PAGES

Monday, December 30, 2019

Upper Midwest farm bankruptcies surpass Great Recession levels; calls to state crisis lines up 57% since 2015

"An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that 84 farm operations in the upper Midwest filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy from June 2017 to June 2018," Michael Sykes reports for Axios. That's more than the number of such bankruptcies in 2010 at the height of the Great Recession. The report predicts that bankruptcies will continue to rise in the Upper Midwest, which includes the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin.

Dairy farms were particularly hit hard, the report said; Wisconsin had 50 farm bankruptcies in the time period studied—more than any other state.

"Farmers around the country are struggling to pay for basics like groceries and electricity as farm bankruptcies rise and farm debt hits a record high. Calls from farmers in financial crisis to state mediators have soared by 57 percent since 2015," Annie Gowen reports for The Washington Post. The story illustrates the trend with a portrait of a dairy farming family in rural New York.

No comments:

Post a Comment