Farmer Bankruptcies, Trade Wars, Tarriffs, and the Future of Food

[Graymalkin]

Germs and bugs thrive in warmer temps keep clean everyone

This is one of the long term consequences that gets lost when it's just about the weather. Where I live, the west nile virus (mosquito) became a concern about a decade ago, now it's Lyme disease after the deer tick crossed the St. Laurence seaway and winters are too warm to kill them off.

 

[Poot]

This is one of the long term consequences that gets lost when it's just about the weather. Where I live, the west nile virus (mosquito) became a concern about a decade ago, now it's Lyme disease after the deer tick crossed the St. Laurence seaway and winters are too warm to kill them off.

I suspect the start of global warming will involve saying things like 'why the fuck are there so many of these little bastards?' and 'you never see a ... anymore'. This has probably started on every continent, certainly it's started here.

 

[spring-peeper]

Farmers Hit Back as USDA Chief Sonny Perdue Mocks Those Harmed by Trump Trade War as 'Whiners'

Farmers facing record bankruptcies and collapsing incomes due to President Donald Trump's escalating trade war with China were not amused by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's joke about their economic pain during an event in Minnesota last week.

"I had a farmer tell me this in Pennsylvania," Perdue told an audience of thousands of farmers gathered in a barn near Morgan, Minnesota. "What do you call two farmers in a basement? A whine cellar."

Some laughed at the agriculture secretary's joke, but other farmers booed and denounced Perdue's wisecrack as callous and tone-deaf mockery of the real hardship caused by the Trump administration's trade policies.

"It was definitely not an appropriate thing to say," Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, told HuffPost on Monday. "It was very insensitive. It took everyone by surprise. He doesn't understand what farmers are dealing with, and he's the head of the Department of Agriculture. He's supposed to be working for farmers."

 

[spring-peeper]

'The bleeding hasn't stopped yet' for U.S. dairy farmers

“It’s not been easy,” Patty Edelburg, vice president of the National Farmers Union, told Yahoo Finance. “We’ve lost a lot of farms in Wisconsin. Last year, we’ve lost close to 7,000 farms. We see the numbers haven’t stopped. The number of farm bankruptcies and the number of farm sell-outs in Wisconsin just hasn’t stopped. The bleeding hasn’t stopped yet.”

Total U.S. dairy exports have been down since trade tensions ramped up over the last year: As of June 2019, total exports were down 8.1% year-to-date compared to 2018, according to data provided to Yahoo Finance by U.S. Dairy Export Council, and exports to China dropped by over 7%.

“Since the tariffs were first imposed, U.S. dairy product exports have plummeted 43%,” a recent note from Wells Fargo Securities Economics Group stated. “With exports down so sharply, many farms have run into trouble.”

Since the tariff wars started, Canadian dairy industry has been pushing a "buy Canadain" adverts and affixes their logo onto the milk products.
There is a lot of boycott-America sentiment here.
We have already seen the impact of boycotting Heinz ketchup. Iirc, the company did not do well last time I looked at their stocks.

Edelburg noted that they have lost some markets already in Mexico and Canada.

“As soon as the president had made the comment he was going to start putting tariffs on things going to Mexico, that was when we saw the milk price jump the worst,” Edelburg said. “We lost a lot of milk. It dropped $0.50 in no time. It’s amazing how $0.50 doesn’t sound like a lot, but $0.50 on the dollar, it could make or break cashflow for farmers.”

According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Canada and Mexico are the “first and third largest export markets for U.S. food and agricultural products, making up 28% of total food and agricultural exports in 2017.” In doing so, the exports supported more than 325,000 American jobs.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I kinda threw the kitchen sink in that post. I believe those are targeted at the EU. Our Nutter-in-Chief thinks its a good idea to play games with long-term allies.

It's how he does business - mess with suppliers to see if they buckle. He doesn't get that playing games with Joe Soap from Poughkeepsie isn't the same as messing with other nation-states, some of whom can just as easily sell their produce elsewhere.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I think he understands more than he's letting on, but its not socially acceptable to admit it in such a deep red state. The science is clear and there shouldn't a be a political divide, but there is.

(I'm a little weird. I like the temp when its about 17 C. Or, maybe a little lower. )

Seems to me we need to take a leaf out of the books of some of the Mediterranean cultures pre-Rome, and dig fuck-off big artificial aquifers to draw off excessive rainfall, and provide water during the dry season. As it is, too much gets into the river systems just about everywhere because - except in developing countries - cisterns and reservoirs are "old technology" that people don't want to use.

 

[spring-peeper]

It is not only the tarriffs that are devastating the farmers, frequent violent weather is also causing harm.

'We lost everything': Dorian closes in on North Carolina farmers still recovering from Florence

In 2016, Matthew followed a similar path to Dorian, causing billions of dollars in damage in North Carolina and killing 28 people. Two years later, Florence brought 20 to 30 inches of rainfall to farmers who already had wet soil, resulting in huge losses.

The two hurricanes collectively caused $35 billion in damage and 102 deaths in the U.S., primarily in the Carolinas.

The hurricanes hit farmers especially hard. Florence did more than $1.1 billion in crop damage and livestock losses to North Carolina’s agriculture sector, topping Mathew’s $400 million hit to the agriculture sector.

“In the last three to four years, we’ve had significant losses due to hurricanes,” said Mike Godley, a cotton farmer in Beaufort County, who said he expects his cotton to get pummeled in Dorian’s path.

“If we were in a strong financial position with a good savings account and war chest, a modest storm that brings a 25% loss of crops would be sad, but not a final blow,” he said.

“But we’re already on the ropes. And a 25% or 50% reduction again from Hurricane Dorian — that could make a difference between whether we’re here next year or not.”