The survival of family farming hangs in the balance.
Farm Aid was founded in 1985 in response to a catastrophic collapse of the farm economy, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of family farmers from the land. Now, once again, farmers both large and small are enduring a multiyear slump in crop and livestock prices that is pushing many to the financial brink. Since 2013, America’s farmers and ranchers have weathered a nearly 50 percent drop in net farm income, the largest four-year drop since the start of the Great Depression.
The strain in today’s farm economy is no accident; it’s the result of policies designed to enrich corporations at the expense of farmers and ranchers. If the American family farmer is to survive, farm policy needs a massive shift in direction – one that delivers fair prices to farmers that allow them to make a living.
