Krista Swanson with the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program of the University of Illinois will be traveling to Washington D.C. next week to meet with members of Congress to discuss various pertinent issues in agriculture. The key topics of discussion will be the Farm Bill and the state of agricultural trade.
“In the last month and a half, two month period, we’ve seen a downward spiral in the markets. During that time, we’ve lost about two dollars off of soybeans, which is about a 20 percent decline in price. And corn has lost more than 60 cents, dropping about 18 percent. So that is really critical to farmers,” she said.
After President Donald Trump announced impending tariffs on aluminum and steel from China on Mar. 1, tensions have been building between the two countries. A slight recovery in the markets had occurred during April and May according to Swanson, but have since dropped back to crippling levels for farmers.
“When prices are this low, it really puts a lot of pressure on yields. And if you don’t have those yields, then we’re in the red. That’s not a good position to be in when we think about, you know … a lot of us are family farmers, and we want the next generation to be able to farm and that puts a lot of pressure on staying in farming for the duration,” Swanson stated.
The Farm Bill currently in place was passed in 2014, but will expire on Sept. 30, 2018.
To hear more from Swanson, click on the link below:
written by Jackson Kane
