Big Ag Watch (https://big-agwatch.org/tag/trade/)
Later this month – April 22 to be exact – the newly minted conservative U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.
Severe weather and flooding that impacted much of the Midwest are expected to cause multinational agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland to lose millions of dollars.
When it comes to China rarely are things as they seem, there is no deal till there is a deal, and even after the ink dries China is fully capable of ignoring what they promised if it suits their national interests.
Breaking out major prognostic tools (including an 8-ball, Ouija board, paper fortune teller and dart board…yeah we’re high tech around here) here are some of the big agricultural issues on the horizon for 2019.
In the past year Dave Dickey has blogged and waxed on a number of consequential agricultural events. Find out which ag story was the the most consequential in 2018.
One hardly knows where to begin commenting on USDA’s $12 billion farm aid package designed to help farmers and ranchers financially blindsided by the POTUS’s trade war with China. The Market Facilitation Program is complicated but here are the highlights:
MFP includes $4.77 billion in direct payments to farmers. Soybean farmers get the lion share – $3.6 billion. On the other hand, the total allotted to corn farmers is $95 million. Pork producers fair little better at just over $290 million. Beef producers get zero. Soybean farmers will receive $1.65 a bushel, wheat producers 14-cents a bushel and corn farmers 1-cent a bushel on half of their production. Hog farmers get $8 a pig. For row crops, the money will not be paid till after harvest. And oh yeah, it’s capped at a maximum of $125,000 a farmer.
As Dave Dickey writes, U.S. grain and oilseed farmers, specialty crop growers and pork producers are hoping that China and U.S. leadership pull back their reins on the potential for a full-blown trade war that could cripple U.S. gross domestic product.
The POTUS says he is prepared to start a trade war with the world over U.S. steel and aluminum, imposing tariffs of 25 percent on foreign steel and 10 percent on foreign aluminum.
The White House is citing national security concerns for the tariffs.
But I’m here to tell you that if the tariffs come to fruition it will be U.S. agriculture that will suffer. Bigly.