Already hurting from the upheaval caused by a long-lasting trade war, U.S. farmers are now likely to lose billions in income as the novel coronavirus pandemic touches all areas of the agricultural marketplace.
For Tim Gibbons, communications director at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, the current pandemic is simply highlighting the problems with a U.S. agricultural food system buoyed by large corporations. The Missouri Crisis Center is a farm and rural organization that was established out of the 1980s farm crisis that advocates for Missouri’s local farmers and local businesses.
The below-cost-of-production payments farmers receive, Gibbons said, are part of a larger system that has forced small farmers out of business, and allowed large agricultural corporations to swallow small operations. The result is concentration of market share among fewer and fewer corporations, and it's been bad for farmers for decades, he said.
Westhoff said some caution should be exercised when reading the FAPRI report because all projections are fluid and highly uncertain at this point due to evolving market conditions and the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. Government intervention is something that should also be considered when trying to understand the predictions, because the USDA is expected to make a decision this week on how to allocate some of the funding it received through the CARES Act, he said.
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