Politics and Money

[Elroy Jetson]

American corn farmers are receiving $0.01 per bushel of corn to offset the fact they can't export their product to China

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-aid/penny-for-your-corn-stingy-trade-war-aid-irks-u-s-farmers-idUSKCN1NX1D7

Federal economists have calculated that the nation’s losses in corn - its largest crop by harvest and export volume - amount to just a penny per bushel, a pittance farmers call absurd. That’s in stark contrast to the substantial $1.65 per bushel the government will pay for lost sales of soybeans, the crop hardest hit by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in a trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Both subsidies only cover half the bushels harvested this fall, though the government could soon decide to apply more aid money to this season. The trade-war payouts for corn have averaged $147 per farmer.

Rob Sharkey, an Illinois farmer, hopes his corn trade aid check will be big enough for that margarita machine he and his wife have been eyeing – but they doubt they’ll be any left over for the booze.
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Aid to American soybean farmers is available ONLY to those who harvest and store their crop

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-farmers/single-word-keeps-some-farmers-from-getting-trumps-aid-to-offset-tariffs-idUSKCN1NW2N2

With China not buying U.S. soybeans and storage costs rocketing or silos completely full, some farmers have been forced to let their crops rot in the field, resulting in zero assistance. “We have nowhere else to store the soybeans until they’re loaded onto a boat and go somewhere else in the world.” 15% of the soybean crop has been plowed under at a total loss without cash assistance to offset the losses.

Louisiana farmer Richard Fontenot is among about 1,000 grain growers that Abraham estimates are being impacted. "What really rankles is Trump voters laughing at our misfortune, saying we should have built more grain elevators in anticipation of Trump's trade war. They're not farmers so they think we should have just waved a magic wand."

Fontenot and his neighbors met with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue this fall, during a farm tour. Perdue was sympathetic, Fontenot said, but clear: It is up to Congress to change the law and allow USDA to pay aid for planted - rather than harvested - acres.