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  • From: "Jill Taylor Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Farmers group sees seeds of disaster
  • Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 10:31:35 -0600


Thanks for this article. Perhaps this will push us towards more sustainable
agriculture - and therefore healthier agriculture. A similar thing happened
in Cuba - but not due to prices, rather due to the unavailability of the
fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides that Cuba used to get through the Soviet
Union. When the Soviet Union disbanded and the US put its embargo on, Cuba
found it had to go almost completely organic. It is a very interesting and
inspiring story for those of you who don't know it. And has some lessons
for us, in what may be ahead for us.

jill

> http://www.denverpost.com/business/biz0214a.htm
>
> Farmers group sees seeds of disaster
> By Steve Raabe
> Denver Post Business Writer
>
> Feb. 14, 2001 - Colorado's farmers and others across the nation face a
> catastrophic drop in income because of soaring energy and fertilizer
prices,
> an agriculture group said Tuesday.
>
> Already beset with low crop prices, farmers could face an additional
decline
> of 20 percent in net farm income over the next two years without an
emergency
> infusion of federal aid, according to the Food and Agricultural Policy
> Research Institute at the University of Missouri.
>

> The policy group said in a report to Congress that farmers may be hit with
an
> income loss of $9 billion by 2003 before commodity prices are expected to
> rise, helping turn around the farm sector.
>
> "I'm very concerned," said vegetable grower Bob Sakata, president of
> Brightonbased Sakata Farms. "Our cash flow was way off last year because
of
> energy costs, and this year we'll be hit with a double whammy because of
> higher fertilizer costs."
>
>
> Natural gas is used in the manufacture of nitrogen-based fertilizer. Many
> Colorado farmers also use natural gas to fuel irrigation pumps that supply
> center-pivot sprinklers.
> "There's no question that given the higher input costs and lower commodity
> prices, I will lose money this year," said Steve Scott of Scott Farm
> Enterprises in Burlington, a grower of wheat, corn and beans.
>
> Scott said his cost for anhydrous ammonia, a common farm fertilizer, has
> risen to $425 a ton this year from $255 a ton last year.
>
> Speakers at the Colorado Agricultural Outlook Forum held Tuesday in Denver
> said it is probable that Congress will include more emergency aid in a
> current farm bill.
>
> "Congress will address the issue," said Barry Flinchbaugh, chairman of the
> Commission on 21st Century Production Agriculture and a farm economist at
> Kansas State University.
>
> "Clearly the cloud on the horizon is energy costs," said Flinchbaugh, a
> keynote speaker at the agriculture forum. "The average farmer cannot
absorb
> these higher costs."
>
>
> Colorado Agriculture Commissioner Don Ament said his discussions with the
> state's farmers show that energy and fertilizer costs are a big concern.
> "Nobody anticipated the types of increases we've seen in natural gas
prices
> on top of low crop prices," Ament said. "You don't have to be too much of
a
> dreamer to put all this together and see that it spells trouble."
>
>
> Farmers received $8 billion in emergency aid last year. Congress will
begin
> hearings this month on a long-term overhaul of farm policy that includes
> proposals for a new system for subsidizing growers when crop income is
down.
> The report released Tuesday estimates that net farm income will drop from
> $45.4 billion last year to $39.6 billion in 2001 and $36.3 billion in 2002
> before starting to turn around in the following years as commodity prices
> rise.
>
> Farm income peaked at $55 billion in 1996.
>
> Government payments have been soaring since then, topping $22 billion last
> year - triple what they were in 1996.
>
> The cost of fuel that farmers need for tractors, combines and ir rigation
> equipment jumped 31 percent last year, according to the report.
>
> Prices may drop slightly in coming months, but growers are expected to be
hit
> this year with a 33 percent cost increase for fertilizer, the
congressionally
> funded institute reported.
>
> Meanwhile, the price of corn has averaged less than $2 a bushel without a
> significant increase for several years.






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