How Suffering Midwest Farmers May Determine The Presidential Election
Four years ago, America’s newly elected president promised to change the economic decline of the nation’s family farmers. However, in early 2018, the administration initiated a series of trade wars that prompted China, Mexico, Canada, and the European Union to enact tariffs on U.S. agricultural products. Canada discontinued all dairy imports from the United States. Mexico, the largest importer of Wisconsin cheese, enacted a 25% tariff on U.S. cheese that clobbered the industry at a time when closed restaurants and event venues had already soured sales of cheese and milk. While the administration did allot fifteen billion dollars in financial relief to struggling U.S. farmers, most of the money has gone to large multinational corporate farms. As a result, America’s dairyland of Wisconsin has become a re-election battleground state. Due to widespread school and restaurants closures, many of the state’s dairy farmers have been forced to cancel lucrative contracts with milk bottlers and cheese factories. By late April, one Wisconsin farm had already dumped more than five million pounds of surplus milk. The price of milk has since plummeted by over 30%, and Wisconsin farmers are looking to our country’s leaders for solutions to a deepening problem.
Midwest Derecho Devastates More Than 37 Million Acres Of Iowa Crops
A storm with hurricane-like winds (a derecho) impacted about 37.7 million acres of Midwestern farmland Monday, according to the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The storm affected 8.18 million acres of corn and 5.64 million acres of soybeans, according to ISA data. Farmers are trying to pick up the pieces, from flattened cornfields to smashed steel storage bins. The derecho impacted 58,000 holders of Iowa crop-insurance policies with a total liability of about $6 billion.
Salmon Crisis Stokes Protests In Russia
Russia’s Amur River was once teeming with salmon. However, most of the fish are now gone, according to coastal residents, after Moscow permitted fishing corporations to hang enormous nets at the river’s mouth. Depleted fish stocks have angered Russians so much that they have fueled anti-Kremlin protests in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk since early July. President Vladimir Putin’s support there has sunk to a low point during his 20-year rule. Residents say that regulations on recreational and Indigenous fishing have compounded the problem, becoming so strict that it is nearly impossible to legally catch enough fish to subsist on, something the local population has been doing for centuries. Due to commercial overfishing, total salmon catches in the area dropped from 64,000 metric tons in 2016 to 21,500 tons in 2018, According to the World Wildlife Federation (WWF). Olga Cheblukova, Coordinator of WWF’s Amur River studies, said that the decline of wild salmon after 2016’s large catch went largely unnoticed due to poor federal oversight. For the past few years, regulators have also granted fishing quotas above the actual migrating population of the fish, essentially exterminating the salmon before they could reproduce. Protests in Khabarovsk are now in their second month.
Hundreds Of Farmers Go Bankrupt Despite Record Levels Of Federal Aid
More farmers are filing for bankruptcy despite receiving record-high levels of federal aid throughout the pandemic. About 580 farmers have filed for chapter 12 bankruptcy protection in the yearlong period ending June 30th, 8% more than the previous year. Bankruptcies slowed down for farmers this April after government officials approved $16 billion in direct support. By the end of the year, a record-high $33 billion in support is expected to be granted to struggling farmers, according to the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. “Agricultural markets have been horrible,” said Wisconsin based attorney Paul Swanson, “and the pandemic exacerbated it, big time.” Swanson currently has 40 open farm-bankruptcy cases, about one-third more than last year. Hog farmers lost almost $5 billion in actual and potential profits alone in 2020, according to the National Pork Producers Council.
Federal Relief Package Shortchanges America’s Small Regional Farmers
In March, Congress approved a multibillion-dollar bailout for farms taking losses due to the pandemic, leaving the Agriculture Department to decide where money would be spent. Two months later when the plan was released, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said its $16 billion would be a “lifeline” for farmers of “all sizes and all…production.” An NBC News analysis found that the initial estimated 700,000 payments, which totaled $5.6 billion, has strongly favored large farms over small ones. Data also revealed that corporate farms used loopholes to acquire large sums, and substantial payments were made to foreign-owned operations. As a result, numerous struggling farmers remain ineligible without access to any Congressional funds.
Some telling numbers: the top 1% of recipients received a total of $1.2 billion, which is over 20% of the total funds made available. Also, the top 10% received 60% of the money, leaving the bottom 10% with just 0.26%. While the top 10% of recipients received average payments of $95,000, the bottom 10% averaged around $300. Nearly 2,300 operations received $250,000, the payment cap for a single farm. However, the Agriculture Department allows single farms to receive as much as $750,000 if three shareholders each spent over 400 hours working in the business. Experts claim there is no limit on payments for farms organized as “general partnerships,” due to a loophole in farm subsidy policy. This presumably explains why the Titan Swine hog farming partnership received more than $2.5 million and five other large farming operations got $1 million or more each.
