Most Americans take food abundance for granted. Grocery store shelves are always stocked, and America’s agricultural sector always grows more than enough corn, wheat, and soybean crops to keep the food production system humming along smoothly.

That all could change as abruptly as the weather. In fact, historically wet conditions throughout the Midwest have put this year’s spring planting in jeopardy.

As reported by Minnesota Public Radio, “Corn is being planted at the slowest pace ever, while soybean seeding is the slowest since 1996. And with the start of June looming, many farmers are facing a tough choice — do they even try to get crops in the ground at all?”

For farmers and ranchers across the heartland, it’s a financial crisis akin to a Great Depression. U.S. farm income is down 45% since 2013.
 

Farm Bailouts Could Bring Unintended Consequences

President Donald Trump recently announced a $16 billion bailout for farmers hurt by tariffs.
 

It won’t help all farmers, though, and it won’t be enough to compensate for a host of other misfortunes to befall the agricultural sector – from flooded farmlands, to low futures prices.

Some economists fear the new wave of government subsidies could incentivize farmers to plant soybeans instead of other crops the market demands. As always, political interventions create unintended market distortions.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson warns, “This is becoming more and more like a Soviet type of economy here: commissars deciding who’s going to be granted waivers, commissars in the administration figuring out how they’re going to sprinkle around benefits.”

Economic analyst Michael Snyder notes, in addition to America’s unfolding farming calamity, a recent plunge in Australian wheat production and the spread of African swine flu to pigs in China. He concludes, “We have never seen so many massive threats hit the global food supply simultaneously.”

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