Down on the farm

Jan 09, 2020 at 09:16 AM CST - 1
Farm income is down, prices continue low. Stress grows. The seeds of a trade war, severe weather, plummeting prices and corporate farming competition mean that many farmers are harvesting a bumper crop of problems, especially those people loosely defined as "family farmers." "They call them 'the farmers in the middle,' and their numbers are declining pretty rapidly," said National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson. "Unfortunately that is the size of the family farmer that is most essential to rural America. They are the guys and gals who tend to shop more locally, who live in those rural communities, who are the civic boosters, and who buy most of their inputs locally."

Jan 09, 2020 at 09:16 AM CST

- 1

Farm income is down, prices continue low. Stress grows. The seeds of a trade war, severe weather, plummeting prices and corporate farming competition mean that many farmers are harvesting a bumper crop of problems, especially those people loosely defined as "family farmers." "They call them 'the farmers in the middle,' and their numbers are declining pretty rapidly," said National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson. "Unfortunately that is the size of the family farmer that is most essential to rural America. They are the guys and gals who tend to shop more locally, who live in those rural communities, who are the civic boosters, and who buy most of their inputs locally."