Vertical Farms Expand Operations Worldwide
Farming and supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic have forced growers to invest more heavily in vertical farms. These indoor growing facilities have been popping up for decades but have recently become more vital to the world’s food supply, particularly in large cities where 60% of the global population lives. In vertical indoor farms, efficient hydroponic and aeroponic methods controlled by artificial intelligence provide optimal nutrients and LED lighting tailored to each crop. With their high-tech equipment, vertical farms can produce massive amounts of food such as potatoes, radishes, carrots, celery, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, especially in cities with “food deserts” whose residents lack access to farm fresh produce.
One of the largest vertical farm companies, AeroFarms of Newark, New Jersey, began in a defunct paintball arena in 2004. AeroFarms has since expanded operations to include 70,000 square feet in Newark, 150,000 square feet in Danville, Virginia, and 90,000 square feet in Abu Dhabi, including lucrative contracts with local restaurants, supermarkets, and school lunch programs. Infarm, founded in Israel in 2013 and now based in Berlin, employs more than 400 people in 40 countries and sells its farm produce directly to European supermarket chains and some U.S. chains such as Kroger. Experts predict that vertical farms will expand in the U.S. over the next year, as more employers allow employees to work from home and office buildings become vacant. According to market research firm Gartner, Inc., 82% of companies said that current work-at-home arrangements will become permanent. Office vacancy is predicted to expand by nearly 20% in 82 of the country’s largest urban centers by the end of 2020, and then continue rising the following year, according to Moody’s Analytics Real Estate Information Services Network, a potential boon to the vertical farm industry.
Ocean Agriculture Grows Beyond Fish and Seaweed
As of now, 11% of the world’s land area is used for crop production, but land only accounts for 3% of the globe’s surface area. With the expansion of ocean agriculture, another 70% of the world’s surface is being used to grow an increasing number of crops. The seaweed industry has seen tremendous growth with expanded use in food products as well as food supplements, fertilizers, medications, and eco-friendly packaging as an alternative to plastics. Farmers off the coast of Florida have also expanded marine crops such as Salicornia, a.k.a sea beans or sea asparagus, noted for their beneficial trace minerals from the seawater. A recent trial in Florida found that 1 kilogram of sea beans can grow in just 10 weeks. Ocean Reef Group, an Italian ocean diving company, has undertaken more extensive ocean agriculture. Since 2012, its Nemo Garden Project has been growing strawberries, orchids, basil, and lettuce in contained pods on the ocean floor. Another startup company, Canada’s Agrisea, is now growing rice in the ocean. Sea-grown rice holds the promise of supplying much-needed calories to countries that depend on the crop while solving water shortage issues that plague rice crops grown on land.
The Promise Of Subterranean Farming
Sangdo Station in Seoul Korea is home to an unusual, eye-catching installation: an underground farm. The subterranean hydroponic concept, called Metro Farm, is a walled-off vertical organic farm whose water, LED light, and other metrics are automated by technology. Metro Farm harvests about 66 pounds of vegetables a day that feed as many as 1,000 people on a daily basis at a nearby cafe, reducing the carbon footprint, protecting crops that are increasingly affected by climate change and pollution, and using a farming method that is 40 times more efficient than traditional farming. Farm8 is the technology firm behind the venture, which plans to open three more farms in Seoul metro stations in 2020. If successful, the concept can be used in areas whose climates are not hospitable to traditional growing methods.
USDA To Offer $15 Million To Socially Disadvantaged And Veteran Farmer Groups
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making approximately $15 million in funding available to socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers and ranchers. The 1990 Farm Bill defines these farmers and ranchers as “subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities.” The groups include African-Americans, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Hispanics, Asians, and Pacific Islanders. Nonprofits, community-based organizations, and higher education initiatives that serve these populations are all eligible for funds.
Funding will come the USDA’s Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program (a.k.a. the 2501 Program) and will increase through fiscal year 2023. The assistance may come in the form of initiatives such as farmer training and education, demonstrations, and conferences on farming and agri-business. Financial awards can be up to $450,000 per applicant. The deadline to apply is August 26, 2020.
Global Meat Consumption Predicted To Decline Until After 2025
Data from the United Nations predicts that worldwide per-capita meat consumption will drop by almost 3% in 2020 to its lowest levels since 2011. In the U.S., researchers at the University of Missouri’s Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute, predict that this year’s per-capita meat consumption will decline for the first time since 2014. U.S. meat consumption is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2025 at the soonest. In the European Union, pork consumption is expected to fall to a seven-year low in 2020, with beef and chicken also dipping down. In China, which accounts for 40% of the world’s pork consumption, consumers are expected to eat 35% less pork this year, according to Beijing consulting firm Bric Agriculture Group.
One reason for the decline is the economic fallout from the coronavirus, particularly the recession in the United States, as consumers tighten their wallets at the meat counter. Restaurant closures and limited dining out options have also suppressed demand and wholesale orders of meat. Before the pandemic, about 50% of U.S. meat consumption took place outside the home, according to Boston Consulting Group. While cooking at home, American consumers don’t appear to be allocating quite as much money for meat. Experts also cite the rise in plant-based eating and meatless options in grocery stores and restaurants as other factors.
