Agriculture is in a deep recession. The government shutdown is making things worse for farmers. It’s cutting off information and funding from the shuttered Department of Agriculture, which means an expected bailout is on hold.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It’s the second week of a government shutdown. Federal employees are feeling the pain. People who rely on the government to make a living are also suffering, including Midwestern farmers who are cut off from government financing and information at a critical time. Frank Morris of member station KCUR in Kansas City joins us. Thanks for being with us.
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: You bet, Scott.
SIMON: How’s the shutdown affecting farmers?
MORRIS: So farmers work very closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and over the decades, it’s developed programs to help cope with drought, floods, disease and market collapse. It’s also a reliable source of vital information. Richard Oswald grows corn and soybeans in northeast Missouri and says closing down most of USDA causes real problems.
RICHARD OSWALD: I think it affects a lot of things. We aren’t having USDA reports on the crop yields or the crop progress.
MORRIS: Which means buyers don’t really know how big the harvest is turning out to be. Oswald thinks if they did, the price of his grain would go up. That’s important because he’s currently losing money on everything he harvests.
SIMON: Government, though, also gives money and loans to farmers to help tide them over in difficult times. What’s going on with that?
MORRIS: That’s largely just stopped. And again, the timing’s bad. Tariffs and other factors are driving up the price of almost everything farmers need to buy, but the prices they’re getting for their grain are still low. Normally, in hard times like this, Oswald says he’d take out a loan through the USDA to get through until he could sell for a profit. Now it’s not there, right when he could really use the help.
SIMON: So is the shutdown hitting just as farmers need the government the most?
MORRIS: Yeah, basically. Harvest – you know, the fall – this time of year when farmers’ bills are coming due, and they’re trying to make decisions on how to market their grain. Farmers say there’s never a good time to shut down USDA. But Chad Hart, an economist at Iowa State University, says right now farmers are especially vulnerable.
CHAD HART: This is one of the worst times in the year to shut down USDA. You combine that with you’re shutting it down at a time when the ag economy is in a recession. So it’s sort of a double-barrel hit there.
MORRIS: Now, Hart says many farmers have been losing money each year for three or four years straight. President Trump is promising a bailout. That’s delayed. An announcement was supposed to come last week, but even if Trump announced a bailout tomorrow, it’s not clear how the money would be distributed to farmers without a functioning USDA.
SIMON: Where does this all leave farmers?
MORRIS: Well, it’s kind of mixed. Cattle farmers are making money hand over fist at the moment because beef prices are so high. But corn, soybean and wheat farmers are really in survival mode. Kansas farmer Jack Geiger says he’s just putting his head down, taking the losses in stride and working hard at the things he can control, like getting his soybean crop in before the weather changes.
JACK GEIGER: This year is kind of done. And the reality of the situation is right now farmers are running their combines and they’re gaming out next year. How do we survive next year?
MORRIS: And the fact is not every farmer out there harvesting right now is going to make it to next year. Economists expect a spate of farm bankruptcies.
SIMON: Frank Morris from member station KCUR. Frank, thanks so much for your reporting and for joining us this morning.
MORRIS: You bet, Scott. Thank you.
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