<story><title>U.S. Farmers Stung by Tariffs Now Face a $3.5B Corn Loss</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-13/u-s-farmers-stung-by-tariffs-now-face-a-3-5-billion-corn-loss</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thereisnospork</author><text>The problem is that these natural market corrections, when they occur with farming, have historically resulted in famine.&lt;p&gt;Natural, self-correcting famine maybe, but all the same allowing it to occur is understandably undesirable.</text></item><item><author>tryptophan</author><text>&amp;gt;What farmers need are a way to restore profits in a sustainable fashion. Simply growing more corn&amp;#x2F;soybeans&amp;#x2F;rice&amp;#x2F;wheat isn&amp;#x27;t going to cut it anymore.&lt;p&gt;The way this is done in other industries, except for farming, is that half of the producers go bankrupt, production is reduced, and the survivors are able to be self-sustaining and profitable. We really do not need this much soy&amp;#x2F;corn. The market is screaming &amp;quot;stop making it&amp;quot; and perhaps it is time we listen.</text></item><item><author>acconrad</author><text>I work in agtech and I&amp;#x27;m not surprised by this at all.&lt;p&gt;The major corn and soy producers have faced downward pressure for the last 4 years. It now costs more to plant the crop than to pick and sell it.&lt;p&gt;And yet, the government pushes and incentivizes farmers to just grow more.&lt;p&gt;Read &lt;i&gt;This Blessed Earth&lt;/i&gt; or &lt;i&gt;Omnivore&amp;#x27;s Dilemma&lt;/i&gt; if you want a primer on how messed up this system has become.&lt;p&gt;What farmers need are a way to restore profits in a sustainable fashion. Simply growing more corn&amp;#x2F;soybeans&amp;#x2F;rice&amp;#x2F;wheat isn&amp;#x27;t going to cut it anymore.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mikepurvis</author><text>One way of alleviating the boom&amp;#x2F;bust effect is some form of supply management, such as what exists for diary products in Canada: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Supply_management_(Canada)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Supply_management_(Canada)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s effectively a subsidy, but the subsidy is provided by the actual consumers of the goods (via government price fixing) rather than out of the general revenue pot. Individual farmers get grouchy that they&amp;#x27;re no allowed to have more cattle than their quota, but the reality is that those limitations protect a commons— if there were no restrictions and every farmer took on a few more cattle, there&amp;#x27;d be oversupply, the price would crash, and they&amp;#x27;d all be headed to Ottawa for a bailout. Yay free markets.&lt;p&gt;Note that this whole system is an interesting bit of political football in Canada, because the party that you&amp;#x27;d expect to oppose it ideologically (the Conservatives) in fact do not, because their support base includes the rural farmers who benefit from it. The farmers are also well organized and well funded in terms of their lobbying operation. There was a recent mini-scandal about their presence at the Conservative party&amp;#x27;s national convention, see: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;nationalpost.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;canada&amp;#x2F;full-text-the-dairy-lobby-briefing-binder-found-on-the-floor-of-the-conservative-convention&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;nationalpost.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;canada&amp;#x2F;full-text-the-dairy-lob...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. Farmers Stung by Tariffs Now Face a $3.5B Corn Loss</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-13/u-s-farmers-stung-by-tariffs-now-face-a-3-5-billion-corn-loss</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thereisnospork</author><text>The problem is that these natural market corrections, when they occur with farming, have historically resulted in famine.&lt;p&gt;Natural, self-correcting famine maybe, but all the same allowing it to occur is understandably undesirable.</text></item><item><author>tryptophan</author><text>&amp;gt;What farmers need are a way to restore profits in a sustainable fashion. Simply growing more corn&amp;#x2F;soybeans&amp;#x2F;rice&amp;#x2F;wheat isn&amp;#x27;t going to cut it anymore.&lt;p&gt;The way this is done in other industries, except for farming, is that half of the producers go bankrupt, production is reduced, and the survivors are able to be self-sustaining and profitable. We really do not need this much soy&amp;#x2F;corn. The market is screaming &amp;quot;stop making it&amp;quot; and perhaps it is time we listen.</text></item><item><author>acconrad</author><text>I work in agtech and I&amp;#x27;m not surprised by this at all.&lt;p&gt;The major corn and soy producers have faced downward pressure for the last 4 years. It now costs more to plant the crop than to pick and sell it.&lt;p&gt;And yet, the government pushes and incentivizes farmers to just grow more.&lt;p&gt;Read &lt;i&gt;This Blessed Earth&lt;/i&gt; or &lt;i&gt;Omnivore&amp;#x27;s Dilemma&lt;/i&gt; if you want a primer on how messed up this system has become.&lt;p&gt;What farmers need are a way to restore profits in a sustainable fashion. Simply growing more corn&amp;#x2F;soybeans&amp;#x2F;rice&amp;#x2F;wheat isn&amp;#x27;t going to cut it anymore.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>twblalock</author><text>If a market correction is caused by overproduction there won&amp;#x27;t be a famine. The level of production will decrease to align with consumer demand (as opposed to government subsidy demand which is far higher).</text></comment>