Opinion: American farmers grow the nation's food but can end up with little to show for it

High input costs are driving some farmers to the 'breaking point.'
(Photo by Beth Haynes via Farm Progress)

U.S. farmers not only provide food for the entire nation but also generate jobs and incomes across multiple industries. Despite their outsized contributions, many American farmers aren't making any money, writes Holly Spangler in her opinion for Farm Progress. While many farmers consider the current system "broken," there are solutions.

Jason Webster, who farms his own land and manages the Precision Technology Institute Farm at Pontiac, Ill., told Spangler, "We’ve got this pie of revenue when we harvest this crop. And there’s all these people that want their little chunk of it. . . . In the end, you just hope there’s a little sliver left over for the farmer. Right now? There’s no sliver. The whole system’s broke.”

A new report from agriculture economists Gary Schnikey and Nick Paulson at the University of Illinois, documents a 20% increase in farm equipment costs from 2021 to 2023. Spangler adds, "Before that, prices increased just 14% over nine years, from 2011 to 2020."

Some farmers are "being driven to the breaking point," Spangler writes. "Many are angry at large equipment corporations and, in some cases, at dealerships, which just keep consolidating, reducing competition."

Farmers like Beth Dorsey, Edwardsville, Ill., say the "cost of inputs and the lack of enforcing antitrust laws — for decades — have crippled agriculture," Spangler writes. 

To help farmers, the "government [needs] to pursue violations of antitrust laws and enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act, which was established in 1921 in response to the concentrated meatpacker market and gave more regulatory powers to the federal government," Spangler explains. "According to data collected by Farm Aid, the top four companies in each industry hold significant portions."

Partisan politics -- no matter which way farmers have voted -- have harmed farmers who need a full Farm Bill debated and passed. Spangler writes, "We need to have a real conversation about what’s important in agriculture and U.S. food production."