The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) isn’t mincing words when describing the challenges facing American agriculture.
“Persistent cost pressures from labor, regulatory compliance, fertilizer, and energy have eroded margins, while weak commodity prices and uneven global competition have strained farm finances. Crop receipts have fallen sharply since 2022, eroding the cash flow and equity farmers rely on to weather downturns, while a growing U.S. trade deficit signals mounting competitive pressure in global markets,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in Oct. 10 letters to President Trump and Congress.
In addition, more family farms rely on off-farm work to make ends meet, the letter says.
USDA data supports this.
About 40 percent of U.S. producers worked 200 or more days off the farm in 2022, the Census of Agriculture says.
And according to the Agricultural Resource Management Survey, more than half of American family farms didn’t turn a profit that year.
The Farm Bureau is asking federal lawmakers to provide temporary stability.