$12 Billion Farm Aid Package Not Enough, Farm Leaders Say

By Ryan Hanrahan

Reuters’ Leah Douglas and P.J. Huffstutter reported that “U.S. farmers facing steep losses this year welcomed President Donald Trump’s $12 billion aid package announced on Monday, but said they would need more than that to fully offset low crop prices and lost export opportunities from his trade war.”

“The aid will help farmers prepare for the next planting season, said five farmers and agricultural groups, four agricultural economists and three bankers. Yet they added that it is a fraction of farm losses and will not rescue the sagging farm economy,” Douglas and Huffstutter reported. “‘This support will serve as a lifeline for those simply trying to make it to next year. But it is just a lifeline, not a long-term solution,’ said Mike Stranz, vice president of advocacy at the National Farmers Union.”

“Farmers have been saddled with low crop prices, higher costs for labor and inputs like fertilizer and seeds. Meanwhile, exports of crops like soybeans have declined due to Trump’s trade disputes,” Douglas and Huffstutter reported. “Farm losses this year range from $35 billion to $44 billion for the nine major commodity crops, including corn, soybeans, wheat and peanuts, said Shawn Arita, associate director of the Agricultural Risk Policy Center at North Dakota State University.”

“Soybean farmers were particularly hard hit when China halted all U.S. soybean imports between May and November. Farmers lost billions of dollars in soybean sales at the start of their peak export season and will likely not recover that lost demand, according to traders and analysts,” Douglas and Huffstutter reported. “The federal aid will only address about one-quarter of soybean losses, said Caleb Ragland, a Kentucky farmer and president of the American Soybean Association.”

“‘We’re appreciative of an economic bridge,’ Ragland said,” according to Douglas and Huffstutter’s reporting. “But the money is just ‘plugging holes and slowing the bleeding.’”

Some Lawmakers Already Calling for More Aid

Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward and Lydia Johnson reported that “Republican farm-state senators say row crop growers are likely to need additional aid beyond the Trump administration’s newly announced $12 billion ‘bridge’ payment program, and specialty crop producers say the package shortchanges them.”