on USA goods and Canada could export to the USA and only Pay 3%. 75 years of lopsided agreement’s are not going to be rectified without some resistance. We in the USA just need to be certain to put the manufactures and producing workers here ahead of everyone else. I don’t worry if ADM cant export soybeans and be subdized by the USA taxpayer. And last year there where piles of wheat at cario ill and beans piles at Sikeston Mo. Before the Tariffs. And have been stored in piles every harvest season. there is piled grain stored at Mt Vernon Indiana. Its been stored that way there for decades.
Maybe someone should get off the stick and start processing bio diesel from them. Reduce fuel prices while helping the farmers.