Crib notes..
Basically it’s a pissed off farmer from Arkansas.. Adam.. farms 2400 acres in Arkansas who lays it out..
”basically.. Congress passes aid.. laundries through farmers to a handful of Ag Corporations.”
Farmer] Just say I was at all soybeans at $150 an acre loss. You're looking at $450,000 of loss. For just doing my job I'm paying an additional $450,000 instead of making anything. I've never seen a crisis like this. Without intervention we're talking about generational loss of farmers. [Host] In the last year, farm bankruptcies here in Arkansas have nearly doubled. The story in the media is that’s because of Trump's trade war with China, and now that China has agreed to a deal, the crisis will pass. But that story is wrong. The tariffs are a problem, but think of it as being in a coffin and we're going to nail the lid shut. The tariffs are the final nail. This crisis was here before he did the tariff thing. This is a crisis that’s been building for decades. Farmers here told us a bigger story. A handful of companies have built a global system in which they always win, and American farmers are lucky to break even — all supported by our tax dollars. [Farmer] They're just laundering tax money. None of it stays in the local community. [Host] And while our farmers are dependent on growing crops for countries like China, we import more of our food than ever. [Analyst] The bigger story is we're very vulnerable to the whims of other countries. [Host] With thousands of farmers on the brink, we wanted to know: how did this happen? And if a deal with China won't save American farmers, what will? [Farmer] We watch the markets every morning at 5:45. I get up and listen to Standard Grain, and Joe says, “It's 5:45 in the morning, and the markets are...” [Host] Scott Brown is a row crop farmer who grows corn, rice and soybeans. [Scott] I want to know what the price of soybeans is, how much we've exported this week. [Host] The price of soybeans hit a high of $17 a bushel three years ago, but this year it's down to $10. That means many farmers will operate at a loss, but not just for soybeans. So for cotton, soy, corn, and rice the average loss per acre is $150 to $350 per acre. [Sam] Adam Chappell farms 2,400 acres about two hours from Scott. In September, Adam and Scott attended a meeting called for farmers to speak to their federal representatives. [Newscaster] Hundreds of farmers from across the state came to voice their concerns about the current state of farming. [Adam] It was a three-day notice on this meeting. We went from having 15 to 20 people to over 500. We were in the start of harvest. For 500 farmers to get off the combines and go stand in a meeting’s a big deal. It was like a funeral in there. This is generations of farms teetering on the brink. I’m in the worst shape right now that I’ve ever been in. Five of my customers have committed suicide. That's how serious that this is. [Adam] Without immediate government intervention, we're going to lose 30 to 40% of our farmers again this year. We lost 25 to 30% last year. [Sam] Farm debt is expected to reach $560 billion this year, a new record high. Facing pressure from farm states, President Trump has promised a federal aid package for farmers. We're going to take some of that tariff money that we made. We're going to give it to our farmers. [Sam] Over the last eight years, the federal government has sent farmers over $130 billion in emergency aid. But when you follow where that money actually goes, it reveals who’s really profiting from this system, and why more bailouts won't fix it. So when I get an aid package, okay, that money will never come to me. It comes straight through my hands into whoever I owe the money to. [Sam] When federal money is sent to farmers who have debts like Adam, Scott, and most small farmers, they quickly pass it on to the companies they borrowed from to buy the products they need to farm, like seed, fertilizer, and machinery. And the combined costs of those inputs have risen far faster than what farmers can sell their crops for on the market. Farmers pay three times higher on inputs than they did in the 1990s. What has gotten us to this point is the mergers and consolidations of Ag input suppliers. In 2015, Monsanto and Bayer merged. They were competing against each another. And that was during Obama's administration. They didn't do a thing about that. They let it happen. They let it happen. When I started farming, we had five or six Arkansas-based seed companies. [Adam] There's none. There's none. They're all owned by Bayer or Pioneer. [Sam] In the last forty years, thousands of seed companies have merged into three. Forty-six fertilizer firms have merged into four. And just two farm machinery companies dominate the markets for tractors and combines. [Adam] Just for easy numbers, say I'm going to make $500 an acre gross on an acre of whatever. Well those companies know that, and they will price their stuff up to like $490. The lack of competition is the reason they can keep those prices inflated. And there's nothing we can do about it. [Sam] That ability to raise prices is a big part of why — while farmers are just breaking even — major input companies maintain steadily high profit margins.
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Edited by JonSCKs 11/25/2025 07:06
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Is it time to breakup the ag monopolies?
