{"id":43471,"date":"2025-05-02T17:40:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T21:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=43471"},"modified":"2025-08-04T11:16:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T15:16:02","slug":"a-perfect-storm-for-us-agriculture-threatens-34-million-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/a-perfect-storm-for-us-agriculture-threatens-34-million-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"A Perfect Storm for US Agriculture Threatens 34 Million Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"
> Back To May\/June 2025 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n

Extreme weather, tariffs, DOGE, frozen funds, and inflation threaten America\u2019s beleaguered farmers<\/em><\/h2>\n

\"ClimateAmerican farmers face a financial cliff as tariffs and severe storms take\u00a0a wrecking ball to spring planting and market prices.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s planting time in America\u2019s rural heartland, those states in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and the Mid-South Delta that are the \u201cbreadbasket\u201d of the country\u2019s agricultural economy. But the usual spring optimism that fuels farmers is subdued this year by the implications of extreme weather \u2014 and a new world trade order of reciprocal tariffs that threatens U.S. agriculture exports. This threatens more than $21 billion worth of soybeans and corn produced last year for Mexico, Canada, and China, the top three American markets. That\u2019s more than half of the total $49 billion worth of both commodities that were exported.<\/p>\n

To make matters even worse, money that in the past has been used to bail out farmers\u00a0may not be available. The coffers of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)<\/a>, a wholly owned U.S. government corporation, used to finance farm price and income support, is depleted. At stake are the dozens of commodity programs, commodity export credit guarantees, and agricultural export subsidies. The beauty of CCC relief is that it can make payments quickly and to provide financial support to America’s producers and farmers immediately.\u00a0The catch: The CCC account is currently depleted due to the large payouts of recent years. And Congress has to authorize funds for the CCC to make payments.<\/p>\n

Finally, farmers face the threat of frozen funds and another potential bout of debilitating inflation.<\/p>\n

The Weather Report: Severe Spring Storms Due to Climate Change<\/h2>\n

For the past several years, the ag production season in Mid-America has been swamped by torrential rains that have drowned freshly planted crops and delayed planting due to submerged farm fields. These spring deluges, often more than a foot at a time, have created \u201cgenerational\u201d flooding and been accompanied by more frequent and more powerful tornadoes that have damage everything from barns and irrigation equipment.<\/p>\n

These catastrophic storm events have been followed by severe droughts during the summer growing season. In the Bootheel area of Missouri where my family owns farmland, from June to mid-July 2022 we recorded not one drop of moisture \u2014 a first, according to local farmers. In the fall, record-low levels of the Mississippi River, the primary transportation channel for the mid-country\u2019s agricultural production, have delayed shipping at harvest for the past three years, adding extra costs.<\/p>\n

Ironically, last year\u2019s \u201cnormal\u201d weather (moderate and timely rains, average-size storms, and good fall harvest weather) was considered \u201cabnormal\u201d by farmers who have now become inured to the past decade\u2019s radical changes in weather patterns.<\/p>\n

Weather at this year\u2019s spring planting time which began in March saw multiple severe storm systems that generated torrential rainfalls, hail, and record numbers of tornadoes. Some early planted corn was drowned and had to be re-planted. And flooded fields meant that farmers couldn\u2019t get onto the soggy land; delayed planting usually means lower yields.<\/p>\n

New Tariffs Have Slowed Sales of Key Ag Exports<\/h2>\n

A new layer of financial storm clouds on the American agricultural horizon threatens to add that proverbial last straw to the already formidable pile of obstacles now facing producers: the sweeping tariffs applied to global trade. As 20 percent of all U.S. agricultural products are exported, the financial stakes are enormous.<\/p>\n

American farmers are bracing for a repeat of 2018-2019, when trade wars with China, the largest buyer of U.S. agricultural products, cratered prices for agricultural commodities due to reduced purchases of soybeans and corn. Those prices have not recovered and now hover at four-year lows.<\/p>\n

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